Without exception this has been to me the gloomiest Chinese New Year season that I can recall in an experience of more than a fifth of century in the land of Sinim, For the last ten days or more the weather has been very cold for this latitude, and most of the time there has been a disagreouble, drizzling rain. But there has been no appreciable diminution of Now Year's noise and festivities among the Chinese, who appear more than ly well-fed and well-to-do. The past-year fis, in fret, been one of the bust I remember since coming to Foochow Crops of all' kinds' have been unusually good, and the ravages of the plague were far less last summer than for a number of years.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.