The place was so crowded, and the atmosphere so close, that I felt very uncomfortable and I am ashamed to acknowledge that I had to leave before she had finished.

If I had been educated to appreciate that sort of music no doubt I would have comprehended her singing better, and, however uncomfortable, I should no doubt have remained to the end of the entertainment.
While writing this chapter it happened that the following news from New York was published in the local papers in Shanghai.

It should be interesting to my readers, especially to those who are lovers of music.
"'Yellow music' will be the next novelty to startle and lure this blase town; amusement forecasters already see in the offing a Fall invasion of the mysterious Chinese airs which are now having such a vogue in London under the general term of 'yellow music'.
"The time was when Americans and occidentals in general laughed at Chinese music, but this was due to their own ignorance of its full import and to the fact that they heard only the dirges of a Chinese funeral procession or the brassy noises that feature a celestial festival.

They did not have opportunity to be enthralled by the throaty, vibrant melodies--at once so lovingly seductive and harshly compelling--by which Chinese poets and lovers have revealed their thoughts and won their quest for centuries.

The stirring tom-tom, if not the ragtime which sets the occidental capering to-day, was common to the Chinese three or four hundred years ago.