The Annual Autumnal Reception of the Chinese Y. MI. C. A. was held last evening in the rooms of the Society. The place was found t -bequ te for small fur the numb: r who took advantage of the vencra invitation to be present, many of whom j could not get in. There was a good spun Ing of foreigners present also, amt if was very appstent thst hereafter' a larger hall must be secured for these fun or else the invitations will have to be Is ed to "he capacity of the pace. Th G-rman band was in attendane~ and added to the enjoyment of the evening by its beautiful music. Mr. Cockell, on" of the rising business young men of the place,"also sang and so pleased the audience that he was comipelied to appear again, The first speaker of the evening was C. D. Tenney, LL.D., vf the Chinese University. He spoke of the importance of having an ideal, and the ideal which he presented towards which Young men should ain was that of the perfect yen'leman, Neither money, fine d es, diamond tings, nor even' education mide th real gent oman, but character. He urged the impo tance of using all spare acquire thit Knowledge of what was noe moments in reading and study in order to blo character which would enable the young man to place his standard high and so be inspired to bend all his energies to. the attainment of that standard. Higher than the " chun-tze" of Confucius was the standard set by Jesus Christ, who represented the best and the noblest character known in the West. The next speaker was Consul-General Hopkins (British). His theme was "Thoroughness," the great importance and the great: need of which were brie@y dwelt upon after an apology for not having been able to prepare an "address" through the overpressure of business that had crowded upon him during the last fow days. Mr. Msai, the other speaker, was unable to be present, but sent'a brief note containing some good suggestions for the young men to think about. Refreshments and social intercourse closed a very pleasant ovening. There must have been over 150 Chinese present, the larger portion of whom were probably unable to follow intelligently the English addresses, but their presence is an encouragement to those engaged in the work. It is expected that a branch will soon be opened for those who only speak the mandarin.
Four Steamers are on their. way up. Gis river, or 480 oi-] ready at the bund. It has the appearance of old times to see the steamers coming to the bund once more in greater numbers than an occasional one. The cuts that have been made to straighten the river are of groat value; but oven more important was the closing of the various canals that had been made during recent years which drow the water away from the proper channel, thus decreasing the volume of water and the force of the current and so facilitating the silting up of the channel. To complete the restoration of the old conditions when the steamers came regularly to the bund, and secure the best results, the two sluice-ways above the city, made, if I mistake not, under the advice of M. Griffon many years ago, the first of the depleters of the volume of water made, should be either modified at their openings or closed so as still more to add to the volume of water to scour the channel and carry the silt out to sea. Had none of these depleters of the river been made, it is not likely that we would ever have had the conditions of the last few years upon us, greatly juring business and compelling the enormous outlay now being made to improve the river.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.