It is stated in local"mandarin circles that Mao Tuotai, Commissioner of the Kiangnan Arsenal, has decided that commencing from the Ist proximo no outsider, foreign or native, will be permitted to enter the Arsenal grounds unless in possession of a permit from the Commissioner himself, and that a couple of foreign watchmen are to be stationed at the principal gate of the Arsenal to enforce the new regulation. This regulation had to be made owing, it is stated, to the number of inquisitive foreigners of all sorts and conditions who constantly stroll into the Arsenal grounds and make themselves disagreeable in various ways.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.