We have deep snow on the ground, and have had it so for nearly three weeks now. The Chinese talk of it as "snow waiting on snow and it certainly has "waited." The wild weather broke about the middle of January, and Jack Frost visited us very suddenly. In one or two nights, the ther made them unsuspecting, and some of the Northern boats' are ice bound without their winter clothing.
I heard of rather a sad case the other day. One boat had been carrying soldiers for awhile, and badly paid for it—they preferred to "hide" and do nothing. This boat had just come out, and was preparing to go to work, and earn something when the frost locked.t up again. There was nothing for it, but to seek out some relatives in Suchien and beg and borrow from them. In spite of grain and grass, prices soaring very high, the streets were busier than ever at the end of the Chinese New Year; an explanation being given by a Chinese: "they would eat and then die."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.