It is 9 p.m. From across the river come the cries of women. There seems more than activity for the time of night, and a stray couple of shots indicate trouble, perhaps press gangs preparing for the morrow. Former brigands are flourishing as mandarins in one or two places.
Rice is scarce in troubled districts because owners dare not bring it out. Opium is being taxed so highly by the soldiery that the people are saying there is no profit in it and they will not grow it next year.
Ihe brigands now do business through middlemen, issuing permits t" travellers—if they pay up. They levy taxes (so it is reported from Tehyang) and collect according to a fixed rate per acre of land, etc. The son of a church warden was kidnapped and restored to his friends on payment of $400. A convoy set out to-day from Mienchow for Chengtu; only thus can merchandise have a fair chance of reaching its destination nowadays.
A Reuter message from Canton states that at the Commencement of the Canton Christian College three B.A. degrees are being conferred. One of the candidates, Leung Tsauming, is a woman, and she is be lieved to be the first woman in any of the mission colleges in China to receive such a distinction.
Orrictats of the Wuchang Govern ment Bank and of the Mint have taken over custody of loot to the value of $20,000, seized by the British Municipal Police from looters who landed in the British Concession on the day following the outrage at Wuchang. Of the 28 looters arrested by the Britisl Municipal Police and' subsequently handed over to the native authorities, 18 have been executed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.