The "national game" of brigandage that has been simply a terror in north Honan for the past year or two has considerably subsided. The robbers have been executed in large batches, and this has had a deterrent effect on those who have been fortunate enough to have escaped. Schoolchildren kidnapped when on the way to school, villages attacked and looted, rich men captured and held for ransom, have been the order of the day in many parts. Mission work has been very much interrupted and appeal to the officials in charge of the districts has had little result. A combination of circumstances, however, has been too much for the robbers, making the way of the transgressor not only hard but unhealthy.
The local official had been working in perfect harmony with the robbers. "Pay me so much and you may rob as much as you like'" was his working policy, and the robbers consequently waxed very bold in their wicked way. But a Christian official has been sent from provincial capital, who was thoroughly in earnest in exterminate ing these armed bands preying on the people, and executions of robbers became frequent. Alas for the robbers they were caught between the jaws of the nut-crackers, for about the same time, the local official put up his prices, and declared his revised policy as "pay me 80 much more or I will denounce you to this new man who is making things so hot for you." Between the two the organized bands were broken up. Many fled into other districts, others gave up their brigandage and to show their sincerity have been helping the officials to trace out their former associates in crime.
Trape iw Oprum.
Little or no opium is grown in north Honan, but the trade still flourishes. Opium and morphia are doing a roaring trade. We seldom see the morphia needle in use, but the traffic in pills is very great. Especially is this true of Wuan in the extreme north of the province, which is on the direct route to Shansi, where morphia is sold to an extent almost beyond our power Drought and dust-storms have been the order of the day for some months until recently a fall of snow has broken: the drought and given the winter wheat crop some hope of surviving, and has brought about a pause in the soaring of food stuff Prices.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.