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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
of m terial light, something must be do e, and that apparently quickly Men like an ASQUITH, & CHURCHILL, A LLOYD GEORGE, and a GREY, whose only boud of uniqu is disco utentcannot be found to make that a basis for re-erecting the fabric of Government already rudely shattered. Some one must be found in time of peril to take command of the ship, already drifting on the rocks of socialism and revolution..
RANDOM REFLECTIONS.
I see the newspapers are warning house holders to take additional precautions at the of their Chinese servants. As we know the present time and not put temptation in the way Chinese will do almost anything to procure the wherewithal which will give them a good time at the New Year and the newspaper warnings should not pass unheeded. Many a European has to mourn the loss of valuables which disappeared just prior to these holiday and an experience of that sort does not add to the enjoyment of the holidays.
Local firms who present Chinese calendars to their patrons must feel embarassed by the extra ordinary number and nature of the applications for their pictorial favours, Calendars have achieved a wonderful popularity among the Chinese and it is difficult at the present time for the European to dodge the requests of boys, coolies and shroffs who make their applications direct or ask you to talkee taipan one piecee calendar my." Next to possessing money their one aim these days seems to be to get a calendar
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I am reminded of this by the following quaintly expressed epistle which was handed me Dear Mrs. P. W. Smith--I beg you will kindly give me too Chinese and two English calendars. Please deliver to bearer to bring back and I shall be very much thanked and obliged with your kindness yours with great esteem and condescension."
[January 23, 1909.
inducement to take up sport, but Chinese boys are different. They require comparatively little but it takes a lot to get them to take up sport inducement to apply themselves to their studies,
'as we understand it.
At this time of the year when suggestions for improvements in the educational curricula of the schools of the Colony are timely, let me draw attention to the commercial value of look- ing pleasant. I see this art is now being demonstrated in the American public schools. Most people, I think, are struck by the immo- bile expression of the Chinese salesman which ̈ gives the impression that he doesn't care a button whether you make a purchase or not, Now, in the course for saleswomen in the Ameri- can public schools, pupils are taught, among tomer approaches. A New York paper suggests other things, the art of smiling when the ous- that the art of looking pleasant is worthy of an endowed university-extension lectureship. Per- haps the Faculty of the Hongkong University (when it comes into existence) will bear the suggestion in mind.
In Hongkong even the civilian has to smell powder. He is under fire day and night for two or three days. True, it is only the discharge of crackers and bombs and other fireworks but they are almost as nerve shattering as the real thing, and the fumes of sulphur assail the nostrils just as strongly as they would in times of more serious operations. If it would not be considered ironical the best I can wish my readers is a quiet time during the New Year.
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kong. We see very few of them, and I have Merry Widow hats are not popular in Hong- been told that the Peak cars are responsible for this. This reflection is suggested by the receipt of the following clipping from a correspondent
who
says
he has witnessed a somewhat similar
incident on the Peak car:-
So much for the present as ect of the Un- | out of chaos and restored to the blessings | to some extent to their studies and need little representative House, which, it is not too much to say, is rapidly becoming a laughing stock, and whose most cherished attempt at legislating for a nation of grandmothers are rapidly finding their natural resting place in the waste paper basket of the House. If we look to the presumed "Upper Chamber" the outlok is not altogether wit out anxiety. Both parties, and in this neither has much to boast of over the other, have been with their eyes open vying with one another in lowering the quality of the House of Lords. Alter diluting it with all sorts of unmentionable slush it is hurdly reassuring to see them seeking to bld up the House 10 ridicule. "Sea what a feeble old House this is of yours," would he a very good part cry, doubtles were it not for the incriminating reply: "The House is нs you made it," and the criminal is not permitted to plea in his defence his own la hes. It is notorious that it is this new element in the House of Lords that has lowered the standard of the whole, Men who had failed in everything else, who had been promoted by the ministers of the day, and found utterly wanting were in the kindness of heart of the Premier of the day sent up to drone away a useless ex stence on the benches of the House of Lords. It takes, says the old proverb, turee generations to make a gentleman, but in a lower sphere it takes as many to reduce a nincompoop to utter imbecility; and the succeeding genera- tions of men promoted for incapacity were not likely to rise in the scale simply by having the title Lord appende to their Burname. These are the folk who have brought the House of Lords into contempt. With few exceptions the representatives of the older nobility understand their duties towards the House, and, what is as import- ant, towards the people and the nation. But the very weight of numbers alone has had its effect in the House of Lords, as it has notoriously in that of the Commons. No subject can be adequately discussed in a crowd sufficiently numerous to siuk the individuality of its members. The same rule that at the hustings leads men when overnumbered to vote in flocks as sheep rushing to destruction, simply because one of their number has been seized with panic, also renders incapable of judgment the member wedged in by a thoughtless crowd. Voting by shoals has indeed been the main- cause of the very notable falling of in the intelligence of both Houses, and, if not checked in time, promises at no distant date to sap the foundation of the Empire. Now it is the consciousness of this that has impelled the Committee of the Lords to present the very elaborate scheme they pro pose to the House, Unfortunately, even if acceptable in other respects, the scheme possesses the same crowning defect. Still as a first and tentative device for improving the quality of the too diluted house it has its good points. A representative house selected by itself from a body, where the majority belong to one school of thought, is certain, unless some very elaborate method of selection be brought into play, to repre- sent on the majority, and nothing weakens a legislative boy so much as the sense that it has no opposition to deal with. That original and co-opted memb'rs of deliberative assembly should belong to different classes would also bring any assembly so constituted to instant destruc tion, yet both the dects exist to an over- powering extent in the proposal. As it stands, it would, in fact, be utterly unwork-
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Turf topics are beginning to be discussed now and the attendance at the Valley is growing these mornings notwithstanding that the morn ing air bites keenly. Even the ladies are being enthused, to use a word which is not quite in common usage yet, and the forthcoming race meeting ought to be as popular as its predecessors.
