Kueiyang, Sept. 4.
I see by the "Herald" of August ("thousand"), I made a big mistake in my letter to you of July 25. The adverse balance in provincial accounts was over Tls, 600,000 (six hundred thousand), not Tls. 600 (six hundred) only. I expect most readers would have gathered that there was a mistake in the figures, But even those corrected figures call for revision, The adverse balance is now Tls. 900,000 (nine hundred thousand) or more.
Kueiyang is advancing on the road to civilization! A "model" theatre organized by a wealthy banker (who is chairman of the Chamber of Commerce here) was opened on Sunday last. The differences between this new venture and the old style theatre are (1) charge for admission and sitting—accommodation (2) actors specially en, ed from Szechuan and (8) the claim to be free from everything immoral. I say "the claim to be," as people generally regard this as mere "pious talk", Another sign of "progress" is that the Police Bureau has sanctioned the opening of a public house of ill-fame under certain regulations to be framed by the police, as soon as the necessary capital is forth coming. It is claimed openly that this step will bring Kueiyang more into line with foreign ideas of civilization! As long ago as last year, before the revolution, the Police istendeat opened a house of ill-eand, by proclamation, justified doing so by saying that foreign nations recognize this as legal businees with a right to protection, so evil doers are warned not to make disturbances, ete.
Reverting to the question of finance, it may be asked; if the provincial debit is such a large one, who advanced the money which has been spent? Well, one man alone, a salt merchant, and now acting as Financial Commissioner, has, from first to last, advanced not less than Tis, 300,000. Probably the other Tis, 600,000 were obtained in the same way by advances. Whether these are to be regarded as gifts has not been officially declared. on
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.