CHINESE STREET-CRIES IN HONG KONG
133
Another class of hawkers are the sellers of articles for daily use. Here is one panting under his load of earthenware; there is another who cries out his bamboo-wares, such as baskets, brooms, mats, benches, ginger grinders etc. Hawkers of fans, pipes, feather-dusters, china, fire-wood, tobacco, salt, oil, cloth, lanterns, etc., one meets everywhere. Beautifully arranged bunches of flowers are offered to you in the street, but happily in a quiet way, because they attract sufficient attention by themselves, I suppose.
"What does that fellow call out? He has nothing in his two baskets." Ah, my friend, he belongs to a very numerous and a very bad lot of men. He is a buyer of refuse. If you hear a voice cry out “mái lán t'it lán l'ung”* you may be sure that he will soon be at the back of your house, near your servants' quarters. He has plenty of money with him, and he will buy from your cook bones, feathers (the good ones for fans and the bad ones for manure), rags and empty tins; from your coolie, paper, nails, shoes, needles, thread or anything that can be got hold of whilst sweeping the rooms; from your boy he will buy bottles, glass, or anything which you may have lost, such for instance as a key, a lock, a stocking, a handkerchief, or a gold button, and even a watch.
There are a great many of these refuse buyers in Hongkong, but I cannot say how many, as they do not come under the Hawkers' Ordinance. They either have their own shops or they deliver their goods to one of the licensed shops, called Marine stores, which take their name, I am inclined to think, from the fact that all not properly acquired goods are sent afloat into the interior as soon as possible. There are, however, other refuse dealers who are quite respectable. They buy or exchange broken silver, old fans, spectacles, frames, opium-dross, etc.
We have now to turn our attention to the cries of those who offer their services for repairing things. And here I must say, that the Chinese have really acquired the art of mending. In how wretched and clumsy a way are things repaired in Europe! There is not a foreigner in China who has not several testimonials in his house, proving that his servants are very careless in breaking glass and china and that his servants' countrymen are very skilful and careful in mending it. His tools look rather primitive, but they
* ✰### to buy old iron and old copper.
CHINESE STREET-CRIES IN HONG KONG
133
Another class of hawkers are the sellers of articles for daily use. Here is one panting under his load of earthenware; there is another who cries out his bamboo-wares, such as baskets, brooms, mats, benches, ginger grinders etc. Hawkers of fans, pipes, feather- dusters, china, fire-wood, tobacco, salt, oil, cloth, lanterns, etc., one meets everywhere. Beautifully arranged bunches of flowers are offered to you in the street, but happily in a quiet way, because they attract sufficient attention by themselves, I suppose.
"What does that fellow call out? He has nothing in his two baskets." Ah, my friend, he belongs to a very numerous and a very bad lot of men. He is a buyer of refuse. If you hear a voice cry out “mái lán t'it lán l'ung”* you may be sure that he will soon be at the back of your house, near your servants' quarters. He has plenty of money with him, and he will buy from your cook bones, feathers (the good ones for fans and the bad ones for manure), rags and empty tins; from your coolie, paper, nails, shoes, needles, thread or anything that can be got hold of whilst sweeping the rooms; from your boy he will buy bottles, glass, or anything which you may have lost, such for instance as a key, a lock, a stocking, a handkerchief, or a gold button, and even a watch.
There are a great many of these refuse buyers in Hongkong, but I cannot say how many, as they do not come under the Hawkers' Ordinance. They either have their own shops or they deliver their goods to one of the licensed shops, called Marine stores, which take their name, I am inclined to think, from the fact that all not properly acquired goods are sent afloat into the interior as soon as possible. There are, however, other refuse dealers who are quite respectable. They buy or exchange broken silver, old fans, spectacles, frames, opium-dross, etc.
We have now to turn our attention to the cries of those who offer their services for repairing things. And here I must say, that the Chinese have really acquired the art of mending. In how wretched and clumsy a way are things repaired in Europe! There is not a foreigner in China who has not several testimonials in his house, proving that his servants are very careless in breaking glass and china and that his servants' countrymen are very skilful and careful in mending it. His tools look rather primitive, but they
* ✰### to buy old iron and old copper.
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