WF 7 
Turin*, Fire Dollar* a Vear. 
Ten Cent* a Copy. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 
For Fortst and Xtrtam. 
sgo/IH'ti Waive: 
OH, 
HOW I LOST THE CUP. 
/JOGGLES wna too impetuous; he should Imve made 
V-l hie announcement gradually, and at a more oppor- 
tune moment. After dinner for instance, when the con- 
sumption of a bottle of Branne Mouton would have as- 
sisted us to withstand the shock; and with some regard for 
our exhausted frames, debilitated by a long and trying 
Summer. Yes, under the circumstance, Goggles was 
hasty; but then lie always was, whether in giving the stroke 
in the four-oar in our evening spins down the river or in 
pushing his horse at a ditch in the Saturdays Paper Hunt 
He should have remembered that with the exception of an 
occasional female missionary, the society of the other sex 
was but a dream of the past to us poor exiles. 
“I say, boys, what do you think is in the wind now?" 
Three high office stools were swung on their pivots, and 
three pairs of eyes gazed at him in anxious expectancy. 
“We are to have a young woman in the house!" 
T hrce office stools were kicked over without regard to 
inevitable dislocations, and the speaker was surrounded in 
an instant. 
“Old father Time is coming up the coast by the next 
steamer with his daughter Nellie, and the taepan. has asked 
them to put up here. Race week near at hand too. What 
are you all going to do about it?" 
Certainly Goggles was too abrupt. Fortunately, as he 
opened the office door, the first fresh blast of the new mon- 
soon swept past him, and its reviving influence prevented 
nny disastrous consequonces. Sure enough, what were we 
going to do about it? Four unfortunates, wearing out 
lungs and livers in the service of the Ti-Cheong Hong- 
sweltering through the long Shanghae Summers, and freeze- 
ing in the Winters; our tea-smelling lives, varied only by 
the arrival of the fortnightly P. and O. steamer "with the 
mails, and the semi-annual race meeting, when all China 
would wake from Us torpor to go into the sport, with the 
vim with which your true Britisher— the prime mover— en- 
joys his games, even in the antipodes. 
And now, the even tenor of our existence was to be dis- 
turbed by the advent of a young lady. Can any one im- 
agine a more discordant element to be introduced? I saw 
plainly how it would end; Goggles, in order to save his 
wind for Miss Nellie's delectation at the piano in the even- 
ing, would give up the four-oar, just when I most wanted 
the training. Stops, our heavy man, who was supposed to 
know all about the stores and Curio shops, would monopo- 
lize the pony trap and expect me to do half his office work; 
while the bust of the quartet, good natured old Lubbock,' 
would write mora verses than invoices, and half kill us 
with his execrable puns. At any other time it would not 
have been so bad; willingly would I have given up our 
evening rubber of whist or game of billiards, and even 
done Stops' work, for the fun of seeing the other fellows 
spooney; but Just now when every day was precious, it was 
truly an unquuliAcd bore. 
Rumors of the irresistible attractions of the fair Miss 
Nellie had long before reached us, and report credited her 
with having subjugated the affections of more than oue gal - 
ant officer of each branch, military, naval and civil, of 
Her Majesty’s service, while the list of Cha-zes (tea-tust- 
‘■rs) and other small fry, who had succumbed to her charms, 
was as long as the string of characters in a Confucian 
proverb. But whilo giving the young lady credit for all 
ic loveliness with which both nature nnd report had en- 
dowed her, and notwithstanding long years of absence 
roin such enchanting society, her coming, instend of pro- 
ucmg the usual hoart flutterings, was a source of unmiti- 
KUteit nnnoyanco. 
The fact Is, at this time, all my affections were engrossed 
thft v y “Safety Valve;" a recent importation from 
tlm a/ *’ W lh whom 1 C()nfl dently expected to carry off 
sci. 0 AUt M mn 0up; lho gro,u People chase event of the 
! l rftc , e of ,lbout lwo or twice around a 
Ur>0 10 be 8e,ccle ‘> b y stewards," as the programmes 
Volume 4, Number 20. 
