If language study were only compulsory in China what sinologues we all should be! What lectures we could give when Home on fur-ough, how impressed our Round. the-World friends would be as we showed them Shanghai in 24 hours' Moreover, and more important, what fun it would be to be able to form some ideas of the signs in Chinese characters, to be able to ask for directions from passing natives and to understand the clerk as he says to the Number One Man: "This coolie cloth costs 2 cents a yard. How much do you think this foreigner will pay?
When I first came to Shanghai. many, many months ago I regarded it, rather in the light of a springboard from which to leap to Peking or bound to Hongkong and ports beyond, so naturally the study of Chinese was not my first concern French? Mais cartement. Assem blees littéraircs at which the rigid exercises and translation of school days would be polished to brilliant repartee, Russian? Da; da. By taking daily courses in tram-riding enough of the language might be overheard to dispense with the necessity for a teacher. Alas for high hopes! The insidious lure of Shanghai has tied us by millions of tiny threads, and the calm of the Orient has quieted that eager zeal for knowledge. That coveted fluency in French is bounded by an easiness in the use of Rue, Route and Cie and familiarity with Russian has been gained mainly utd ballet and concert, whereas had but begun the study of Chinese at once I might even now be writing learned articles for the Home magazines.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.