Soon after Chang chih-tung was appointed Viceroy of these central provinces a freshet suddenly rose and rushed down the Han, causing the river to rise many feet in a few hours. Hundreds of boats at Hankow were destroyed and many lives lost, Because of this the Viceroy had the telegraph extended from Shashi to this city so that news of any freshet on the river might be sent down to Wuchang, and warning given to the Hankow boat-people. This worked well for three or mur years, but now for some time the com: munication between this place and Kiu-manchou, 90 Zi distant, has been cut off The wire has been stolen and many of the poles have disappeared. A week or two since, a gentleman saw the wire broken from one post, and trailing on the ground from that to the next one, to which it was still attached, On his return a few days afterwards, he found that the wire had been cut from this post as high as a man could reach, and carried' away. No efforts seem to be made to trace the culprits. The operator is still at the telegraph office with little or nothing todo, and no hopes are entertained by the authorities that the line
is no money for the purpose. will be Lesa Ve the near future, as there lith March,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.