The Peoples and Politics of the Far East, etc

Preface

. Tins book is site result of nearly four //ears of travel and study in the countries and colonies of tvhicJi it treats. I have described and discussed no place that I did not visit, and in every one I remained long enough, and was fortunate enough in learning the views and experiences of the local authorities and best-informed residents, to make sure at any rate that I wets not misled into mere hasty impressions. If I appear to present some of my conclusions with excessive confidence, this fault is to be explained, aud I trust excused, first, by my conviction of the importance to Great Britain of the issues involved, and second, by my faith in the ■accuracy and wisdom of my many informants. The Far East presents itself to the attentive traveller under two aspects. It is the last Wonderland of the World; and it is also the seed-bed of a multitude of new political issues.

I have endeavoured to reflect in these pages this twofold quality of my subject. There fore the record of mere travel is interwoven with that of investigation : the incidents and the adventures of the

PREFACE.

. hour are mingled with the factors and the statistics of the permanent problems. By this means I have hoped to reproduce upon the reader's mind something of the effect of the Far East upon my own. It is a picture which is destined, either in bright colours or in sombre r to become increasingly familiar to him in the future. I find myself wholly unable to acknowledge here even a small part of the help and hospitality I received, and I can only express this general but deep obligation. To Sir Robert Hart, Bart., however, first of all; to Sir Cecil dementi Smith, ex-Governor of the Straits Settle ment; to Sir G. William Des Voeux, formerly Governor of Hongkong ; and to Mr. F. A. Swettenham, C.M.G., British Resident of Perak, I have to offer my special thanks. To my friend Mr. R. L. Morant, whose know ledge of Siam is more intimate than that of any foreigner living, and who at the time of my stay in Bangkok was governor of the late Crown Prince and tutor to the Royal child rot, I have to acknowledge great indebted ness.

I need hardly add that these gentlemen must not be forcibly connected toith any of my opinions. Mr. J. Scott Keltic , Assistant Secretary of the Royal Geo graphical Society, the Librarian of the Colonial Officiy and the Librarian of the Royal Statistical Society, have been good enough to give me valuable technical assistance. In a few instances I have reproduced here, with considerable alterations, .parts of contributions to the

PREFACE.

. IX daily and periodical Press, chiefly descriptions of places written on the spot. The greater part of the illustrations are from my own photographs ; one or two are by that excellent photographer A. Fong, of Hongkong, one or two by Mr. Chit, and, one by Mr. Loftus, both of Bangkok. The maps, which present certain geographical facts not — so far as I know — to be found in conjunction elsewhere, have been drawn under my own supervision. H.N. London, December 31, 1891. ERRATA. Page 134, Hue 12 from foot : for 257,008,654 read 257,048,654. ,, 136, „ 5 from top: for 63,231,047 read 63,211,047. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface vn THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE FAR EAST. CHAP. I. Outposts of Empire : Shanghai and Hongkong . 3 II. A School of Empire : The Straits Settlements . 37 III. Anomalies of Empire : The Protected Malay States 52 FRANCE IN THE FAR EAST.

IV. In French Indo-China : Leaves from my Notebooks 71 V. On the Franco-Chinese Frontier . . .95 VI. A Study of French Colonial Administration 103 VIL The Cost of a French Colony . . . 124 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST. VIII. Vladivostok: The "Possession of the East" . Ill IX. The Position of Russia on the Pacific . 151 X. The Trans-Siberian Railway and its Results 159 SPAIN IN THE FAR EAST. XL Manila : The City of Cigars, Hemp, Earthquakes, and Intolerance . contents. PORTUGAL IN THE FAR EAST CHAr. PAGE 183 XII. Macao : The Lusitanian Thule CHINA. XIII. Peking and its Inhabitants XIV. To the Great Wall of China XV. Chinese Horrors 195 211 219 XVI. The Imperial Maritime Customs : Sir Robert Hart and his Work . . . . 231 XVII. The Grand Secretary Li . XVIIL China among the Great Powers XIX. Concerning the People of China 244 260 276 XX.

