Arriving: at Shanghai on the eve of the Chris'mas festivities, our halt was not exactly a text. 'There were ditiners and: lun-cheong wud tat homes" and dances and biliousness and frivolity. The removal of our beards and the putting on of fresh. clothes ininde' it necessary' frequently to apologise for our respectability. If we had gone about in. red.shirts and slouch hats, and with bowie knives. at our waists, and ridden our biescles backwards or standing on the saddle, folks would have admitted we were worth all the chatter. "I've idea," said a Indy, "I saw you cycling on the Bund yesterday, but I don't think it could have been 80, for you were riding boat the same as other people." That's the worst of being even cycling celebrities.
And we tol the old, old story of how we started, why we started, where we went, and where we didn't go, what we had to eat, and what we did when we had nothing to eat, and how we found our way and lost it, and where we were going to next, and did we like it, and soon. And while one was awkwardly standing on one leg then on the other a beautiful Indy beautiful eyes would look at one sei and aay: Now do tell me all ubout it am so interested. Really, over fourteen thousand miles! aren't you tired And you rode through France? No! through Belgium; and how did yun like Tukey? Oh, you didn't go through Turkey, but through Russia—how very interesting. Weren't you afraid of tigers in that horrible India? Lshould have screamed, I'm s sre I should. Have some tex, won't you—sugar?—one or two pieces? And. of course you had'to eat native food and nearly starved, that is in-bunt- teresting. Now do tell me about when you; ward and assures. you it is a creek, had nothing to eat—won't you have some tion from the Hebrew word. on, cake?—and had. to sleep in those horrid meaning tha redemption. of the places in, Western, China. Another cup, do; oh, they're. very small cups!" Some-' what thus at luncheon, tea, and: dinner. Everybody. was kind.
A friend brought " porcine, fat, old man-"These gentl+men," he explained in: showman style, are travelling all round the warld. They've come right across. China. They had moly. hardships, very bad. food, nowhere. to sie-p, Fall climbing over. hills and getting, wat through. They: like adventure." "The old fellow looked. at. us, superciliusly, for. two seconds, Then he said, Too mache: dam fool."
Shanghai is: proud. We soon. discovered that. Itcalls itself the Quuen of the East. Bat it isn't that so long as earthquakes leave Calcutta standing, The people: of Shanghai, that is, the few thousand english forks, never weary talking about the Bund, and "the public gardens, and the fine ings, and the electric light. But this is an' arhplification df the ple that child is beautiful: in. the eyes of ita own mother.. Bor truth-te tell, Shanghai is not the most attractive city in the world, It ings. "But so has every The, English, Consular Offices Supreme 'Courtié a gloomy structure, and the vaunted Cathedral' is a red-brick, huddled-up monstrosity... The beloved Bubbling Well Road is the same as ten ud other suburban roads, a pleasant drive, lined with villes and treee—that is all.
Shonghai.is a plutocracy. But it is a plutocracy flavoured with warm-heartedne-a and geniality. Shanghai indeed. has same sort of social atmosphere as Manchester—the men alittle uncouth, but genuine the women inclined to ostentation, but eteittious. Life is taken easily and comfortably Everbody owns a gig. There is magnificent race-course.. The young fellow at home whose knowledge of horseflesh is limited tocab hinchs no sooner hai than his knowles; ties becomes phon tennis, cricket, footb=] The Shanghai Club. spacious halls, Sine dining-rooms and news-, rooms,, and possessing a world-wide repute ation for the manufacture of cocktail There is an excellent and comprehen library, with, nice couches for post-prandint naps. "In "Shanghai, too, there uro philharmonic soc.eties, and amateur atic clubs, a Shanghai. extremes, the roving, brisk-brained, commercial ropean and the stay-at-ho lethargic, slow-moving Chinese. And it the European who influences the Chinese, not the Chinese. tht. influences the European. The Celestial probably has a contempt for the foreigner, but he! sees his good points. Ho also endoxrours to learn his language. And "pigeon" English is the most amazing jumble in the world. If you go for a tile wu your bicycle it is described as "sit down go If you want the cigars brought to offer your friend y u must say to th boy: "Go topside catchee one piecee box bring one pieces men." Everying is to 0 fashion," mea's "never! Tund-rs and," and passed into. the colloquial tongue of the jocal Englishman.
