214
ILLEGITIMATE LAUDATION.
(Daily Press, 19th March.)
H
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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as it were.
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[March 24, 1906, smile, and B passionate fondness for adage has made itself apparent-the- one flowers," "She would hold a flower to that gratuitously reminds us how we miss her face, drink in its fragrance, and the water when the well runs dry. As we The newspapers have been giving a good caress it as if it were a sentient thing." That | know, work is proceeding now to increase our deal of attention to a hook written by Miss is very pretty, but there is no evidence that local storage capacity, and it is to be hopell KATHARINE A CARL, the American lady this taste, so symptomatic of an angelic that nothing will be allowed to stand-in ilio who is justifiably elated at the fact that she temperament, has been acquired only in the way of its being steadily continued. In the was privileged to paint the first portrait last half dozen years. We have no doubt past, very curious views appear to Bare ever made of the Chinese DowAGEE-EM- that she continued to be well supplied with PRESS. Considering all the difficulties flowers to caress all the time the prisoners matter. The first serious talk of establish- been entertained of the importance of the attending the undertaking, we understand | in the Legations were yearning for food to ing waterworks seems to have been in the that it was a very good painting, and are eat. Miss CARL has quite a lot to my year 1858, and for his ardent advocacy, in disposed to give ungrudgingly all the credit about her patroness's fondness for dogs, a face of influential opposition, of what we to Miss CAEL that she deserves as an artist, trait that was shared by one WILLIAM DOW unanimously recognise as the only But we are less satisfied with the book she SYKES. There is also a foolish anecdote sensible programme, the Colonial Secretary has written, describing the DOWAGER- intended to illustrate the EMPRESS's "won- of that day, Mr. W. T. MERCER, deserves a ' EMPRESS as a gracious and lovable woman. | derful personal magnetism " (a truly Ameri- monument. It seems difficult to believe, We are embarrassed by the sex of the can phrase) and her "power over animals." but the absurdity is recorded in our Colonisi author, to whom we cannot decently apply M188 CARL is probably justified in telling history, that the Governor, Bir Joux Bow- such terms as sycophantic or toadyish. We us that the Dowager-ExpRESS is anxious must be content to point out that with a that the Chinese should not be overtaxed; it of the Government to furnish individuals RING, opined that it was not the business better sense of proportion, and a less over- is one of those little remarks that Her with water any more than other necessaries whelming sense of the unique honour Majesty night easily let slip, inadvertently of life, and that therefore the annual income conferred upon her Miss CARL would have been enabled to avoid many mistakes and with one specimen anecdote, one of the kind such speculations!" He thought it ought We will now dismiss the subject of the Colony was not fairly applicable to misrepresentations in this half-guinea that "need no comment.” It is said to account of her stay "With the Empress illustrate the combination of womanly kind- company, and even then talked in a way to to be left to the enterprise of a joint-stook Dowager of China."
It would have been liness and Imperial etiquette in Her Majesty's frighten off such enterprise by mentioning too much to expect of the modern racoethes | composition. scribendi patieut, under such apparently | high rank, married to a kinsman of the charges from the Chinese.
"On one occasion a lady of the probable difficulty of collecting water advantageous conditious in the way of ex-
To do bim EMPRESS-DOWAGER, was invited to the justice, Sir JOHN BOWRING had ono excuse, clusive information, to refrain from tempta- Palace with her family. She had two little that we may regard as natural, though not tion altogether. Of late years the veil of girls, and when the family went up to how valid. He was very much in love with his mystery covering Her Imperial Highness of and repeat the salutation to Her Majesty, Praya scheme, and having already experi- China has worn thin, aud Miss CARL'S the younger daughter, only five years old, enced on more than one occasion the passive opportunities, specially good for painting refused either to make the bow or repeat the resistance that departmentalism can offer to portrait, were by no means so for a character salutation, but sat down on the floor and the energy of the most energetic governor, study. Lady SUSAN TOWNLEY had already cried! told us what an amiable hostess
The EMPRES8-DOWAGER waited he seems to have jumped to the conclusion Dowager-EmpRESS could be; other ladies, girl, for she is very fond of children and
the patiently for the mother to correct the little that some of the opponents of his scheme to the regret of many people of a less disposed to condone their faults.
were trumping up these new schemes in forgetful nature, have taken occasion to girl would not, however, listen to reason, ing his own.
