'The majority of the officials have been changed in this prefecture, and so far all whom we have met seem friendly, and some of them have surprised us with' their knowledge of affairs outside of China, The now official at Neihuanghsien, named Hsiung, seems to be a very able man, and has done his utmost to make our affair run smoothly since we returned. He was who last year rescued and assisted with food and clothing the party of C.I.M. missionaries from South Honan, Frightening an Official.
On December 26th there way a considerable row in the city. An official, on. his way north with some cartloads of silver for the travelling expenses of the Court, not being satisfied with the food provided and general treatment of Mr. Chou, the Hsien official, in order to get even' with him adopted a plan that made the offender for a time at least very uncomfortable. He declared that while in the city 1,000 taels of silver had been stolen from one of the carts, and demanded that Mr. Chou make it good, or he would have the whole amoun* left in the city and go to Peking without it. The gates of the city were shut and search made for the missing money, but in vain. The poor old official was ina bad way and saw no way out of it, but giving the 1,000 taels. Later on
stolen had been transferred to ancther learned that the silver supposed to be cart, and the whole thing was merely a scheme to thoroughly frighten the official for his supposed lack of hospitality.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.