Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02


it gives rise to numerous and bitter COM
plants. The population of Shanghai to-
day (the last census was in 1850 is proba-
bly, about 1000 foreigners-British, 1,5O0;
japanese, 600; Portuguese, 450; French,
400; American, 800, Spanish, 250; German,
250-and Chinese 175,0OO. These figures
may be considerably under the mark.
A QUEER STATE OF THINGS.
1t is curious that by the ''Land Regula-
tions," which form the Constitution of the
Shanghai, the Chinese are forbidden to
reside or hold property within the Foreign
Settlements, and yet here are these 175,000
of them afoat and ashore, and fancy
Shanghai itself would be astounded if it
could be told exactly what proportion Of the
whole property is in their hands. There
has been good deal of talk about this, and
in reply to Cassandra who wrote to the
papers that nothing could save Shanghai
but amalgamation with the Chinese, local
writer produced some witty verses telling
how in vision in the twentieth century
passed q lawyers Office on the shingle
Was wang and johnson, Barristers at Law"
Whereer the nations had begun to mingle,
Chinese came first, saw.
A steamer passed; a native gave the orders;
An English quartermaster held the wheel,
The chain gang all were white. the stalwart
Yellow from head to heel.
This crushed Cassandra for the moment, but
the future of Shanghai is not clear.
The Republic Of Shanghai has its own
army, OF course, composed Of volunteer in
fantry, 159 strong; artillery, with A guns
and 40 men; and smart but diminutive
snF Ir1k hos TN 81. IL,
teer fre-brigades and no fewer than seven
distinct postal systems of different nation
alities. An amusing fact in connection
with the artillery-amusing chiefly to any
one who appreciates the red-tape which
binds the military authorities at home-is
that they presented the Shanghai volunteers
/ with four excellent feld-guns and that they
send out an annual allowance of ammuni-
tion,
A DEMOCRATIC COMMUNITY.
No doubt they believe that Shanghai is Q
British colony, whereas the fun lies in the
fact that it is simply some land leased in
perpetuity from the Emperor of China, and
that 1t is possible at any moment-it may be
the case to-day for all know--that ma
jority of those serving the guns are nom
British subjects. But this is only for the
jokes sake. The volunteers get great praise
from the official inspector each year and
they may be called upon to protect British
lives and property at any moment So the
War Office did wise thing after all, only
| now America in her turn should send them
Maxim gun.
The social life of Shanghai is the natural
outgrowth Of its republican institutions.
1t is democratic, and characterized by q
tolerant good-fellowship. Upon this point
a well-known lady was kind enough to set
me right I'm Shanghai" she explained,
everybody is equal. In Hong Kong every
body is not equal, There are those Of us
who call at Government House, and those
who do not" After SO lucid an analysis,
it was impossible to err. Society lives in
its shirt sleeves-metaphorica speaking,
of course for actually it is an extremely
well-dressed community. All male Shanghai
meets in the club-one of the most comfort
able and complete in the world-before tiffin
and before dinner, to exchange news, make
up dinner parties and do business-all three
with equal zest. And the bar there is as long
as a ships deck, cocktails only cost cents
apiece, and you can ask for the daily Pail
Mall Gazette and have it. Men are known
by their nicknames, and I doubt il "the
Legal Brother" and ''The Boy" and "Bug-
GINS" and many others can remember the
time when they were familiarly called by
the names the mothers that bore them.
And the
HOSPITALITY OF SHANGHAI
Is another surprise. You might as well at
tempt to give your shadow the slip as to es-
cape from the gratVitous good cheer of the
Model Settlement. But although the hos
pitality of Shanghai has winged feebepd
the penguin juice" of one of its taAlssl Ia
wonderful Burgundy which flows from the
vitals of wonderful crystal bird) Is known
throughout the length and breadth of the
China Seas, it has other ideals and cherishes
at least lew sacred memories, for did not
someone tell me with blush Of pride how
Mazzini had once kissed him2 And as for
sport, on the whole Shanghai is ahead of
the East. It has its charming Country
Club, its races twice q year, its regatta,
when the Chinese authorities stop all the
native traffic on the river, its polo, its two
| cricket clubs, its baseball and its shooting
| parties in house boats up the Yantsze to the
hills 20 miles away.
And on Saturday afternoons If you walk
| out to the Bubbling Well about o'clock
| you can see the finish of the paper hunt
and dozen well-mounted and scrupulously
dressed jockeys come riding in to the finish
and taking rather bad fence and ditch
which has been carefully prepared with the
| object of receiving half of them In the sight
of their fair friends. Finally, there are the
hounds and their excellent master, "the
Prophet" And what matter if SANDER
Gus tradition does fret their fair fame, to
the effect that once upon time, discarding
the deceptive aniseed bag, fox was i'm
| ported from Japan, and that the end of that
hunting day was that one-half the pack ran
into an unlucky chow-dog and broke him
up, and the other half chased Chinese boy
for his life, while the master stood upon o
grave mound winding his horn to deserted
| landscape.
Commercially, Shanghai is not quite 30
prosperous as it was a few years ago. At
least, it complains of hard times. German
competition, Chinese competition, the great
falling off in the China tea trade, even the
detention of shipping on the bar at Woo
sung-all these are freely spoken Of as con-
tributing to the general dullness of trade,
but as Shanghai still does nearly 81 per
cent of the import trade of all the treaty
ports, and SO per cent Of the export trade,
she rests upon a very solid commercial
basis, and ought to be able to regard the
future with equanimity.
THE BARKER SYNDICATE.
The commercial matter which I was
specially instructed to investigate at
Shanghai had aroused, found, vastly less
interest in the far East than at home.
I mean the -Mitkiewicz con-
cessions for an Americana Chinese bank, the
telephone, a system of railways, etc., etc.
The Shanghai correspondent of the Stand
ard, clever young Irishman named Mr.
O'Shea, of the reporting staff of the infuen-
tial North China Daily NeaUs;, managed to
keep us all at home talking and writing of
this vast scheme several months, but I
fancy he himself would now be among the
| first to declare that his native enthusiasm
III .f 4la 1ad ~ -,