On the river I find rice has been bought up at a great rate during the past three or four months for military purposes, These purveyors have had the first call and woe be- by. tide any private person who prevents them getting what they want We met or passed many railway trucks loaded with such bags as the rice is conveyed in from the districts tapped, and wondered if the officers were trying to turn penny, honest or otherwise. It seems certain that the soldiers in one province will hardly be able to eat all the rice gathered in these districts during the past few months. If not, where does it all go tot Boats of all descriptions have been pressed into the transport service and there is much grumbling in consequence. There is a good deal of hiding a few li from the towns and cities in the hope of getting s private bit of business. The rice merchants have also suffered_a great deal on this score.
I heard of some merchants hav-both ends meet!" Yuan Ko-ting has anything but a savoury character in this district, whatever he may be in reality.
'A joint proclamation by the civil and military governors of this province was recently put out in the Huai region—and I suppose all over the province as well. The delinquences of the revolutionary party in general and the grave faults of Sun Wen and Huang Being in par-ticaler were enumerated. As one notable Chinese said to me, one sentence nullified all the rest. The profligate character of practically all the military officers even up to the highest, as reported to me by one who recently had to visit the Chiangchun on business, is so notorious that the proclamation seems to be intended to white-wash their own characters at the expense of Sun and Huang. There is no country where theoretically the fine relationships are held as sacred in China, and yet, in fact, there hardly a tribe under the sun where these relationships are more dis:
The philosopher Mehti was branded as a heretic by Mencius for proposing '"'loving all people alike," which was considered as robbing the parents of the special love due to them. In view of i the charge made in the proclamation can only recoil on the heads of those who issued it.
I am informed that Messrs. Melchers and Furhmeisters have bought large quantities of be: and sesame seeds in this di transporting them to Shanghai *The Beverage that Benefits"
Not simply a thirst quencher, not merely a stimulant, but just' the purest, most health infusing spirit that has ever been produced. ing bought rice "for military purposes" being interviewed by some of Chang Heun's men near Pengpu. These latter only offered the modest sum of twenty cents per picul of about 200 catties. The merchants felt they could not work on these lines and offered to let them take the lot at cost price.
At every place on the river, no matter how small, you can see soldiers squatting or loitering about and the launch service, like the train, is at least half monopolized by these "grey coats."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.