The exceptionally brilliant weather that has prevailed all through the Chinese New Year season, has greatly added to the people's enjoyment of their annual time of rest. After a very cold spell, the Weather brightened, and the close of the old year and the beginning of the new have been amidst sunshine and soft breezes.
Generally speaking the season has been a good one, save for the ever present anxiety caused by the presence of the soldiers. Here in Wusueh we have at present about 80). So far the men have been well behaved, but the local trade guild hag had to produce from time to time some Tls, 40,000 to provide the wages of these un welcome visitors. For a small town this is a very heavy sum, and the end is not yet. Just before new year, the guild sent a present of a score of pigs, many bags of flour and sundries as a kind of Gnsurance premium" for a new year of Guiet. So long as money is forthcoming, so long we shall be left in peace.
In the neighbouring towns the soldier menace is likewise always present. Around Chichow the state of things is lamentable. The country is infested with robber bands, and villages near the town are often visited by soldiers from the town who take away all upon which they can lay their hands. Opium smoking is fearfully pre valent amongst the officers, the majority of whom smoke.
A few days ago 46 soldiers from Chichow deserted, and have probably gone to swell the robber bands terrorizing the neighbourhood. The rich have largely fled to the treaty ports, the very poor have little to fear, but the middle classes suffer severely. Business, apart from the bare necessities of life, is almost at an end, and a number of shops in some of the smaller places have closed.
Tus Worm Turns, It is interesting to note that the blacksmiths are busy making those rough and ready bird guns with which to arm the local bands who are trying to oppose the robbers. These guns can be made for less than $10 and are better than nothing as a means of defence.
Kuangsi, the county town, has also had to produce a considerable sum towards the soldiers' wages, so there as elsewhere in this neighbourhood, it is hard to get subscriptions for the famine fund. The trouble at home is so near at hand and of such a nature, that there is little money or thought to give to those farther afield.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.