A Birthday and a Marriage in the Sheng Family.
Sunday wis the eighty-ninth birthday anniversary of Shéog Kung-pwo's father, ILE. Sheng Hsia-jen, who holds the brevet title of a Vice-President of one of the Six Boards of Peking, and the ausp cious occasion was celebrated on thst di at the residence on the Babbl the local mandarins and the' mem'wers of the Consular Body of this port went there to congratulate the wid gentlemen, who is still hale und hearty in spite of his' near approach to his ninetieth birthday anniversary, AS a proof of tie wonderful vitality of the aged Sheng Hsia-jen, his youngest son is avouth of only thirtei Years of age. 'This you Teman w: married yesterday to the yoonsest daughter of the Into Shay Yirlien, a former Trotai of Shanzhai and the last Chinese Governor of Formosa, at his brother's, Sheng Kung-pao's, residence, the in: cantile bride being only a' child of about eleven years of age. Owing to the great number of people who went to pay their double eongratm'ations on these two most unique eecasions—the celebration of the old gentleman's eighty-ninth birthviay anniversary and the marriage of his son, a lad of thirteen to a miss of cleven—the extensive reside see of Shang Kung-pw was overcrowded to such an extent that the building and grounds of the Bureau of Afisirs next door had to be also Butchers' Strike in Amoy.
A dispatch from Amoy reports a strike amongst the pork butchers of the native city of that port. It appears that the Amoy Taotsi had farmed out the collection of the tax on pork to certain syndic-te. which accordingly established a tax office in the city and informed all the pork butchers of Amoy that it had been decided to impose a tax of forty Mexican dollar cents. on every pig killed for food, irrespective of size or weight. This raised the ire of the butchers, whose petition for a remission being denied, they at once closed their stalls and went strike, so that the natives of Amoy city have to go without their beloved p at present. In the meanwhile a deputation of Amoy butchers has gone to Foochow to petition the Viceroy 17th September.
A Typical Manchu Characteristic, and, perhaps, an indication of a decay race, may be seen in the following story told by a native. correspondent in Peking. He says: "There are in all 80,000 Manchus, between the ayes of twenty and forty-five, enrolled in the ranks of the Hu Chun, or Imperial gattion of the Forbidden City. Recently, at the recommendation of the enlightened Prince Ssu, the Empress Dowager consented to the formation of a Corps of 16,000 Manchu young men, carefully selected from the Hu Chun which, literally trans-to send to ruin, and Paoting to be dut ed after the foreign jel on the same lines as Viecray Yuan Shih-kai's Army Corps of the Peiyang. This scheme of transplanting, as it were, these Manchus from their sp-cial reserva:
and about the suburbs ced a vowd deal of dissatisfae'ion in the racks of the Hit Chun, and thos: of them who consider tit they have a good chance of being selected for "Sexle" as they term it, have wlredy begun. ma ay of them, to offer certain bonuses to any one who would be to become their subst tutes and go their steel to whatever pace the Grand Council and Board of War may sead them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.