As usual when food is high, the country is over-ran with robbers, Bands of fifty of sixty go from place to place and unlucky is the villager that attempts to make any armed resistance. He is generally leit " corpse, In one recent robbery to the west of this place one two year old child was shot to death and one woman and two men badly wounded—all neighbours of the man whose house was being robbed. Ordinarily no attempt is made to catch the robbers, One attempt, that succosded, is worthy of note as showing that Chinese soldiers are not without that quality, in American parlance, known as "sand." A sergeant with three men was sent to "locate" and oaptare " robber who was known to be armed with a Mauser rifle. They found him in " house that had a yard in front. From behind this mud wall be shot at these four men eighty time badly wounding one. He in turn was wounded and disarmed by one of the soldiers who climbed on the top of a neighbouring house while the rest of the posse drew the fire of the robber to the front, The wounded soldier was brought here on a litter, " distance of sixty] th, tiles, without any attention having been paid to his wound, The capacity of these people for enduring pain is wonderfal. Given good leaders Chit may yet be able to put an army in the field which mast be reckoned with,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.