Wo passed through the chief famine districts both of Shantung and Chihli, and were careful to observe the present state of matters, The relics of the famine were very obvious in the shape of roofless and dilapidated—houses—doorways and windows without frames,—built up with mud (the frames having been sold for food); casual wards outside the cities where the. famished found shelter; but that was all. The people, asa rule, appeared prosperous and contented, and several of the cities ina better state of repair then ever I saw them. This was emphatically the case with 'T'sing-chow-foo,—round which the famine raged so fiercely. The shops there were fin trade better, and everything flourishing; much more so than on. former visits. The country towns had also recovered. Markets were as numerously attended, and as full of all kinds of merchandise as ever, schools all resumed, and the natives as ayer to buy our new, and especially illustrated, books as ever they were. The conclusion I came to was this; that the famine had made the rich richer, the agricultural classes poorer, and ad swept masses of the indigent away by death and emigration. Yet to. our eye there appeared no diminution of the population, Multitudes, multitudes, everywhere of well-to-do people. How great and quick is the recuperative power of the Chinese I must, however, qualify this by saying that the above remarks apply mainly to Shantung, for the traces of suffering were still only too evident in many places in the centre of Chihli, and the aspect of the country people in that district is much
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.