The Prefect of Shanghai has posted up a proclamation assuring the public that inasmuch as poultry constitutes @ healthy and delicious kind of food, it would be a pity that they should be deprived of enjoying it simply because of their UN
429 stupid superstition. He also points out that as many countrymen make their living by rearing poultry, the popular belief in the rumour th: chickens with five claws in their" wings are poisonous is most prejudicial to the interest of such a worthy and industrious class of people. He announces that as a result of a careful analysis of so—|oalled five-clawed hens made by Dr. Wang Lih-tsai, their taste was as good as that of ordinary poultry, while no poison nor other oblectionable ingredients were discovered. The five-claws were found to be simply five unusually hardened feather-stems. He warn: them against the wholesale disposal or destruction of hens which might lead to the total extinction of this Precious species of human food, if persisted in longer in all parts of China.
Secret Society Vengeance, With reference to the horrible murder ofa man discovered some time ago, some of the Chinese newspapers have published a theory to account for the disappearance of the left ear from the head of the deceased. In some secret societies, rules meting out punishment to recalcitrants are known to be very severe. When one of their gang was sentenced to death, the chief or chiefs required some evidence from the executioner to show that the sentence had been fully carried out. Besides, the dissection of the body was made cleanly, showing that the cuts must have been the work of an expert!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.