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The entries for the Races closed on Saturday have not yet heard how and though I
with last year's, it may they compare bo safely assumed that they are more numerous There should be some capital sport this year. The Shanghai jockeys are beginning to put in an appearance on the train- ing course. Mr. Vida is down. He rides this year for Messrs. Findlay and Moir. Mr. Burkill will be Mr. Mody's jockey, and Mr. Hayes will ride Mr. Toeg's ponies. It is very likely that other Shanghai riders will be coming down. Hongkong in the matter of jockeys is not quite so well off this season as usual. Mr. G. C. C. Master is a great loss. Mr. R. F. C. Master, too, is away. But we still have experienced riders like Mr. Gresson, Mr. Dupree, Mr. Mackie, Mr. Gegg and others.
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Amateurs may give another production of "The There is a probability that the Kowloon Dock Silver King." Having taken so much trouble to give a very intelligent and very acceptable rendering of the famous drama they would be well advised, I think, to meet the popular demand for at least another performance. All their critics are agreed that their work was excellent, but, of course, some have their own way of expressing it.
His Excellency the Governor has had a busy time presenting prizes and discoursing to the scholars of the various schools and colleges in the colony. This year I noticed that His Excellency has been endeavouring to encourage
An amusing incident occurred a day or two ago at Frankfort. A lady boarded an electrio tram-car the platform of which was filled with smokers, but the inside was practically empty, The smokers made way for the lady to pass within, but she simply looked at the entry, and then cast an appealing glance at one of the .smokers to give her his standing place. He was somewhat embarrassed, thinking perhaps
at the lady was a smoker. Then he said, "I have often given up my seat to oblige a lady, but it is most unusual for a lady to wish to stand."
"Oh," she said, "I am not able to get inside through that opening on account of my hat." There was a laugh, and there was nothing for the smoker but to cast away his cigar and take a seat on the bench inside. This he did, and the lady with the hat triumphed.
I noticed in one New Zealand paper the other day that a bookseller, on being prosecuted for selling obscene books, protested that the spicy little stories he retailed were not half as lurid as some of Shakespeare's works which were never censured by their straight laced Government. Surely it's rather late in the day to haul up the Bard of Avon before the beak on a charge of hosts have already attended to the matter and it's pernicious literature, but perhaps the Stygian just as well the press have not been informed for I'm afraid Victoria Cross, Hubert Wales and these latter day doctrinists would feel like wishing to become immortalized and escape their
sentence.
shocks at times. I was horrified to read not Truly Mrs. Besant gives us some dreadful
long ago that after death we remain for a period
in that peculiar coma where our greatest and most cherished terrestrial joy is in sight, yet unattainable. Imagine the mental agony of the poor mortal whose earthly heaven was the before tiffin appetising gin and bitters, to see gallons
of the delicious draught arrayed before his eyes yet beyond his reach. Assuredly, the punishment
of Tantalus could not be more horrible.
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able, and would ẹ hance in téad of amend, the boys to take a greater interest in sport, and | vered, we are lost." Miss Dulcie Deamer, the
ng the weaknesses it was designed to remove. Still, if the country is to be taken
it set me wondering if he was aware of the great distinction between European and Chinese boys. European boys generally have to be kept
Like the curate in "The Private Secretary" we in Hongkong may well say "if we are disco. young New Zealand writer whom the Australian "Lone Hand" brought into publicity. evidently
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