On a Chinese Screen (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from On a Chinese ScreenYou pass through the gateway into a narrow street lined with Shops: many of them with their elegant lattice work, red and gold, and their elabo rate carving, have a peculiar ruined magnificence, and you imagine that in their dark recesses are sold all manner of strange wares of the fabulous East. A great multitude surges along the uneven narrow footwalk or in the deepset street; and coolies, bearing heavy loads, shout for way in short sharp cries. Hawkers with guttural sound call their wares.