The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1905-12-07
LIFE IN GAY HONG-KONC.
Where Those Who Can Afford 1t DO
Not Lack for Enter
tainment.

'In the winter Hongkong is gay. says
2. j. Hardy, in John Chinaman at
Home" published by the Scri6ners.
"Those in the swim may dine or dance
out every evening. In the summer
people are in the swim in a more literal
sense, for that is the time for bathing
parties, form of amusement so healthy
and rational that one wonders how So
clety took to It. Between four and five
O'Clock a party steam in launch to
where the sea Is clean and there is n
saudy beach upon which tents or mat
sheds have been put up to serve as dress
Ing rooms for the ladies. The men don
bathing kit on the now curtalned launch
and swim to join the diving bellies, as
several Hongkong ladies may be called,
so proficient are they in aquatic eXer-
cises. When tired OF throwing about a
football in the water, the bathers re-
tire, the men to the launch and the wom-
en- to the tents. Here they are given
cherry brandy and the sexes clothe and
reunite. Tea is then served, either on
land or on the launch. during the return
journey.
Sometimes people dine on the
launches and being in no hurry to burn
and dissolve in iIongkong, they stay out
pretty late in the moonlight. The gov
ernor, the two admirals, the general and
the chief justice lead society, and the
bishop blesses their doings as far as he
conscientiously can.
"Of the civilians in Hongkong, all
that we shall say is that some are nicer
than others. The number ones, twos
and even threes Of the great CONNER
cial firms are sometimes great social
successes. There are distinctions, how
ever, that are not easy to understand.
Why should pig-iron turn up its nose at
tenpenny nails?
ITO this distant land people come
| with double names that sound formida-
BILE until 1t is discovered that the double
barreled ones discharge very small shot
at home. The service people call the
civilians dollar-snatchers, and the lat
ter think of the former as dollar-lackers.
Dancing days and nights begin with the
three practice dances that precede the
ball which Is given by Scotch residents
on each st. Andrews night. The great
difficulty men have is to get partners,
80 few unmarried girls are In the colony.
Here 1t is men and not women who are
wall-fowers.
IF men cannot get partners for a
dance unless they bespeak them days
before, 1t is even more difficult to get
them for life. Owing to this scarcity n
wife material, as we'll as to impecunios.
ty, young European men, instead OF
marrying, form themselves into bach.
elor messes. Just before leaving Hong.
kong | dined at one of these establish
ments. 1t was monstrous. There were
six mere men daring to have as nice q
drawing-room, as well arranged table
and as good servants as any house
have seen run by that old institution
a wife. 1t was unnatural, and a com.
mittee of women ought to break up the
mess before the offenders get too much
into the habit OF celibacy and make O
mess of their lives, The poor fellows
are starved at heart, however replete in
stomach, and each starts a dog for q
companion. Alas! some of them go tc
dogs in other ways. A ten-thousand
miles-away-from-home feeling has
many temptations connected with it"