General or Particular And Where is It Found?
What in the "Shtinghai Blind?" Te has been referred to of late seit "09" many iunnenoce.
dearest friend es polees editing that One' pokeessed tempt that one would hate to. label And one would never dreamt Yet, what is this elusive quality which has caused foreign correspon. dents so much concern, and has made us all feel vaguely apologetic without knowing exactly why? A sodden day, an attack of indigestion, or one of the other unnamed all ments which lie at the roots of our deepest hued pessimism, contribute occasionally to a feeling of enlighten ment on the point. "Then, presto! the attack is over and our friends appear once more to the kindly folk Which they are—nice, jolly ind Viduals, unblemished by that miserable, mythical Shanghat mind, 'Whereupon we accuse the corres pondents of being evil mind smi interpreters of the "human components of Shanghai, Tu due course the next attack comes on, and we are inclined to believe that there probably' is a sinister and repellent rund at work in our midst.
Thus, we waver, and no solution is arrived at. Good souls all over the city do, however, wonder whether they should be wafting up earnest prayers: to get some power to see themselves as others see them, but fas yet no revelational rift has appeared in the heavens to show them the meaning of that gith phrase.
Two such earnest souls were at work on the problem the other evening on a charming Shanghai verandah. They were sitting in a Tong swing which contributed to the Aiseussion with gentle squeaks at each forward and backward movement Inside the drawing room and adjoining dining room, couples were gliding across the polished floor to the strains of that optimistic melody, gr that it didn't matter in the 'When it came to the end of its persuativenoss, the guests came out to the cooling' breezes of the screened in verandah, and house-servants trained to. inobtrusive efficiency, dispensed cold drinks.
iting the lull which followed Jone suddenly suggested "going somewhere." "How about all dropping in at the So-and-So Club to wind up the evening," the hearty voice demanded. At the moment everybody was fairly comfortable fand disinclined to move so that during the interim of indecision, the hostess made a teasing comment relative to leaving her arty, for "another. "Tt "wasnt as though everybody did' not know everybody else well enough to accept the suggestion in the spirt it was intended. On the contrary there was nothing unusual in the The tro on th another's eyes. "believe said the two on the swing caught one
one "that we see before us a of the Shanghai mind,'
believe," said the other, too comfortably to bear the thought of moving, "that we do."
Then the gramophone struck up again and the So-and-So Club lost ground temporarily.
<Ouir After Dinner Habits "Going somewhere" after dinner must surely have been what the cor respondents meant when they. babbled about the Shanghai mind, we decided. It shows in the way hostes-es automatically assume that their quests prefer to be taken out toa [dancing place immediately dinner is Jover. "Rarely does one fail to heat Jas. soon after dinner as is com= patible with men's liqueur conversa tion and ladies' powdering of noses, that we had better start if we want to get a table, One shouldn't care to label oneself as late-Victorian by preferring evening of songs around the piano, for chit-chat on a cool verandah, of even-of dancing to the gramophone, this last, of course, heardly to be compared with dancing to a Jazzical orchestra." Then, there is, also, the question of the toilettes of the ladies, does seem rather a pity that one should have on one's) handsomest Paris model to be wasted on a small gathering when the big. world of the ballrooms with the light and clatter is' waiting just around the corner.. So the motor cars are ordered and off you go "'somewhere."
"That," we said conclusively, what is_meant by the Shanghai mind." But alas for all solvers of problems. When we had clamped down the lid to our conclusion, someone who should not have been listening in anyway, demanded whether it was not the same everywhere these days—in London and New York, in Paris or elsewhere.
"What then," "we inquired in unified despair, "in the Shanghai Mind"? Contributions are awaited eagerly. Jill O'Lantern.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.