"Te the Caucasian, then, played out?"
on w ad been lying; and I stared jambing to nig foot from " divan wildly at my friend, who returned my gaze placidly-feom hope not But you seem Lunderstand; your dream has Hashish does You had be like to take cases; they help me to eory—! memoires pour opium-eating, with th aapecialty; he sor himself, but m hia fri o's loo tua hina, and aa an amateur knew something of opium-amoking; I ha willingly enough acceded to n Foquost to oxporimont with hashia You had better tell me all about it at once," he continued, " before the impression wears off."
"And this was the story of my dream, T fancied: myself & passengot just landed Shanghai after an absence of many years. Tatopped on shore at what used to be the ""Amociated Whatves, but which were now called, a8 I found from a board couspicusplayed, Thomson and Thomp-'The change of name surprised me but little, aa I felt many similar ohanyes must have occurred during my prolonged absence. Declining the invitation of the obliging conductor of a Shangramway Company, Limited, Goenoral Manager" car to step chicle and be conveyed whither T would, I set out towards the British Settlement on foot. The first thing I noticed in my way was the exten i. tem 5 folded tlieie touts like the Arabs." Moro-Over: the tramway traffic was not confined to passenger-cars; freight-cars passed to and fro, carrying - formerly tae Prtevlbarvow; T sboraed to k ale jotted hi ening coolie creaking
similarly replaced at morning and evening by sCavenger-cars, and that on dusty days the tre jeetened by watering-cars, "Phe roadways, were crowded as in the old days by " coming and going throng, orderly, well-behaved, and cleaner, I thought, they had ever been in my time. 1 accounted for this to myself on the ground that the majority had cessed to be boasts of burden, 20 that where the perspirati no longer poured, the dust no longer stuck.
struck me as peculiar that I met not jlo European, and that the passers-by ntly turned their heads and gazed at me with " chastened curlosit; must be a race-meeting or so: sort in progress," I said to my drain the streets of their foreign element."
The Astor House was sill to the fore, I was pleased to see. I sauntered into the entrance hall for the sake of old times, and learned incidentally that the pres proprietor was a "Mr, B. Thompso: Phe name seemed to recur with damnable iteration," but a8 no specially interesting memories wore associated with it in my mind, I made no enquiries on the subject, and passed out across the Creek, A light iron structure had replaced the old wooden bridge; and on a plate near the contre was inacribed the legend, C, Thomson, Founder, Shanghai." Over the gate of what had been in my recollection the British Consular com-ound, was an inscription in gigantic lott "The People's Zoo," and-a placard on th wall intimated that the enclosure was open ours of daylight throughout Kk, grain; on Sundays admission by ticket only, procurable from " Mr, D. Thompson, Secretary." I wandered dow the Bund, th and wires, and the Hongkong and evidently still con-title wk, and Comptoir d'Excompto old ricketts Custom placed by palace, and bore the eiptic time Customs and Imperial Likin Off with " Chinere text in characters of which had not the curiosity to decipher There was a recent proclamation in the language hanging at the gate, from which sscorteined that the actual Commissiguer waa a Mr. E, Thowson, Purauing -my way, came on another now palatial edifice, th I found was the {mperial Post Office and Telographs, a Mr. F. Thompson being at the head of the one and Mr. G. Thomson super of the other, The Shanghai Club proved to have been changed into the "Thomson and Thompson Guildhall." Pondering on what I had aeon, and puzzled withal, I along the Bund and sauntered into the Public Gardens. I was atopped at the gate by a policeman, who informed me that Ghinese only were admitted; but his scrap ere overcome by the present of the explanation that I was only a jing through. It was too early for the usual afternoon musical prom:.nade, ud only one individual besides myself eared to be in the precincts. Ho was sheet bore at its foot the signature Batuu* =H. Thompson, Bandmaster."
My head was whirling with this evorlasting repetition of the names Thomson and Thompson; I felt as if I should faint if not soon relieved by some explanation of the phenomenon. Yet to whom could I appeal? I had not so far' met a single follow-continental, let alone fellow-country-mau, My Chinese friend on the bench med my only resource, and to him, with some natural difideuce, I addressed myself.
A Manchu word signifying chevalier. dressing you in this unconventional inane ner; but you will confer a lasting favour by eulightouing me on a point which is puzzling me sorely."
"Pray do not apologise," he replied "it will give me great pleasure to be of ay distance to you."
hen first I accosted him, he gave a look of undisguised astonishment, evidently evoked by my nationality. But before replied, this air of surprise had quite dia-appeared, and given place toa of well-bred and courteous attention.
"Can you tell me," I went on, "how it is that I hay oh met a single European streets since my arrival here an hour ago? Is there by any chance a raoemeeting to-day He smiled slightly, as he answered, The races took place last month, and there is no special entertainment to-day that I am aware of. If you have met no European is because there are none in Shanghai the last left some years ago,"
"Pardon me," I said, "if your explanation seems irreconcilable with a fact which has come under my own observation, and which indeed forms the theme of a second Tintended asking you. There is ie institution in the port but the hands of either a Thomson The Scotch-have always of being an enterprising race, but I never was so struck with the ar Sir," he mn, but where the last half-d on a globopat f the seldom reached new acquain heard of the moral revolution in try. Jape er, initiated ach a movement many years ago, and we were often urged to follow hor example, We bided our time, however, and perhaps our reform has been all the more thorough in consequence, It would weary you to hear all the details, but the main points ace these, We have adopted all that was worth adopting from you (for you are an Englishman, I presume) while retaining all that was worth retention in our own manners and customs. Thus we lave modelled our laws, our army, and our navy after the British pattern, and have introduced Engl the official Iauguago of the Empire, but we retain our civil service, our worship of ancestors, and Your railroads, telegraphs, ud music we have made our own, but' we still ywtoh our sampans, and think oué rig for small sailing-boats beyond improvement."
"But la," I cried, "acarcoly ox-plains the predominance of the Thomson with or without the p."
"Oh yes, it does," he retorted, "We have adopted not only your language but your names. Thomson and Thompson, for instance, are in point of fact Chinese names id in a We ern dress, and represent, both of them, nothing more nor less than the Chinese characters J¥RR Tang-sun or Tong-sun, the con Be of Tong."
"Then the Thompsons and Thormsons "They are family of two well-known brothers of th ame of Tong, whose na household rds to any Shanghai ros dent, You must surely b a heard of Tong K-<" id Tong M—'
bei tone and grandsons,'
Th
Then do you mean to tell mo that this one family absorbs every post of profit and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.