94
HOTHOUSE TIMIDITY
(Daily Press, 14th July.)
18
It is always more satisfactory to a writer to have instead of one isolated text, a group of correlatives. Truly or falsely it seems to widen the outlook, and to bring nearer what the classics called "universals". Thus for present consideration we take the demands for rigorous prosecution of anarchists, the type of fiction now being published by the halfpenny papers, and some comments made by the North-China Daily News on the appearance of a battalion of Chinese volunteers at Shanghai. Here are incongruities rather than correlatives, it may be urged: which "just shows' the nursery people say, the untrustworthi- пеня of judgment at firet sight. The majority of the newspapers bave been pleading that the nations should eschew sentimentality and enter upon a policy of rigorous suppression. They appear happily unconscious of the fact that their singularly unanimous outburst is a direct outcome of the shock to sentiment. We have remarked the circumstance that nearly all have seen the horrid aspect of the outrage at Madrid in the fact that it should have coincided with the bridal march, that it should have marred such supreme moments of a woman's life. Then while all shared the rejoicing for a fortunate escape, few thought of the mangled dead at first. When these unfortunates were remembered, it seemed only as a spur to the cries for action, steru, merciless, against the social pests whose mau methods had caused the sensation. We set down this reflection with all due respect for human nature, admitting that the present popular attitude towards all anarchists was to be expected in the cir- cumstances.
to
Then we pass on to the type of fiction mentioned, which, as most readers know, is a modern imitation, with less literary merit, of the "Battle of Dorking" of old Magi" days. At the back of all these sensational pictures of England invaded and blasted by conquering foreigners there is an excusable purpose, akin to the objects of bodies like the Navy League, and of those who believe in the urgent need of adopting conscription. In the proper place, the traditional place for the moral of a story, we will say how and why we consider this method of pursuing a right purpose to be wrong.
COB.
There remains the third item of our multiple text, the question of the Chinese volunteers at Shanghai. Our contemporary notes their smartness and relative efficiency, points out that it was the riots of last Decem- ber that called them into being, doubts the necessity of their existence as a budy, and has no doubt at all that they constitute a danger to local society. In cur temporary's place, we should probably have said similar things, for its first concern is of course the safety of the European community. whom it so ably represents. If at this safe distance we are able to see something amusing in the quotation following, and find it fits our purpose, we know we shall be forgiven for any seeming disrespect in the using of it.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND future, as has unfortunately happened in the past, a clash of opinions between the foreign Council and the Chinese local authorities and it would be unfair to the members of the corps themselves to lay them open even to the possibility of a choice of allegiance.
!
resentment
(July 23, 1906.
Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss."
His Excellency the GOVERNOR, who ambled over on pony-I
-back in the cool of Saturday evening, did not look like an ignoring prince. Doubtless the cares of State, as exemplified by the much-criticised railway scheme, took up a large share of his mind; but it was noticed that his face did not wear its Legislative Council expression.
“Often, glad no more,
glib enough with "tips" as to the best. heats for game, as to the distances from point to point, and often the inquirer is warned against a pleasure excursion, the chief drawback appearing to be the difficulty To emphasise the correlation of the fore of obtaining suitable refreshments. Now: going references is to make the point. It is we can hardly be expected to labour the that, for causes as yet not fully appreciated, point that a man who goes over to search the race is in danger of becoming too for partridges or deer will have his attentive panicky, if it has not already gone too far. faculties sufficiently taxed to exouse his Our preachers and writers feed us on panics, overlooking matters in which other people even manufacturing panic material when it are interested. From the viewpoint of the does not conveniently present itself. Some Hedonist, there is much to be said for a years ago it was remarked that the dis-day's ramble over the district to be opened proportionate terror shown whenever an up by the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Others anarchist bomb exploded was evident in have remarked it, but neither the years nor the unanimous ferocity with which the the explorers have been sufficiently plentiful assailants were denounced, The people to say all that deserves to be said. There who run the greatest risk, the monarchs, offers "Such bliss show their breeding in the calmness of their hearing; those whose peril is a hap dred thousand times less indulge in a sheepish rage. The deliberate criers of "wolf, wolf” evidently assume that the people are so many sheep, best moved by a good scare Thus our modern fiction is designed to "make our flesh creep". To persuade the Briton to increase the number of his soldiers, or to augment the material of his navy, they deliberately try to evoke feelings of fear As yet the Briton is not quite a coward, and we suspect that an inner and perhaps unconscious
against these methods has tended to make him incline an ear, perversely as it were, to the cranks who preach disarmament, and so to bring about grave Cabinet crises like the one mentioned in our telegrams. We do not insist upon this bypothesis: we do think it time that the old spirit, which enabled DRAKE's men to play a good game of bowls while awaiting the Armada, should be given a chance to re-assert itself. Our ancestors did not worry about an extra ton or gun, but simply kept themselves "fit", to meet the foe, big or little. The idea of regarding the Chinese volunteers complacently, so long as they remain unarmed, would be amusing were it not for its contrary suggestion that carrying arms they deserve to be fearfully regarded. Yielding to hysterical outbursts against anarchists (who are not more numerous than ordinary murderers, whom we all risk), listening to silly stories of imaginary devastations in our territory, and to o.
