28th January.
In the good old days, as the old resident fondly calls them, or che dark ages, as they appear to the man who has come out within the last two years, the young men who came to Shanghai were rarely or never friendless. If they came out seeking employment, they had in almost all cases relatives or intimate friends already established here to whom they wace consigned. In the case of recruits for the hongs of merchants and other establishments, there were nearly always junior messes which the new comer naturally joined at once; and instead of a unit stranded on a strange shore, he became ab once a member of a little circle of" friends, and soon found congenial companions with whom to spend the time when he was not in the office, The abolition of messes is a prominent factor in the great change that has come over social life in Shanghai, and the young man who comes out nowadays, unless he has friends here already, must lead for some months after his arrival a rather solitary existence. His salary at first is probably a small one, and if he comes out with the laudable intention of living well within it, he cannot at first join any of the numerous Clubs which open their arms to him; and under any circumstances he wants to look round him a little before he decides which to join. In the good old days, the griffin set to work as soon as possible after his arrival to call on all the ladies in the Settlement, and so soon made some friends; but society is so extensive now that this resource is denied to the new comer.
We take it that the intention of the Young Men's Christian Association is to provide a place of refuye for the solitary young man stranded in Shanghai, where he can make friends and find amusement and occupation of a high character for his leisure time. The value of such an institution is incontestable. It is another question whether the Y. M. C. A. at Shanghai is falfilling this intention 5 _completely as it should, and not, why not. The Report for 1901 which is befure us contains a couple of reproductions of photographs which are convincing enough that as far as the physical features of the building go, the institution is all that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.