The drought continues unabated. This is the most urgent topic here and, day by day, we are nearing the point when famine will invade the villages and towns around. The general statement is that, in the event of a good fall of snow, most homes will survive and be able to borrow or beg for another couple of months, but that, if the snow be long delayed, deaths from starvation will begin to be common and the distress will be general and acute. Meantime, the motor road is being cleared up and temporary repairs are being pushed on in order, it is said, to bring in grain from the north. Governor Yen is doing what he can to prevent deaths from starvation, but it is a long way from the yamen in the capital to the slums of these southern cities or the cave villages on_bleak hillsides.
Two cotton warehouses, each with recently acquired machine presses, have suffered from fire this week. In both cases the fire broke out in the morning, when labourers have their first smoke, hence there were immediate efforts made to subdue the outbreak. Very considerable loss has been incurred, as - this is the busy season. These inland cotton godowns have as yet neither fire extinguishing apparatus nor insurance, and, although fires are on the increase in oil and cotton stores, the Chinese learn their lessons slowly.
The local police, in making an attempt to regulate the crowd in accordance with their text-books, got into trouble through pushing no less a person than a Middle School student who was anxious to the front to "look see." For several hours the city hung in suspense as to whether students or police were "topside" in this community. One of the former lost a lot of blood and several of the latter lost a lot of "'face," but peace has been restored.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.