1870.J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
27 
38©Y$ III3LS ? ©©HOTM-So 
Hamhlcs in China.—A Fish Story. 
BY “ CARLETON.” 
I think of myself as sitting by some one of the thou¬ 
sands of pleasant firesides in the United States amid a 
group of boys and girls. We toast our toes, tell riddles 
and stories, and make the room ring with our laughter. 
As it is my turn to give a story, I shall tell you, my young 
friends, about what is going on right down beneath our 
feet in China. I was down there a few months ago. It 
is a country where old men as well as boys fly kites, walk 
on stilts, and amuse themselves by making enormous pa¬ 
per dragons, with bodies like snakes, fifty or one hund¬ 
red feet long, and as large as a flour barrel, with huge 
claws and great mouths wide open, and goggle eyes flam¬ 
ing with fire. The lanterns that light the streets of the 
cities are as large, almost, as hogsheads. In that country 
there are several million people who live in boats, sleep¬ 
ing in drawers built into the sides of the boats. They 
hatch ducks and chickens in ovens, rear them in flocks,— 
letting them into the water two or three times a day, just 
as you are let out of school at recess for a grand frolic. 
The master calls them back by a whistle, and gives the 
tardy ones a good drubbing for being behindhand. Pos¬ 
sibly some of you could tell me a story about being late 
in from recess. 
The Chinese are ahead of us in somethings, especially 
in catching fish. Years ago, when I was younger than I 
am now, I loved dearly to go-a-fishing. There was noth¬ 
ing that so set me on tiptoe. I remember the first fish 
I ever caught, it was a horn-pout, with a mouth split from 
ear to ear, only I never could find his cars; it was wide 
enough for him to swallow himself! He had long smell¬ 
ers, and was a tremendous fellow. Sly alder fish-pole 
bent almost double as he pulled and tugged at the line, 
but I got him into the boat at last. Didn’t he bounce 
around? I have seen whales since, but he was bigger 
than a whale—at least so I thought then. 
The fact is, he was a little fellow, and my father took 
the conceit out of me by saying, he wasn't worth dress¬ 
ing; but I carried him home, and had him go into the 
frying-pan, and there never was a sweeter morsel than he 
made. I caught him, and that was what made the break¬ 
fast one of the best ever cooked. What we accomplish 
ourselves is of more value to us than what others do for us. 
The Chinese are very fond of fish, and hundreds of 
thousands of people fish for a living. 
Let us in imagination think of ourselves as being in 
China, sailing up the great river Yang-tse, which, you 
will see by looking at your school atlas, is nearly as large 
as the Mississippi. It rises in Central Asia, and flows 
through the heart of the Empire to the sea. You see a 
great many boats filled with men, women, and children. 
The boats are their homes. They live in them from 
childhood to old age—father, mother, grand parents, 
and children, with pigs, ducks, chickens, cats, and dogs. 
Two boats sometimes move side by side, a few rods 
apart, with a long net or seine between them ; after row¬ 
ing a while, they come together, draw in the net, and 
take out the fish. 
As you sail along the shores, you see a great many con¬ 
trivances that look like well sweeps. A tall post is 
driven into the ground just in the edge of the water, and 
a long pole tilted upon it reaches twenty or thirty feet 
out into the river. A net attached to the pole drops into 
the stream. The fisherman sits on the bank in a little 
hut not much larger than a dog's house, and every few 
* minutes he pulls down his end of the pole, which, of 
course, raises the other and lifts the net from the water. 
If he catches three or four fish a day, he is content, for 
his wants arc few, and it does not cost him much to live. 
The Chinese catch a great many fish without hook, or 
line, or net. I don’t believe that you can guess how they 
do it. Try now — “it?/ driving tlie .fish into a pen?" 
No. I have seen people do that—making a wicker¬ 
work fence of stakes and withes, and then splashing the 
water to frighten the fish ; but the Chinese don’t do it in 
that way... “ By a pot 
No; you have n’t hit it. I used to do that—making a 
dam across a brook in my father’s meadow, and weaving 
a basket, »r pot, as we called it, large at both ends, taper¬ 
ing like a tunnel in the middle, with a hole leading to a 
box, with sharp spikes pointing in one direction set 
around the hole. The suckers and trout could go in, but 
to get out was another matter_“ By spearing them?" 
No; the Chinese do not have such glorious fun as I en¬ 
joyed in my boyhood, at night, with a pitch-knot torch 
flaming in a jack at the bow of a boat, now exciting to 
see a great pickerel with yellow sides lying motionless in 
the water 1 And then to let him have it right back of the 
gills and draw him in before he could tear himself away! 
Ah 1 that was fun. 
As you cannot guess, I will tell you. The Chinese fish 
with birds_“ With birds /’' 
I thought that you would open your eyes wide. Yes, 
with birds about as large as geese. They have sharp 
bills, are brown in color, and are exceedingly nimble. 
They are tame sea ravens or cormorants. They live on 
fish, and have voracious appetites. They will eat their 
own weight in fish in a few hours. They seem to be al¬ 
ways hungry. The more they have, the more they seem 
to want. Being always hungry, they are exceedingly ac¬ 
tive. They have sharp eyes, large wings, web feet, and 
swim very fast. They dive as quick as a flash. 
Look at that one swimming in the stream — on the 
watch for fish. There he goes ! In a twinkling he is out 
of sight. Here he comes with a fish in his mouth, 
which is struggling to get away, but the raven holds 
him fast and swims to his master’s boat, where he is 
taken aboard. He cannot swallow the fish because 
his owner has slipped an iron ring upon the poor 
creature’s throat. He lays the fish down and waits 
until the ring is taken off, and then he can only have 
a morsel of fish, just enough to sharpen the appetite, 
and make him wide awake for more. The owner 
strokes the bird’s head, calls him a good fellow, 
and throws him into the water for another venture. 
