The Shanghai Literary and Debating Society opened its winter session with concert at the Masonic Hall last Wed day evening before " fairly numerous audience of members and guests. The proceedings commenced with highly appropriate address by the President, Mr. John Goodnow, who summarised the work of the past season and made a forecast of what they hoped to accomplish duri the present winter. The instrumental portions consisted of two organ pieces well played by Mr. J. J. Mansfield and a very acceptable violin solo from Mr.
t—Brindisi Valse by Aldard. Miss in gave another of her remarkably recitations, A Plantation Ghost. Story, which was' thoroughly appreciated Miss Belbin merits all the applause she receives, for she evidently thinks out and prepares her work very carefully before presenting it in public.
The vocal it-ins of the programme were contributed by Mrs. Niven, Mrs. Schaerff, Me. Bagh-rg and Mr. W. H. Lewis, and all were eminently successful, encores being very much demand. Mrs, Niven's clear soprano voice was heard to much advantage in Games' Mia Piccirella, an operatic excerpt. In he delightful little encore song Max S Damon, her execution of the mordente revealed a technique of no m order. Mrs. Schaerff who has become of our favourite singers was equally at, hom in her expressive song Ave Maria, by Massehner, as in Schumann's bright little song, Sunshine. Mr. Lewis again brought down the house with his rollicking rendering of Iam the Bundolero, and then charmed the audience with a plaintive little Russian song which he sang with perfect taste and expression, Our fend artist Me. Hagberg has sledded to do "Sims Reeves Act" not to disappoint his friends and suff from a most violent cold, he yet had the courage to give a must artistic account of Godsrd's Bercense de Jocelyn. Th able to use little or none of his open his phrasing, cantabile, and especially the pianissimo were perfect. To be able to si as softly as possible timbre of the voi ph. That Mr. declining to sing again cannot be doubted. With regard to the hall itself, we doubt whether it is the excellent place it is reputed to be for a concert room. Granted it is asy to sing in, yet when but backs, backs, hacks, from the entrance the general feeling is one of depression, not to say of the funereal stamp. The Lyceum is hard to beat from any point of view. The acoustics are admittedly good, if not perfect. You can always get a decent view of the performers,—and. you can see and be seen which is not only sociable and reasonable, but very much better than haring to face the monotony of backs of all sizes and shapes.
The President i said—It is with a sense of unfitness and yet of pleasure that I accept, this even th" office of President of the Shanghs Literary and Deluting Society. I reali how hard it is to be a worthy successor to my highly esteemed friend and colleague Byron Brenan, Exy., who was so successful as your President last year. Ten july ask the aid of the very able Committee and, with the interest and assistance of all the members, we wil this a year of growth in the Te is a pleas Titer city the currents of trade from the outside world to Central and North-China. From this city go forth the foreign supplies of material goods to China. Inevitably along these trade lines must go the foreign influences, for good or ill, to the whole Chinese nation. Whether they shall be for good or ill depends in a large measure on us who are residents of this city. It is necessary from our position that we ieee ourselves in trim by debates, lectures an study to exercise the intellectual influence which is legitimately ours.
It adds to the keenness of our study of literature that we are in the centre of one of the two regions of the earth which are now so profoundly affecting the lives and literature of our home lands. For many years our people (and I speak now of buth Europe and America) have pursued the even tenour of their ways, absorbed in material progress. It has been a materialistic age, each nation has been content to develop its material resources, and the literature the day has reflected this condition. Small and great, the literati dealt with only the petty details of everyday life and only toiled to give a faithful representa ti exring if the thing pictured was or unworthy of being looked upon, saw men and things as under a microscope. No great motive was dealt with but the gross and petty actions of poverty-stricken and vicious lives were too often the themes on which great men wasted their talents and labour, Why this became changed is a quostion beyond my knowledge. That it did change ix a fact patent to us all. We have been wont to think of the great movements of a whole people as in the heroic days of vid when men were lants and only dealt in great actions: not: individually but en masse. Nations then were as units and moved and acted as controlled by one intelligence.
We have read of the migrations of the Germans crushing the old Roman civilisawe have read of the Scandinavian Britain: we have rond of outpouring of the old world into the new; but we have read of these things as of another race and world and are surprised today as at some unheard of thing as we realise that we ave in the midst of another migration of the restless Aryran peoples. Eich nation seems humming like a hive of swarming bees, Land hunger seems to have made all peoples beside themselves. Colonies are sent out: the dark plices of the earth are being made light and the walls are being battered down about. the isolated nations. No part of the world is free from the incursions of these seized with all-conquering restlessness from within, leaving home comforts and civilisation to go forth to seek strange things and to make new homes in new places. Rhodes is conquering South Africa, France is in Africa and Tongking. The echoes of Dewey's guns at Manila have hardly died away and American civilisation is destined to dominate the Philippines, All eyes are turned toward China, spheres of influence, concessions, privileges, all the forms of adventure and political advancement are constantly before us. Men and money are secking opportunity. Our civilisation stands face to face with the older forms, cayer for the test of strength. What has caused this condition buried in the people is not to be understood except that there is an Lutelligence who holds the nations in the hollow of His hand and moves them at His will. Kings, Emperors and Presidents can do nothing. Legislation is of no avail. Often, as in Manila, an opportunity is offered and taken, though unsought, which changes the policy of a at nation and makes as folly the wisdom of statesmen for a century With this epoch, has come a change in our literature. "Look during the last few years venturous heroes of romance who have trod wilh martial step across the printed p and stirred the heart of youth from monetary gain and bodily
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.