Lhave at Inst spent one thoroughly pleasant afternoon in Shanghai, Without a card case, a little company in ricshas- we careered along the Bund, always a most animated scene with its very motley crowd of long pig-tailed, short velvet coated, blue gowned Chinamen, Sikh policemen of {imagnificent proportions grimly bronzed faces and turbans of startling scarlet, as also of startling height; mingled amongst them coolies crooning Eh-ah! Eh-ah," wa they carry packages suspended from ban-Parsees with their curious high cylindrical hats, Jews of many nationalities Dut one type, Portuguese, French, English, ete., ete. A few blue jackets encouraging their ricsha men, as if they were donkey. by goodnaturedly ineffective blows; one or tivo small feet China women looking on amused, and a wedding procession, mostly scarlet, threeling its way deftly among the Barbarians." Suddenly we catch sight men hurrying baskets, full—but full to-overflowing—of brilliant purple and green Muscovy ducks, all craning their necks look about them, and flashing in the sunshine, At once' our rise, we nod admiration to one another, turn down along narrow street past. the French Con-solate, and opposite to it, right opposite tu it, apparently under the special protection of France, we sve the great opium den thy has ruined more Chinamen than any one given place in China, We turn another Comer, spring out of our ricalas, and pros eved to that little visited almost unknown city, the Chinese town of Shanghai.
But not sv quickly easier said than done. Jinrieshas—that delightful missionary invention, originally called Jenli-che oF man power carriage, but quickly cor rupted into Jen-n-che by Japanese who hent no difference between r's and I's—jinrieshas run no longer through the narrow crowded Chinese streets, but there are a whole array of wheelbarrow waiting to be The street is narrow, the turns ara sharp, and one wheelbarrow man is determined shall at least hire agaist us there, he blocks the way, he lis in front and behind us all ato And all the while so goodhumoured, silent it is impossible to be otherwise goodhumoured and silent also. But at ough the wheel ba gates, whi mous imposing, and pass the poor men sitting with cangues round their necks, This is the first time T have seen this punishment, but the ems to be plenty of it in the Shanghai China town, Are the policemen cleverer to catch thieves here than at Hankow or Peking, are the people wickeder, or are the temptations greater Anyhow there are the poor wretches with their large cangues, preventing their lying down, or even leaning back, unable to take them off day or nig) even feed themselves and looking wretchedly sick and hungry, as they hold out suppliant hands, and point at their immouths waiting to be fed. But the vehement Neapolitan makes a gesture far more expressive of famine abandonment, than these Chinese prisoners. The Chinese always convey the impression of linying an little to express, from their poverty of modes of expression. No flashing eyes, that speak for themselves, no working features, articulate without 4
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.