Do you see this queer carriage with the woven canopy top and the wooden wheels? Carts like this are used in the southern part of Luzon, which is the largest of the Philippine Islands. It is a beautiful island with many rivers and mountains, and there are also volcanoes. Do you know what a volcano is? It is a mountain with a deep hole or crater in it, in which there is a mass of fire, and gases which sometimes explode. When there is an explosion great quantities of molten stuff called lava pour from the mouth of the volcano, sometimes burying villages at the foot of the mountain. A volcano is not a very pleasant neighbour, should you think so? Many of the islands of the Philippines were formed by volcanoes under the sea, that have thrown up masses of lava until a new island was made.
A Tagalog Tandem, Bambam, Luzon, Philippine Islands
From Stereograph, copyright 1904, by Underwood & Underwood, New York
GOING INTO SHANGHAI
This is a strange-looking thing to ride on, don’t you think? It looks something like the wheelbarrows we use in our gardens, but the wheel is very large. Do you see how it goes up in the middle of the barrow?
These Chinese people are going into Shanghai. They have come along a very sunny road; wouldn’t you think their heads would ache? The Chinese women do not wear hats and they do not mind the heat. See how small their feet are, and yet they are very large compared with the feet of the ladies in higher classes, who could easily wear dolls’ shoes. Chinese shoes, the ordinary ones, are made of cloth; so when it rains the Chinese do not like to go out and get them wet.
Let us follow these people to Shanghai and see what the city is like. It is a great shipping place, and the harbour is filled with queer-looking boats called junks. Shanghai is a busy place, and the streets are always crowded; in the native part they are extremely narrow and dirty.
In the afternoons there is a great deal of driving on the chief road, Maloo. Here we should see all kinds of carriages, ’rickshaws and barrows like the one in the picture.
If we should meet a Chinese friend he would say, “Have you eaten rice?” instead of “How do you do?” They think our clothing very queer, and the men would not know what to do with pockets.