Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1904 — PAWN SHOPS OF CHINA. [ARTICLE]

PAWN SHOPS OF CHINA.

They Cat Quite a Figure la UH la the Flowery head. Pawnbroking is a great Institution in the Flowery Land. The Chinese pawnbroker’s, however, is quite a different kind of establishment from ours. The pawn shop of China is more a stronghold, a place of quiet and safe repose, for valuable jewelry and the miscellaneous and costly wardrobes of the people. It also in many instances performs the equally Important but somewhat costly function of lending to the needy, and, as In the collections of similar establishments of our own land, one may see the much prized Jewels and trinkets of happier times, which caused their poor owners many a bitter pang to part with, heartaches that were perhaps brightened with the hope that one day they would be able to redeem them.

To listen to the man selling these unredeemed pledges is one of the choice entertainments of the Peking streets. He is selected by the 1 pawnbroker for his fluency of speech and ready wit, to which he gives full play in his humorous descriptions of the quality and history of the furs and richly embroidered dresses which are piled up on the platform of his tent He at times runs off his speech in rhyme, making clever and sarcastic allusions to the requirements of his audience, pressing a satin robe on the attention of some naked beggar.—Golden Penny.