Show CHINESE RIVER elver HOUSES approaching pro aching the river we go on board of a boat which is rowed by a woman and a girl we have ducks and chickens for fellow passengers walking about and a rooster clapping his wings and crowing on the roof over our heads beads a boat which is the only home these women have where they eat sleep and work in which children are born which is their home from the cradle to the grave we go up the t lle lie river through a great graved fleet flea of boats such carious craft that we may as well give up attempting to describe them A great many are called flower boats they are ard hotels which we can hire if we wish to give a dinner to our irie irle friends ads mid tile chinese have nor ncr parlors or drawing rooms in their houses an and d when they entertain their frienda they hire one vf f these biese crafft and ga have ve a ditner here is one boat with a party in full swing A puff of wind brings the fragrance of the dinner cooking at the bow they are to have onions and roast chicken and ancl probably forty or fifty other dishes looking jn at the windows as we glide past we see the behold the of the company fittings up e boat the walls in vermil vermillion llon ilon and golda gold f astral lamps overhead the pa party arty in the centre of the cabin and half a dozen flower girls around them not that the girls have flowers to seli gell but they are hired as ornaments are quite good 1 looking have their hair done up in the primeste jug handle style and their heeks cheeks bright with rouge the chinese are re fond of music music that Is sweet and nd melodious to their ears would make ake aue us stuff cotton into our own two girls iris with instruments somewhat like ilke guitars a man with a one stringed fiddle another with a kettledrum kettle drum a boy with a gong that is the band bandl thisina Thi quis siSA a genteel party and they eat drink tea ten play cards tell stories listen to the music and so enjoy themselves till far into the night the gentleman pays the boatman for the tha use of the boat andaas 30 llo trouble the next nest morning in c clearing up p the parlors and drawing room ex I 1 A in jacksonville III ill c rode his machine out of a window I 1 n dow leaping a ten foot passage and rattling down a steep roof before he caught a chimney and stopped his career career j n gil lil ull |