1 6 CHINESE PEDDLERS, 
button, from a China service to a thimble. 
When yon emerge from the bed-chamber to 
the verandah to sip your morning coffee, John 
Chinaman is before you. His wares are already 
undone. He presses you to buy with a persist- 
ence to which at first you fall a prey, were it 
onty to rid you of his importunity. He makes 
the most ridiculous overcharges to the simple 
purchaser, who is not consoled to learn that 
his loss is the gain of the next 'cute buyer, who 
purchases at a figure under the real value of 
the article, while a fair profit is enjoyed by 
the vendor between the two extremes. How 
patiently he undoes all his bundles, and lays 
out the contents of liis boxes, never retorting 
a word to your angry dismissal 1 Although 
amused the first day, and interested in seeing 
his novel wares, I soon tired of the unceasing 
interruption. One has hardly gone when 
another succeeds him, and I took refuge in 
pretending that I neither saw nor heard, while 
the peddler tried first broken English, then 
phrases of French, until I could not resist 
laughing aloud, Arabs are sometimes seen 
engaged in this line of business, but they arc 
not so patient or so politic, A Chinaman 
always waits till his predecessor goes ere In 
