I have just spent part of three days in Pengpu after three years' absence during which time there has been one big fire and a change of tuchuns.
The first thing one notices is the tremendous decrease of soldiers. Then, they literally swarmed all over. Now you see a few here and there, while the drill ground is growing quite a lot of grass, especially near the Western end. A big stone wall has been built along part of the frontage on the Ta Maloo which I presume presages buildings going up there for business purposes in the near future. Tents were everywhere in the past, but 1 did not seo one this time. Tu their places are thatched huts with a plaster surface on the reed or thatched roofs. Three years ago there was an unlimited number of soldiers and "touts" at the eration willing to buy tickets for passengers with their bank notes, and Lo thankful if they got 60 or 40 per ent. of silver for the notes, That the railway company had to accept notes at face value for fares, but the shopkeepers would not accept the same for goods, neither would the Post Office accept same to send money orders to the homes of the soldiers. (Probably an investigator would find that the soldiers' lack of money is very often because they have sent much to their homes, I know a case where an Anhui soldier sent $30 home from Kansu last year—his} first year up there). Thi me there was not a single soldier or "tout" at the station with paper! money. That is surely one piece of evidence of getting more satis. factory pay.
When I commented on the fewer soldiers about, one man told me it was because a stricter réyime was in vogue. He did not seem to know, or realize, that the distribu-tien of so many men in the diffe ent counties must necessarily decrease the number stationed in Pengpu.
Ovr or Evi.
The fire meant real hardship to tuan people besides those living in Pengpu. I know one man who had a lot of merchandize stored there which was all burnt. A further loss in a comparatively small quantity of tea last year compelled him to go into bankruptey last autumn just when he ought to have made quite a sum. His private house and business place have been handed over to his big creditors while smaller creditors have been put off as best he could. I may say his home was a few hundred li from Pengpu. On the other hand one can seo benefit derived from that big burning to the present and future residents. Before the fire there was only one serpentine road from the station to the riverside.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.