given catalogue work to do. For the rest of the fortnight I shall have to write up cards of the new books, and place them in order in the index. It is easily learned, and becomes more and more interesting to do as I become expert. I suppose you know how it is done. Every book in the library has its title, author, publisher, and other items written on a card. Each card has a hole in it, through which a rod is passed to hold it in its place in a drawer. The great thing is to use some common sense, and not make any mistakes, even of a comma.

I believe my chances for a place here in the autumn are not bad, if there is a vacancy. Yet thirty a month is not so pleasing as at first.

May 7. DEAR ADDIE: You will be surprised to see I am at Isabel's. I had not expected to come before the tenth, but she telegraphed me for a special occasion. The new house is charming. Isabel and I have had it out on the labor question. As representing capital, she was full of ideas for me, once I had won her sympathy. Three months ago she would have dazzled my fancy with her impracticable schemes.

We are very gay. Isabel has a stunning new hat, which, contrary to the rule of hats, has an additional interest. Do you remember the Elston girls? They have climbed to the pinnacle of fame and fortune by the devious, vain path of millinery. And, what's more, they 've built a railing around the pinnacle, so they 're not likely to fall off.

They were left suddenly with nothing but their wits and a stock of Paris clothes. You may recall what charming hats they always wore hats with what we call an "air." It seems they made the most of them with their own hands, for the pure pleasure of exercising a talent. When their hour of need came, some woman with a mind and heart suggested that they could trim hats for other people, and proved her sincerity by giving an order on the spot. She showed it to her friends. Then she offered to give the girls an opening day at her own house. They took hold in earnest. They went down town, and bought supplies of wholesale dealers. They trimmed fifty hats and bonnets. They bought as many hat-boxes wholesale, and they rummaged out-of-the-way shops for old-fashioned wall-paper, all rosebuds and little green wreaths. They covered the boxes with it. And see what they had! At least two hundred ladies came to the opening. Their stock was "closed out," professionally speaking. Orders were left. That was two years ago. Now they have a regular shop - the daintiest place, Isabel says. And they went to Europe for styles last summer. They keep their

VOL. XLIX.- 45.

standard up and their prices down. That shows what can be done.

Isabel was telling me the other day about two girls - friends, not sisters who had cleared three thousand dollars a year teaching whist. It does n't seem possible, but it is vouched for. They had to have money, and that is the nucleus of everything. They were fine whist-players. A whist club was started among a set of younger girls, to many of whom the game was new. Some two or three went to these expert young women, and asked boldly to be taught for love. Then these pupils made a record in the club. Other members thirsted for knowledge, but did n't feel at liberty to ask on the same terms. They took courage, and begged to have lessons for pay. That began it. Now they have classes in towns all about, and travel, giving lessons here one day, there another. They are simply the fashion, and are as much remarked for their grace and spirit as for their ability to impart a working knowledge of whist in a short time.

When there are so many roads to fame and fortune, it really seems as though the difficult thing would be to choose. I am told that going from house to house dusting bric-à-brac and taking care of lamps is done extensively. I even hear it pays so well in cities that the lamp-lady, in numerous instances, affords to drive about in a cab, taking her kit of tools with her, exacting only a supply of oil from her patrons.

Speaking of lamps, Isabel buys all her beautiful lamp-shades from a young woman who once had money, and now makes it. She re-covers old shades and makes new ones, furnishing materials. She charges from twelve to sixteen dollars for shades that sell for twenty to thirty in the shops. She told Isabel it paid her well, and she has opened a regular shop where she employs two or three girls in the busy season. If you care to have the pink shade on your Dresden lamp done, send me the frame.

Devotedly yours,

SOPHIA.

May 25.

DEAREST ADELAIDE: Just a line. I must tell you my very latest experiment. I have turned my mind to a domestic-social possibility. Again Mrs. Waterman is my genius. She wanted to give rather an elaborate dinner the other night, and was dreadfully torn up in her mind over being unable to get Frapelli to take charge of it.

