Suchien tufei are emulating the Honan brigands. Last night, from an upper verandah, village after village in the country could be seen burning. To-day the elders of these villages came to the yamen to beseech the magistrate to send soldiers out to fight these brigands. Their story is that a band of tufei, numbering 300 or 400, whol are being chased by the soldiers, burned nine villages and over 200 homes last night. Their leader is the famous Hsii Ch'ih, fort whose head a large price has been—offered. They have burnt everything, including all the grains, and, at the point of the bayonet, refused to let any one save his home.
One wealthy man, called Chang, a village elder, and a high degree man, they have carried off, and have killed all the rest of his family. As to the actual number shot or burned, it is hard to get accurate information. The firing on both sides was heard very distinctly in Suchien and. report has it that four mule carts left the city this morning with wadded garments to dress the dead.
The scourge of smallpox here is terrible. Vaccination has for years been popular, but the demand for. vaccine just now is far above the supply. Even children vaccinated last year are being re-vaccinated. On all the streets you will meet children with little red cloth tabs fastened either on their hats or garments. They have the four characters "T'ien hua in ko," viz., this child has had smallpox. In many cases, indeed most, they think they can thus deceive the smallpox Tue "Shanghai Journal of Commerce"' reports that the Civil Governor of Kiangsu -has instructed the Superintendent of Customs to place a ban on the import of silver coins from Anhui.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.