The Chinese year now closing mark no progress of prosperity in this part of the world, Uneonscious that among mankind there are such things as "Social problems" and " Economic principles," the populace here maintain their existence in the" happy-go-Incky " way that has characterized them for generations. The straggle to psy debts, or rather to stave off creditors at the year's end, hastens the deter-loration of Shansi, and bit by bit palatial dwelling houses and heirlooms of former splendour disappear to appease angry claimants. Within a large area within the writer's ken, not one city can be spoken of as in any way prosperous; all are on the down grade, while undeveloped possibilities abound on every hand, The villages are fall of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.