The Future of China 297 KOREA. XXI. On Horseback across Korea 323 XXII. The City of Seoul and its Inhabitants . XXIIL The Question of Korea 341 356 JAPAN. XXIV. The Japan of To-day XXV. Asia for the Asiatics? 375 394 SIAM. XXVL Bangkok and its People. 407 XXVIL The Principles and Personalities of Siamese Government 434 XXVIII. Fictions and Facts of Siamese Affairs XXIX. The True Story of France and Siam XXX. England and the Future of Siam 451 468 contents. XIII MALAYA. CHAP. rAGE XXXL The Political Position of the Native States . 523 XXXII. A Jungle Journey in Unknown Malaya . 534 XXXIII. On a Raft through a Forbidden State . 558 CONCLUSION. An Eastern Horoscope 589 Index LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Law in China : The Confession of Guilt Under Torture. (Facsimile of a drawing by a Chinese Artist) ......

Frontispiece A Native at Home, Tongking . . To face page 72 A Muong Beauty, Tongking . . ,, ,,76 A Group of Natives, Tongking . . ,, ,, 82 How I Earned a Hundred Francs . ,, ., 82 France and China : Watching the Frontier ,. ,, 96 At the Gate of the Fort, Monkay . ,, ,, 100 Vladivostok . . . . ,, 144 The Boys' Band, Manila . . . ,, 172 French Prisoners at Hanoi . . ,, ,. 172 The First Sight of Peking . . ,, ,. 196 The British Legation, Peking . . ,, ,, 200 The Examination Cells, Peking . . ,, ,, 204 The Observatory on the Wall, Peking . ,, ,, 204 A Street in Peking . . . „ 208 The Great Wall of China . . ,, ,, 214 A Watch-Tower on the Great Wall . ,, ,, 214 A Magistrate's Yamen . . . ,, ,, 220 China: " Death by the Thousand Cuts " . ,, ,, 224 Chinese Judicial Tortures . . ,, ,, 228 A Private Cart, Peking . . . ,, ,, 236 The Top of the Wall, Peking . ,, ,, 236 Three Yellow Jackets . . . ,. ,, 248 The Mongol in Peking . . . ,. ,, 278 A Chinese Lady's Foot . . . ,, ,, 288 The Protection of Foreigners, Canton . ,, ,, 288 The Tsungli Yamen, Peking . . ,, ,, 298 A Chinese School : Victims of Confucius . ,. ,, 312 My Start Across Korea . . . „ ,, 326 The Royal Apartments, Monastery of An-by0n ,, ,, 332 A Korean Hotel . . . . ,. ,, 338- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

To face page 338 Men and Women of Korea 344 A Gate of Seoul The Old Palace and Nam-san, Seoul 350 350 The Consul Going to an Audience, Seoul . 354 Korean Dancing Girls : " Love's Young Dream " 408 Bangkok: "The Venice of the East" The Halls of Audience, Bangkok 412 Wat Chang, Bangkok, From a Pinnacle . 416 420 A Temple on a Canal, Bangkok 424 A Love-Scene on the Siamese Stage „ 430 A Typical Siamese Woman . At Ko-si-chang : The King of Siam and the Second Queen 436 440 The First Queen, Siam The Late Crown Prince of Siam and Some of his Brothers 444 A Royal Court-yard, Bangkok 444 An After-Dinner Group, Bangkok In the Palace Temple, Bangkok . 448 454 The Great Bronze Buddha, Ayuthia 460 W7ild Elephants before the King, Siam 464 Pekan, the Capital of Pahang 536 536 A Belle of the Jungle My Kitchen in the Jungle 542 A Group in Camp 542 In the Jungle : An Early Start 548 My Camp at Kuala Leh 552 The Last British Outpost, Perak 552 Native Mills for Crushing Gold-quartz, Temoh 556 My Rafts on the Kelantan River 562 Shops in a Malay Town 566 A Malay Drama before the Sultan ■566 The Main Street and Entrance to the Sultan's Residence, Tringanu 578 MAPS.

