Occasionally the Shanghailander i asked out to dinner. The invitation thoughtfully provided with an intimation of the time and the address fat which the free meal may be acquired. The happy quest gaily: makes rough calculation to enable him to strike the happy mean between being vulgarly and avidly before the appointed our and being disgracefully Tate, So he sets out. But he falls to reckon with Shanghai's peculiar methods of house-numbering and the even more peculiar dim which often plunges a residen the inaccessible and mystically' dis-dulsed adjuncts to the main street or highway. As a correspondent, tear~ fully relates, there is also a Shanghai propensity for changing house numbers according to the seasonal whims of august authorlty—or Seems, The result is that on many night tragedy stalks in the othe wise calm happiness of this city. Guests invited to dinner wander help-Tessly in search of houses they can rot find. Hosts ready to proffer good cheer have to see the soup get cold, the ice melt to water and per hay never meet their desired guest until midnight gives warning of the approach of dawn. The simplest way Would' be for the invitation to be tent out for breakfast. By dint of diligent search through the night the honoured guest should be able puns of the Tatest change in the number allotted to the house of his refreshment.
Then everyone would be satisfied,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.