1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
107 
Street Toys. 
If you were to walk down Broadway you would be sur- 
prised at the number of men— all of whom look strong 
and healthy enough to do a good day's work— who are en- 
gaged in selling childrens 1 
toys from little stands placed 
at the street corners, or up- 
on the steps on some build- 
ing. If you passed by these 
venders day after day, as I 
do, you would notice that the 
stock frequently changes. 
A dealer will for several days 
offer figures that tumble 
heels over head. After a 
while he will have those 
which dance at the end of 
a rubber string, then again, 
some kind of tops will be 
for sale, until they in turn 
will be replaced by a new 
fashion in toys. I frequent- 
ly buy these street toys, and 
if they are sufficiently in- 
teresting, tell the Boys and 
Girls about them. One of 
the late toys consists of a 
pasteboard man without any 
legs, and a pair of pasteboard boots hung by threads to 
the figure. At first sight, one is puzzled to know what 
to do with such a toy. At the back of the toy is an elas- 
tic band, shown in the engraving, figure 1, by a dotted 
line. Two fingers are slipped between this elastic and 
the figure, and one of the boots put upon the end of each 
finger, and you have a Highlander ; the fingers represent 
the bare legs which are considered necessary to a High- 
lander when in full dress ; the knuckles make capital 
knees, and when by moving the fingers the image is made 
to walk or dance, the effect is laughable. The figure 
should be painted to repre- 
sent the gay colors of the 
Highland costume, but the 
one I got was dressed like 
a jester or clown. There is 
another toy just now pop- 
ular—a puzzle. It is a coil 
of brass wire of the size of 
figure 2, upon which a ring 
is placed in such a manner, 
that two wires of the coil 
pass through the ring. The 
puzzle is to get the ring off the coil. It cannot be screwed 
off by turning the coil, as that is prevented by having the 
ends of the wires of the coil soldered so as to prevent the 
ring from going off in that way. Icoulds/«»yyou in a few 
seconds how it is done, but to describe it is quite another 
matter. Let us begin by putting the ring on. Suppose 
you have a coil of wire and a ring like those shown in 
the engraving, but both separate. Put the ring over the 
top of the coil and bring it between two of the turns of 
the coil ; then give it, the ring, a turn or a twist from 
left to right, and it cannot be taken off without turning 
the ring back again from right to left. The manner of 
passing two or more turns of the coil through the ring is 
easily found out by trying. Will Warren. 
3 gallons. How can they divide the vinegar by the use 
of these vessels so that they may have 4 gallons apiece ? 
No. 371. Illustrated Jtdius.—Thv artist hero plctnres 
little difficult to malic out in the picture and not easy to 
No. 378. ^1 Problem in Liquid Measure.— Two men 
have purchased together an eight gallon keg of vinegar ; 
when they come to divide It they find that they have only 
two empty vessels, one of which holds 5 and the other 
No. 373. Illustrated Rebus.— A pictorial statement of a 
melancholy fact — intended as a warning, not an example. 
No. 374. Arithmetical Puzzle. — Two women were going 
to market with eggs. One asked the other to give her an 
egg, and then they would each have an equal number; 
" No," said the other, " give me one of yours and I shall 
have twice as many as you have. How many had each ? 
A Letter from a Little Oirl. — Ida 
May, a girl in her fifth year, sends the following account 
of iher cat. "Pussy tom-cat is just the nicest cat I 
ever saw. He is just now taking a nap on the rocking 
chair ; he hardly ever lies on the carpet, he mostly lies 
on the lounge or cushioned chair. When he lies on the 
lounge he puts his head on the pillow like some old man 
and then I slip my doll in his arms, and that makes fun 
for us all. If he gets tired sleeping, sometimes he takes 
a big romp with us and plays hide, and when we hunt 
him behind the curtains, then he jumps at us and paws 
ns a little. We fetched pussy cat sixty miles, and if we 
went sixty more, pussy tom-cat would have to go along. 
Pa says he would n't take ten dollars for my cat." 
Don't Forget the Birds. — It is very 
pleasant to see the birds in the spring, and one, whether 
he lives in the country or in a town, can have many of 
them near the house, and receive much pleasure from 
watching their cunning ways. A little box fastened to a 
tree with a hole for entrance, is much better than the 
showy houses some build. It is great fun to see a pair of 
birds inspecting the "house to let," and when they have 
taken possession, to observe how industrious they are in 
gathering materials for their nest. They can be made 
much more interesting if you scatter feathers, threads 
raveled from cloth, and such other materials as they use 
for building ; and if you put food in a place near at hand 
every day, some birds will come regularly to look for it. 
Rambles in China. — Street Scenes. 
BT " CARLETON." 
The people who live down beneath our feet on the oth- 
er side of the world, have such queer ways of doing 
things, such strange manners and customs, that I am 
sure the young people of this country would open their 
eyes wide, were they to see them ; but as you cannot go 
there just now, lot me be eyes for you and tell you how 
we traveled in China. It is a hot, sultry day, when we set out 
from the house of a merchant, who deals 
in teas and silks, to see the old city 
of Canton. It is one of the oldest in 
China. No one knows when it was 
founded, but it was ever so long be- 
fore Abraham went from the valley of 
the Euphrates into the land of Canaan. 
For more than -1.000 years it has been 
a city. Hundreds of years before Jo- 
seph was sold a slave into Egypt, boys 
and girls were playing in the streets 
of Canton, or paddling boats on the 
river, or catching fish In the harbor. 
