The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-15
ENGLISH CLUBS IN CHINA.
Places That are Ravens of Rest for
Europeans in the Empire.


| 60 the Pekin Club is burned to the
ground! The news viii bring a pang to
| many a visitor who has enjoyed the hos
| pitality of that friendly caravaLserai.
discussed a cocktail or a cup Of tea or its
veranda or taken a hand at tennis on
its asphalted courts. To appreciate what
| the club is-or. rather, waste Euro
pean resident in Pekin, one must bear in
mind that the capital has been practically
500 years behind the average Chinese
| treaty port in respect of drainage water
supply, the ordinary upkeep of the
streets, lighting. and the rest of it, The
ruts in the apologies for streets are SO
deep that it is said that a mule was
drowned in one not long ago. In dry
weather the dust is a great deal more
than ankle deep, and in the rains Lega-
ton Street in PekiI is quagmire of mud
and sewage. Lord CurZon calls 1t an archi-
pelago Of universal ordure 1t is not
surprising, therefore, that Europeans
should seek the amicable shelter OF the
club, where all the Ministers OF the west
ern powers. their secretaries and at
taches, the newspaper correspondents and
casual visitors, meet on neutral ground
and where international rivalry takes the
innocuous form of billiard and lawn ten
mis- tournaments
These clubs are a god.;end in the Far
East. In every treaty port there is one
to be found its size and resources being
in strict proportions to the Importance OF
the locality. AT Shanghai the club is
quite palatial structure on the Bund,
facing the river, with an enormous hall,
a huge smoking-room, furnished with
every conceivable newspaper OF any stand-
ing, British or foreign, library amply
supplied with literature cardrooms. cof-
fee-rooms and bedrooms for the members
At Tientsin the club is much the same,
only on smaller scale; while the large
German community has started separate
club for itself. Chifu and Chinkiang, still
smaller ports. boast clubs of their own.
and even Tong shan, the headquarters of
the Northern Chinese Railway. and of the
Kaiping colleries, where there is 4 very
small staff of Western supervisors and
engineers. has a tiny club, very modest in
size, but still seryiceable as a rendezvous
for the Europeans. mostly Englishmen,
who are condemned to temporary exile
in this isolated spot. In Shanghai the
club is an exchange 10 all intents and pur-
poses. Between noon and tiflin it is a
resort for the whole of the foreign resi-
dents who flock thither to quaff the
everlasting cocktail. and discuss the news,
and here are concocted those wonderful
cablegrams about Russian movements on
Pekin that are flashed TO every corner OF
an amazed universe.
Pei-ta no. where Russian force is said
to have landed and to be pushing on to
Pekin. is charming little place. estab-
lished within the last three years as a
seaside resort for Europeans, on the
northern margin of the Gulf Of Pe-chi-li
an hour or two by rail northeast of Tient-
sin. The pioneers in this settlement
were the missionaries. who erected
plu Gfar 0f hun VaI ha
were soon followed by the diplomats, who,
conforming to the invariable law in the
extension of all watering places. built
companion settlement mile or SO to the
west. The first was called the City of the
Saints, and the second the City of the Sim
ners.
Prominent in the latter stands the viii
leggiatura of NJ. Pavloff, the Russian Min
lister. 1t is a conspicuous red and white
building, encircled with a substantial ram
part, as if to battle the designs of any
rival maritime or other jealous power
II force has, indeed, been landed here,
it is probably with the object of advancing
towards Ton-shan for The purpose of pro-
tecting the railway and colliery works
there, on which considerable capital has
been expended. Pei-tai-ho has made great
strides during the last three years as a
European summer resort, and still further
to the east is the harbor of Ching wang
tao, where it is in contemplation to con-
struct an important harbor to ship the
produce OF some neighboring coal mines
and the trade Of Manchuria generally.
The Boxer insurrection has apparently
not yet extended eastward to these To-
calities, but there are several camps Of
Chinese soldiery situated close to the rail-
way between Shan-hai kwan and Tient-
sin, and considering how little there is
to choose between the rebels and the i'm
perial troops in point of loyalty, it is i'm
portant for the powers to keep an eye on
this section of the Northern Chinese
Railway. which has been so largely built
with western capitai