Not without its relation to the above-mentioned outlawry is the business of opium smuggling. Bands of from five to thirty men, well armed and mounted, bring in opium from Shensi and Kansu. By keeping to the less-frequented roads, they are reasonably safe from attack, the police of the smaller cities and the country militia being afraid to interfere. This is the organized traffic. Men with less en tal, or possibly with less courage, have resorted to various ingenious devices to import the drug. The Chinese newspapers told of one such genius who put balls of opium into pigs' ears! Unfortunately, his was discovered as he was' ferrying his herd of swine over the Yellow River. Another enterprising mor-chant concealed packages of opium in bales of leaf tohacen, But the officials are vigilant and the pri of opium rises steadily. This rather than any desire to "reform, is leading to the gradual decrease of opium smoking. ly trying to capture, or scatter the robbers that have their lairs in the hills of the province. and frequei we read of attacks made by the sol diers upon these dens of robbers, and in some cases at least the soldiers get the best of it in the fight.
Last week I saw a report wherein was stated that more than thirty robbers had been killed in a fight that lasted some hours, and. though som of the soldiers were killed and others wounded, the troops managed to rout the bandits, and those who were not killed were scattered for the time being, In_ this particular j-lease too.
some citizens, who had been carried off by the robbers, were discovered, and were released.
One in particular, whose home is in Macao, and who presumably ix rich man, because 810,000 had jed for his ransom, was "l, and released. He does to have been so badly but was glad enough t out of t hands of his captors.
Officials in Earnest, This sort of desultory fighting is on in t parts of the and though it cannot by said that things are very sati Tneal battles a at once to ow and the the possibi thing of the on such a wide scale, in the future, The spring is again approaching. and once mi they see the vision of new devastation, though it is to be hap-that of last year. The therefore, "who have licen dinctncing this important problem. have recently been active, and efforts are Leing made to get something done. Hitherto, we fear little more than the initial steps of the undertaking have been attempt-t whilst things remain in China as they are, it is something to the good that a few of the farseeing section of the populace continue to work and to agitate.
Foreign Engineers Wanted, This is still going on, and further some suns haw been collected, so that ing may be carried on, Moreover, at Peking there are Kuangtang officials who are inter-the proposal, and these ntrusted with the task Jug the matter to the notice of the Government and the Pre sident. It does not yet appear that practical steps have been taken. and little has been done: on the other hand there is a real and a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.