132 
CHINA 
not to disfigure the city. As you look up or down a street hanging 
boards a foot or so wide and 5 to 10 feet long call attention to 
the names of the tradesmen and the nature of their wares, set forth 
in ideographs of white, black, or gold upon a ground of blue, 
vermilion, or emerald green. The characters are picturesque in 
themselves, and the Chinese are unrivalled in their successful use of 
the boldest colour contrasts. There are no models or paintings of 
the goods for sale, such as were quite general in Prague forty years 
ago, so that it is fair to surmise that a large proportion of the popula¬ 
tion can read the difficult writing—writing, remember, in which each 
character (ideograph) represents not a letter, but a thing or idea. 
It is said to be necessary to learn 3000 to 4000 ideographs before one 
can read fairly fluently. One consequence is that a Japanese or a 
Chinaman can read the ideographs written by a man speaking a 
language quite foreign to him, a fact that proved of great advantage 
to the Japanese in their recent wars. Colour may be said to culminate 
in the Chinese pawnshop. There is no prejudice against pawning, 
and it has such obvious advantages that men in temporary straits 
think nothing of pledging their lovely embroidered garments. 
Yet the native town of Canton is not the place that any one would 
choose to live in; it appeals strongly to other senses than those of 
sight. 1 
As in duty bound we were introduced to the executioner, but 
found that official somewhat depressed by slackness of trade. My 
late friend, Mr. E. A. Bonner, some two or three years previously 
had a great stroke of luck, for he looked in just in time to see seven¬ 
teen heathen Chinese decapitated! It was said that in the fifties, 
in the days of Governor Yeh, the executioner was chosen by com¬ 
petitive examination of a highly practical character. The fortunate 
successful candidate was he who never failed to strike off a head at 
one blow. Such an ordeal required both skill and endurance. 
Somewhat less practical were the examinations which have been 
conducted by the Civil Service Commissioners of China—or their 
equivalents—from time immemorial. The so-called Examination 
Hall is an area of several acres enclosed by lofty fortified walls, 
within which stand countless tiny houses or stalls, 6 feet X 4 feet. It 
is said there are 11,600 of these torture chambers, within which as 
many unhappy candidates toiled nervously at their old-time papers 
on the doctrines of Confucius, under the glaring eyes of the examiners, 
who invigilated on lofty towers in the midst. Three ordeals of 
1 It may, however, well be doubted whether in the matter of evil odours Canton 
excels some parts of Marseille. 
