Proprietors of the herb stores in [Shanghai may not be pleased with the terms on which they have resumed their business after a strike lasting more than 40. days' during which' time every herb shop was closed. But the Chinese public are peppy, for they are great consumers ff herbal remedies. In. which the Chinese materia medica is rich, Mustard plaster and camomile tea may not have originated from the scientific mind or chemical. experiment but, as simple home te, fhedies for various maladies, they ftsually serve the purpose.. A mustard plaster has been placed on the chest of many an ancestor and today's child with the croup usually finds himself withing beneath the ame blistering predicament. No fate the "Gauen of Eden, wan equipped with a pharmacy sufficient for the usual ills of man and his mate, The camphor tree has contributed aromatic spirits ever since while the sassafras and ginger continue find a place on the most modern medicine shelf, the good old days of witch and medicine man one did not have pay five dollars for a prescription ing the same remedy that} hed in. the back yard, The. medicine man sent in his bill, lof course, but it was not for the medicine, it was for the incantation Jor the spell" he wound about it, Doctors to-day admit that cures are often effected. by hypnosis as well fas by medicine. "Surgery, of course, does not come in the sume category, but for @ cold, a stomachache, or good "old-fashioned attack' of Fheumatiam, the Chinese ter: man not to. be despised. He also devotes his skill to many other strange complaints, The Abrus Preeatorius, for instance, is guaranteed to permeate the nine cavities of the body and to expel every sort of evil effuvia from heart and. abdomen. Furthermore a reliable prescription for destruction of a "eat-devil' feat-devil has been cen heard, you take one bean of the [Abrus bush and pulverize cinnibar} fand wax and make it all into a pi [You then surround the patient: ith ashes and place him before a cinder fire and spit the medicine into. the fire. "As it bubbles up you mark a eross on the surface of the fire. The feat-devil will die and the patient be as good as new, The first Chinese name for tis very efficient remedy twas Tsiang-ssu-tza, and meant love ie, Legend has it that aman died by the side of one of the shaups and his wife sat beneath its shade. and wept until'she also died. What, the We trink beer; Chinese smoke opium; we fight, Chinese sleer Jeet dere ces somedings wat dey like, Jeet's not my business, yes There was more in this vein and I bade him farewell.
And then I' got my real shock, As I' stepped out of his shop I Jeame almost face to face with one of ithe most, notorious. foreigners who lever lived in the Far East. I was Jdumbfounded for a moment. If he recognized me he gave no sign. [There was no mistaking the cat-Tike tread, the sallow, expressionless: face, the black eyes, the stooping, shoulders. The elegant black suit familiar to Shanghai pavements; was missing. In its place was studiously shabby suit. He walked alone, looking straight ahead, just fas he walked the streets of Shanghai, Tientsin, and Peking, for the past twenty-five years.
Well, I consoled myself, the world] is a small place after all, but just the same I did not want to feel that, this sort of thing should be used to prove it. I did not like to associate him with Limehouse, one way or the lather. I don't like io think about Bat, to complete this story, the [Comedy Theatre has a rook farce running at the moment. called "Odd Numbers," and in it one tough lad says to another, "Let's take him for jo ride, down Limehouse, the Chi inese'll get the blame, as usual."
A few weeks ago, - Beachcomber, ithe shrewd paragraphist of the "Daily Express," had. a jibe at the] be'
ie house legend. "Who is there who believes," and he cites a dozen things from' white girls in opium dens to murder. "Who is there who believes these things?" He answers "Nobody but Thomas Burke."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.