Feb. 23.
I am sitting at a table in a village called Hsienping in the mountains about 63 miles from Mienchow. One of my coolies has gone off to smoke opium; and the man at the tea-shop where I. am sitting has just said to my other coolie: There's opium inside here, if you want to have a smoke." Unblushing frankness about the matter. Opium is everywhere, and it is thus that China is keeping her promises with regard to the drug. For the last three or four years one has come across it. You may seo it growing in unlooked-for place: among the wheat or other produce. Lately, however, the evil seems to be getting worse than ever. Legislative reform cannot succeed unless the arm of the law is strong enough to enforce it. In the present case it seems doubtful whether those whose duty it is to enforce the law are not more guilty then the opium smoking coolie. Tt is certainly so in regard to the immediate representatives of the law in these districts. Friends in England are disappointed at their misplaced hopes.. The old seasoned resident in China, perhaps, was not so sanguine.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.