Copper Rolling is usually dulged in by children, and is gradually developing into gambling Up until a few years ago round pieces of stone cut from thin broken tiles were used. The tiles were first roughly cut and then rubbed smooth and very round against a piece of hard stone. The manner of rolling is the same whether a stone or a copper is used. A piece lof flat stone or a sun-dried brick is soced on round, and one end
three or four feet above it, is slightly raised, The copper held dropped so that the edge strikes the eurfaco of the slanting piece of stone. Tt will roll quite a istence if the ground is smooth. The owner of the copper which rolls the farthest has a chance to hit the copper nearest his copper.
If he hits it, hho takes the copper, and continu to hit until he ' misses.
This pastime is not generally favoured by. parents, as it is rapidly developing into a gambling game.
Kite Flying is enjoyed by all children, The frame of the Chinese kite is usually made from thin strips of bamboo and pasted with thin tough paper. It is usually made to represent animals or insects.
This sport is "indulged in her" te Nearing the else of another year we congratulate our readers on having so long sustained the responsibilities, and enjoyed the pleasures. of life, while at the same time we wish them God-speed on their journey through the unknown future of the coming year. We have not stirring events to look back neither does the aspect of seem to promise any very startling denouement within the next 12 months.
What fate may be in store for us and for this our temporarily adopt ed country, must be left matter for conjecture, but that conjecture seems. at present reasonably limited to our own—personal The political horizon i true, dark enough, but the clouds do not threaten our safety, for some unlooked. form made before foreigners come. apprehensive of danger or diieulty during 1865. Leaving behind usa good name during 1864, we enter on 1865 with hearts full of. confidence, and nerves re-strung to meet the world in combat, That: fedmbat is, however, a friendly one, although "it requites strength and the energy of devotion—tive field is a fair one, and the penalty of defeat is not deadly.
The microcosm of Shanghai has, daring the get grown tu rtenbl eats are mild and steady. On Soc ea ihe goers wee ward of wi it is an offshoot. For a vibrating strings or gut is stretched across a bow forming top of the kite. Travelling through the country on a breezy day in the spring one can often hear the harp-like notes of a dozen different kites, often so high as to be invisible. At night, lanterns of bright colours are hung. fon the string.
Chinese Diabolos are made of bamboo with a wooden spindle in th leanter and a number of whistles side the diavolo. The diavolo is Tong time the foreign residents have emulated the business enterprise, the manly sports, and the less athletic every-day amusements of Home contemporaries. Diplo-on somewhat a diminutive has been found necessary in tances where the lords of have proved fractious or overbearing. But, fortunately for us, who, without the troubles and anxieties of diplomatic life, live in the enjoyment of the labours of others, we have never at emergency been left without con-tous representatives of foreign interests and determined opposers of native aggression. The resuscitated branch of the Asiatic Society may be expected to provide stores of information as to the character of the people who surround the peculiarities of If it be kept up by the same finer eased knowledge which prompted its revival, the North-China branch will do good service to foreign. commercial interests in this country. Another Hiterary club, which from time to ime meets under the modest title of the "Debating Society, helps to mature the rising orators of the Settlement, and to afford practice to the more advanced debaters in the local parlinment—the meeting of Land Renters. The debating society will doubtless bear fruit in subsequent meetings of the Land Renters, where, Gladstone-like, the announcer of a budget will elvthe his statistics in language the most bril-Nant and will throw wreaths of eloquence over details the most practical and repulsive.
The opening of the Shanghai Club, although an event in the strictest sense of the term, and therefore deserving of special notice, belongs more properly to some previous year in which the idea of establishing a Club fir entered into the fertile brains of some few men anxious to make Shanghai resemble a segment cut from a Home circle. To these men we now owe the stately structure, which, in spite of all the sefontific abuse lavished on its architectural peculiarities, takes up so much room on The Bund—to them we owe the cool reading room, the deep comfortably cushioned' chairs where a cigar and a periodical can be enjoyed in delicious combination; the pleasant little bachelor dinners against which the married rail, but which they nevertheless enjoy; the well lighted billiard rooms, and the other accessory jelub, In this there are so many euch an institution must necessarily Prove a success.
The events which have crowded into the past 12 months have left happy memories behind them, and warrant us in looking forward hopefully to the year now before us. The start we make is a good one. In harmony amongst ourselves, our fictions with the natives are of the most friendly character. The different nationalities which have crowded together have a common interest, and desire to attain a common end. That end may be summed as to its nature in one short sentence:—the establishment of a remunerative and legitimate trade on equal terms between China and foreign nations, The means which have already been brought to bear will no doubt help to bring about the result hoped for, while the institutions to which we have brief alluded above will in some eases sist in the development of the country, and in others aid the foreign ity to support ithe fatigues undergone by the preachexs of this crusade of mercantile enlightenment. That good fortune. may attend the efforts of each toward the realizations of his. private views, and the combined exertions of all in defence of the common rights of the entire community, is our hearty wish at the opening of the year 1865.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.