Nearly six hundred invitations were issued by the most hospitable committee of the St. Andrew's Society for the annual ball, and there were only seventy-five refusals; from this the asi of the halls and rooms of the Shanghai Club at ten o'clock on Friday evening may be readily conceived. Nearly a hundred and fifty ladies and about three hundred and fifty gentlemen were there to observe the pious memory of the patron saint of Scotland. There was the Governor of Hongkong, BLE. Sir George William des Voeux, wearing the collar of a Knight Commander of the order of St. Michael and St. George Admiral Chandler, U.S.N., with a large following of U.S. Naval Officers, and Captain Balfour, R.N., Senior Naval Office with a following of British naval office Shanghai Volunteers in their pretty dress uniforms, some with harmless spurs; and here and there the red shirt of a fireman. Some of the lady's toilets were fresh and charming, but ladies who mean to dance—the vast majority—are too careful to wear their freshest frocks to a crowded pinafore dance. And before supper it was rather too crowded for the dancers to thoroughly enjoy it, but after all, dancing is not the sole end and aim of a large commemorative ball. People go. to see and be seen, to promenade and chat, and to stand three and four deep, the hinder ranks on chairs and sofas, while a few energetic Britons, both north and south, with sume assistance from the Emerald Isle, dance with appropriate shouting and gesture, the vigorous Highland reels. The Caledonians are only the adopted children of North Britain; the reels are the genuine product of her sternness and wildness. The progrannne, the music for which was admirably played by the town band, led by M. Vela, was as follows Reverie.
The Mikado, Les Grenouilles. Love's Dreamland. number wore the kilt, and some as if it came natural to them. At the second supper, which was well attended, Mr. Rhoderick M. Campbell tock the chair, the President and Vice-President of the society having already escaped, and the jetty was unrestricted. After the United tates and France had been urged in vain, England, in the shape of Mr. Wainewright, rose and proposed in a humourous and discursive address the pious and immortal memory of St. Andrew—whose banner, surrounded by those of the clans, decorated the verandah of the ballroom. Mr. Drummond Hay, the indefatigable Secretary, responded, and the toast was drunk with enthusiasm; and son after one of the most successful St, Audrew's Balls ever given was brought to a close—and indeed it was nearly daylight.
The floor was as gued as the Club floor can be—which is not saying very much—and the only decorations allowed in the ballroom, the wreaths of ivy from the Iamp-brackets, were a pretty thought. Everything that could be done, in the large party, was done by the Commit; limited space, for the comfort of the tee and Stewards; except that the old tradition that everybody in Shanghai knows everybody else still obtains, though it has long since ceased to be true, and the Stewards do not make it their business to see that there who would dance, if they could get partners, are offered the opportunity; but that isa defect at all dances in Shanghai.
The following were the Committee and Stewards of the ball Committee.—Messrs. John Macgregor, President; G. J. Morrison, Vice-President F. H. Bell, P. V. Grant, Colin Buchanan, R. M. Campbell, J. W. Mactavish, J. Ferrier, Brodie A: Clarke; and Drummond Hay, Hon. Secretary.
Stewards.—Messrs. Ewen Cameron, P. McGregor Grant, Ed. Henderson, M.D., W. H. Campbell, ©. Black, John Harris, W. It. Ferlie, D. T. Black, J. H. Scott, 'C. J. Dudgeon, J. B, Cameron, Duncan Glass, J. Faweett, John Ford, M. McLeish, and A. C. Ramsay.
And then we have left to the last that most important personage, the Piper, Police Constable J. P. Mackay.
'The Secretary, Mr. D. Hay asks us to add that there were found on the floor, and were in his possession on Saturday,' two articles of ladies' jewellery and a lace handkerchief, which he is anxious to restore to the owners on application.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.