The city is situated ou the north 
bank of the Canton River, which, as 
you will see by looking at your school 
atlas, rises among the hills in the 
southern part of the empire, runs cast, 
and empties into the China sea. It is 
about as large as the Connecticut. It 
r\ winds through a lovely country, and as 
J you look towards the west, you sec 
the beautiful White Cloud hills, bor- 
a roaxim which is a . _. ,, ., .... ... 
dermg the valley ot the stream. Lit- 
exemplify. flQ v | UBgoa arc JlcstlGtl on tholr Bmmy 
| slopes. The fields arc very green, and so arc the pas- 
tures, for the Chinese save all fertilizers to enrich the soil. 
To travel iu China, we must either take a coach or ft 
ecdan, or else go on foot, I dare eay that most of you 
would prefer a coach rather than to foot it. But the 
streets are narrow— some of them are not more than six 
or eight feet wide, and such coaches as you are accus- 
tomed to see here in the United States, would get stuck 
between the houses in about two minutes. But the 
coaches of Canton are adapted to the streets. They have 
only one wheel " Only one wheel!" — I thought you 
would open your eyes wide. Besides, one of the horses 
pushes while the other pulls ; only there are no horses, 
for two Chinamen are harnessed up instead ! 
I do not wonder that such a story is rather more thau 
you can swallow, but just look at the picture on the next 
page and see the coach and the team under full headway. 
" A wheel-barrow /" Of course it is. You will find no 
other coach in Cauton. It is Paddy's coach, sure enongh ; 
and long before an Irishman ever trundled a wheel-bar- 
row through the streets of Cork, centuries before Ireland 
was known, these wheel-barrows were wheeled through 
the alleys and lanes of this wonderful old city of China. 
I wish you could hear them squeak for about five 
minutes. The axles are of wood, and the squeaking is 
terrific. You cau hear them all over the city, mak- 
ing a noise as if saying over and over with every 
turn of the wheel the old Greek word, "Eu-re-ka, Eu-re- 
ka, Eu~re-ka" which means, l, I have found it." And 
you will wish all the while that they had found a little 
more of it — grease I mean. You have heard a creaking 
door, or, perhaps, have made your slate pencil give a 
squeak on your slate now and then ; but this " Eu-re- 
ka " is more excruciating thau a score of doors or a 
hundred slate pencils all going together. 
Where there is but one passenger, he rides astride of 
the coach, and if two are carried, each sets upon a shelf 
at the side of the vehicle. 
"Where the street is level, the Chinamen go upon the 
trot and the two passengers get well bounced and bump- 
ed, though they seem to enjoy it. It is a very funny 
scene— the fellows upon the run, and their pigtails dang- 
ling down their backs, or streaming in the wind. 
If we do not want to take a coach, we may try a sedan, 
which is a box, with a seat in it, a leather top to keep 
out the rain, and curtains in front and at the sides, which 
we may have up or down just as we please. Two long 
poles are fastened to the box. Getting in, we are raised 
from the ground by two men who put the poles on their 
shoulders, and we go springing up and down with a 
wave-like motion, which is a great deal more pleasant 
than teetering on a board. The sedan is also shown in 
the picture. It is a strange sensation that comes over 
us, to find ourselves iu a sort of hen-coop moving up 
and down, and carried by men with broad-brimmed 
bamboo hats, shaped like the cover of a teapot, curving 
from centre to circumference with a knob on the top. 
The hat is so large, that, when it rains, it answers for 
an umbrella. It is much more pleasant to go in a sedan 
than on a wheel-barrow ; but if you want to see all 
that is strange and curious, it is better to ramble on foot. 
We shall have a crowd at our heels, for the Chinese are 
as curious to see us as we are to see them. We hear 
them cry ^Eanqui"' " Eanqui" which means that we 
are foreign devils. They look upon us with contempt. 
They consider themselves as being far superior to any 
other people on the face of the earth. We people of the 
United States are powerful, we have big ships and great 
guns, steam-engines and locomotives, and telegraphs ; we 
can make iron swim and send messages beneath the sea ; 
we can call the lightning from the skies and make it our 
servant to carry our thoughts all over the world ; we can 
make the sun take our pictures ; we can do many things 
that they cannot, but we are wicked in their esteem. 
They think that the inhabitants of the United States arc 
like the English, who have had two wars with the Chi- 
nese. The English war ships bombarded their cities ; 
English troops marched into Pekin and pillaged the Im- 
perial Palace, and now China speaks of an Englishman 
as being "a red-faced foreign devil." 
But though they shout ^/aiiqui" they will not harm 
us. They will grin in our faces, invite us into their 
shops, and do their best to sell us their goods. 
The narrow streets are full of people, and it is all wo 
can do to get along. If we do not keep a sharp lookout, 
we shall be hustled about, jostled this way and that, and, 
perhaps, receive. a poke in the ribs from somebody, who 
pays no attention to anybody but himself, and whose 
only thought is, to get ou as fast as possible. 
We meet a dozen men staggering along with a block 
of stone, and all shouting "Hooto/" "Get out of the 
way!" If wc did not dodge into a door-way or aside 
street, they would run us down. 
Multitudes of men are carrying baskets, boxes or chests 
of tea, and bundles, not in their arms or on the tup of 
their heads, but each of the carriers has a stick about six 
feet long over his shoulder, with cords or ropes at each 
en- 7 , which he tics to the bundle or tea-chest, so that, as 
we look at them, it seems as if the scales in the shop 
had somehow found legs and were walking up and down 
the streets, Only the Chinese do not use scales, but do 
