Brigandage is still rife in the north of this Province. Around Anlu, there is such a reign of terror that all the wealthy, inhabitants have left the villages and taken refuge inside the city. Only the poor are safe outside city walls. The brigands are said be defeated and disbanded Hupeh bandit leader, active in. the regions. round Suichow and Tsaoyang. Chi Kung-shan, the summer resort north of Hankow, is to be guarded this summer, as it was last year, by 8 special company of soldiers sent up by the Tuchun.
It is curious to find one of your correspondents referring to the Tong Shan Shoe as a new secret society. The Tong Shan Shoe is 2 religious society, which has been growing for at least 10 or 12 years. Tt has branches in neatly all the Inrge towns of North and Central China; and numbers amongst its Jeaders-many of the most respected men in such - places. Its main object. is a kind of religious eclecticism, ie, it seeks to combine the best features of all religions. But it seems to be most. akin to Buddhism. At its meetings, the members sit cross-legged in silent meditation, as the Buddhists do. The rales of the society are secret; but it has no political comnexion, and there is probably no more harm in it than there is in freemasonry.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.