NEW YEAR SOCIETIES, An ingenious device by which to secure the desirable result that a family shall be sure to have a supply gf the food most indispensable for a proper treatment" of guests at the festive New Year season, is Found in what are called New YearSocieties. Each member of the society contributes few hundred or perhaps a thousand cash a month for the first five months of the year, until the wheat harvest in June, when wheat is at. its lowest price, for example twelve hundred cash for a hundred catties or picul. During the five months which have elapsed, the money thus ass-sed upon the members has been put at interest, and has already accumulated a handsonieincome. As soon as the new wheat is in the market, the loans are all called in, and the treasurer takes the whole of the sum belonging to the association, and invests it in wheat. This he keeps until the close of the year, by which time it is not at all unlikely that the price of the grain has doubled. He then exchanges the wheat, at the current rate, with some maker of bread-cakes (manton), and these are divided among the stockholders. In this way, each one gets not only the benefit of the interest on loans for five months, but also nearly or quite double the value of the wheat bought just after harvest. Sometimes the monthly payments are continued throughout the year, and the sum is then expended in a lump for bread-crkes, wheat, cotton, or whatever each family most needs for the New Year's season, In societies of this kind, the rate of interest is sure to be at least three per cent per month, and perhaps four per cent, The amounts borrowed are usually small, and exch borrower must havea security from among the contributors to the fund,—Tu case payment is not forthcoming ut the due date, the next step is to raise an uproar, ta-chactsu, and if possible to collect the debt by force. The mev able and universal uncertainty and ditticulty attending the collection of any money on loan, give emphasis to the adage that "where the profit is large, the risk is Extortionate as are the ordinary rates of Chinese interest, ranging from twenty. to forty-eight or more per cent per annum, there are other ways than direct loans, by which even greater profits may he gathered. The passion for gambling seems to be all pervasive among the Chinese, and it is perhaps a greater bar tothe prosperity of the common people, than any other habit of their lives. Mang of the phenomena of Chinese ce-operation are associated with gambling practices, from which the prositto those who manage the finances is very great. In. all cases where there is money to loan, it is possible to employ it for gambling, under the direction of the managers, or trustees. Those who are in the habit of gambling do not stop when their supply of money fails, but draw upon the bank of the loan association, upon terms which are agreed upon, but which differ according to cireumstances. In an emergency, it might happen that " person whose fortune had failed him, would be obliged to borrow of the bank, say eight hundred cash, which in a short time he must replace with thousand. At the end of the year, when the accounts are made up and the money paid in, it is equally divided among the contributors of the society, whether they may have used the capital' for gambling or net. In case they have borrowed a part of the capital, and are not able to repay it, their debt is set against their contribution, and they lose their investment. ing's Dandelion and Quinine Liver Pills, without Mercury. are a potent remedy; remove all Liver and Stomach Complaints, Biliousness, Headache, Sickness, Shoulder Pains, Heartburn, Indigestion, Constipation. Made only in London, cold everywhere,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.