The little the hope of diverting funds and so swamp- observe the same thing. This social charm and continued to show temper. Her Majesty his successor, Sir HERCULES ROBINSON, TO It was left, eventually, for is by no means inseparable from a reputa- could not allow such a breach of the tion for qualities less pleasing.
take up
the matter, and this was done, we CABAR prieties,' oveu in a child of this age, and read, “with the vigour which characterised BORGIA Would have been welcome the high rank of the family of the little girl all his doings," ably supported by the ornament to any polite circle; and the made it the more imperative that she should Colonial Secretary already mentioned. By father of Lord BYRON'S "Haidee was us genteel a fellow as any who ever cut
conform to the rules of propriety and observe the year 1863, the works were sufficiently the etiquette of the Court, throat. We have our own opinion of the Majesty saw that all efforts at bringing her and then our waterless "drinking fountain" When Her advanced to justify a charge for water, ability of Miss CARL's heroine; possibly, to reason were fruitless, she ordered the in view of conditions and circumstances at child to be taken away. Whereupon the The population at that time was only was erected in front of the City Hall site. Peking, any cunning woman with the right mother began crying, and begged her not to 124,850, including 3,149 non-Chinese. The amount of unscrupulousness could have be offended with the little girl. She replied, first water charge was at the rate of two per bested the domineering record of TzE-HI,Do you think a person of superior intel. cent. on the gross annual value of house Tzu-Hei, or, 88 the Americans call ligence could be offended with a baby 7 I property, as assessed. But it was even then her, TSI-ANN. Much less a matter of send you out of the Palace to teach you a
realised that the relief was only temporary. opinion, however, is the guilt of this lesson, which you must teach your child. I The population was expected to grow rapidly, eminent personage's behaviour to the do not blame her; I blame you and pity although, as a fact, it decreased considerably stranger within her gates. Perhaps, we her; but she must suffer as well as yourself. at that period Five years later, when the might say of her complaisance to Lega. You must teach your child that "it is by foreign population had doubled, Sir R. G. tion ladies and to Miss CARL, she does right the rules of propriety that character is MACDONNELL spent nearly $20,000 to im to dissemble her hate, but why should they established (Confucius); and she was therefore sing the praises of a hostess whose inexorable. The family left the Palace and end of the year was asking for a further prove the water supply, and towards the treatment of foreign guests in the past was was not invited again for some time.” apparently modelled on NERO's treatment modest implication as to who was "a person Governor spoke of it as "a most necessary The $20,000. Unlike Sir John Bowring, this of the Early Christiana? Her age, aud her of superior intelligence rumoured growing infirmity, would prompt warmated by the incident of expecting an of the Colonial employees which had so scarcely seems public work," and deplored the incompetence us to let bygones be bygones, if people like infant to remember that rules of propriety botched an important scheme. He was the MissCARL would only not startle us with these establish character. It certainly does not first to import a competent engineer to "revelations" of how a charming lady must appear to us that the ruling on propriety superintend the waterworks. The Pokfulam have been maligned. Miss CARL is wholly mentioned establishes the character in scheme, begun in 1871, was completed in appreciative, and professes to "love her as which Miss CARL of America desires us to Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY's administration, a woman." Of courss that may wean no believe. more than the kiss of one woman to another,
when the Tytam scheme, now advancing a followed often by some scandalous criticism
further stage, was first projece, The of the person kissed. Miss Carl will have no backbiting, however: she is convinced that the Dowager-Empress has been up- fairly criticised, and feels it a duty to rush into print, in defiance of Court etiquette, in her defence. Her evidence, unfortunately, has insufficient weight. There is nothing Inconsistent with our estimate of the ladly's character in Miss CARL's discovery that she is a ““kindly-looking lady, re markably young looking, with a winning
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HONGKONG WATER SUPPLY SCHEMES.
Daily Press, 20th March.) There can be no better illustration of the truth of the tempora mutantur adage than a review of the history of Hongkong's water supply. In these days, we regard adequate arrangements for a plentiful supply of good fresh water as the first and paramount duty of our legislators; especially during the last week, when the value of another well-known
WI
ole history of the water schemes is a Lis- tered schemes and tinkering, owing to besitations and diffiuences connected with funds. In Sir J. P. HENNESSY's time, the question of the water supply was still a financial one; and we read that as this and other public works, his term of as regards office was number of important works discussed, de
"chiefly reinarkable for the
clared urgent, and rejected or postpon Nothing can be more urgent quate water supply, and there
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