Suchien is harvesting in earnest, but under difficulties. Up in the lake district, about 80 li from here, and in a_ district where a. large portion of our wheat is reaped, the tufei will not allow the owners to cut the wheat till they have paid to them a certain sum of money. Last week our magistrate in person led out his soldiers to this district, scattered the tufei, and is waiting there till the harvest is completed. Last week some very poor persons went out to glean after the harvesters, and 30 of them were carrie ed off by these brigands, to cook for them and their prisoners. Of the 19 school-boys carried off by them from Tsaidiki, not one has been heard of since. The other morning, between 4 and 5 a.m., 31 tufei were taken out to the west gate and shot. As no one knew of it, the firing caused quite a little excitement, and raised many a one from sleep.
Nobody knows where the tufei are in these days; they are among us all the time. Last night, two boys were carried. off from their homes inside the weitsi, about nine o'clock. One managed to get away and came home; the other was not so fortunate. They belonged to wealthy families who had' moved in from the country for safety.
Your correspondent, the other evening, from an upper verandah, watched an immense fire in' the country, and heard afterwards it was about seven miles from here. Two wealthy families had moved into the city for safety. The tufei went to their homes to get them and, finding their prey gone, set fire to everything and burned their homes to the ground. In the -north country report says the tufei are 2,000 strong and well supplied with maxim guns said to have been supplied by Chang Tso-lin.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.