'90 NAMES AND NICKNAMES OF THE 



actually attack Shanghai. That was in August, 1860. They 

 heralded their coming in characteristic fashion. That ruddy 

 glow in the western sky after sunset was not the effect of a 

 specially fine display of nature's own colouring. It was the 

 lurid glare of burning towns and villages, for which there was 

 not even the poor excuse of 'cold weather. It drew nearer. 

 It reached Minghong. A little later the rebel had established 

 his headquarters at Siccawei, whence he launched his attack 

 on the city — not on the settlements. He received a warm 

 welcome, but it was not till 48 hours afterwards that he drew 

 off vowing vengeance. Foreigners had invited him to come, 

 he said, and he would come again with greater power. One 

 of the results of his visit was the destruction by fire of a big 

 business area then lying between the city and the French 

 settlement. Another was the exaltation of the prestige of 

 Shanghai in every quarter of the empire. Here was a City 

 of Refuge indeed. As a political "health resort," the fame 

 ■of the settlements was established for ever and aye. 



Once in later years during one of the periodical times of 

 friction between West and East, one of the younger hot- 

 heads in the capital urged his elders to make a clean sweep 

 of Shanghai, and pack off its foreign residents bag and bag- 

 gage back to their own lands. "Tut, tut," an old official 

 is said to have retorted, "what nonsense you talk ! If there 

 were no foreigners at Shanghai who would take care of our 

 women and children when the next rebellion comes along ? ' ' 

 It is, however, true that some of the said foreigners would 

 now gladly change the title thus gained by the settlements, 

 and for "Citv of Refuge" read "Alsatia. " 



We now come to- another and even more widely spread 

 title under which modern Shanghai has been introduced to 

 the world. Precisely when she first acquired the pleasing 

 cognomen of "The Model Settlement," I have failed to 

 discover. But it is easy to imagine how much the visiting 

 native must have been impressed by the ten-year old town 

 with its — to him — immensely wide streets, lighted at night 

 by oil lamps at a cost of no less than $12 monthly, its 

 numerous private and public jetties, its spacious compounds 

 with their well-kept flower gardens, its bustle, energy, trade, 

 and rapid development. All this must have impressed him 

 as a first visit to London or New York now impresses an 

 English country boy or an American backwoodsman. 

 To-day, let us suppose a Tsungming islander to land at the 

 mail jetty and just as night falls to be taken for a stroll up 

 the Nanking Road. Let us imagine, if we can, his sensa- 

 tions, and we shall no longer wonder why to his class at least 

 Shanghai is not merely a Model place but a miraculous one. 



