Among those whose business take them cruising along the coast, the impression prevails that piracy iz one of the sidelines of the Chinese afaring profession, but hardly ever a man's whole job. When trade is slack, the idea seems to be, one junk preys upon another, resuming its peaceful avocation when cargoes are again plentiful. As a matter of fact in, these waters piracies of various kinds are supposed to occur daily, and such being the case one would have thought that Chinese mariners. would very much on the gui vire in consequence. Yet experience shows that they are prepared to take all manner of risks which the foreign master of even a tramp would never think of doing. There is, for instance, the case at Haimen recorded in to-day's news, when the eyew of a steamer who had before them the job of loading some 4,906 bags of rice, proceeded to go fast asleep. They must have slept soundly indeed, for when awaken-od by the beating of gongs they found themselves trussed up and a wang of pirates aboard making free with the rice. A quarter of the cargo disappeared in company with the pirates. There i is practically nothing new in the case, and the wonder is that ordinary precattions should not by this time of day have been learned by the seamen, -A man on the lookout, an alarm given in time aad a resolute resistance would have meant a very Aifferent ending to the story. Unfortunately what appears to be Incking in so many-of these cases is determined leadership, but it is hardly surprising to find this so among these classes when the so-called big men of the country seem to possess so little of it.
The Usual Game of Chance People who set out to make China good (according to their particular lights) have an uphill path to tread, no matter who or what they may be. The gentleman in Peking who caused a mandate to issue'a day or two ago prohibiting lotteries throughout the whole of China probably knows so much now, if indeed he was ignorant of it before. In the first place that large and influential body, the lottery merchants of Shanghai are clamouring to the skies in protest, and for fear their voices will not carry. far enough they. have resolved on the establishment of a news agency to spread their views that lotteries should not be declared illegal just yet. Of course, such a body would not be very susceptible to the government variety of uplift, but curiously enough they find themselves in excellent company. Lu Yung-hsiang: of Chekiang, in conjunction with his Civil Governor, has entered his protest likewise, pointing out that much relief work still remains to be done in the province. and there can be no talk of stopping lotteries until further progress has been made with it. Worst of all, however, there is serious defection in the very home
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.