We have been wondering what to expect, and how soon. About a week ago there arrived one of the largest and the quickest of the new steamers which ply between this city and Nanchang when water permits. Your correspondent took tickets for two ladies who were going down stream, and proceeded with them on board an hour or so before the advertised time for leaving. All seemed to be ready for starting, the mails were already there, and fires were roaring, and all seemed in a fair way for an early start. So I left the passengers on board and returned to the house. But something happened, and those ladies were here for supper. They were told that the steamer would not leave until next morning at 8 am.
Suspecting something else as the cause, I again went with them on board but only to find that the machinery had not yet been repaired. No one was engaged in doing so, and no sign of heat even in the engine room. Further conversation revealed that she was detained for some time in case she should be needed, for what no one knew, but it could not be for the transporting of troops further south as water forbids that move, so it must have been in view of a probable need of a quick transport of troops or more likely officials down stream.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.