ABSTRACT
Something has happened. It is 10 P.M. The then usually-quiet streets of Hong-Kong are in an uproar. The Queen’s Road is full of a seething, shouting crowd, rushing past our hotel in an endless stream whistling and shrieking and letting off noisy fireworks, as if their yells were not ample expression of the excitement. Bang-bang go the fireworks, and through the noise is heard the hoarse toot of motor horns, and above the scene the white flag of the revolution waves unmolested. The police give the people full play for a time for their feelings, allowing the excitement to take its course, and so gradually things become quieter and calmer, and the shouting looses itself in the distance. Hong-Kong is full to overflowing with Chinese from the country who have fled to the town for protection should everything fail, and so the street crowds are doubled, and the noise intensified. And the cause of all this excitement? A telegram telling of the revolutionary victory at Peking and that Prince Ching, the pillar of the Government, had been killed. For this supreme moment the people have been waiting to enable them to join the revolutionary forces. It is whispered that the child-emperor has been killed, and that the regent has fled ; but everything is rumour, and we must wait patiently for further news. May the Chinese people be spared the horrors which former dynastic changes have brought about!
