1940-08-09 — Page 23

THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, AUGUST 9, 1940

MUTT AND JEFF

WHAT TIME IS, IT, MUTT?

EXACTLY TWELVE

NOON!

YES SIR! WHAT

WILL IT BE, SIR!

NOTHING?

'NOTHING!}

NO, I'M NOT

HUNGRY!

THEN WHAT IS

THE IDEA COMING) THIS IS

IN HERE?

T

MY LUNCH

MOUR!

6-2

Page 7 By BUD FISHER

YOUR LUNCH

·HOUR IS UP!,

An Evening With the Taxi-Girls

BEING Singapore, perhaps she]

¡themselves in a triangle that sug- gests a Somerset Maugham story.

ought to have descended from By W. J. MAKIN For an Englishman with little to

a rickshaw. Instead she descend

ed from a shining limousine, und bundle and hired herself out as a spend and a desolate evening be with a slim leg cunningly display-domestic servant.”

[fore him, the taxi-girl provides a

me entranced at her beauty.

ed by a slit white-silk skirt, løft "She seems to have prospered." pleasant interlude.

"She didn't, until one evening Of course there is the danger of She was Chinese. The daughter by chance the fellow over there-entanglement. Singapore provides of a mandarin, I was prepared to he's half Dutch, half Javanese many stories of young Europeans swear. With her almond face and persuaded her to go into a dance who fall crazily in love with these the flirtatious oblique eyes, there hall with him. She was too stunned Chinese girls. Some of the girls was the suggestion of the Forbid-to refuse. They entered a cheap leave the dance hall and find den City of Pekin in her exquisite place where most of the coloured themselves ensconced in expensive aloofness. I cursed the huge, uni-|population of Singapore enjoyed Hittle flats. Yet, for the most part,

EAT AT-

Jimmy's Kitchen

INEXPENSIVE

SATISFYING

formed Sikh who, opening the door themselves. The evening nearly the taxi-girls are studiously moral WHY BE DOWNHEARTED ?

of the limousine, momentarily ended with a free fight." obliterated the vision.

"Why?"

men who claim

the

FOR THE BEST OF GOOD CHEER· ·

COME TO THE CHANTECLER

Their own. Chinese sweethearts are often in attendance, sitting at She materialised again, lifting "Because the half-caste found the back of the dancehall and her face towards the verandah of that Sing Lee was not only

alwatching with impassive faces. Raffles' Hotel. A subtle smile superb natural dancer,

but at the white twitched her lips as she glimpsed tracted every bold partner within girls for dances. Should a girl not the man who was waiting for her the vicinity. The fellows crowded be claimed, the young Chinaman I turned. He was a big figure in round her like a honey-pot. The will saunter across the floor and and enjoy Good food; Good wine and Good music. spotless white evening-dress. A half-caste had difficulty in get-take her in his arms.

at very moderate prices. swarthy face and black hair ting her out of the place. They These Chinese youths reveal enbrosse emphasised the half- got into a rickshaw and quar- themselves as superb dance part-

caste.

"An unusual couple," nodded my friend. "But among the wealthiest in Singapore."

"Married?"

relled bitterly."

I nodded.

"2

ners for their taxi-girls.

"A good beginning to marriage," A Chinese doll in Jade green Special monthly rates for Breakfasts, Tiffins and attracted my attention. I bowed Dinners. Fish and Chips 80 cents at Snack Bar. "But out of that quarrel was at her table, and we began to born an idea. The half-caste was dance. I tried to make an impress

"Oh, yes," he nodded. "We are all very correct in Singapore sensible enough to realise that the sion on that impassive, powdered

attractive Sing Lee was only one face.

nowadays."

"Who is the girl?"

of a thousand similar Chinese She girls hidden away in the quarter came to Singapore with a tied-up of Singapore. He decided

"Called herself Sing Lee.

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"You dance very well," I said! "Okay," she said.

"Do you speak English?" I ask-

some of those thousand girls could ed. equally be persuaded like Sing

" she said. "Okay," Lee to come out and dance in the

And, that was all. The brief thres evening. He even hired a hall for minutes, which is all that the band them. Sing Lee selected the allows for each dance, was over. girls.

Soon, the dance hall was led the girl back to her table: not only attracting the coloured I discovered that it was not polite population of Singapore, but also 10 give her the fourpenny ticket a few lonely planters with money boldly. It had to be slipped de and time on their hands."

licately, into her hand beneath the table.

