"Frost Our Ows-Connesrowoent Taichow, Che., Feb. 16.
We are glad to welcome Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Wilson back to Taichow They both had to leave their C. I. Mission station at Lienku last summer owing to sickness. They have now returned,..we are thankful to so fally, restored to health and strength Mrs."Loosely, who has been gallant ly working alone at Tinto, has recently been joined by Miss M. Dig-gam, another C. I. M. worker who has just returned from furlough. Miss Hughes, who has been_working for about 28 years at Ningpo in connexion with the C. M. 5. has come to give temporary assistance] to work amongst women and girls and to strengthen the hands of Miss Marrian who has only b: en out from England about two years. Our only little foreign boy, little Mark, the seven-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Griffin, of the C. I. M,, hi detaken himself'to school at Chefoo.
The New Year It would scarcely be correct to! say that Chinese New Year has been quietly ushered in. There has been plenty of noise but no semblanes of disturbance, The streets have resounded with blasts from countless tumpers of trumpets, the only discordant notes that have broken the otherwise peaceful harmony.
The Chinese down here take their holiday very decorously. On New Day numbers of them walk about or stand rather aimlessly Judging from appearances, in th Streets, others stroll about the city wall, in some cases accompanied by their children, They go once more and have a look at the two dismantled cannon Ising on the wall overlooking the approach to the city by the river from Haimen. They probably have not once been to the spot since last New Year, and will not revisit it till another 12 months have passed. Again they recount to their children how the smaller of the two guns is 120 years old. I hope they add on each year as it comes, and how the bigger one, some four or five tons weight, has a legend attached to it, passed down by one generation to another.
The legend runs that some inst tive child or person asked where so large a cannon came from, anid was informed that "it floated up the river on the tide, that for countless, years it has lain motionless but} watchful on the wall, Should an en-my come up the river and attack the city, this wonderful cannon. would rise up and firing—automatically spread death and confuse ion amongst the enemy."
Youthful Gamblers One feature of the New Year eeleseemed to me more any former the number of women and children sitting round tables in the streets gambling.
It is customary here on New Year's lay to place tables and adi forms in the streets for men thus to pass the time. During the recent. holi see boys and girls sitting round the: tables playing for money, whilst men and women stood by and watched them. In some eases the children were allowed only a limited time, and then the tables were monopolized by their olde In other cases} the grown-ups had it all their own way, all the time. Then again there seemed to be family tables} placed just outside their door, weather permitting, and these were oe-_ cupied by both grown ups and In the old days gambling, as far as my observations went, was ied on chiefly in the house. Here it is seen out in the streets and any empty space adjoining the streets In wet weather, the temples appear to be the favourite playing resorts of those whose komes are too small to hold any considerable numbers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.