Kueiyang, Dec. 15.
Smallpox has been very prevalent here and is still, also typhoid.
The widespread extreme poverty this city is very marked. I cannot call to mind a year when I have seen so many, even grown-ups, going about the streets more than half-naked, and now the cold weather has set in, the suffering will naturally be much more severe.
Meanwhile the Government seems unable to compel hoarders of rice to bring out their stores, or to insist on a maximum price for necessaries. The police did attempt it here on a small scale but tackled the small traders bringing Tice into the city, with the result that they refused to come again until they were assured of not being interfered with. The big landowners are the chief offenders and to tackle them requires the authority of the higher officials. For one dollar we can only get a little over a bushel of rice nowadays, This makes living a serious problem to very many.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.