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Show 3 PAPERMAKIN I INDO-CHIN among the workers, but little did I realize the desolatio and squalor that would be found in the paper villages o Tonkin. The filthy, narrow roadway, ankle-deep in soft brown mud, swarmed with men, women,and children al bent upon some specific operation in the process of con verting vegetable fibers into sheets of finished paper. I the noisy crowds that thronged around the papermakin huts there were vendors, beggars, and idlers of every description,-cripples twisted into grotesque forms, thei legs,arms,and backs bent in such disfiguring shapes the could scarcely be recognized as human; half naked ped dlers covered with sores, scabs, and scars sold unsavour thick grueland the ever-present balls of dough dipped i sweetened grease; the box-shaped food receptacles hun from the hawkers shoulders on swaying bamboo poles Boiled entrails of animals dangled in limpid shreds fro the outstretched fingers of the obnoxious vendors wh roughly thrust the food before the faces of the workin papermakers with the hop of tempting them to lay asid their moulds for a briefinterval and enjoy one of the un. I noticed several of the vat-wome appetizing mor gulping theseslimy, intestinal-like objects as they leane against their dipping-vats. There were men shaken wit palsy and others with their faces and hands devoured b leprosy who begged coppers from the more prosperou workers and grew sullen and insolent if their demand were not gratified. Although there were grass roofs overhead, the sides of the papermakers' huts were open to th Digtal mage © 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah, All rights reserved |