30th April. Tue Spring holiday week cannot fail to be very much saddened by the news which startled the community yesterday morning of the death of HE. the Minister for Italy, Ferdinand de Luca. Mr. de Luca has been a familiar figure in Shanghai for some ten years, for fortunately for us Italy has as yet no legation in Peking, and he had wisely made Shanghai his home. His general courtesy and urbanity, his readiness to enter thoroughly into the life of Shanghai, had made him a great favourite, and while we should feel a formal sorrow at the untimely death of a foreign official at Peking, we feel in this case a deep personal loss, Separated as he was in lace from his colleagues at the capital, his counsels were of great value to them, because he kept himself in touch with the sentiments of the leading foreign community in China, and it is no secret that while his position often obliged him to be reticent, he sympathised thoroughly with the popular, as opposed to the official view of the political questions of the day as far as China is concerned. His long residence in the United States, and the nationality of his wife—one of the best liked and respected ladies of the community—had made him a thorough cosmopolitan without lessening his patriotism, and there was no one here with greater kindliness of heart. "The deepest sympathy is felt with his widow and children, and it is no figure of speech to say that their and our loss throws a deep gloom over the race meeting that begins to-day.
It promised too to be an unusually brilliant meeting. For the last ten days the weather has been all that could be wished, the course is in capital order, the ponies are better than ever, the new ones showing a marked advance on the cracks' of twenty or even ten years ago, and the old ones showing a determination to outdo their own records. The successes promise to be well divided, and there is no apprehension that the big stable will carry off more than its share. Shanghai is full of visitors, many of whom do not confine their love of speculation to the staple which draws them to Hankow as soon as the races are over. 'The Ladies' Purse was to have been presented to-morrow by Miss de Luca, who had worked it herself, and that ceremony will have to be abandoned. Things' and people change so fast in Shanghai, and especially in the Spring we are so accustomed to losing old friends, that impressions pass away rapidly here: but such a loss as that of M. de Luca goes deeper than usual, and it is with real sorrow that Shanghai marks his disappearance from the scene, and it will be perhaps a little comfort to his widow and children to know that the Shanghai folk, of all nationalities, join with heartfelt sympathy in their mourning. The concourse at the funeral service this morning will be the outward and visible sign of the emotion that Mr. de Luca's untimely death has aroused in the community.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.