Fakumen, March 17.
Perhaps it is the existence of an autocratic Republic that accounts for the comparative absence of notable events. If we wish to discuss the political situation, we had better do so with bated breath. When expressing opinions about the war one should be careful to choose one's audience.
Avoiding politics, we may evoke a mild interest in airy proposals to start motor-car companies. The success of the motor traffic between Kaiyyan and Taolu invites imitation. So we can speculate about similar enterprises, to run cars between here and Hsinmintun and elsewhere.
More absorbing topics of local interest, however, are the intense cold of the winter and the activity of the highwaymen. The price of millet-stalks, the staple article of fuel, has doubled, while the quality is poor. There isa fine opportunity for the sale of coal, the use of which is spreading. Though the supply mainly comes by rail and cart from the Japanese mines at Fushun, east of Mukden, still, in spite of the cost of carriage, it is more economical at present than the grain stalks.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.