Shopkeepers Leaving: The Poor Faced with Terrible Winter Peking, Oct. 21.
About 1,000 more shops in Pee King have' closed during October, making over 3,500 since the removal fof the capital to Nanking, while hundreds of other shops desire to close, dut the police refuse to suspend their licenses.
More than 10,000 families have left Peking and the rents of Chinese houses have greatly fallen, beingingg irlual ruin to numerous property-holders, while the poor are facing the worst winter in generations. Owing to poverty, the number of daily robberies in and around Peking ix Ingely on the increase.
Added to the hardships of the ancient capital, drought is causing ver? serious famine conditions in the surrounding provinces, especially in Shansi and Shensi and the newly croated province of Suaiyuan, where the harvests are less than half normal. Several hundred thousand persons are already stated to be starving and banditry and the exact tions of the soldiers are making worse an already serve situation, Moreover the winter is setting, in earlier than usual, Snow has ale ready fallen in Peking and there have been heavy falls elsewhere.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.