Devjeres, ole" tea through' the neighbouring count: districts and listens to the talk of the farmers over meditative pipes atithe close of the day, one begins to realize more deeply the significance of this spate of official p clamations issuing from the Tupan's yamen in Tientsin, the effects of which are being keenly felt in every hamlet of the North China plai Not Jong ago I was spending a week asthe guest of a well-to-do farmer inthe west, who possesses some 200.mow of arable land. He the headman of the village, a scholar of repute, and the thad: considerable influence in' the district. 'The old man assured me that the present orgy of tax: onthe top of a particularly your, when the autumn harvest had boon' a complete failure, and the price of foodstuffs was soaring, combined to make an almost intolerable: situation for men even of his reputed fluence in normal times. When. one remembered that the average village farmer hag to eke out a precarious living, and support 'a family on the produce of one tenth less of this worthy's estate, and endure the constant descents of tax collectors with ever-increasing demands on their often non-existent. margin, the wonder grew that the people did not rise in their indignation all over the countryside to do some. desperate deed. trate, urged from above by repeated threats, would brook neither evasion nor delay.
One of these demanded the immediate production of all lend deeds at the hsien yamen for re-registration. On payment of the extort tionate fee for this transaction, special stamp would be affixed. After the lapse of a few days no deed that wag without thie fresh mark of. registration could be considered valid, and the penalty for non-compliance was confiscation. Another net with the finest meshes had been cast and there was no escape. In numerous cases land would hhave.to be sold at ridiculous prices'Gr money-borrowed at 30 per cent, of 40 per cent, interest to stave off a catastrophe. This diabolical device meant ruin for some of these folk, but you would never have imagined there was tragedy in the air from their attitudes" oF speech. The spokesman finished his bald narrative with the inevitab conclusion of thousands of such "Chien chih ti lino!"—"We can't carry on, all there is to it" "And the saying wad chorused by every one!
the, room.
In another village where I stayed for ten days, the people were being terrorized by a gang of bandits, who, some days before my arriv had carried off two youngsters, s0 of farmers, and were holding' them to ransom for a sum of $1600, With great difficulty, and only after Pledging most of their land, were the vents able to meet this demand—had been reduced from $5000—sand rescue the children from certain death, An old friend was one of the party' of half-dozen villagers who met the robbers at the appointed rendezvous at midnight, under bridge, where they handed over the billon, and received back tie poor children, It.was interesting to learn the very careful procedure adopted by the bandit fraternity to prevent 4 disclosure of their plains, or other misadventure when such living tickets (pino) are redeemed, but that is another story.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.