but be demoralising. At the cannot time of Togo's victory over ROZEDEST VENSKY, the Times made a good point when said that event showed that mere material equality was as dust in the balance when weighed in the day of battle against superiority of moral equipment. The arguments against the new short rifle may be remembered as symptomatic of the demoralising nervousness against which we write. The risk to our soldiers with its shorter reach was dwelt upon, as if the man with the longer reich must always win, by virtue of were inches. A good stout heart and cool nerves count for something The bawk attacking the young rooks never stops to reckon the odds against him!
THE NEW TERRITORY.
(Daily Press, 16th July.) "So long as the members of the Chinese corps have lost its standing as a terra incognita: In eight years, the New Territory must content themselves without arms, no serious objection can be raised to their continued but how many who complain that at Hong- existence, but it is known that this is not the kong there is "nowhere to go "have crossed intention. There are very obvious reasons why the bleak looking hills that form the it would be unwise, if not impossible, to enrol familiar background to all our pictures of Chinese volunteers under the banner of the | Kowloon? "Very many, indeed" is one Municipality, and there are equally grave reasons
auswer, accompanied by the suggestion that for requiring that they shall not exercise their only a griffin could find anything new on very landable desires for military training either the other side. We are inclined to doubt within or just upon the borders of the Settlement. At any given moment there might come in the this. Many residents of the Colony are
We wear a face of joy because we have been
glad of yore." Up there was sufficient occasion for present gladness. One glorious panorama after another unfolds to the rambler's eye, much as they do on our own Peak roads, but with the additional advantage, for those who prefer pleasing prospects without vile man. in them, that there are no signs of steam fr smoke. Indeed one can enter into something of the awe of old-time explorers of whole- exploits we read, for the valley of Tide Cove [name of romance!] yields up its secrets deliberately, one by one, as if to make us appreciate each point to the full, like a connoiseur mouthing rare wine. An through "the midst of this wid quietness", before we are well entered into the second decade of possession, railway trains will puff and snort and shriek. If any excuse be needed for our thus discussing nothing in particular, it should be that we take the opportunity to urge nature-lovers to enjoy what is as yet unblemished. On this side of the hills, the Botanical and Afforestation Department had nakedness to clothe; on you, there was little but trimming to do, and it must have been discreetly done. Saturday's sunshine burnished the ripe rice-fields, in which the women were busy narvesting. Looking down 'from nhove, there seemed acres and acres of verdant crops; but closer inspection showed that most was ready for the sickle, In the village environs, the flails were busy. Whether reaping or threshing, the labourers were all women and girls, so that there was a chance to verify LEIGH HUNT's famous couplet,
:
"The two divinest things the world has
got
A lovely woman in a rural spot.”
It was stated that there were reasons for the dearth of men; that railway work and mining drew them from agriculture. A vision of a miracle famous throughout Christendom was beheld on the innermost An Oriental walked upon the water! Wide arm of that Tide Cove already mentioned. as it is, and often dotted with fishing boats, this bay is so shallow that during low tide only an inch or two of water remains, and walking is more practicable than mailing There are whispers that a brain, well known for its cleverness in providing for the substitution of sampans with electric trams, has conceived an idea for damming this bay and reclaiming much land, which,
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