The Southern Government has its representative in our city and his coming was the occasion of some very extensive celebrations. ey does not appear to be interfering in the local government in any way, but is here to prepare for future possible conflicts with the North. Already some of the soldiers of Li Kwei-chu a nd_ others have been brought into the city and their reputation, being, none too savory in the past, makes their presence here menace to our peace and safety. However, there seems to be a desire on the part of the military authorities to maintain strict discipline, even though they are asking impossible sums from the district.
A few nights ago five or six of these ex-soldier tufei began to leave for their old haunts, but were caught and three of them were beheaded the next day. Some supposed spies of General Chen Chien's were caught also with certain papers on them Gnd two of them were beheaded at the gate of the yamen, so we have had five beheadings here in three days.
During the past month the writer has made an extensive tour of five counties in Southern Hunan and was able to see something of the wide extent of the drought of the Past summer. At Nuchen there was not only the ferrible drought that has caused much of the famine conditions, but in one section, in June last, what seems to have been a terrible cloud burst, caused great devastation. Some 10,000 mow of fields were destroyed and 20 people lost their lives. The local people said that the water came up from the earth and lasted for two hours, but on examination it was evidently not from the earth but a cloud burst.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.