The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1900-09-03
cHINA'sWIckEDEsTcITY
Facts About Shanghai, Which
Is Rich and Riotous.
GREAT COMMERCIAL EMPORIUM.

Efed ON by E1Gt@n anu
Association Secretary Robert +.
Lewis of the international committee
of Young Mems Christian associations
resident at Shanghai. has sent the foi-
lowing letter to his friends IN the
United States descriptive OF Shanghai
which he asserts Is 1.-The wealthiest
and wickedest city in China" The
situation there Is also absorbing British
attention now on account OF the ques-
ton of landing troops.
As Secretary Lewis knows CHINA
pretty well and is familiar with Celes-
tial ways and habits, it can be depend
ed upon that he is not far out OF the
way in his statements, says the chi
cago Post. This mlssive Is dated
April %:
zone feels the limitations of lan-
Ruage when he tries to convey to oc-
cidentals an adequate picture OF an
eastern city. To say that the COM
merce of Shanghai very nearly equals
the commerce OF Boston. the second
port in the United States. will give
some indication OF the business OF
city which has been created during
the last 80 years.
"As I rode along the harbOr front
on my wheel this morning there were
"a steamers and men-of-war at an
chor. Though the British flag pre-
dominated, yet the French, Russian.
German, Chinese, Austrian, Italian,
Norwegian, japanese and American
were out to the breeze. l went along
the four miles of wharfs, and the
ceaseless activity, the crashing of iron.
the singsong of the coolies, the rolling
and tumbling of bales of cotton, hemp
cloth, nuts and -four, the clink OF tins
Of kerosene and the hurly burly of eX-
cited Chinese passengers almost per-
suaded one that he was not in the slow
| moving orient.
"At the drydocks thousands Of ham,
mers were shaping obstinate iron into
| graceful ships. l saw passengers met
at the gangway of steamers by wheel
barrows to take their baggage and by
| overgrown baby carts for their own
conveyance. l saw tall. swarthy Sikh
policemen keeping order in the midst
of babel, and then took my course
| lnc SICdJ OlnCcSs
hongs and godowns which crowd the
city. The conviction was stronger than
ever that where east and west mingle
there are ludicrous combinations, in
| tense struggling for mastery, noun
| tains of merchandise changing hands.
and. above all, an open door for the
| fiend as we'll as the saint to enter the
land.
Shanghai has about 100000 people
In the combined native and foreign set
| Elements. Though there are about as
many Europeans and Americans in this
one city, for instance. as reside in all
Japan. yet Shanghai is largely made
up of Chinese. The population of the
foreign settlements is under the rule
of American. English, German and
French institutions. Native merchants
bankers, shopkeepers. litterati and re
tired officials crowd into this section In
order to be under foreign jurisdiction
They consider it vastly more desirable
than to live in the native city. Here
they have macadamiZed streets, elec
trio lights, modern sewerage and wa
ter supply. careful policing and are
saved from much of the pilfering anC
pestering of the mandarinate.
shanghai is the center of the great
customs, railway, telegraph and posta
administrations of the awakened gov
ernment 1t is the headquarters a:
well as the asylum for the refOrmers
who will some day cause China to GU
loose from a dead past. Here are the
headquarters of the modern newspa
pers, of the great publishing and liter
ary societies, of the Bible and mission
ary agencies which grapple with ma
tional problems. This is the meetin!
place of the national missionary anC
church councils which wrestle with til,
problems of evangeliZing a fourth par
of the worlds people.
But this model city is model only OF
the exterior. Wealth has not mean
righteousness and order has not pro
duced purity. Its reputation for i'm
} morality is national. l have been re
peatedly told, in the distant interior
that Chinese pastors, in narrating th'
prodigal son, do not say that he wen
into a far country, but that he wen
to Shanghai and there spent his sub
stance in riotous living.
"Shanghai's reputation for wicked
ness is even more widespread than it
repute for trade. The scores OF Amer
lean and japanese women who are ol
the market; the hundreds Of Chimes
women who haunt Foo-crow road ant
make it impossible for a decent wo
man to live in that section; the Inn
mense opium palaces; the rum dives
the silk robed retc1edness which pa
rades the streets in rubber tired car
riages-these are living proofs that tn
devil has not lost the art of makini
life hell. This is no exaggeration;
am writing of what needs no proof, be
cause it daily f1aunts itself In the pub
lie eye.
young men predominate in tn
population of this city. Tens of thou
sands are here gaining an education o
engaged in business whose homes ar
in other lands or other provinces. Fo
these men there is scarcely a social clu
| or guild where the influences are no
doubtful, IL not positively bad. Do 20
wonder that such a capital city o
sin attracts one who wishes to wi
men to God? Ephesus, Corinth an
Rome, In their heather wealth an