Oct. 17, Our issue of Saturday's date tald how a beggar-chief had appeared at the Mixed Court charged with extortion and, had been sentenced to a year's imprisonment and expulsion from the Settlement. It appeared that the man was the chief of a gang of beggars who infested the jetties at Yangkingpang and specialized in coal stealing. Having made themselves as much. of a nuisance as possible and so convinced the dealers in coal that it would pay them to insure against loss from pilfering, this man called on those interested - and proposed that they should pay him $4 each per month and he would guarantee the safety of their goods and prevent the fraternity of which he was the head from-making any further trouble. Now, this was the revival of a custom that was almost universal in our own lands in the good old days and is still common in every part of China away from the treaty ports. This upfortunate ''chief'? must have been born under an unlucky star since Reproduced
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.