May 22.
Apropos of—"Serutator's"" articles that have been appea: ing in this paper on "Shanghai—the Wonder City of Asia," we fancy that Britons may have een impressed with the writer's reference to Captain Balfour's probable frame of mind were he able to look upon Shanghai today. In those days, back in 1848, he and other British officials with him probably not dream that Shanghai would ever develop into the huge city that it is to-day. They -had little evidence around them of what was even likely. The site of Shanghai was a morass. It was, indeed, the Muddy Plat. Mails arrived at that time in opium clippers and probably other sailing vessels; residents congratulated themselves they received replies to des-Patches from Hongkong in the unusually short time of six weeks. For several years after that time, until the Elgin treaty allowed steamers with opium on board to bring it into port, the mails for mercantile firms were taken charge of by the captains of the receiving-ships at Woosung, to whom they were addressed, and who sent them by pony express to Shanghai. Mails and minor riots were the excitements of the port. We read that perhaps 20 ponies were sent off with letter bags for the firms in Shanghai, who employed their captains to receive their mails. The - boys who rode them, true to tradition, dilly-dallied magnificently for the delectation of the natives until they moored the rickety bridge at Soochow Creek, but immediately they got across it they came tearing along at headlong speed, yelling and shouting slong the Bund, and throwing off their mail bags in great siyle at the doors of the houses to which they were addressed, Times have changed, have they not? Knowing conditions they were then, present residents in Shanghai should perhaps be a little more lenient in their condemnation of the Chinese Post Office of the present day, Competition in those far-away days ran high, we notice, The news that the flags were up on the receiving ships Woosung furnished the strongest excitement in the ordinary life of the first sixteen. or seventeen years of foreign residence in Shanghai. An interesting sidelight on this competition is provided in the fact that at that time, and almost until the introduction of tele-seraphs, most of the bigger firms sent away their own steamers from Hongkong which anti-vated the arrival of the in Shanghai. These steamers anchored in Yangtze Bay, and a messenger with the owner's mail and Hongkong letters was despatched overland, the firm thus having from to two days in which to operate before the community received its despatches by the regular 0. steamers. Those days, however, were the days of tru romance in trade. Residents certainly had little else to think about, and riding did not come into general routine for some yours afterwards. Then there were no cafes, no hotels, and each man had to be a' good fellow to get along in the ettlement. Few white women had come out. As late as 1852 few of the merchants were married, several firms officially discouraging marriage for their assistants while in China. The chronicler of that day tells us, however, and tells us quite enthusiastically, about the first ball that was held, at which thirty gentlemen and nine ladies re present, open rebellion being obviated by the men agreeing to take a half or even 1 third of & waltz with the fair partners. As one wonders what Captain Balfour would think of the whol one dares not contemplate the feelings of the ordinary members of the community of those days. could they 8 of a St. one of the eral brilliant functions for which Shanghai is now famous, not to mention the cafe and hotel life of the plac In reading its history, therefore, one should be more content with his lot in the mod scheme of things in Shanghai today. The pioneers of what our correspondent has styled the "Wonder City of Asia"—and a title not inapt—were brave and.men of backbone.
They showed us the unmistakeable truth that the imagination rules the world. They had the imagination to settle Shanghai for the world, their reason confirmed their imagination, and in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.