Last year's drought has now. affected this city. The price of every kind of provisions has increased from 20 to 100 per cent. The prefect has forbidden the exportation of grain from within his jurisdiction under penalty of confiscation.
betwoon here and. the river Han some farmsteads are under water, but in most places wheat is sown but needs rain to help it. Everyone rejoiced at a heavy fall of rain recently. Good rain Good rain! was the exclamation every one we met ejaculated as one went through it to an out-station. Cheerless and wet as the pedestrian was, he could not but rejoice with the delighted peasant. In some districts gossip says there is much poverty, but the scarcity of beggars and the fair amount of business in such laces indicate deal of exaggeration. ho, chihsien of one city for the present retains Tls. 10,000 sent from Peking for relief here.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.