22 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. n. 



work, although some of the tools used are exceedingly 

 clumsy in appearance from our own point of view. 



Passing down some of the streets beneath the shade of 

 the piazzas, one meets with general stores of every de- 

 scription, each with its little stall right outside the door 

 close to the path. Here you can purchase almost every- 

 thing; tools, nails and screws, needles, pencils, cotton, 

 cutlery, ammunition, old Tower muskets indeed nearly 

 everything in the way of hardware goods, whether 

 Chinese or European. The European goods are such as 

 are especially made for this market, and the prices are 

 surprisingly low. 



It is curious to observe how some industrial products 

 are universally used here to the exclusion of others. For 

 example, " Bryant & May's " matches, so common at 

 home, are here supplanted by a neatly made " Tand- 

 stickor," ten little boxes of which are made up into a 

 packet, which sells for as low as six cents, although ten 

 cents is always asked of strangers. In many Chinese 

 and Kling shops European tinned provisions and patent 

 medicines may be obtained at a very slight advance on 

 home prices, as these petty traders watch the sales of old 

 ships' stores very closely, and are thus enabled to 

 purchase very cheaply. 



The Chinese compete with all comers in cheap labour ; 

 and their innate capacity for imitation enables them to 

 do so very often with advantage in the case of manu- 

 factures. If you can only give a Chinese workman a 

 pattern or sample of the goods you require whether 

 boots, clothing, cabinet work, or jewellery, he may be 

 trusted to imitate the same even to a fault. They are 

 most industrious, having apparently no regular hours of 

 labour, but often toiling from early morning until far 

 into the night for a scanty pittance ; but no matter how 



