'The annual dinner to foreigners, started by the late Tsotai Li, has been given as usual by the present Taotai, but instead of a specially excellent Chinese dinner, served with some European refinements, it' was in European style, and with the Commissioner, of Customs at the head of the table taking the Taotai's place, the Japanese Consul taking precedence on his right, and the English Consul sitting on his left, all of which has not been lost upon the Chinese. The Customs examiners were not, as before, invited tothe same dinner, and the foreign merchants whom the Taotai had in the first instance invited to meet the Consuls, were at the last moment put off to the next day, when a cold collation was served to them and the tidewaters ina side room quite apart from the many Chinese guests, and at a different hour. Several American missionaries were invited the first day, but curiously enough the London Mission so long established here was quite left out, although Chinese officials have been for many years indebted to it for medical attendance gratis. This though one missionary apiece was invited from each of the other missions. All these little details seem to have a deep meaning for the people of Chungking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.