July 15.
Talking of the Arctic regions, it seams high time to cast a tance back at the distant past when Shanghai was in the glacial period. For the news columns soniain researches into emperature of the present and the past. Earnest inquirers desire to ko informed whether the|t thermometer at the Cathedral ie more reliable than that at This seems to lure the, newspaper into encouraging religious strife but, fortunately the rr is simpl t)For the purpose soothing feelings of the moment, it is best say that that thermometer is} correct whichever is the higher. Tt can be asserted that Dr.
Trivett and the Reverend Fathers will take no umbrage fat the verdict. They, human like the rest, will rejoice to find their sufferings stated in the most start They will indulge this frailty to the point, perhaps, of disloyalty to their own instruments. Before now an angry victim of the tropical heat has been known to smash his thermometer beyond repair nen, after enduring the tortures'of the temporarily damned, had occasion to refer to the mercury and found it calmly case as this it is to argue about the neat or even to. mention that irritating, or as Mr. Mantilini would say, "dem'd moist, unpleasant body" humidity. Nor is it fruitful to suggest that soft collars, no collars at all, extra fans, shuttered windows, long glasses—really long and not measly tumblers—and cane.
its will relieve discomfort.
he fact is"that everyone has made up his or her mind to heat martyrdom. Who would be so callous as to deny the right of any human being to. glory in misery? If it would make Shanghai happier, Dr. Trivett and the Siccawei Fathers might be prepared to issue a" joint' strement assessing the maximum shade temperature (and the lity) at the highest possible figure, for the benefit of admire ing friends across the seas. This might smack a little of the device of issuing two rent relecipts—one for the tenant and another for the Revenue Departnient—but in days like this no Jone can afford to haggle over Iniceties of that kind. Perjury might become almost ecclesiastical virtue in such laudable endeavour. For what jean be pleasanter for the friend fat Home—shivering in th> damp cold of an English summer— is correspon Shanghai is writhing in horrors of a tempera-which has earned its place compiled by Mr. Wisden?
But Shanghai owes a duty to itself. As it pants and sweats monosyllabic indecency, it should defy Sir Jobr Simon'and took back—back to the days when it was cool, if not chilled to bone. Those were days when fingers were blue as they banged ithe typewriter or wielded the pen. The motor-car ride in from [the Western District to the Bund was a journey of furs and rugs and footwarmers. Bus passeng-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.