Chinese Woman's Novel Idea Chinese -have been known to adopt strange methods of "raising the wind," legitimately or otherwise. They have even been known to die, or make an excellent attempt at dying, on a man's doorstep for the sake of a dollar, or a crumb of revenge. Many a debtor, too, has slept uncomfortably in bed already and thickly inhabited by "night birds'* thoughtfully _introduced by an exasperated credi-for. Now comes a Chinese lady with what appears to be a novel means of collecting a debt.
The story is, that a dispute arose amongst certain compradores, and the husband of the lady in question found himself minus $1,000, and with the prospect of a fairly tough struggle in the matter of getting it back again. Then the wife came to a brave resolution. She visited the house of the alleged debtor, installed herself in one of the bedrooms, and announced that she proposed to remain there until a prospective birth became an accomplished fact. She duly pointed out complications which might—ensue, not forgetting to mention her possible death in the house, and. then set. up and continued a suitable series of howls and groans.
These demonstrations were continued for some time, to the alarm and confusion of the family, and finally a message was despatched to Hongkew police station. A detective was sent down to the house, and eventually persuaded the wu: welcome visitor to leave. The debt-collecting scheme failed, but members of the household generously gave her a consolation prize of $5, and her riesha fare home.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.