IT Chatham 6i.(Cltyllall*, r .) 
Of the meeting described it. Now up to this time I hud 
managed to keep Safety Valve dark, and no one outside 
the h°„g suspected the capabilities of the closely blanketed 
and hooded animal who took his evening walk to the course 
ith the rest of the string, and was receiving his jumping 
lessons very quietly beyond the settlement. Neither would 
any one have recognized in the smooth coated and well con- 
ditioned nag, the shaggy and unkempt beast, which but a 
few weeks before was landed from the Tien Tsin steamer. 
Night after night, assisted by my faithful mafoo and the 
dim light of a stable lantern I had worked over him trim- 
ming off fetlocks and tail, which were still matted and 
clogged with the mud of his native Tartary, and by con- 
stant friction, aided by Judiciously administered warm 
mashes, had succeeded in removing his long and dirty coat 
until the rich steel gray of his new jacket began to shine 
like silver and a few weeks’ training, and abundant feeds 
of good old oats, had brought him into condition fit to run 
for a man's life. 
Autumn in Shanghae. What a relief to feel once more 
the refreshing breeze, which wafts from Northern Seas a 
renewed stock of life and energy. 
“Five o’clock. Spots ; put up the books and let us go 
down to the bund /or a walk. The ‘Aden' is due this even- 
ing, so I suppose there is no chance of getting you fellows 
out for a pull, but we may hear something of the steamer » 
How fresh and crisp the wind feels, and how cheerful 
every one looks! The cool nnd bracing air of the North- 
east Monsoon has driven from the minds of the enervated 
population the horrors of the past Summer. Even the 
memory of those stricken down by disease and buried far 
from home and kindred, is rapidly fading, and the long 
dismal days of cruel, blinding sunlight and suffocating heat 
past now, but soon to come again, are forgotten in the 
balmy air of the-present. And it is a glorious scene on 
such a day. The noble bund or promenade, stretching for 
a mile along the Wang-poo River, is lined with palatial 
residences of “princes," merchants in name, but who never 
more deserved the title than here in the far East; certainly 
if immense retinues of servants, every luxury that money 
can buy, nnd above all, the most “princely" hospitality, 
constitute any claim to it. 
The scene on this same bund almost defies description. 
Constantinople, or Scutari in the days of the Crimean war 
could scarcely have exhibited such a motley gathering. 
Every nation on earth seems to have sent a representative. 
Hindoos, Armenians, Parsecs, Malays, Turks, and Greeks. 
French soldiers in scarlet peg-tops, and British officers in red 
nnd blue. Picturesquely dressed Cantonese, and dirty Sbang- 
hai-ese. Natives of every province— from Mantcburia to 
Cochin China, as woll ns every European nation, and lastly, 
the inevitable nnd ubiquitous down oast skipper, in a plug 
bat. The band of a British regiment plays the last new 
waltz. Feeble looking ladies, clouds of muslin nnd laces, 
in Parisian bonnets, take their evening promenade in sedan 
chairs carried by coolies in livery. Gay cavaliers prance 
about on beautiful Arabs or English thoroughbreds, while 
a few determined looking men with huge walking sticks, 
rush by at a flve-mile-au-hour gait, as though their lives de- 
pended upon their getting their constitutional walk before 
dinner. Off on the river, where the tong shadows of the 
houses give a deeper tint to the muddy water, ships of all 
nations lie swinging at their anchors; conspicuous among 
them all for grace and lofty symmetry, is the noble old Hart- 
ford, then as now, the flag ship of our Asiatic Squadron. 
By the bye, why can not our navy department give this, 
our most historical ship, her well earned rest. Three cou- 
aecutive squadrons has she marshalled in the China waters, 
until the natives verily believe that she is the only ship of 
that class which we possess. The sun dips lower, sinking 
behind the innumerable mounds which cover the bones of 
countless generations of Chinamen; beyond which, a few 
tall trees stand in bold relief against the clear red sky. A 
puff of white smoke from the gangway of each man of 
war, and a general dippiug of ensigns proclaim it sunset, 
and all Shaughae proceeds to array itself in immaculate 
broadcloth ami spotless linen, preparatory to the great busi- 
ness of the day, its dinner. 
