With the Chinese New Year approaching the military authorities have made their usual demand for large sums of money. Chenchov was asked for $10,000. It was intimated that unless a prompt payment was made the troops would have to be removed to other places; and in that case the military official said he would not be responsible for the actions of his soldiers, evidently intimating that they might turn into bandits. Since the city hag not recovered from last year's famine conditions the officials have notified the military that they will not be able to raise more than $3,000. No reply has been received which is thought to indicate that the military considers it sufficient or at least all that: coa ko expected for the present.
In an investigation recently instituted at Tientsin, says the "N. C. Daily Mail" the Chamber of Commerce learned that more than 400 rug manufacturers are in the port, turning out an average length of 10,000 feet a day, with employment of 14,000 labourers. The annual average is in the neighbourhood of 3,000,000 feet, of which about 20 per cent. ig exported abroad and the remaining 20 per cent. disposed of locally. Not all of these manufacturers have firms properly established, and many have no showrooms. They, however, take orders from their patrons, and execute them in accordance with, the latter's designs and patterns.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.