Dest Kathleen,—4 few more days will see the death of the nineteenth century and the advent of a new era, The latter, 1 sincerely trust, will herald amongst other good things the speedy opening up of this antiquated old country. I wonder how the old Empress Dowager and her satellites liked the Christmas card the Powers sent them and how much notice they. will condescend t" take of the demands on it. Not mach, I should think, to judge by what has gone before.
Yuletide. What a crowd of memories the old-time word brings back to one's thoughts, and how ead it makes one feel to think of the heavy burden of sorrow it carries this year to many of the homes ut England.
Christmas Day here was radiant with sunshine and reminded me of one of the lovely late September days which sometimes visit you in England, The two most important events which took pla-e on it were a tiffin party given by the residents of Shanghai to the British troops at present stationed here, and afterwards the Christmas Paper Hunt. The first-named function. as far as I can hear, fell far short of the success it ought to have scored. Perhips the hour at which it took place was parily ty blame, as it entailed the men having a hostless tiffin, most of the contributors being. I expect, engaged elsewhere at private tiffins, I understand that about half-a-d-zen people wore present at the commencement of the function besides General Creagh, a few other Britich officers, and one or two members of the Committee. When the meo, who numbered about a hundred, were seated, General Creagh, addressed them in 'a kindly little speech and asked them to give three cheers for their hosts ([ euppose his natural courtesy prompted him give the subscribers the title of hosts), which they did, and followed them up with three very hearty choers for the General, Several other officers received cheers, and an extra one was added to those given for the Queen.
When the tiffin actually started fire minutes later. the small portion of the Committee who had honoured the function with their presence had vanished along with General Creagh and the others, and there was one solitary host left, who was not, I understand, a member of the Committee, but merely an interested subscriber. How much his services were appreciated by the linen, may be judged by the fact that they rose in a body before the tiffin was finished anid gare not three cheers on hut half-a. for "the in ly looked after th:
y Indy who was present at the who hal done nothing at all, was cheered merely for being present.
T do not know who or what is to blame for the scantiness of the hospitality shown to our soldiers, of whom we profess to be so proud, but it seems to me the British residents of Shanghai would have done much better to leave the matter of ent taining alone rather than carry it out such a h-if-hearted fashion. Many people have hal much to say against the Ca mittee being a self-elected one, but I sure the members of it acted to the best of their ability, and that they had every gond ranson for making the arrangements which were made. Tt is not by any means such an rosy performance to expend publicly subscribed funds satisfactorily, as it appears, Asa matter of fact Shanghai is getting too big for the wisest and cleverest self-elected Committee that ever existed to meet with the approval of the general public. To any practical person ho has even an elementary knowledge of Committee-forming, there can be no doubt that a publicly-elected Committee is as a role more representative and therefore more satisfactory than a privately elected one.
It is calculated for one thing to create a much wider interest, and there are many people who do not euro to give any money unless they can have a say as to who is to he intrusted with the spending of However, as I am not writing an essay on the formation of public Committees T will leave the subject and tell you something of the Paper Hunt finish.
Such a huge crowd of people turned out to see it. Hundreds of carriages lined Tessfiell Road, and I should think every available riding pony in the Settlement had been utilised for the occasion, Many ladies in smart attire gave a gay effect to what was really a highly picturesque scene. The actual finish of the Hunt was, I should say, one of the funniest on record, and evused quite an unexpected amount of amusement. About a dozen ponies hid negotiated the last jump successfully and without any apparent difficulty, when a grey pony took it into its head that the near side fas quite good enough for him, so he made a determined halt there. The next pony that came along followed suit and the next and the next, till about twenty or thirty ponies and riders were all hopelessly mixed up tog-th +r on the wrong side of the jump. A few riers eventu: lly persuaded their mounts to clear the jump whilst others crawled throug it. Some of our best riders ant many well-known Paper Hunt ponies were left on the wrong side, all of whom could have reached the finish without any difficulty Ived it not been for the demoralising effect of the grey pony's behaviour. Never before have I seen the force of bad example so effectively demonstrated, and I have not yet been able to mike up my mind whether T admired most the rigid determination of the ponies, or the ood-nituied way in which the various riders strove to overcome it.
Tu the evening we went to a big Chris'- mis dinner party, after which we played all sorts of games till the early hours of the morning. Rather a nice game for grown-up people was culled "Adverbs." One of the purty was sent out of the room whilst those inside decided on an adverb which they had to act. The one outside, being admitted, askd exch one a question, ud the answer had to be given in the manner suggested by the adverb chosen, If, for instance the word "dramatically was selected, the answer was given dramatically by each one in turn as he or she was questioned. Much undiscovered histrionic talent came to the surface, when the words garrulously, incredulously, grofily,, blus-were exch acted in turn, and the created was un Ned.
Yours loving friend, 28th December.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.