To the Editor of the Nortu-Cuixa Dairy News.'
Dear Siz,—The letter of your Shansi correspondent in to-diy's issue is the first we have received that all is hat glitters." T emfess that of the first account of the reception of the foreign purty left a bad flavour in the mouth, Doubtless to no one was it more distasteful than to the es themselves, who were not ity of the whole They know to" well that hange his spots.
themselves in the position are feel that they mus' hearted though they were.
'The' grand fanfaronade of trumpets, etc, we all. know, was meant restore the missionaries' © face," they are supposed by Chinese ethics to "have lost. when their fi their heads! Strange rev justice And what about the peop! gentry of Taiyuen? They did not lose any "face" over it at all, avd so your correspondent thinks there is no "real repentance, and sadly points out thst the gentry of Taiyuan did not s ud as many scrolls in memory of the dead as those of Pavtingfu. The reason is not far to seek. In the latter place there were hundreds of incentives to respect in the shape of idlers, But in Taiyuan only one, like " fugitive from a lost battle-field, as the Boxers would doubtless describe the gallant Major.
Tt xppeacs to me that what the officials aid was promptd by two m In the first place, even the the ost of a n devil" had better be appeted, and hence bowlaes towards the dead wreaths, reading of a && 3 (I have seen copy). In the second plice, the pyeants were only introductory to the real business, iz., the indemnities. The more." face" prover says is worth by the pageants, the less money, so reason the Chinese, should be demanded. After having been trested #0 royally under the guidance of the gentle-nian who speaks such excellent English," how could any one be so heartless and ignorant of the principles of propriety as to haggle over the amount of a claim Once we had a claim for loss s. The deputy tried for days to whittle it away to airy nothingness, and finally delivered his last. shot by inviting us to a state dinner in the yamen! We did not yo. The next day his henchman revealed the object of ion by remarking to us: "Aha! you are you did not wish to reduce the claim and the dim was settled without further palaver or reduction.
Youe correspondent told us that the Shouyang magistrate who was black listed has found means to retain his post. This men's family lives in Shangh When the list curie our, an agent of approached a friend here asking if the missionaries could not write to save him.
Th's agent said: Mr. $-and-so is from Shanghai, and therefore he is so enlightened that he could not possibly do such things. Theard the missionaries had a convention Intely here to collect evidence against officials, Can they not rite to Peking in behalf of the Shouyang oficial?" This sheds some light on what educated natives know about Conventions for the Deepening of Spirital Life. But evidently some assistance more powerful than that of the missionaries has been successfully invoked, and the Shouyang mandarin now breathes more freely.
Tam, ete., Crepe Exrerto.
12th August.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.