154 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The Land of Paradoxes. 



BY MR. JOHN C. UHRLAUB, RIDGEWOOD, 

 GLENBROOK, CONNECTICUT. 



I believe the Chinese, rich and poor 

 ahke, of all people on earth, may be 

 counted anion"- the g^reatest lovers of 



find there hundreds of citizens, resting 

 after the toil of the day, sipping hot tea 

 or wiping" their face with one of the lux- 

 uries of a Chinese restaurant or theatre, 

 the sweat cloth, a piece of cotton wrung 

 out in boiling water, while at least half 

 of the tea drinkers hold in their hand or 



MR. UHRLAUB WITH THE PET BIRDS IN CHINA. 



nature. To have evidence of this, one 

 only need to go to any large tea house in 

 Canton or in anv other Chinese citv, to 



A BIRD'S NEST FROM WHICH THE CHINESE 

 MAKE SOUP. 



have on the table in front of them a cage 

 containing a pet bird. I have seen a 

 street beggar asking for alms with a 

 caged bird on his arm. At dawn of a 

 summer morning, I have seen hundreds 

 of people sitting at the street corners or 

 in the public squares and giving their 

 pets an airing. Many of the birds are 

 trained to do marvelous tricks. A rice 

 bird of large size is commonly taught to 

 catch a grain of "kalian" (giant millet) 

 in the air and fly back to the hands of 

 its owner and eat the grain at leisure 

 while it sits on its patron's thumb. The 

 birds, among which are many beautiful 

 songsters, are petted and well cared for, 

 and often have free access to their cage, 

 going and coming as they please. 



But the same John Chinaman that will 

 assiduously and gently care for his song 

 bird, will quietly look on the torture and 

 execution of a criminal so horrible in its 

 details that it would freeze our blood. A 

 land of paradoxes and things incongru- 

 ous, this flowery kingdom ! In Pekin on 

 the old Hattaman Street, what a mixture 

 of modernism and a remote past ! A car- 

 avan of ^Mongolian dromedaries coming 

 for eighteen hundred miles from the Gobi 

 desert, laden with furs, wool and tea, 

 meets a procession of Ford motor cars ! 



