It is rarely possible in this deserted village for your correspondent to be able to send a paragraph with such a heading; but following the example of others I now venture An unusual number of soldiers are to do so. Our usually stationary guardship IMS. Tweed has left us for down river gathered here now, drilling, preparing for further contingencies. Recently they and her place has been taken by the shapaiy two-funnelled Teal. Rumour has it that' she have been practising shooting at targets. too is to leave for Chungking but this seams They shoot by companies and the levee of the Old Yellow River bed acts as rifle hardly likely seeing that Britain is already Tepresented in that port by three gunboats, butts. About five hundred yards beyond and the Teal has proved herself invaluable the levee is a hamlet. Often the soldiers for cruising up the Han and on the Tungting fire high and the village comes just in and Poyang lakes. I understand that her range. A few days since in this village a commander has received no official directions young girl was shot. She saw her younger for this Western voyage, but should she have brother in danger and ran to bring to go, all Ichang wishes her a safe journey him in out of the range of the bullets. over the treacherous rapids of the Upper As she picked the child up a ball went Yangtze. The German gunboat Vorwaerts through her body. The foreign physician has left, I believe, for a cruise in the Tung-was called to treat her. But from the ting lake. We have heard, too, prospects first it was evident that a fatal wound of a new gunboat the Vaterland to represent, had been received. While the physician j Germany on the Upper Yangtze. The U.S.8. was there the firing began again and he Villalobos should soon be with us as th had a very uncomfortable experience tiver has commenced its annual rise, He while there and on the road back. Dirt }eaptain paid Ichang a visit per steamer in was cut up near his chair several times. the low water season to make himself more Many bails were heard us they passed [thoroughly acquainted with the shifting overhead and one came so close that he j shoals between Shasi and Hankow. We have gave the involuntary dodge. The inexpectation, too, of the French gunboat Ulry cident has been closed by the soldiers her return trip to Chungking. presenting the afiticted parents with a Unruly Natives. bag of rice and fifteen dollars. The tar-Whether it be gunboat or steamer it gets were also moved to a slightly receives little respect from the hands of the different angle. natives living on the river banks. often necessary for the vessel to hug the Church and State. banks very closely and then it is nearly There is a good deal of friction in the sure to have its decks bespattered with clods extreme northern part of this province thrown with vigour by the rusties, "Adi between the Roman Catholics and the profanum vulgus" sang Horace, but how populace. Pecuniary fines and honorary to finish his sentence is the difficulty here. Air guns or catapults would be invaluable foasts are the order of the day. The such times but they are never to hand, fathers while sincerely trying to do the and crew and passengers have to resort to right thing cannot seo their way clear to potatoes and bottles in self-defence. Repre-keep hands off in the affairs betw sentations have frequently been sent to the their people and the outside. It is sign wotai to check this nuisance but so far ficant that in that neighbourhood we hear without avail. of the recrudescence of the ' Boxer" practices. Mon are again paying their Native Library, fees and learning the secret. of being I have been able to gather additional in-bullet-proof. formation regarding the library whose opening was referred to in your last Ichang The new Post Office Regulations. letter. It contains 3,000" taels' worth of Books, the natives say, and this money was What shall I say? It is not that collected in Ichang. The volumes consist words fail me. Long associations with chiefly of books translated from foreign heathen who are not accustomed to bridle works; there is also a set of the regulation the tongue when imposed upon tends to Chinese classics and every steamer brings make one mentally fluent in expressions stock of native papers and magazines, "The of dissent." However, though I grow blue librarian has strict charge, however, to admit in the face, [have no right to criticise: no paper which breathes a disloyal word without a full knowledge of the reasons against the Imperial Government. (Would the for the change. But still you must allot N.-C. Daily News" stand the test?) The a word of warning. Which one of you room is open between the hours of 10 a.m. Shanghai merchants is going to be able and 4 p.m. and accommodates between 30 and 40 persons. The names of all the books to tell whether your customer is in the "are written on a placard and the visitor "steam zone" or the "inland provincial" or the "inland rovineial" or "inter-asks the librarian for any he wishes but is not allowed to take it out of the building. zone inter-provincial " or "'inter-zone pro-'Women were allowed in for three days in vineial" And there will be reasons to!
March but the invitation has never been make your customers think twice before they order a "couple of pounds" up from Shanghai. If the people of Kansu
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.