The Harbour of Vladivostok Page 153 The Settlements and Harbour of Won-san The Problems of Indo-China 324 To face page xvi The Malay Peninsula London: T. Fisher Unwin, Paternoster Square. E.C. London: T. Fisher Unwin. Paternoster Square. E.C. THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE FAR EAST. '2

Chapter I. Outposts Of Empire

: SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. A N Englishman writing an account of the Far East finds him- J-^~ self in a dilemma at the outset. If he follows his natural inclination to describe at length the British Colonies there, their astonishing history, their race-problems, their commercial achievements, and their exhibition of the colonising genius of his race ; and especially if he yields to the temptation to dwell upon their extraordinary picturesqueness, he lays himself open to the just criticism that these are matters already familiar to every one of his readers. On the other hand, if he takes this familiarity for granted, and omits them from his survey, the brightest colour is lacking from the picture and the most potent factor from the problem. This would obviously be the greater evil, and therefore in my own case, risking the reproach, I propose to touch upon the external aspects of the British Colonies in the Far East just enough to convey some notion of the physical conditions and surroundings under which our countrymen there live and labour, and to write at somewhat greater length of a few vital matters which do not present themselves on the surface.

One thing, at any rate, can never be told too often or impressed too strongly, namely, that our Far Eastern Colonies are not mere outlying units, each with a sentimental and commercial connection with Great Britain, but bone of the bone of the Empire, and flesh of its flesh. Among the many surprises of a journey in the Far East, one of the greatest is certainly the first sight of Shanghai. THE BRITISH EMPIRE. I was writing below as we steamed up the Hwang-pu river, and did not come on the deck of the Hae-an till five minutes before she anchored. Then I could hardly believe my eyes. There lay a magnificent European city surrounding a broad and crowded river. True, the magnificence is only skin-deep, so to speak, all the architectural beauty and solidity of Shanghai being spread out along the river ; but I am speak ing 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 a row of well-grown trees and a broad grass-plat at the water's edge, and this Bund is lined on the other side from one end to the other with mer cantile buildings second to none of their kind in the world — the " hongs " of the great firms, and the banks ; the fine edifices of the Masonic Hall and the Shanghai Club ; and the magnificent new quarters of the Imperial Customs Service. At the upper end of the Bund a 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 I counted nearly a hundred wires on one pole opposite the Club. And the needed touch of colour is added to the scene as you look at it from on deck, by the gay flags of the mail steamers and the Consular bunting floating over the town.

The first sight of Shanghai, moreover, is only its first surprise. As I was rolling away to the hotel the 'ricksha coolie turned on to the right-hand side of the road. Instantly a familiar figure stepped off the sidewalk and shook a warning finger, and the coolie swung back again to the left side. It was a police man — no semi-Europeanised Mongolian, languidly performing a halfunderstood duty, but the genuine home article, helmet, blue suit, silver buttons, regulation boots, truncheon and all just " bobby." And his uplifted finger turned the traffic to the left in Shanghai precisely as it does in front of the Mansion House. A hundred yards further on there was a flash of scarlet in the sun, and there stood a second astonishing figure — a six-foot copper-coloured Sikh, topped by a huge red turban, and clad also in blue and armed with the same trun cheon, striding solemnly by on his beat.

Then came the Chinese policeman, with his little saucer hat of red bamboo and his white gaiters, swinging a diminutive staff — a reduced and rather comical replica of his big English and Indian comrades. Then as we crossed the bridge into the French Concession there appeared the sergent de ville, absolutely the same as you see him in the Place de l'Opera — peaked cap, waxed moustache, baggy red trousers, sabre, and revolver. And beyond him again was the Frenchified Chinese police man. In fact, Shanghai is guarded municipally by no fewer than six distinct species of policemen — English, Sikh, Anglo- Chinese, French, Franco - Chinese, and the long-legged mounted Sikhs on sturdy white ponies, who clank their sabres around the outskirts of the town, and carry terror into the turbulent Chinese quarters.

