Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02
A REMARKABLE CITY.
Surprising Facts About Shanghai and
Its Mixed Population.
AN INTERNATIONAL REPUBLIC,
Which is Governed by Americans, English.
men and Frenehmen,
NATIVES HAVING LITTLE. AUTHORITY
roonnrgporppvor OF THE DfsPA1oH.J

would have supposed, for instance, that in
journey embracing the grandeur OF the
Rocky Mountains, the charm of Japan, the
far.off life Of Russian Tartary, the unknown
interior Of Korea, the Celestial Capital and
the Wall of China, the greatest surprise
would be saved for the first sight of
Shanghai? Yet so it was. Twas writing
below as we steam ed up the Hwang-po river
and did not come on the deck of the Hae-an
till FIVE minutes before we anchored. Then
could hardly believe my eyes. had ex-
pected another port like Tientsin or Yoko-
hama, busy waterfront with a row Of
Offices and warehouses and small town of
foreign houses at the back. Instead of that,
I saw a magnificent city surrounding
broad and crowded river.
True, the magnifcence is only skin deep,
50 to speak, all the architectural beauty and
solidity of Shanghai being spread out along
the river, but am speaking only of the
first sight of Shanghai, and in this respect it
is superior to New York, far ahead of San
Francisco, and almost as imposing for
the moment as Liverpool itself. A
broad and beautifully kept boulevard,
called of course 'The Bund," runs round
the river, with row of well-grown trees
and broad grass plat at the waters edge,
and this Bund is lined on the other side
from one end to the other with mercantile
buildings second to none Of their kind in
the world-the "hongs'' of Messrs. Jardine,
Matheson & Co.; Russell s. Co.; Sassoon;
Glib, Livingston 8 Co.; Butterfeld &
Syire; the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank,
the Chartered Bank of India, the Chartered
Mercantile Bank, the New Oriental Bank;
the fine buildings of the Masonic Hall and
the Shanghai Club; and the only piece of
Chinese architecture, the temple-lke en-
trance to the Custom House.
SIGHTS OF SHANGHAI.
At the upper end of the Bund large
patch of green shows the Public Garden,
where the band plays on summer evenings
At night all Shanghai Is bright with the
electric light, and its telegraph poles remind
you of Chicago-I believe counted nearly
loo wires on one pole opposite the Club.
And the needed touch of color is added to
the scene as you look at it from on deck, by
the CAV flags of the mail steamers and the
Consular bunting floating over the town.
The first sight of Shanghai, however, is
only its first surprise. As I was rolling
away to the hotel the 'rickshaw coolie
turned on to the right hand side of the road
Instantly familiar figure stepped off the
sidewalk and shook a warning finger, and
the coolie swung back again to the left side.
It was policeman, no semi-Europeanlzed
Mongolian, languidly performing. halt
understood duty, as had seen elsewhere,
but the genuine home article, helmet, blue
suit, silver buttons, regulation boots,
truncheOn and adjust bobby" And his
| uplifted finger turns the traffic to the left in
Shanghai precisely as 1t does in front OF the
Mansion House at home.
A hundred yards further on there was a
fash of scarlet in the sun and there stood q
second astonishing fgure--a six-foot copper
colored Sikh, topped by huge red turbani
and clad also in blue and armed with the
same truncheon, striding solemnly by on his
beat. Then we pass the Chinese policeman,
with his little saucer hat of red bamboo and
his white gaiter, swinging a diminutive
staff, reduced and rather comical replica
of his big English and Indian comrades.
Then as we cross the bridge into the French
Concession-I am on my way to the French
hotel-here is positively the sergeant de
vile, absolutely the same as you see him in
Place de Popera-peaked cap, waxed mus
tache, baggy red trousers, saber and revolver.
And beyond him again is the Frenchiied
Chinese policeman.
A PoLYeLoT POPULATION.
In fact, Shanghai is guarded municipality
by no fewer than six distinct species of
policemen-English, Sikh, Anglo-C Chinese,
| French, Franco-C Chinese and the long-legged
mounted Sikhs on sturdy white ponies who
elank their long swords around the outskirts
of the town, and carry terrori into the turbu-
lent Chinese quarters.
Modern Shanghai is divided, like ancient
Gaul, into three parts: the English settle
ment, the American settlement, called
Hongkew, and the French Concession. F."
The latter is the word used by the French
themselves, believe, without much to JUS
| tify it. Three creeks divide these commune
| ties from each other, Yang-Kingpang, Soo-
chow creek and Defense creek, between the
English settlement and China. One wide
thoroughfare called "the Maloo," runs
| through Shanghai out past the race course
and the Horse Bazaar into the country, and
along this in the afternoon there is stream
of ponies and smart carriages and pedes-
trians and even bicyclists, 1t is the Rotten
Row of Shanghai leading to the Bubbling
Well and to Jessfeld, and to the one coun-
try drive the community possesses. But in
| truth there is not much country" about it,
the environs of Shanghai being fiat and
ugly and covered with grave-mounds as
thickly as the battlefelds around Grave
lotte.
Shanghai dubbed itself long ago the
'Model Settlement" Then noble English
| globe-trotter came along and afterward de-
scribed it in the House Of Lords as "a sink
of corruption" Thereupon a very witty
Consul suggested that in future It should
be known as the 'tModel Sink" For my
own part 1 should not grudge it the first
! title, for it is one Of the best governed
places municipality, at any rate SO far as the
Anglo-American quarters are concerned,
| that have ever known. The French live
apart under their own Municipal Council,
presided over and even dismissed at
pleasure, by their own Consul.
THE CHINESE CUT NO FIGURE.
The English and American coalesce in an
elected Municipal Council of nine mem
bers, with an elected chairman at its head.
| And short stay in Shanghai is sufficient
to show how satisfactorily this works. The
roads are perfect, the traffic is kept under
admirable direction and control, the streets
are quiet and orderly, and even the coolies
are forbidden to push their great wheelbar-
rows through the foreign settlement with
ungreased wheels. The third surprise of
Shanghai does not dawn upon you immedi-
ately. It is a republic-a community of
nations, self-governed, and practically in
dependent, for it snaps its fingers politely at
| the Chinese authorities or discusses any
matter with them upon equal terms, and it
| does not hesitate to differ pointedly in opin-
ions with its own Consuls when it regards
their action as unwise or their interference
| as unwarranted.
Over the Chinese within its borders the
Municipal Council has, however, no juris-
| diction. In the "Maloo" there is Magis-
| trate,s Yamen and there the famons