THE VARIED CROWD 11 



signs, emblazoned witli Chinese characters in red 

 and gold. Yellow flags, on which the Imperial 

 dragon w^ith horrific mouth pursued the fabulous 

 pearl, represented by a flaming red splash, were 

 the principal features of the decoration. In the open 

 shops rows of Chinese watched the kaleidoscopic 

 crowd beneath. Children, gaily dressed with tufted 

 scalps, howled lustily, for there is nothing the 

 Chinese baby does so constantly nor so efficiently. 

 Coolies, swaying along beneath balanced bamboos, 

 swerved hurriedly to the right hand or to the left 

 as the sharp staccato cries of the rickshaw men 

 cleared the way. Wheelbarrows, those curious 

 contrivances which can carry heavier weights than 

 any wheelbarrows in the world, trundled amid the 

 crowd with their living burdens of men and women. 

 But that which most impressed the spectator was 

 the people. Fat Chinamen, thin Chinamen ; be- 

 spectacled, clear-eyed, half-blind, or with little 

 almond eyes peering from bloated cheeks ; pale 

 yellow and dark chocolate, clothed or half-naked, 

 they surged and tossed in the narrow street w^ith 

 but one feature in common, a common factor for 

 which you would now look in vain, the once 

 universal queue. Broad, long, black and glossy, 

 or thin, wispy, grey, and attenuated, they have 

 gone now with the retiring Manchus. 



The Bund at night was a seething mass. From 

 the window of the club it showed as a blue sea on 

 which drifted and swirled white, upturned faces. 

 A couple of bluejackets sturdily ploughed their 

 way through the midst of the surging, swaying 

 throng. From a window on our right a grey- 

 haired gentleman, w^ho had obviously been doing 