Shanghai, like so much of the Empire, was originally spoUa opima. It was captured from the Chinese on June 19, 1842, and opened to foreign trade in November, 1843. It is in the middle of the coast-line of China, in the south-east corner of the province of Kiang-su, at the junction of the rivers Hwang-pu and Woosung (or Soochow Creek), twelve miles above the point where these flow together into the estuary of the Yangtsze. Shanghai is thus practically at the mouth of the great waterway of China, and it is the chief outlet and distributing centre for the huge northern and central provinces. It has been called the " com mercial metropolis of China," since so large a percentage of the total foreign trade of China passes through it. The native city, which has about 125,000 inhabitants, and lies behind the foreign city, was an important emporium of trade for centuries.

Its walls, which are three miles and a half in circumference, were THE BRITISH EMPIllE. built in the sixteenth century to keep off an earlier Japanese invasion. The French obtained a grant of their present Settle ment in return for services rendered in driving out the rebels in 1853. Shanghai has been the scene of a good deal of warfare. In 1853 the native city was captured by the rebels, who held it for seventeen months. In 1861, the Taiping rebels, after cap turing Soochow in the previous year, advanced upon Shanghai, but were driven back by British and Indian regiments, aided by French marines. It was at this time that "Chinese Gordon" appeared upon the scene. The Imperial authorities, at their wits' end, allowed an American adventurer to enlist a number of more or less disreputable foreigners, and with their aid to raise and drill a horde of natives.

These passed under the com mandos another American named Burgevine, who finally deserted to the rebels. The Imperialists were thus left with a mutinous and almost uncontrollable band of their own people to deal with, little more dangerous than the rebels themselves. It was these that Major Gordon, B.E., was allowed to discipline and lead against the Taipings, as the self-christened "Ever-Victorious Army," and it was no doubt owing to his extraordinary prowess that the Imperial authority was re-established. Opinions differ among students of Chinese history as to whether it would not have been better for China had the Taipings succeeded. I came upon many curious reminiscences of General Gordon up and down the coast of China. He was a man of remarkable virtues and of no less remarkable weaknesses, and the stories of him which survive in the Far East would make very interesting reading.

I do not give them, however, because public opinion seems to have determined that this many-sided man shall be known under one aspect only of his life— that of hero. I will only say that there is correspondence of his still in existence in China, some of which I have read, which should in the interests of history be published. His opinions of the Viceroy Li Hung chang, whom he greatly respected and whom he had once spent some time in trying to shoot with his own hand, were of a particularly striking character. The original regulations under which Shanghai is governed were drawn up by the British Consul in 1845. These were amended in 1854 by an agreement between the Consul and the inhabitants ; and in 1863 the American Settlement was amalgamated with the British. A number of vain efforts have been made to induce the French to join this, but although much smaller both in area, population, and trade, it has declined to do so, and remains under the " Reglement d'Organisation Municipale de la Concession Fran caise" of 1862.

The other two nationalities have not yet succeeded in agreeing with the diplomatic authorities for the revision of the " Council for the Foreign Community of Shanghai North of the Yang-king-pang " of 1870. Modern Shanghai is thus divided, like ancient Gaul, into three parts : the English settlement, the American settlement, called Hongkew, and the much smaller French "Concession." Three creeks divide these communities from each other — Yang-king-pang, Soochow Creek, and Defence Creek between the English settlement and China. Oue 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 a stream of ponies and smart carriages and pedestrians and bicyclists. It is the Rotten Row of Shanghai, leading to the Bubbling Well, and the one country drive the community possesses.

But in truth there is not much "country" about it, the environs of Shanghai being flat and ugly — the nearest hill being nineteen miles away, and covered with grave-mounds as thickly as the battlefields round Gravelotte. Shanghai dubbed itself long ago the "Model Settlement." Then a noble English globe-trotter came along, and afterwards described it in the House of Lords as " a sink of corruption." Thereupon a witty Consul suggested that in suture it should be known as the " Model Sink." For my own part I should not grudge it the first title, for it is one of the best governed places municipally — at any rate, so far as the Anglo-American quarters are concerned — that I have ever known. The French, as I have said, live apart under their own Municipal Council, presided over, and even dismissed at pleasure, by their own Consul.