"Fellows like ourselves?" "Exactly. That was the begin- The taxi-girls dance until mid- ping of the taxi-girl vogue in night. Then, like Oriental Cin- Singapore. A dance partner for a derellas, they vanish. They pres few cents. And money for those sent a crumpled mass of tickets who had launched the vogue. Sing before the Chinese paymaster. Lee and her half-caste friend be-Some of the girls can earn good gan to make lots of money. Sing money. Some acquire whole books Lee was even one of the taxi-of tickets for one dance given girls in the beginning. Then they them by an adoring and grateful married, so that there should be planter who has found solace in no whisper of scandal about their his loneliness. Some of the dance establishment. Now, with two hall proprietors and there ne dance halls making money every four or five in Singapore alone make a evening for them, the couple can employing taxi-girls afford to relax. And they move, Others boldly advertise that their deduction from the girls' profits. as you see, in the best circles."

"Suppose we move from here girls are given the full value of into the circle of the taxi-girls," the tickets they collect. I suggested.

There are many highly-colour- Twenty minutes' drive into the ed stories told of the taxi-girls. I Chinese quarter of Singapore, and heard of the one who preferred to we parked outside a brilliant, dance only with British Naval of- electrically-lit fair-ground. "The ficers.

She showed an unusual

New World" it announced itself interest in talk of the new dock- bravely to the night sky. We drift-yard, until the, Singapore police ed through а lath-and-canvas found that she was in the pay of Chinese gateway.

the Japanese. She was promptly Naval

I was led to a huge lump of deported back to China. white architecture which suggest-officers, have since shown them- ed a modern garage for a thou-selves to be very much the "silent cand cars. Actually it was a dance service" when spending an even- hall containing about a thousanding among the taxi-giris.

I asked one. humans--yellow and brown, blacks

Chinese taxi-girl" and pink. We purchased a book for a dance. She wore a yellow, of tickets at the entrance and silk jacket with red dragons passed through the swing doors writhing across it. She politely re- jazz, tin pahits and sirop drinks "Sorry, I very tired" is highly mixed and coloured: as: "Leave her alone," whispered my friend, "She belongs to the

BLONDE BRUNETTE VIVID into an atmosphere of sounding fused.

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But everything most decorous. wealthiest taipan in Singapore, The taxi-girls were there; a hun- She is not allowed to dance with other Michel beautifiers, especially dred-and-one of them. They word anyone else."

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slant eyes stared flirtatiously at, I hurriedly sought another part-ever. Too late to offer them tea, oft nothing: I was told; the etiquette ner. The dance was the: "Lambeth course, with the hands of the cabin. of the evening. You tear a ticket Walk." My Chinese, taxi-girl want chronometer standing at an

And D. from the book. Each ticket costs through it gracefully and de- compromising siz-fifteen.

the visit will develop once again into: fourpence and entitles you, to a corously.

an informal cocktail party. Tho. Twins have quite possibly foreseen Luckily there is still a shot or two of gin in the cabin locker, and a tall. bottle of Rose's Lime Juice in a

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dance. Select your girl according "Everything free; and cosy.. to, the appeal of the bright colour Do. as you: darn well pleasy,

of hor silk, jackot" and; slit, skirt, Thero was not a suspicion of a Not all of them, speak. English; milo on, her face. I led her back they, all" dance superbly..

to the table and slipped; her a My friend had already selected ticket; with; n sight

Tha cunningly, constructed› rack. Twins are quite firm: about this gim and lime. They know it helps to keep those alender graceful: figure lines which appeal to yachtsmen like some shapely beauty from, the yard of a master builder The yachting world bestows no higher praise. And never by any chance can there be the tiniest trace of a headache after Rose's, an important point for young ladies as popular as these unpunctual Twins,

his Chinesa: doll and was slither-In the: Chinese chatter, of these still upset Imperial prestige by herself in marriage to the first ng, the floor with her. So also girls between dances one need selling their daughters when in man who was willing to subscribo were many other yoling: English not be surprised to hear the financial difficultios-the Chinese in hard cash 10,000 dollars: to - planters. There arenany, lonely politics of the Far East being dis- girls of Singapore, are fanatically help: China. defeat the enemy. I young men in Malaya to-day. To cussed. Although the Chinese patriotic to the China: of Chiang felt like "Tha... Card' in iAraakių. bring out an English wife Is an woman is considered the most un- Kai-shek...

Renbott's, novol when I offered expensive undertaking. Most white wanted of all surplus females- A beautiful taxi-girl was point- lier a fourpenny ticket for a dance, linen and women avold entangling Chinese fathers in Hong Kong ed out to me. She had- offered Sho graciously accepted,