Moved by the same impulse, we started for the hong, 
but before leaving the bund, a heavier puff of smoke, and 
the dull report of a gun attracted our attention. 
'By Jove.” said Spots, “there’s the Aden now, I can see 
her masts moving through the rest of the shipping; no 
doubt the gig has put off already, and we had better hurry 
home and dress." * 
Au hour later, in all the glory of swallowtail coat and 
white choker I descended to the drawing room, and the 
butler, meeting me at the door, imparled the pleasing in- 
telligence that dinner would be postponed an hour on ac- 
count of the new comers. So the delays and vexations 
bad commenced already, and this was the way the thing 
was likely to he continued. To lose one’s training an J 
pleasant evenings was bad enough, but to have to eat cold 
soup every night while a woman prinked and peacocked 
before a looking-glass, was crowding the mourners with a 
vengeance. 
Goggles was at the piano m usual, practicing his most 
telling chords. Lubbock, looking very sentimental! was 
lost in reverie and the depths of an arm chair, evidently 
conning over his last poetical effort, and Spots, like a lump 
of animated mercury, was flying from one to another with 
his scraps of nonsense. The taepan, quiet and sedate as 
usual, waited with exemplary patience, his mind evidently 
turning upon the day's purchases of 2%un«innd Pingmuyt 
or perhaps the sad expression which now habitually rested 
upon his face, was but a premonition of the fate which 
was soon to remove him forever from among us. 
Bui even the most elaborate toilet must be finished at last. 
I know my patience was, and glancing up from the stere- 
oscope with which I had been endeavoring to beguile the 
time, I found that Mis i Nellie and her father had entered the 
room, and that the introductions were in progress. Dinner 
at last, thought I, us I bowed in response to my name, and 
the processiou duly proceeded to the dining-room, where 
Spots, having managed, by the aid of some diplomacy and 
ranch brass, to secure the seat next to the young lady was 
radiant with delight. 
“I say, Ticks," whispered he as we crossed the hall 
‘isn’t she jolly?” Under the influence of excitement Spots 
always would talk slang. 
The soup was cold, the sherry was not. Old father Time, 
who, by the way, only wanted a scythe and hour glass to 
give him complete claim to his soubriquet, was loquacious 
and talked learnedly on the political questions of the Em- 
pire. It was not until the consumption of several glasses 
of wine and a prawn currv, prepared as only the Ti-Cheong 
cook could compose it, that I recovered my equanimity, 
and raising my eyes to my vis a vis, proceeded to dcliber’ 
ately take stock of her charms. Truly report had not 
lied when it called her lovely. I could have described her 
much better then than I can now, but I well remember 
even through this long lapse of years and changes of scene’ 
the mischievous expression of her fucc, ns her eyes for the 
first time caught mine. Spots had evidently been entertain- 
ing hej with a recital of my peculiarities, giving promi- 
nence to a fondness for horseflesh and a disinclination for 
womankind. Judged by the strict standard of regularity 
of feature Nellie might not have been called beautiful, but 
there was a piquancy about her face, added to an expres- 
sion of bel eeprit, which was almost beyond description. 
About the middle height, her figure was so accurately pro- 
portioned as at first sight to appear too slight, which it was 
not. Her eyes were large and of the deepest, darkest violet, 
indeed “beautifully blue,” and shaded by eyebrows and 
lashes darker than her hair; her nose small, and a little, 
just a little, retrousse. Mouth small nnd perfect in shape; 
teeth rather large, but white and even. Her hair was h 
rich chestnut brown, and waved off her face iu the most 
bewitching way, being gathered behind iu some mysterious 
and incomprehensible manner. Her dress, a full evening 
costume, in accordance with the custom of the country, 
displayed just enough, not too much, of a perfect bust. 
Do not let it be imagined that I discovered all this in oue 
evening, or would have admitted half of it at the time. I 
was still as antagonistic as ever, called her nose a pug and 
her shoulders scrawuey, all of which I am forced now to 