The English and American elected Municipal Council consists of nine members, with an elected chairman at its head. And a 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 wheelbarrows through the foreign settlement with ungreased wheels. The third surprise of Shanghai does not dawn upon you immediately. It is a Republic — a community of nations, self-governed and practically independent, 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 opinion from 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 jurisdiction. In the " Maloo " there is a magistrate's Yamen, and there the famous " Mixed Court " sits every morning, con sisting of the Chinese magistrate and one of the foreign Consuls in turn All natives charged with offences against foreigners or foreign law are dealt with there, petty criminals being punished in the municipal prison or the chain-gang, serious offenders, or refugees from Chinese law, being sent into the native city. The Chinese magistrate in the Mixed Court is, of course, a figure-head, chiefly useful, so far as I could see, in lecturing the prisoners while the foreigner made up his mind what punishment to award. In criminal cases the Mixed Court works fairly well, but in civil suits it gives rise to numerous and bitter complaints.

The population of Shanghai on December 31, 1891, was estimated at 4,956 foreigners (British, 1,759 ; Japanese, 751; Portuguese, 542; French, 332; American, 450; Spanish, 245 ; German, 330), and Chinese, 175,000. The Republic of Shanghai has its own army, of course, com posed of volunteer infantry, 159 strong ; artillery, with 4 guns and 45 men ; and a smart but diminutive troop of 38 light horse. It has also volunteer fire-brigades, and no fewer than seven distinct postal systems of different nationalities. 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 the latter presented the Shanghai volunteers with four excellent field-guns, and send out an annual allowance of ammunition. No doubt they believe that Shanghai is a 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 it is always possible — it may be the case to-day for all I know — that a majority of those serving the guns are non-British subjects.

But this is only for the joke's 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 a wise thing after all, in spite of the fact that the volunteers are a " politically anomalous " body The social life of Shanghai is the natural outgrowth of its Republican institutions. It is democratic, and characterised by a tolerant good-fellowship. Upon this point a well-known lady was kind enough to set me right. "In Shanghai," she explained, "everybody is equal. In Hongkong everybody 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. All male Shanghai meets in the Club — one of the most comfortable 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 hospitality of Shanghai is another surprise. You might as well attempt to give your shadow the slip as to escape from the gratuitous good cheer of the Model Settlement. As for sport, on the whole Shanghai is ahead of the rest of the East. It has its charming country club, its races twice a year, its regatta, when the Chinese authorities stop all the native traffic on the river, its polo, its two cricket clubs, its base-ball, and its shooting parties in house-boats up the Yangtsze aud to the hills twenty miles away. And on Saturday afternoons if you walk out to the Bubbling Well about four o'clock you can see the finish of the paper hunt and a dozen well-mounted and scrupulously dressed jockeys come riding in to the finish and taking a 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 master. And what matter if a slanderous tradition does fret their fair fame, to the effect that once upon a time, discarding the deceptive aniseed-bag, a fox was imported 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 a Chinese boy for his life, while the master stood upon a grave mound winding his horn to a deserted landscape ? The trade of Shanghai may be roughly divided under five heads : imports — cotton piece-goods, metals, and kerosene oil ; exports — tea and silk. The tea trade, as elsewhere in China, has fallen off grievously of late, owing to the gradual fall in quality, and the competition of Ceylon and Indian teas. Foreign tea-men have made efforts of every kind to induce Chinese growers to improve their processes of preparation, hut without much result.

It is chiefly in the English market, however, that the trade has suffered. Improvement in quality (says the Commissioner of Customs) is an absolute necessity, but "China can never hope to produce a tea which will compare with Indian according to the only standard which now seems to be applicable in England — the standard of strength, the capacity to colour, to a certain point of darkness, so many gallons of water to each pound of tea." It seems as unlikely that the Chinese will learn to improve their qualities as that we shall learn how to know good tea from bad, and how to " make " it when we have secured it. To every Eastern tea-drinker the tea served at the best houses in England would be a horror. Nobody who has not travelled in the East, and arrived, after a day's tramp through a malarious and steaming jungle, at some poor Chinaman's shanty, and thankfully drunk a dozen cups of the beverage freely offered, can know how delicious and invigorating even the most modest tea can be.

