n8 Australian Life 



whiffs of burning joss-sticks blended with decay- 

 ing vegetable matter. 



Chinatown usually contains at least one Chinese 

 restaurant, patronised both by Orientals and white 

 folks. In the inner room, a party of young Bo- 

 hemians, in faultless evening dress, may be seen 

 enjoying the novelty of a dinner in Chinatown, 

 and straining the resources of the establishment 

 by demands for mysterious dishes and piquant 

 sauces. In the large outer department, grave 

 Chinamen empty their bowls of savoury rice with 

 startling rapidity by a deft manipulation of the 

 chop-sticks, and a pair of larrikins, trying to imi- 

 tate them, fail to lift as much as one grain to their 

 lips with implements so unsatisfactory. Pig- 

 tailed waiters flit noiselessly hither and thither, 

 and the watchful proprietor, bland and inscruta- 

 ble, allows nothing to escape his notice from his 

 elevated perch near the door. Next door is a 

 gambling-house, where tickets are marked and 

 fan-tan is played in an inner room, while not far 

 away is a stuffy chamber where four or five 

 Chinamen and as many Europeans are dream- 

 ing blissfully in an atmosphere tainted with the 

 smell of burning opium. 



The distinctive sights of the Australian streets 

 include the Chinese vegetable merchant, with his 

 two heavy baskets of vegetables, balanced on a 

 bamboo pole, supported on his shoulders. A 

 group of Hindoo or Syrian hawkers may be seen 

 passing from house to house, pressing their cheap 