Ne ite tell why this peculiar jargon i The common idea is that "pigeon" is the way the Chines pronooees. "business," and English" is English when a man is prosperous, he is always re-' ferred to as doing good pigeon." This explanation is admirable till some scholar with s large forehead cornies for. from. the priesthood,, that the Jo 1 chants in Poland now table pidjam" meaning busines, that the Joga took, the word to London, and that it must. lave travelled out to China on x P. and boat by. way of, Suez sud Hongkong. lue-spectacled old, métnber. of the Royal Aaintic Society, however, promptly bowla this etymology over by telling you the word. ie derived. from. the. Sanscrit'* pi pursue. OF course, one-kawa that thing comes from.the Sanserit. Sansct the [pa refuge of the learned. Ata. jer party, when the conversation, gets a, lo, abstruse Bey, you. have only to-You find.the wnghai is often spoken of Chinese in. the foe interior very, ash a equity," It is, regarded, by the
the average Scotch, wife regards Londo: the. average Yorkshiteman regards. Paris.. Tt is a gay city. The young Chinese who comes from the country. with, his. pockets chock-a-block, of. silver, taels, may ive the quietest and most. modest. of lives.. But nobody would believe him. And. indeed, he'll probably. take a, delight in shocking the old, folks, by hinting w' terrible rascal he is; how he is it," and sowing, acres of wild oats. hai struggles hard to live up to its rebut tion, Ard: the. Celestial parks have. mad, rollicking, wicked time, drinking, drinking, always drinking—half-mashied, tea!
Shanghai has one.of the thoroughfares the world. It is the Champs Elysees, Fifth Avenue, and Piccadilly rolled into one, with, a. Chi thing, and is called the' Foochow, Road." -It is aimailey ut noisy, rampagious grotesqueness, of ing electric lights, of "pick brougham and picturesque sedan chairs, of ernwds straw-sandalled, unwashed coolies, of silken-robed Chinese gentry, of thousands of hobbling, carmine-cheeked damsels in dioses which, for startling colours, vould 1 the London ladies luck positive Quake! and with strings of pearls, in their hair and diamonds flushing on their breasts that would buy up Osten Squ"re—n tremendous mass of pleasure-neckers. The palace-like tea-houses swallow and disgorge streams of visitors, and from the, op-n casumvints floats the thin squeak of the Chi i lw Foochow Ro-
Night is the time to see it. Bere is o famous restaurant, five stories high, with wide green-portalled entrance. There, js crush of bloated Chinese at the bottom of the stairs, and the air hava hot murkiness and is laden with the unsavoury odour of Chinese cooking. You climb up ihe broad steps, flanked by.panels of fantastic wond-carving, and you are in the great dining-hall. The walls are dark, coloured lamps swing from the roofs, the tables are big, and solid, and topped with grey marble slubs, and the place is packed. Everybody jis talking his loudest and shovelling food. into his mouth, and drinking hot samshu wine, aud.the perspiration is streaming down the blubbery cheeks, and the waiters. screeching and' banging bow.s about, You stand for but a minute looking t the spectacle, watching the wealth; pleasure-hunting, restaurant-loving C-les: tial feed and the thought that forces itself ino your mind is: What a lot of hogs you are!"
Yon mount another flight of stairs to where the lights are dim, and there are wistful shadows, and all the place is fided into little, much-carved compartments. And here is even a more characteristic Chinese scene. On dozens of hard couches, mth their heads on hard. pillows, and with tiny Jamps before them, ara the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.