A native Christian in connection with the English Baptist Mission at Hsiuchou has this winter made an interesting experiment on behalf of the beggars in his district. He sented a house, fixed it up enough to make it weather-tight, furnished it with warm Kangs, and then invited the beggars to make the place their resort. All who went to the resort were to have one bowl of millet a day exch. A good many accepted the offer. On finding things thus made somewhat comfortable for them some of the company made no further effort at begging. Exhortations to reform were as pearls cast before swine. Day after day they lay on the k*angs drawing their girdles of rags still closer around their wan and wasting bodies, until within two months fifteen of them had died. Such as could be persuaded to bestir themselves are pulling safely through the cold of another winter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.