j 18th July, End of the Drought.
the date of the lest letter there was very little prospect of a break in the long drought, until just at the close when shower fell. But it was disappointing to learn that it was entirely local, and that all over the country some of the crops—especially which follow the wheat—had not been even put in. As the weary days and weeks crawled by there were gloomy prognostications of the results if by July 16th—the beginning of the "fu-tien" or dog-days, the rain should not yet have come. Then it would be "too late for beans," "too late for corn," too late for almost everything, and with wheat. and all other grains steadily rising in price the outlook was dark enough. Occasionally some one would mention a traditionary case where the rain did not fall until some time in the seventh moon, and yet there was a good harvest, but this was rightly regarded as irregular and to be frowned upon. On the afternoon of the 13th, how: ever, the. spell was broken, the tiresome and hitherto interminable dust-storms came to an end, and a copious and per: suasive rain fell, followed at intervals heavy and continued showers. 'The oni: look is suddenly reversed, but the price of grain does not yet fall!' The local cash has become horribly bad, though not equal to the monstrosity of that in Tientsin where there is not a single good one in a thousand There has never been so much difficulty for the poor within our knowledge in any summer before. There have been abundant labourers but no hoeing to do, and no. support for hundreds of needy families. The fruit crop is everywhere an almost complete failure (so too thus far and happily is the mosquito output). This throws a large number of producers, distributors, and small dealers out of their annual and essential income and is, in the aggregate, an important factor in the general distress. There is seldom so much trouble in getting anything in the form of summer vegetables, and many have to fall back on salt vurmips in July The Cholera.
To add to the universal misery, the areaded cholera has arrived—'not single spies, but in battalions." It is of a virulent type, and pays no attention to routes of travel, as in some years, but like a con-flag ration is everywhere at once. There are several deaths in a majority of the villages, but many sem capriciously to be untouched. In a few the mortality is immense, 80 in one moderate sized hamlet, and half the population in another, while 8 case was reported a day or two ago in which a family was extinct, leaving only cow Singularly enough there were for 2 time practically no calls on the Dispensary (open in a small way with no foreign physician) for cholera medicine, except on the part of the habitues. The calls in any case would come much too late. Long before the drug can be sent the patient is dead. In many cases they simply fall in a faint, are carried into the house, and within a few hours die in a coma," All
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.