When the military weddings take place at St. John’s Cathedral, Hongkong, and the cathedrals at Shanghai and Tientsin, it is customary for the brother officers of the groom to unsheath their swords and make an arch of steel over Mars and Venus as they make their exit from the church. This old custom is not often seen elsewhere than in India and China, and would be a pretty one to adopt for military weddings the world over. The Germans particularly would take to it with zest; in fact, they have just adopted it in their “kirche” at Tsingtau, North China, and the Americans may adopt it in the smart military life of Manila.

Important newspapers published in English are the Times, at Tientsin; the Mail, Telegraph, Press and Post, of Hongkong; the Herald, News, Mercury, Press, Far Eastern Review and Times, of Shanghai; the Post, of Hankau; the Gazette and Times, of Amoy, and the Echo, of Fuchau. The Times and the Cable News, of Manila; the Free Press and Echo, of Singapore; and the Englishman, of Calcutta, may be included, together with the Chronicle, of Japan, because they circulate in China ports, “nothing that is Oriental being alien” to their fascinating news columns. Their editorials are illuminating, and often exhibit in their cultured English positive genius. They are an authoritative source of information on the absorbing theme of golden Cathay, and the interest of the brave Occidental pioneer in her awakening.

Water polo, swimming, launch, golf, cricket, tennis, yacht, dramatic, polo, etc., clubs are established at nearly all the treaty ports, and inter-Hong, inter-service, international and inter-regimental contests are constantly going on to take the edge off ennui in the long day of Oriental exile in a seven-year indenture. For those inclined to literature, science and ethnology, there are notable library and Asiatic associations, and some of them superintend an indispensable press. Royalty visits Hongkong frequently and encourages every phase of life in the premier colony. On the occasion of the Duke of Connaught’s last visit with his family they received the military at the landing pier and the populace at the City Hall; unveiled statues to the late King Edward and King George; lunched with the governor and council; attended a meeting of the Scottish Rite Masons, lunched with the mess of the Indian frontier regiment camped out on the foothills of China; attended a Chinese theater; ate at a Chinese restaurant; attended a daylight try-out of the racing ponies, Indian-breds and Walers at the Wong-Nei-Chong Jockey Club; and went with “Hoi-Polloi” on a week-end trip on the steamer Fat Shan to see Canton’s sights, and “tiffin”, as does the whole world of globe-trotters, on the third veranda of the five-storied pagoda. German royalty is just as active at Tsingtau, French nobility at Saigon and Haiphong, Portugese nobility at lovely Macao, and the cosmopolitan world at the “Paris of the East”, Shanghai. Of Macao, the famous poet, Sir John Bowring, wrote:

“Gem of the Orient earth and open sea,
Macao! that in thy lap and on thy breast
Hast gathered beauties all the loveliest,
Which the sun smiles on in his majesty.
The very clouds that top each mountain crest,
Seem to repose there, lingering lovingly.
How full of grace the green Cathayan tree
Bends to the breeze—and now thy sands are pressed
With gentle waves which ever and anon
Break their awakened furies on thy shore.
Were these the scenes that Camoens looked upon,
Whose lyre, though known to fame, knew misery more?”

In a former book, The Chinese, I have referred to the high cost of living at Hongkong, Shanghai, etc., as far as rent is concerned. This is because a navy and army have to be maintained. It is well known that Hongkong contributes to the British Budget more pro rata than any part of the long red line of British empire. The man who goes to the hot damp East to advance the cause of imperialism, and who reads Kipling and Gilbert Parker, pays high for it in money as well as health, and he deserves more than he receives. Land values are twice what they are in the suburban cities of New York, such as Brooklyn and Jersey City, and twice what they are in the outlying wards of London. Yaumati is a section of Hongkong’s colony on the China mainland, and values there are not so high as on hilly Hongkong Island. Yet a plot of land 150 by 140 feet, recently sold in Yaumati for $8,700 gold. No American or European should be sent to the treaty ports of the Far East to support any cause, diplomatic, military, commercial, scientific, academic, religious, or international customs, who is not given twice the emolument that he would receive at home. Yet the mission leaders in particular generously accept far less than they would receive as workers in America.

The foreigner has a larger list of supplies to pick from than was the case before modern roads were opened and the Chinese were taught to farm for the foreigner’s table. Ice houses, ice machinery, inspected markets, and water tanks for fish all have aided. Not so long ago we in the Far East were benzoate of soda and salicylic acid fiends, the men Doctor Wiley bemoaned; that is to say, our gun was a can-opener, and our game was tinned foods. We could go out into the jungle of Queens Road or the praya, Hongkong; Nanking Road, Shanghai; Kaiser Road, or the Chien Men Fair, Peking; or the bunds at Tientsin, Canton or Hankau, on our way home from office, and with our weapon bring down the foods of Europe, America and Australia, running, of course, not a little risk of ptomaine poisoning, positively ruining our stomachs forever, and becoming a permanent dyspeptic charge upon the nerves of the long-suffering community! Now things are better. Here is a list of fresh foods procurable in the larger ports. In the plague, typhoid or cholera season, some eschew fresh vegetables, and again, when they recall that the farmer is the town scavenger, some eschew fresh vegetables at all seasons! I quote the prices in gold, and give the Chinese word your lordly cook calls out to the obsequious stallsman, so that the stranger may gain an idea that Chinese does not sound unmusical:

The table is justly famous at the following, among other hotels and clubs, and the wines are as cheap as in Europe, because no duty is charged at Hongkong, and only five per cent. in China. In Japan, however, and in French China there is a heavy duty on foreign liquor. The Grand Hotel and the club, at Yokohama; the club, Kobe; Wagon Lits and club, Peking; Imperial Hotel and club, Tientsin; Astor House and club, Shanghai; Peak, Grand, Craigieburn, Hongkong and Astor Hotels and club, at Hongkong; Victoria Hotel and club, Canton; Boa Vista, Hing Kee and club, at Macao. When you go there, next time, tourist, ask for broiled samli or Sek Pan at Macao; toasted rice birds or Ap ducks at Shanghai; Mongolian mutton at Peking; roasted imperial pheasant at Tientsin; preserved comquats in ginger syrup, Hungyan almonds, and Sai Kwa watermelons at Canton; Hung Lai plums at Swatow; Tin Chun Khor apples at Chifu; fresh lichees or Phor Kai turkey at Hongkong, and ruby red persimmons at Yokohama. It is not well to be a gourmand always, but it is well to be an epicure on eminent occasions, so as to remember them forever, from fear that, as in Senator Ingalls’ poem, “Opportunity knocks but once.”

XXI
FOREIGN CITIES OF CHINA