As salaried manager of a big importing house (most typical Shanghai job) the typical Shanghai taipan earns $75,000 a year. Four-fifths of this sum vanishes somewhat as follows:

Shelter: a bachelor will probably live in one of Sir Victor Sassoon's smart new apartments, but a married man more likely in a house in the Western Roads area or in the outskirts of Frenchtown with two or three acres of land around it. Rented, the latter would cost about $750 a month; owned, it represents an investment of $125,000. Land taxes are less than 1 per cent of assessed valuation; rates are from 14 to 16 per cent of real or assessed rental. In the Western Roads area, one bows to Chinese sovereignty by paying a flat land tax of $5 a year. No other taxes, business or personal.

Servants: from ten to twenty. The minimum includes a Number One boy (a kind of butler) at $50 per month, plus a recognized "squeeze" of 5 per cent on supplies, plus cumshaw (tip), plus bonus on the Chinese New Year (usually February): Number Two boy at $25; Number One cook at $35, Number Two at $15; two house coolies at $18; an amah for his tai-tai (wife) at $25; wash and sew-sew amah at $20; two gardeners at $20; Chinese chauffeur at $60; governess at from $50 (Russian) to $200 (English). All the ser-vants except the governess tade their squeeze on such purchases as they can, but it rarely exceeds 5 per cent and the net cost of the goods is usually far below what the taipan himself would have to pay. Total servants, about $7,000 a year.

In addition, possibly, ponies and a mafoo to look after them at $20. The ponies cost $250 or more each. A houseboat would come higher-$1,000 (Chinese) to $50,000 (foreign). The boat's laodah (captain, or literally, Big Old Man) gets $20, but is the biggest squeeze-taker on the staff. The engineer under him gets $25 because he under-stands machinery. Two coolies at $10. That is an average crew.

Special note: if you treat a Chinese servant with understanding he will take sharp reductions in pay when you are down in your luck; will even, in extreme cases, feed you out of his savings. In good times he expects the reverse treatment.

Food: imported goods such as Shredded Wheat and Campbell's Soup come much higher than in the U. S., native products much lower. The best dairies are American or English operated. There are also American vegetable farms whose products, unlike the native gar-deners', are not fertilized with human excrement.

Clothing: Men buy shirts, pajamas, and underwear on Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, or Bond Street, London, and have them copied by native shirtmakers in Shanghai for years thereafter. Shoes are the most difficult item: most taipans and their wives bring back dozens on their return from home leave. Women find that native dressmaking is erratic and dowdy, best at underwear and accessories, which can be copied from foreign models. But there is hope in the Russian modistes.

Aulombiles: principally a social necessity, although good roads are now beginning to penetrate the Chinese countryside, offering the Shanghailander something he has usually never seen before: China. Most popular car is the Ford, most popular taipan's conveyance the Buick. The latter costs $11,200, laid down at the Bund. Gasoline varies from seventy cents to $1 a gallon, oil is seventy cents a quart, and curb pumps are as frequent as street corners. To drive outside the settlements, even into the Western Roads, requires a Chinese license.

Schools: prior to the age of twelve the British taipan's children are in the hands of a governess or at England's excellent private Cathedral School; after that they are sent home for finishing. The American taipan sends his children to the American School (Colonial brick) until they are ready for college. Most nationalities support good private schools, but parental instinct is to get the offspring out of Shanghai 's neurasthenic atmosphere as quickly as possible.

Enterlainment: expensive because so constant and so sumptuous. Biggest item: liquor. For private parties, homes are supplemented by hotels and the more respectable cabarets. Figure $5,000, plus another $5,000 for bills vontracted at half a dozen clubs.

Charity: a small item. The French support many of their charities on a 40 per cent cut ($2,000,000 a year) from the revenues of the dog track and jai alai operators in Frenchtown. The Americans have a Community Chest that is supposed to look after indigent Yankees and also contributes to the Fourth of look after indigent Yankees and also contributes to the Fourth of July and Washington's Birthday balls. The Shanghailander's best act (though he rarely talks about it) is to provide, with feudal self-satisfaction, for his ex-servants or the unfortunate relatives of his staff. Maybe $1,000.

Religion: an even smaller item. A British taipan's firm buys him a pew in the Holy Trinity Cathedral. He goes on state occasions. American taipand have no pew bought for them. Consistent nonattendance at the American Community Church costs them $100 a year.

Hospitals: because of the amount and variety of disease, they are large, well-run, inexpensive. The two best ate the Shanghai General Hospital on Soochow Creek, staffed by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary; the Country Hospital on Great Western Road, where the nurses are prettier, the surroundings more cheerful. Both are operated by the Municipal Council. Not to be overlooked is the new Battle Creek Sanitarium, dispensing the health foods and regime of Battle Creek, Michigan.

Surplus:at the end of a year of reasonable expenditures should equal some $15,000. This is for the New York Stock Exchange,a weekly poker game, a small chunk of Shanghai real estate.