One of the first things that strikes the Home visiting China-hand is the absolute absence of matters of interest to him, bar sporting items, in the daily papers, and, for a time, one is quite puzzled at which end to begin to pick up the thread of European events. At least that is my experience and probably it is not unique. You know very well how we in Shang are continually grumbling that "there is nothing in the paper again to-day well, when one is in London that hypothesis is magnified tenfold. I know to the unsophisticated griffins this at once seems impossible and only the outcome of a mind diseased, but those who have long since discarded the metaphorical bib and tucker will understand what I am driving at.
Cricketers will view with pleasure the performances of the Oxford Eleven during the week; the defeat of Surrey is a tenther in the capot which any amateur eleven might, well be proud, especially as Surrey still heads the. counties with eight points to her credit, Yorkshire being second with six. Kent is going from bad to worse, this week~ falling an_easy victim to Warwickshire. The One Mile and Twenty Miles Bicycle Amateur Championships of England were held last Saturday at Wood Green and the latter was won by a Russian, M. Dincoff; a Danish cyclist also competing. Cycle racing has made vast strides in England during the last ten years, but, in my humble opinion, the class of the sport has certainly not been improved. The iden of the cyclist racer nowadays seems to be to go as slowly as possible all the way until the last lap or so, when there is a flash-in-the-pan sort of spurt for the tape. An excellent illustration of this took place in the above mentioned One Mile Championship, where one heat was won in 4 min 7$ secs, very little faster than a good man could do on foot. Such exhibitions may afford pleasure to the enthusiast but they certainly make the uninitiated spectator feel languid, if not positively tired. ae Theatrically we have had a new play and two accidents. The new piece in question, The Queen's Proctor, produced by the Bourchiers at the Court Theatre, is spoken highly of by even the D.'T.'s cary iti while the accidents were Freear thrown out of a dogcart and Arthur Roberts with something in his eye. Fortunately the mishap to John Jenkins was not sulticiently serious to cause his temporary retirement, for that would be looked upon, in some circles, as nothing short of a national calamity. Miss Freear is a young Indy who has lately sung herself to the "and" at the end of the cast adver-fisement by the aid of a touching ballad entitled Sister Mary Jane's Top Note." On the occasion in point, however, she had presumably left Sister Mary Jane at home, and was driving with a gentleman named Jeffs, who, either overcome by the fair singer's charms or one thing and another—the magistrate said "another"—managed to collide with a hearse, and came off second best. No bones were broken but Mr. Jeffs attended next morning at Bow Street. (by special desire) and handed over one sovereign. There being nothing like advertisement, we may shortly expect to find the young actress no longer among the " Mesdames," but with a "Miss" all to herself—under the Clock.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.