The two ladies who were for five full weeks in the hands of the brigands, Misses Darroch and Sharp, are now in the city staying in the home of the Rey. F. S. Joyce. They have been through very harrowing experiences and neither lady is at present physically well. Miss Darroch is rather in such a condition that she gives her friends concern. This arises from some chronic trouble aggravated by the great hardships that. she has been called upon to suffer at the hands of the heartless brutes that cartied them off to hold as hostages.
When word of their liberation was reeecived: in the capital city here we had very little more than the mere fact of their capture b; General Wu Pei-fu's men an that they were being escorted to Juchow. For three days they remained in Juchow with scarcely more comfort than they had had _with the brigands and then they were taken by the soldiery to Honanfu. It was not till a week had passed over that they arrived here. The ladies are still too agitated to be troubled by interviewers, hut they promise that. they, will make known their experiences.
one thing they are glad. Though they have passed through really unspeakable hardships they do not now regret that they were not ransomed but retaken from the brigands by Wu's soldiers. For 17 days they were constantly running away from pursuit, the bandits keeping as far as possible in the inaccessible parts of the mountains, and the ladies taking all the hardships that fleeing entailed, their lives in constant danger from the bullets of the pursuing soldiers that carried away the lives of numerous bandits and yet they are cheerful in the thought that this may be vicar rious. This setback to the plans of brigand bands and this determin-spirit of the military leaders to put an end once and for all to this constant threat to the peace and lives of their foreign guests is the one happy result of their terrible experiences.
General Wu Pei-fu_ has been hard as flint against the thought of paying money or giving any promises whatever to the bri-gonds. From the very first his one word was "exterminate," and while the danger was constant for the lives of these ladies their hardships may. indeed be the means of saving-others from a similar fate. General Chang Fu-lai is now said to be atthe western fighting front himself taking
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.