Eleven criminals, all_ robbers, were beheaded at Soochow on 13th September, and five more on 16th September.
A Russian traveller has obtained through the Russian Consul a passport from the Taotai at Tientsin, under which he proposes to proceed to Kwei-hwa Ch'éng, Shansi, thence 800 li over the prairie to Kia-yilt Kwan in Kansu (about Long. 97 E.) and thence still further West to Ili (or Kuldja, about Long. 82 E). He carries a map, in which he will enter any corrections that he obtains on his journey. The real reason of his desiring to obtain these observations is obvious. A Japanese in Chinese dress has also left Tientsin in a cart with two mules bent on the exploration of the N.E. Provinces from the Amur to Shansi.
The Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the Board of Revenue are said to be still in consultation as to ways and means for the building of Viceroy Chang Chi-tung's railway from Lu-kow K'ino, Peking, to Hankow. They are opposed to a loan, especially a foreign loan, and intend if possible to build the line with Government funds received from the various Provinces. They hope to complete the line in eight years at a cost of 35,000,000 taels, spending something over Ts, 4,000,000 each year.
A large number of disbanded Hunan braves have leagued with the Yao savages and fortified themselves in the mountains of Kuangtung near the Hunan frontier in Lien Chow, some 700 li north of Canton, It is expected that a military expedition will be necessary to turn then out of that.—Shén Pav.
The Viceroy Chang Chi-tung has deferred to the wishes of the junkmen and others and closed the newly opened Likin Office at Shih-men, Kuangtung. On 12thSeptember, Sun, Prefect of Kuangchow Fu, issued a four-character metrical proclamation briefly announcing that it has been closed and calling on the people to go about their business as before.—Hw Pao.
The Southern History (a History from 420 to 589 A.D.) contains a record of an individual who bought in when 30 years old, and did not have to use it until he had passed the age of 90, i the custom in China of keeping coffins in the house ready for use, The Yih Wéu Luh recently contained an account of a tragic accident occasioned by this old custom.
Outside the South Gate of the city of Wu this Province of Kiangsu, be side mple of Kwan-yin, is a school. The schoolmaster being. called away one day, his little pupils strayed into the temple, and saw there two large coffins. There were five or six boys, and one of them proposed that the rest should play a trick on the pedagogue by hiding in the cetins, of which this boy would fasten down the lids after they had gut in. No sooner said than done, and the last child was hidden from view when the master returned. He was looking everywhere for the boys in great perplexity when som one said Your boys are itt the coffins." Now yuk kwun, the phrase employed, two meanings "become mandarin:
gone into coffing," although in writing, of course, the second character of each group is different." Hardly that so soon," said the good old mau, "(I hope they will eventually attain to it; but at present they have only begun the Odes and the Book of History." You are mistaking me," said the man, "I mean they are in the coffins." "Dou't talk like that," said the schoulwaster with a start, "*I'saw them alive and well half an hour'ago." The man now thinking the hoax had lasted long enough, helped the schoolmaster to pull upon the big coffins in the Temple; but it was too late, for there lay the six little buys all dead of suffocation. The master at once fied from the district; and the parents of the victims, in their fury, went in pursuit of the other boy, who had caused the tragedy, and put him to death.—Hu Pao.
We heard yesterday from our correspondent at T'ungchow: that the railway from Lu-kow K'iao to Hankow will be commenced at once, and that it is likely that the iron necessary will be procured from Hwoh-luh Hien in Shansi. [Hwohluh is in Cheng-ting Fu, in Chihli, so this is a mistake]. It is said a memorial is in contemplation recommending the raising of funds by the sale of official rank.-—Shén Pao, The Nhén Pav gives an edict on the subject of the fire at the Temple of Heaven, which originated, it says, at the building called the Hall of Prayers for the Year, during a violent thunderstorm. The officers on watch are to be punished for their carelessness.. The Emperor accepts the fire a8 an admonition from Heaven to be circumspect in conduct, and trusts that all the officials, his servants, will draw the same moral lesson from it. It is satisfactory to find that as yet no lesson against railways has been deduced from the accident, 'The Yunnan mines derived so much advantage from the experience of the Japanese expert engaged last year, that Li Shu-ch'ang, our envoy to Tokio, has been requested, in a letter received' from the committee, to apply to. the Japanese Foreign Office for another competent metallurgist. Our Minister, it is said, will send this gentleman to Yunnan before ter, accompanied by a Chinese, Mr.
long a resident at Nagasaki, to act aa his interpreter. some time back of* threatened disturbances The rumours reported from Hankow
in the neighbourhood of Ichang were not with out foundation, On the confines of the Fang Hien and Hing-shan Hien districts are assembled a number of " hungry people," whose future movements are the subject of some anxiety to the local officials, Two of them were captured by the district magistrate of Hing-shan, and lists of names were found on their persons indicating the existence of a dangerous secret association. Made to kneel on sharp chains, and having received a thousand blows with the lighter bamboo, they yave evidence that in the day time they worked in the fields, and night met for quarter-staff exercise, which confession appearing unsatisfactory to the magistrate, both were relegated to prison. An officer with several hundred men is encamp ped ona hill called Chow-kia Ling to watch them, but the chen-tui of Ichang has been written to not to despatch the troops he holds in readiness, for fear of precipitating a conflict which it is hoped may be avoided.
4 letter from Pi-kia Shan complains that on the confines of Kiangsu and Chi Provinces, at King Luang, a little outside the Wa-kiang District in the Soochow Prefecture, on 19th September, a silk-laden boat bound for Shanghai was suddenly arrested by three native revenue boats of Chekiang. The boat was freighted from the silk district of Sher wh Chen. She was taken over the frontier into Chekiang and there detained with her valuable cargo, Now it has always been the custom for Shengtseh _silk-bouts to receive a passport from the likin office of that town, which takes them right on to Shanghai city where they the tax called loi-fi, and the Chékian, skin stations have no tore concern wi them than a horse has with a cuw or with the wind that blows past his ear. Such proceedings have made the Chinese silk involve them tu serious Ina by the broach merchants very indignant, as they may
of time-contracts they may be the cause of.—Shén Pao.
Mr. Shi Tsze-ying, the energetic distributer of famine relief deputed by the Shanghai Silk Guild, has been interviewed by a leader-writer in the Shen Pao, and on 27th September appeared in that paper some particulars obtained from him of the amenities of charity distribution in the distressed provinces. He sometimes trave elled several tens of li in a day, and was
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.