June 2
It seems now to be the right thing to regard Shanghai dead—deader, if the word may be permitted, than London in August. Everyone is or ought to be on holiday or contemplatting the operation. Hints for suitable resorts and the kind of clothes and amount of banknotes required form the subject Jot pamphlets and special numbers. One theatre has even gone to the length of showing a mixed Jaudience the clothes to be pack-in a convenient verte ease for use by the seaside. Perhaps the enterprise had behind it the kind thought of ministering to the needs of those who cannot afford steamer or railway fares vet, might acquire the hol spirit by wearing the garments on some fri jon the edge of Shanghai euch. "Envy. naturally. assails the folk who stay behind to read that some friends of theirs have left Shanghai for Europe, America, the South Sex Islands lor even Putoo. But it does not Jiustify the thought that Shanghai is empty. This habit of dis because has gone away is not te be encouraged. Rather it would seem desirable to discover; Means of making holiday in anghai itself. That will be most popular course for many who find that increased motor-lear taxes, higher rickshaw taxes, larger, if more neatly compiled, electric fan bills, enhanced house rates make Shanghai almost as expensive as a trip to the bracing air of Tsingtao.
The idea that the ability to take a holiday is a sign of great social superiority should surely he suppressed. Shanghai feels—and rightly no doubt—that its virtues as a holiday-resort are Ni 'x0 undeniable that they are well th good payment, Shanghai ives so much opportunity for the "determined holiday maker. Can he not take two hours off for tiffin? If he cannot, they why ido they wax wrath who read the of the earnest curtailment of '50 per cent.? gardens" where music maintains the hol mood, if advertisements are to be believed. It deliberately keeps off the heat by indulging termittent downpours of In fact it behaves itself so "pleasantly that—holida ekers who go further afield are properly rebuked.—Sooner. or later the mild brand of heat which Shang! lis its hot weather will be upon us. Pre-rations have been made for it a casual glance into the Nan-Road will reveal at any me. Men, independent of "make-up demonstrations" or "beach pyjama parades," have already rushed into those curious garments which remind them of the days when they had, out of politeness, to provide a Jo area for the operation of the birch. Topis have diffidently made their appearance and at present perform the really to get away from the deal rush ten minutes earlier than the "men's felts."
What holiday hints can really be given to Shanghai?
They are S! not necessary for canny camners who propose to wait till the summer is nearly over and they can postpone their reappearance in the office to the time when all proofs of the truth lof the axiom "handsome men are slightly sunburnt" have vanished from early leave-takers' faces.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.