On Thursday, the 10th day of the moon, at ten o'clock in the morning, a notable ion of half-a-dozen foreigners, a dozen and a-half native Christians, and a team of coolies carrying hook baskets, entered the great court of the Changsha Examination Hall. The twelve thousand students had been locked up inside since the Tuesday night, and the sealed doors were to be opened for their exit some time in the forenoon. The officials on duty at the hall, although somewhat taken aback at first,' professed themselves delighted to see us.
They had erected a platform in the ample portico at the hall loot, on which were placed a number of chairs, and there* they requested us to They were afraid there might be some unfortunate incident if the forcigners were to come personally into contact with the students. But sitting there we could see all, and be sen by all, while our natives alongside gave out the bool A\ force of the Governor's bodyguard was drawn round the platform, and the Governor himself sent a special messenger to convey to the officials, in the hearing of the foreigners, his earnest desire that they should be assisted and cared for in every way. So the work began, but it was soon seen that there was not the slightest danger, so by the end of the day the foreigners were moving about amongst the crowd and distributing as they pleased. At half past eleven three guns were fired, and the great hall doors swung open. The courtyard was mow crowded. with attendants—each student brings one with him, and many of them several—and coolies came to help the students with their baggage. Through these a large force of soldiers kept open way, while more soldiers stood at the door, and standing there also were our native Christians banding a packet to every man who came out. All vras perfectly orderly, and the work went rapidly and smoothly on. The weather was oppressively hot, and most of the students seemed quite worn out. Some of them were quite old men, grandfathers and great-grandfather \y were evidently in poor circumstances, while the great majority wore home-spun cotton, and had a distinctly rustic appearance. All carried a bundle of bedding, and a fairly capacious provision basket." Tt was the business of each man's attendant to relieve him of this, and in the case of those who had none, hundreds of coolies fought for the privilege. Frequently one coolie seized the basket and another the bundle, and then there came a tug of war. When a transfer was safely effected, the cautiotts student took a good grip of the /eoolie's queue and got himself towed gut of the throng along with his property.
Occasionally 2 student lost his baggage altogether and then, The hurly-burly that began Was sight well worth the seeing.
There was shouting, and rushing, and whacking, till a small typhoon of people developed which went whirling through the crowd, and disappeared at its outer edge. Many were victimised in this way.
The Examination Hall a mile round, and has 15,000 cells. With students and attendants together there was probably fully that number of people within its walls. What with the heat and the crowd, the air in the hall was foul to an extreme degree. A few hours of it would have knocked up any foreigner but, although the students had been in for thirty-six hours, they were in no hurry whatever to leave. Only a thousand or so came out at the first opening, and the doors were again sealed. Similar openings took place at two o'clock and four o'clock, from which time onward {the doors remained open. The greatest rush was as it began to get dark, but there were many who never came out at all. They had to go in again the same night for another two dars bout, and it {was not worth while. There were seven i deaths—several of then suicides—and these were slung out by ropes over the The distribution went on till half past seven when, perforce, a halt was called, with 759 packets still in hand. The coolies had stormed the hall door, and the soldiers had given up the attempt to maintain order. "For this they laid the blame on the four Nichs with the green lanterns.
These were four stalwart mers, said to belong to the household jof the Governor of Anhui. They put in an appearance in the afternoon, holding aloft a green lantern each with the jeharacter Nieh ifn it. They had come to escort home their master's son who, however, never came out, and broke through the soldier's lines wherever they pleased. "The other coolies insisted on following them, and the orderly arrangement of the forenoon was soon thrown into utter confusion. In pi the poor students, who were being pushed out into a perfect pandemonitim, as in the interests of our own work, we urged the officials to drive the Niehs back, but ey said they dared not interfere with ne belonging to that household. We then asked them to send into the hall and tell the young man that his mother wanted him, but this could not be done either, so we finally had to give it up, and when we left the green lanterns were still dancing about, the very focus of the fray. The incident was exceedingly interesting as showing what liberties these officials allow to mere menials, if they happen to be connected with anyone in a position to do them mischief.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.