Down he goes again. A minute passes. Here he 
comes! but without a fish. He gets a whipping now. 
lie can have no luncheon until he catches another. 
If we go into a city or town anywhere in China, we 
shall see large fish markets, not little sheds with here 
and there a table with a few flounders, perch, cat fish, 
pickerel or trout upon it, and a tubful of eels, as in our 
own markets; but we shall see great tanks, filled with 
running water with thousands of live full- grown fish in 
them. They have been brought in from the breeding 
ponds in the country, where they were hatched and rear¬ 
ed, fed and fattened until fit for the market. It cost but 
a trifle to rear them, and here they are, lusty fellows, 
weighing two, three, four, and five pounds. When the 
people come to market, they select such a fish as they 
want, the market man catches t in a hand-net, dresses it 
on the spot, and the customer carries it home for his din¬ 
ner. “ From the tank to the frying pan” is the Chinese 
proverb about fish. 
We may learn something from the Chinese in regard to 
fish culture. Nearly all the fish eaten in the United 
States are brought from the sea, or caught in the lakes 
ajul rivers. A few men have begun to raise fish for the 
market, and have found it very profitable. It is easy to 
do, and there are many boys who live on farms where 
ponds might be made in which they could rear fish for 
the market, just as they now raise turkeys, chickens, 
ducks, geese, pigs, and sheep. 
The market men would find it profitable to build tanks, 
supply them with water, and keep their fish alive until 
called for by their customers. In warm weather there 
would be no loss from stale, unsold fish, and then the fish 
would be a great deal better if cooked immediately after 
being taken from the tank. 
I know that some of my young friends will say this is 
a “ Fish Story.” But it is true for all that, if you do not 
believe it, just go around to the other side of the world 
and see for yourselves. If you do not get away too soon, 
however, I shall have more to tell you about that 
wonderful country and the queer people that live there. 
How a Palace is Lighted. — It is 
said that one of the European palaces burns ten thousand 
wax candles nightly. The candles are put in their places 
and connected by a web of gun-cotton, which passes from 
wick to wick. When one end of this chain of gun-cot¬ 
ton is lighted it flashes instantly from one candle to 
another, and all in the room are lighted at once. The 
gun-cotton is prepared with some kind of perfume, and 
at the time it burns an agreeable odor is diffused in the 
room. That will do very well for a palace where candles 
are burned, but in some of the large halls in New York 
which are lighted by gas, all of the hundreds of burners 
are lighted by electricity. A fine wire, so small as not 
to be noticeable, passes from one burner to another, and 
is so arranged as to give a minute spark at each. By a 
single movement of a key attached to the electrical appa¬ 
ratus the gas throughout an immense hall is lighted “ as 
quick as a flash.” 
The Magician’s Basket Trick. 
Some of the performers of legerdemain show the “Mys¬ 
terious disappearance of a young lady.” A large cover¬ 
ed basket is placed upon the stage and a young lady steps 
from the audience and is blindfolded. The performer ■ 
opens the basket and tips it towards the spectators that j 
they may see that it is all right inside. The young lady i 
.s assisted into the basket and the cover is shut down, 
the basket being inclined forward the magician stabs it 
in various places with a small sword ; screams are heard, 
and the lid of the basket is opened when it is found to 
be empty. The audience usually becomo greatly escitcd, 
and during the confusion the young lady appears among 
them, and takes her place ns if nothing had happened. 
To do this trick, two young ladies of the same size, 
and dressed exactly alike, are required, and both are 
“confederates” of the performer. The basket has two 
false bottoms. One in the proper place and the other 
folded up against one of the sides. The young lady is 
blindfolded as soon as she steps upon the stage in order 
that her features may not be remembered. When she is in 
the basket it is tipped forward. She lies upon one false 
bottom and pulls the one which was folded up against 
the side down over her. When the basket is tipped for¬ 
ward and opened, it of course appears empty, the second 
false bottom taking the place of the first, while it screens 
the girl from sight. The engraving shows how she is 
concealed. The second girl dressed exactly like the first 
now enters, and while she attracts the attention ®1' the 
audience, the basket with the stool on which it stands, 
and girl No. 1, are carried off by assistants. 
An Irishman went to live in Scotland for a short time, 
but didn’t like the country. “ I was sick all the time I 
was there,” said he, “and if I had lived there till this 
time I’d been dead a year ago.” 
Answers to Problems nnd Puzzles. 
We have either lost or mislaid a list of those who have 
sent us recent answers, but we hope this will not deter 
them from sending again. The following are the answers 
to those which appeared 
in November and December. 
No. 363. Take the B’s away 
from Bread and Butter and 
they will read and utter.... 
No. 364. A horse, a horse, My 
kingdom (Mike-in-G-dome) for 
(4) a horse. (A II o’er sea). 
... No. 365. A must dig42«|, 
yards, andB57 1 yards_No. 
366. In 6ome things all, in all 
things none are blest.—Things 
in the word some, awl-tilings 
in awl, Nun-R-bee-les-tea. 
No. 361. Illustrated Conundrum. Why is the man in 
the picture like a great swearer ? 
No. 368. Illustrated Behus. —Which gives encourage¬ 
ment to those who are working for a competence. 
No. 36!). Illustrated Helms.—' This makes a statement 
which we do not believe a word of i f Shakesponre did say it. 
THE BASKET TRICK. 
