Anyone who wishes to be-reminded of old-fashioned English country fair, seen through a Chinese glass, and who is at the same time impervious to stenches and indifferent to crowding, may be amused by an hour's stroll through the city Tea Gardens, just now. We repeat, the process of getting there is appalling; the little North Gate is never a cleanly spot but the crowds of people who now throng it, and the lane of beggars who lino the approach, render it at present something awful. There is a moment's relief in the firat street after entering, which is very passably clean; but you have hardly breathed freely ere you come across a large open sewer which defies description—the only compensation being that a very few hundred yards bring you to what Chinamen_ call Chun-wang-miao, JB, ana Foreignerstho Tea Gardens. As everyone knows. who has visited the spot, the word Garden must be taken in the Chinese sense, which is about as far removed from neat flower beds, gravel walks, and choice fruit trees, as it is possible to conceive. Artificial rockwork, water, bridges, and pavilions on tiny islands, are their leading conception of the idea and these exist on a tolerably extensive but somewhat inferior scale at the Chun-wang-miao. There is no privacy; the whole space is a thoroughfare, and just now is thronged to crushing point by vendors of every description of goods from sugar cane to singing birds, and by every variety of native from well dressed children to opium-ruined beggars. We do not pretend to go overjithe ground system-tically, and are disposed tofthink it would hardly repay the ordeal; but the Chinamen. seem to enjoy the fair immensely; and we havea hazy idea that one used to feel somewhat similar sensations, when let loose for two or three hours in very small school-ey days, to spend sixpence on fairings, and get what excitement one could out of bang-ups.
Here, to begin with, are any quantity of peepshows, in which for a few cash you may see various amenities of foreign life, from a picture of the Vienna Exhibition to a nude statue of Venus or sketches of Chinese relaxation, from ladies playing the lute to entranced gentlemen who load tea tables with gold sycee, to theatrical performances in public where male talent and gorgeous dresses are the only permissible attraction.—All around are Athletes, impaling themselves on swords, drawing impossible numbers of resisting men by cords pressing on the windpipe, and variously exhibiting themselves and imposing on the credulot Fortune-tellers holding entranced men, who look ashamed, and yet unable to" resist the attraction, of having their fate predicted by a clever humbug; Storytellers who keep open mouthed crowds lis-toning to an apparently never-ending tale. Fruit and sweetmeat stands for the recreation of the aforesaid public, in unlimited numbers, are variously scattered thoughout and in every corner of the grounds, Beggars whom you cannot but pity, but whose touch is pollution, jeate the crowd; ox- boys," gone to grief through gambling and opium, offer to act as guides, and irritate you by the mere suggestion, in face of a respectable crowd, that you could possibly have anything in common with such debauched looking scoundrels, The materials for gambling are superabundant—from dice-throwing pure and simple for a few cash a throw, to the dial-faced machine on which one used to spin for lollypops in English fairs, Toy stands are all over the place, and attract alike happy fathers in fur and silk, and poor countrymen in well worn blue cotton who look long at the few cash they think of spending on " humming top for little A-sing at home.
The thing best worth of the whole, was in one of the many recesses that are to be found in the grounds if you have courage or knowledge to unearth them— an exhibition of trained mice; little white and piebald animals, so small that you would think they shad not strength to move hazel nut, driving chain pumps, windmills, water wheels and other little models of machinery. The man in chary did not seem to have accumulated wealth by his exhibition, though crowds stood around; for the handful of cash which the foreigner put in his basket seemed to frank the whole entertainment, The little things were wonderfully well-drilled, each one running to his proper place when taken out of his nest of cotton wool, and setting to work with a will to turn his wheel to the encouraging sound of gong and voice. We could have looked on at them for some time, had it not seemed cruel to keep them at work.—Then Punch and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.