There is one thing about the situation in the country that is almost beyond endurance. The rowdies and desperate characters that always abound in every country market town have almost a free hand too and they reap their harvests because of the general lawlessness. There are few soldiers about and the civil officials have not enough men to control the situation. Opium trade is booming and at Kweiyangchow a farmers' meeting was actually called to discuss the advisability of planting opium for the next year's crop. There was much discussion and it came to nothing, but many farmers have already planted fields of opium, taking the risk of having it dug up before the harvest next year. Several years ago, just before the prohibition, this district wag noted for the abundance of opium and the writer saw thousand' of mow that year, but has not seen any since. It was actually reported that there was some of that old crop still on hand in Kueiyangchow and macy people made fortunes that year on opium. Schools are few this year, and even some of the endowed institutions are having great difficulty in keeping open.
There are constant rumours that fighting is soon to take place in Canton. Merchants are not going there and business with Canton is at a low ebb. Plenty of salt has been coming through until recently-and the price is going up a little on account of rumours of further trouble in the south.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.