You know I adore a dinner (I was n't asked to this one), and with all modesty I may say to you that I have a genius for menus and table "effects" generally, and Mrs. Waterman knows it. I somehow read it in her glance all

1bn fou alu was dying to say, "Would and the hood out, "Let me!"--wherew fouth banghed, and I assumed charge ded dome Haemed a great joke at first, For 1 Focam an carnest and enthusiastic word und soon developed the spirit of the fom wit I submitted the menu-perfect! Fabricwed the cook- she accepted me, who lowes a trumph in itself. I gathered my Buy The day of the dinner I spent at the hou hom ten in the morning; and I want to y might here that I resisted all of Mrs. Wafermat's overtares to come and be on terms or espeaba. She wanted to her me, hated to me to come to speak

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October 39. you I was going You will be asAve. But I was perna wydź nieasore-loving thing I sow Lam glad I did, as you wys, again to dinner at the tow Now I have always feit Short, stout little steam-enyong the whistle and ringing w to tire me to death. What when I tell you I admire and that man? Isabel thinks I have d, and she has made a theory out w sets forth the idea that young ......... tonnement lose their delicate sensiby contact with work. You can investhe soundness of this at your leisure. at might, for the first time, I talked with A Noon on the thing he knows. I adapted ', and I got my reward. He found me dd, and he gave me such a bird's-eye of business principles as I had never est of. Before I realized it, I was telling any own efforts to earn money to the hetic listener I ever found. Well, I look back upon that evening I Inlikely that the corner-stone of

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SOPHIA.

April 26.

JY DEAREST ADELAIDE: I 've been at or si months and you ask if I think Annie McKay could succeed at indexing. You

me to ad se her what to do. How you do tempt me! I love to give advice, but I am cultivating a conce. Scarcely a day passes that some girl does not ask me just what Anthe McKay asks. The only answer I can make is: "Indexing pays wg, and I like it. But I know plenty of women who earn money in other ways which rig Exe." I don't mind telling you in confidence that I think I've learned a thing or two worth knowing about careers and how to find them; and of course I'd like to let my light shine on the whole world of tired, discouraged women suddenly forced into the pursuit of their daily bread. But superiority has its disadvantages, and they would probably turn on me, and say my light is but a candle, and blinded my own eyes without disclosing the path, though it seems wonderfully illuminating to me.

There is a great stir made about our bondage and the limited number of profitable occupations open to women. I sign neither petition nor protest - you know my narrowminded ways. I am fond of excitement, but I will be drawn into no whirlpool questions of the day. Perhaps it is ignorance that inclines me to be a little impatient; but within my own narrow limits I have seen so many women. earning money out of what appeared to offer nothing, that I have a growing belief that life just bristles with opportunities. Sometimes an

T

HE population of the city of Canton, including the multitude living on the river, has been variously estimated at from one to three millions. European residents, from knowledge gained by trading, and from the familiarity they have acquired with the Chinese methods of living, assume that the city population numbers about one million, and the river population an additional half-million. The estimate is possibly as nearly correct as any that can be made: I could form no manner of conjecture concerning it. The anxiety to know such a detail is one of the peculiarities of Europeans which the Chinese cannot understand, as statistics of population appear to their minds entirely unimportant knowledge.

For the maintenance of order among this great mass of people, an application may be seen of the peculiar custom in vogue in China of passing responsibility from one body to another. It narrows down until the dwellers in each quarter are held responsible for riot, outrage, or robbery taking place there. The quarters are further subdivided into sections. Here and there across the streets may be noticed a series of square holes cut in the granite slab underfoot. Corresponding with them are round holes in a transverse beam overhead, and standing in a recess of the wall hard by are eight or ten stout saplings, like capstan-bars in a rack. In some streets at six, in others at seven, eight, and nine P. M., these bars are put up. In other streets there are actual gates, closed like a door; but they are rarer than the bars. If visitors dawdle too long in the shops, and happen to be shut into one of these sections, it is a difficult and tedious matter to rouse and move the head-man so as to be passed along; and the same difficulty occurs at every barrier. There are, however, police patrols. I saw but few of them during the daytime, but the 1 A continuation of the article " In the City of Canton," page 59 of the November CENTURY.-EDITOR.

manner in which these functionaries got themselves up for night duty was very remarkable. They had some native weapons slung around them, and attached to the back of each man was a large, gaudy-colored Chinese lantern, which transformed him into a species of gorgeous glow-worm. Whether these lanterns were always carried in this manner I cannot say, but I doubt if they could serve any other purpose than that of enabling the thief to see the patrol. They had not even the advantage possessed by our policeman's boots, which, though they may warn the burglar of his approach, yet may serve, if the latter have not time to get away, as terrible weapons of offense and defense. There is a staging upon the housetops along which the Cantonese patrol walks. I am told that during the winter there are throughout the city bamboo structures, built up to a height of fifty feet, where watchmen sit aloft to look for fires, and there are also fire-brigades equipped with hand-pumps. In these organizations the men display much energy and esprit de corps, and perform police and sentry duty temporarily for the protection of property which has been attacked by fire.

Notwithstanding the system of subdivided authority and the responsibility of citizenship, it may readily be imagined that so large a population contains its share of law-breakers and criminals. For the edification of any of the inhabitants with criminal tendencies, and indeed for the salutary education of the people as a whole, the paternal government has fitted up one of the temples of the city with a place like a waxwork exhibition, only the models are of wood. Hundreds of idlers were congregated there; the show was free.

