At the Yellow River and of the route, on the other hand, it is as confidently asseverated that Yuan Shih-kai did not live to take over the seals of his office, but was Killed by the troops of General Ma, one of the six' of that name who are supposed (by an adaptation of a passage in. oft-quoted literature) to be the agents of the Tenovation of the Empire. His soldiers are believed to be swarming in Tientsin, and when it is objected that they are not visible, it is replied that that is the very thing—they are not visible, but they are disguised in common jackets, but at the "psychologic moment" they will arise and finish the expurgation of the foreign clement. The impulse to repeat the bad deeds of the past is quite as strong as ever it was in some breasts, but to say that is far from aflirmi-~ that there is any probability (not to say possibility) that the past will be repeated.
The Trade in Peanuts: Sisyphean Labour.
'The autumn crops turned out fairly well, except where the ground was lew and' the water stood so long that there was no grain left. This happens every year in some regions, while the yield elsewhere excellent, just as there is no year in which some of the crops do not Suffer from drought. Despite the failure of Shanghai cotton-mills using foreign yarn to make their owners entirely happy, it is evident that cotton has lost the place which it formerly occupied as the most valuable staple of th" region. Its place has for some years been gradually taken by the peanut, whic for reasons rather obsenze to the uninitiated has become an article of great demand at Tientsin. For many years (except in 1900) Tientsin factors representing foreign firms have made their appearance all over this part of the country, especially in the parts adjacent to the Grand Canal, paying down silver as advance for the entire crop, and removing it to Tientsin as soon as it can be got ready. This process is one of incredible labouriousness, and would make the peanut raisers of North Carolina, and probably of other portions of the planet. smile. "The haulms are pulled up, and whatever nuts adhere are picked off, and then the serious work begins. It takes three men to supply and to work a clumsy sifter, which rocks back and forth from morning to night, the whole superficial area of one's farm being passed between its wires. It requires more than a week to get through even one English acre, at the end of which time the sieve shaker must have a permanent back-ache and has for the whole time been smothered in dust. All around the horizon these sieves are in operation during the entire month of October and well into November. After this is finished and the peanuts are sacked, the task is by no means complete, for they have to be taken to the village, washed in its mudholes, and spread out to dry on a threshing floor. after-which they are ready to be hauled to the river for loading on' huge boats for Tientsin. Some think that from that metropolis they are taken to Manchuria, while others suppose that they are all exported to "furrin parts," there, perhaps, to be made into " olive oil." At all events this following of the foreigner ("sui wai kuo") is popular. and brings substantial reward. An incidental result is that the market rate of silver falls to its lowest point in the months before navigation closes, while the boatmen are this year reaping a rich harvest.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.