Inia the realm of memory is passing another ancient Shanghai landmark. A moment's thoughtful pause from passers-by is deserved by this house by the side of the road, which is now dying after having lived one of the longest and fullest lives which any house could hope for.
Where in the previous century gay throngs would, dance at tremendous balls held by foreign diplomatic officials, there to-day lie a few old walls and huge piles of debris being carted away by chanting coolies, as the structure is rapidly being effaced from the landscape.
So old is the house situated at the corner of Bubbling Well and Chengtu Roads, that its owners, the Italian Consulate, are uncertain of its age. Two of the oldest residents of this city likewise profess ignorance of its birthday, one saying that he played in the garden as a child in 1888, the house being far from new even then. The generally unknown date was then sought by a representative of the "North-China Daily News" at the building department of the Shanghai Municipal Council.
After a search through files and papers turned brown with age, the] S.M.C. found that the earliest records on hand showed that particular struc-lure, now 555 Bubbling Well Road, already in existence. No possible clue was forthcoming although the blue prints of buildings in that area date back to the nineteenth century.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.