On each side of the approach to the temple, within bars, are shown methods of punishment -strangling a criminal; cutting in strips while alive; flogging; tying up by thumbs and toes; grinding in a mill; sawing asunder while held in position by boards; the sleep of death on a bed composed of large sharp spikes; and other

equally revolting methods of doing people to death.

Peddlers were selling their wares here, and quacks their nostrums, while fortune-tellers were doing a thriving business. A few old women and children begged for alms. Among the groups many persons walked about who appeared to be solely occupied in looking at the others. Truly it seemed a pleasant place of resort.

Leaving this museum, I next visited one of the police or correctional courts, and waited for the magistrate to open the proceedings. The day was hot, and he was apparently in no hurry; the courts appear to sit at any time that suits the convenience of the magistrates. One of the prisons being close by, I went through it while waiting. In these prisons are incarcerated not only the Cantonese malefactors, but also those brought from large districts outside the city.

Since visiting this prison, I have never ceased wondering at two things whenever I have thought of the subject: first, why the prisoners stay there at all; second, if determined to remain in prison when captured, how any one can dare to be a criminal in China.

The buildings were none of them above twelve or thirteen feet high at the loftiest part of the roofs, and many were much lower. The outer door, unguarded, stood open, leading to some narrow passages with rectangular turns. Seated drowsily in the shade were two or three men in ordinary Chinese outdoor dress. Some children were playing about the alley, while a woman or two looked on. There was nowhere to be seen an official uniform indicating the presence of a soldier or a warder.

Half-way down an alley was a gate; it was open. Even when shut it consisted only of a few wooden bars stuck in a rack, and one blow with a sharp tomahawk would cut the stoutest of them in half, while with an ordinary penknife any of the bars could have been whittled through in less than half an hour. Here a mildlooking Chinaman sat in a shallow niche in the wall, and some children ran in and out at will. Inside were fifteen or twenty ferocious-looking creatures. They were human beings and tame, but they looked wild; the little clothing they wore was in rags and tatters. A chain about a foot long fastened the legs of each together, pieces of iron being bent round the ankles and looped into each end of the links. They were apparently half starved; their eyes were like those of wild beasts; their heads and faces were unshaven, and showed some inches of black growth standing straight on end. Though their queues were plaited, the hair was so ruffled as to make the plaiting almost indistinguishable. The place was a small courtyard about twenty or twenty-five feet square. One great stall, like a cow-shed, ran round it, barred up in front with

the usual flimsy round saplings, except here and there where an opening was left for convenience of passing in and out.

I did not feel particularly anxious to go in among the occupants, but as they all walked out to have a look at me, leaving the place empty, I entered. They then came back again, and stared at me. Possibly I was as strange a sight to them as they were to me.

The heat was intense, and beat fiercely upon the granite paving-stones; the heat in the stall was still greater. Nothing that in the remotest degree resembled a bed was anywhere to be seen; not a bit of straw or even any rags. There were only dirty granite slabs to lie upon. The place smelt ill, and was very dirty; so indeed were the prisoners.

The guide said they were all sentenced to be beheaded, and that at any time the mandate might arrive fixing an immediate date for their execution. But nobody seemed to trouble himself in the least about the matter.

I gave the convicts some small coins, and left the place. They followed me into the alley, still looking at me in a wondering way. The man at the door took no notice of them, and the children were still playing and running in and out unconcernedly as I turned the corner.

I was then taken through more alleys into the women's prison. It probably abutted in some way upon the other, and was within the same inclosing alleys and walls. As in the former case, men, women, and children were seated in the approaches, and, the door also being open, children ran in and out.

were women

This courtyard presented much the same appearance as the other, save that its tenants - mostly wretched-looking old hags. I went inside the stalls or sheds, and saw there some low wooden tables for the prisoners to sleep upon, and a few screens of matting hanging about. The inmates were not chained, save one, a well-dressed and rather distinguished-looking woman.

"What has that woman done?" I asked the guide.

"She is sentenced to the 'ling-chee' for poisoning her husband," was his reply. A very comely girl was in the prison. "What crime has she committed?" said I.

"She is not a prisoner," said the guide; "she is the jailer's daughter, and is only gossiping with the prisoners.'

The alleged murderess was impassive; unlike any of the others, she evinced no desire for the money I offered her, and during the time I was there her face changed in expression no more than if it had been that of a statue. I was taken from the alleys into the street immediately outside. The guide pointed to a narrow doorway; I went in, and he followed.