Lim Pay went to the Parian — the pueblo of the Sanglays, where Father, Mother, and I often go after Sunday Mass to eat at the panciteria — to tell his friends that the gobernador was sending soldiers to take away their goods and close down their stores. Ah Beng said the Sanglays were very scared and some became angry.

O, sir! the explosions, the blowings-up, the bustings, the firings! There was bombshells flying about as big as houses.

If any thing further employ his attention, it is perhaps a little virtuosoship. He inquires after fine pictures, fine statues, fine buildings.

It is this bad joke which, almost one century later, was still to be found in the government's campaign of 'We are Europe' from 1994.