236
CARL T. SMITH
After nine years a lying-underground
That wants unveiling; is it the Duke of Connaught? I fear we cannot hold him tho' we ought,
Has Chater found his long-last C.M.G.
Or is the new club† opened by the sea?
Even the Kowloon-Canton Railway is referred to a dozen or so years before it became a fact.†† Fra Diavolo comments on reading a newspaper:
Next comes the news China is awaking Railways in all directions she is making. Fancy from Kowloon city setting forth,
'Change here for Shanghai, Peking, and the North".
One of the lyrics gave tips for cutting a figure during the pre-race season:
If you want to know the way to be a genuine Hong Kong sport,
Listen to me.
A griffin* you must have of course, no matter of what sort. At five o'clock in the morning you must trudge to the course;
A stop watch in your pocket is the game;
And though you need not know a job about a horse
They may think you Morny Cannon all the same.
Come along with me, come along with me.
With boots and breeches spick and span,
The latest pattern from Ah Man.**
† Sir Paul Chater, Hong Kong merchant and philanthropist. Made Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George 1897.
The Hong Kong Club moved from Queen's Road and Wyndham Street to its new building on the Praya (now Connaught Road) 26 July 1897.
††† William Danby, Civil Engineer, was requested by Chinese authorities to make a survey of a railway line from Canton to Kowloon (Daily Press 30 Aug. 1884). In 1888 a group of Chinese capitalists in Hong Kong revived a scheme to build the railroad. They received permission to proceed from the Peking Government in 1890,
A survey team began work in July 1890 (Daily Press 12, 18 June, 17 July 1890). The project fell through. One of its promoters, Lo Hok-pang, formed another syndicate at Canton in 1892, but again the proposal had to be dropped. (Hong Kong Telegraph 28 Oct. 1892).
* One of the China ponies sent from North China to Shanghai and then to Hong Kong.
** A Chinese tailor.