A high: piece of ground ai the Min eight or ten miles above the city must have been'the scene of a ériae! tragedy. Being above a village that was low, became the feftige of the families as they wore driven from their homes. Gradually it became surrounded, the people on it being slowly crowded together at its centre, which was highest. At last that ivas covered, and the poor unfortunates, Cut off from all escape, perished to the number of one or two hundred.
Profit out of Ruin, But the practical-minded Chinaman loses no time in turning disaster into profit wherever possible. Men along the shore pulled in whatever they coild reach; and where eddies favoured it, boats were used to collect the debris, the reckless boatmen often getting caught in swirls that spun' their small craft around like tops. Many families in thi way laid in enough' firewood to carry them well into the coming winter; and doors and windows ready-made were seized by others to improve the equipment of their homes. At one place on the shore two coolies pulled in a new coffin and at once began to calculate th profits from its sale. Not a minute of opportunity' was lost by those who had it, in spite of the fact that whole houses wore coming down steam, and barn-yard stock, as well us some few people were afloat on wreck"ge. Those latter it was possible to uttompt to rescue for by a strange fat they seemed midstream.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.