There are people whose collect instincts take curious turnings. They spare themselves the colleeto pains in acquiring the intriguing object,.but they acquire it none the jess.
Among such people there are those} who collect "sunsets" and have a really wonderful vocabulary for the beguiling tints of an evening shy. Others Know the smells of—the hundreds of different kinds of burning things in their amells—and pride themselves on a secret and indestructible set of past and clamoring that h anticipated impressions, These are last coin PaY- the Kinds of egocentric collections ment had been bad money, and in which the outside world could] should be replaced. They would not [Jet him ride in the one he ordered; they simply grabbed it, and held it, amid a babel of menacing threats, until he pulled out a police whistle, then they ran in all directions. But they can be "very nasty," on side street, or in the evening, or wherever they feel possessed of the upper. hand. hardly be expected to share.
And when, in that solitary inward] life known to most of us in certain moments and moods, it happens that '2 new link for the collector's chain is! powers above, there is felt such satisfaction as defies time and its destructive claims. No Etruscan vase nor Chinese clair de. tune could fill the westhetically acquisitive with more unpardonable complacency, And the collector of "sunsets" or "smokes" or. other impressionistic what-nots has.this advantage. Cal nets- are not: required: for collection, nor packing-boxes; nor dusting necessary or breakage. dreaded foe.
The "Village"* Collector For the purposes of this kind of collection, "villages" are ideal. They end themselves to a quiet enjoyment which is in itself a never-changing refreshment, They are outlines in brief, summaries contain. ing all the pertinent facts of existence. Moreover, "age cannot} wither nor custom stale their infinite variety." If anything, age enhances them. They rub up with usage and have a beautiful, simple—lustre. Unlike cities, they have none of those superficial, crossing currents that obscure reality.
They stand: for. what. the. phil sopher. has taught: us: to. believe is probably philosophy's deepest truth—that life can be lived most intensely when it is not spread about too mveh. Spreading is thinning. And lages are compact little units intensely self-contained and alllusive.
One can be "rangey," too, ''n one' tastes with a collection of villages. All can be different, yet intrinsically} alike in that one quality of complete. ness, And it is better to see them from A distance. Inside they might strike, even a kindly collector as. unnecessarily circumscribed.—Sometimes one's aesthetic. enthusiasms wear a little thin with too much familiarity. From a distance though, they are enchanting "Mine Be a: Cot Beside the Hill"
Only a few days ago, I added to the collection. A Chinese village' with a well im the middle; ar tilted locust: tree can be seen my-window—an admirable: distance, In the morning it rises to the.ocs casion with a minimum of noisinessd and an honest cheerfulness. A baby is its pride and joy. One takes it that this particular baby ig the youngest, or'the cleverest, or the most "responsive of the lot. There must be eight others; in all respects, from my window, identical babies, In the evening the village relaxes quietly, and lights a lamp in one: its windows, But long before that an old man with a thin grey beard and the respect of his community, lingers on a wooden stool by the well, From him emanates the wisdom -of the fields in which he works during the day, treading endless little furrows doing other mild: untroubled things. His race-bowl, at tea time ig, filled for him by a brisk young was man Who scolds unceasingly. the village children; and sometimes "the baby" receives a chop-stick full out of his evening portion, As far as one can judge, maba Jongg is not played in' the villa which encourages one to add it ta the collection. Tt has preserved, amid an encroaching asphalt, a splendid isolation. Even my window, 80 discreetly used for the purposes of collection, does not disturb the even tenor of its unselfeonscioug way.
And one dusk a Chinese itinerant fiddler came: to the village with of sophisticated melodies, Even the babies sat in rapt atten tion until he had played his li and partaken of thi. village rice. 'They followed him to the end of the path in the field, and the outside world seemed very: real for the moment, real, in fact, that' the old man's special' baby- could: not be beguiled with the usual taste-of rice, When cajolery failed, the: old man-set his trice-cowl on: the: rim of the well, and he, too, looked: pensively after the departing minstrel. Someday my village will mot be suitable material for the: collector.
"Hiram: Bingham Park"
Do you. recall the speech ator from Connection made on his recent return from an Asiatic Journey in which he alluded to the park in this city in which the Asiatics were of admitted? They call that Hiram Bingham Park here now, at least in explaining the situation'to strangers. It is a. piece of Innd reclaimed from an old creek, ud made a green spot beside the ver for the children eigners with their Asiatic ete. The Europeans here say course"; it would be of no whatever to us if thronged with coolies."
Not an Abode of Place This city is not an abode of pence harmony. Each group of nationals has its own chamber of commerce. The British are the predominant element of the interional city, the Shanghai Club, and yet the chairman of the council, virtually the mayor, is a Maine Yankee, a classmate of John Clair Minot's at Bowdoin College. Fessenden has held this office for years, with great acceptability, ant with "a curious touch of" British practice, performs its duties without compensation. He is a lawyer here, The British have their troubles They deported the Germans at the time of the war, and rear German Club on the Bund has now become a Chinese bank. They put up a monument to allied dead in the war. Liberal-minded Britishers this was a mistake, and that it should have. commemorated the valor of soldiers of all armies, since this is an international settlement, and that Chinese resistance encouraged by evidence of hostile among European races. At all events the Germans have made such hit with Nationalist China that they have been supplied with a badge, in Chinese characters, to wear onthe arm in times of internal mot and disorder, and this protects them from assault by all the warring factionalists of the native population.
On the tender the other night, a highly intoxicated American marine of into The merits of the contest I did not Yearn, but did hear him declare, with some adjectival vigor, that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.