Lao Tang-jen's raid was the beginning of the wholesale banditry with bands numbering thousands operating together and, military fashion, capturing and looting walled cities of importance. Since then the province has had little peace from bandits. Always small bands are holding up travellers or king villages and from time to ie, young armies of robbers have swept across the land leaving behind them a wide belt of smouldering ruins, rotting corpses and ravished women, Some two years ago the rich of Chowkiakow (recently again victimized) was captured and plundered. At that time foreigners in the eily were robbed but none were taken away. Up to that time, although the bandits were 100 per cent, bandits, they were not the hi moral wrecks that have sprung up more recently. Also the prestige of the foreigner was still a potent factor. Bandits did kidnap foreign-(rs at times and, too, at times, treated them rather badly, but there other cares on record in which they merely took what they wanted of the foreigners' property, leaving. them personally unmolested and, in still other cases, foreign property was respected and there were instances even when wealthy Chinese gnd women caught sanctuary within Iniseion compounds and found it.
Things to-day are altogether changed. The bandits seem to have taken on an entirely now attitu No property, foreign or Chinese, is safe from pillage, and ruthless destruction of immovable objects of value is the general practice. Why? Caprice, if you like, vandalism run wild. No person with any appearance of means; no foreigner; no young woman escapes attention or detention, The present day bandits literally "gut" the places they take. Torture in the first place, means of unearthing wealth is a matter of course; unleashed passion roles; a human' life is not worth the trouble it takes to Kill a fly and when a town has been sacked and left behind it is safe to say that there has not been left behind ingle young woman who may to be a virgin. Many succeed jing. The horrors that are committed would be unbelievable to the average man following a humdrum, daily, occupation in any centre of civilization.
From Mr, Ryding's account of his experiences while in the bandits' hands (he was captured on October 3 last at Chenliu and his story will be told later: this article is general survey of condi points in bandit policy and practice may be noted:—(1) The bandits value captives more highly than loot, since the latter can walk while loot has to be carried; also loot is difficult to sell while captives mean so much ency down in camp. When friends of captives, negotiating for release, objected that, in the troubled times, was improbable that they could safely convey money to the bandits' camp the answer always was "Thats, your business, if the money is not in our hands by such and such ime, this prisoner will be killed.' And' doubtless many captives were shot or beheaded because their friends wore robbed on the way to their rescue, (2) The minimum ransom price is about $20 and from that up to any amount the bandits think they may get.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.