The same cause has already produced a standstill and will soon produce a reduction in the Chinese silk trade. Chinese silk would be as good as any in the world if it were properly prepared, but it is now used only to add to other kinds ; whereas Japanese silk, because prepared with Western methods and con scientious intelligence, has increased its output tenfold since Japan began to sell it to foreigners. This is the old, old story of China, and it will probably never be altered until foreigners contrive — or their governments for them — to exert authority in the Celestial Kingdom, as well as to tender advice and drive bargains. The figures of Shanghai trade are, of course, a striking testimony to the preponderance of British interests and enterprise. In 1893 the number of ships entered and cleared, both under steam and sail, was 6,317, with a total tonnage of 6,529,870.

Of these, 3,092 were British, and their tonnage 3,664,175. Or, to exhibit the comparative insignifi cance of the shipping of all other foreign nations, out of the above grand totals British and Chinese ships together numbered no fewer than 4,721, with a tonnage of no less than 5,280,310. The total foreign trade of Shanghai for 1893 was 139,268,000 Haikwan taels,* of which Great Britain, Hongkong, and India stand for 80,826,000, or over 58 per cent., besides trade with • It is practically impossible to give the accurate gold equivalent of these sums. First, because silver falls so rapidly that a calculation of exchange is obsolete before it get's back from the printer ; and second, because the purchasing power of silver in the East has not fallen to anything like the same extent as its exchange against gold.

The average exchangers the Haikwan or Customs tael for 1893 was 3s. lljd., and the British Consul calculates at this figure, making the total foreign trade £27,418,388. In dealing with the figures of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs later on'l have reckoned the tael at 3s. 4d., as a nearer approximation. THE BRITISH EMriRE. other parts of the British Empire which it is impossible to cal culate separately. The direct trade with Great Britain, both imports and exports, has fallen off greatly during the past twenty years, largely because the Suez Canal has brought the southern ports of Europe into closer communication with China. But the trade between China and India is growing rapidly, although the export of opium to China from Indian ports is falling steadily and will ultimately all but disappear.

It is curious that by the "Land Regulations," which form the Constitution of Shanghai, the Chinese are forbidden to reside or hold property within the Foreign Settlements, and yet there are 175,000 of them afloat and ashore ; and I fancy even Shanghai itself would be astounded if it could be told exactly what proportion of the whole property is in their hands. There has been a good deal of talk about this, and in reply to a "Cassandra" who wrote to the papers that nothing could save Shanghai but amalgamation with the Chinese, a local writer produced some witty verses, telling how in a vision in the twentieth century — " I passed a lawyer's office, on the shingle Was ' Wang and Johnson, Barristers-at-law ' Where'er the nations had begun to mingle, Chiuese came first, I saw. " A steamer passed ; a native gave the orders ; An English quartermaster held the wheel ; The chain-gang all were white, the stalwart warders Yellow from head to heel."

Physically, at any rate, the Chinese are undoubtedly crowd ing out the Europeans. The wealthy Celestial keenly appre ciates the fact that his person and his property are infinitely securer under the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes than under the rapacious and unrestrained rule of the representative of the Son of Heaven. He is therefore prepared to pay what ever may be necessary to secure a good piece of property within which to live and trade in the foreign settlement. Whenever such a piece comes into the market it is almost sure to be knocked down to a Chinese purchaser. "Very many retired and expectant officials now make their homes in Shanghai, also many merchants who have made money. As a result, the best paying property is Chinese occupied, and of that the best is the property on which stand the pretentious establishments which furnish amusement to the Chinese jeunesse dor'ee — a class which in pre-Taiping days counted Soochow and Hangchow earthly paradises, and which now finds that the pleasures of those capitals are as abundantly supplied in the Foochow Boad.