One sapient individual has remarked to the writer that the Taotai's reward is never likely to be claimed "for the vagabonds of the district do not go about with signboards on their foreheads, and it would be nite out of order to challenge the respectability of. people who do not show their hands as bond-fide fei-tu." Which reflection is probably true enough, and knowe to the Taotai to be true when he offered his reward and consequently has been runing small risk of being out of pocket by his generosity. He and the department magistrate Kuo are reported to be at daggers drawn, and the latter has, as I said in my last letter, been forced to retain office in Kiangpe. The threatened visit of Lai-Taotai'has never come off. It would be interesting to know how much the self-respecting action of the foreign consuls had to do with keeping him away from
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.