Peking Campaign Promotes Spittoons

Singing children and stern police nurses turned out on Peking’s streets Monday to shame citizens into spitting into spittoons rather than on the ground.

Health workers and nursery schoolchildren set up stalls at street corners displaying slogans about health and courtesy. Offenders were reprimanded by toddlers who were instructed to say, “Uncle (or Auntie), please pay attention to your health and that of other people.”

The children, wearing bright clothes and bows, recited rhymes and songs against casual spitting, a habit performed by Peking residents as a remedy for the wind-blown dust that sweeps across the city from the northwest.

Each offender is liable to an on-the-spot penalty of 50 fen (13 cents).

The campaign, involving 147,000 people, is due to continue for many weeks, the Peking press has reported.