Last week, there was another local thrill, which afforded talk for ihe tea shops and the guest table.
For a considerable time a farmer on the western border of the county, who had been a Taoist priest, has been organizing a little band, somewhat after the fashion of the "Boxers." He announced himself as an "Emperor" and it is said he had gathered a bamd of about' 100. Among these he had collected quite a number of young women, whom he promised ta dress in silks and satins when he established his kingdom. From time to time he made levies for money upon. the local people and was apparently becoming a little bolder in his operations. A For a long time the people of the neighbourhood were teo much in fear of the "Emperor? "to lay accusations against him, so that! no notice was taken: by the officials. More recenty, a landlord of the district in which he had his gang exhorted him to desist from his works and as thanks' for his boldness was killed. The murdered man's brother thought matters had gone far enough, so he came into the city and made known the facts. Magistrate Wang, though an elderly scholar of the old school, is not lacking ini energy, and he immediately set out with a small force of the local militia. They found the "Emperor" in a fortress in the hills and a warning painted upon the rocks for no one to approach, on pain of death. However, the militia approached the port and called upon the inmates te come out and surrender, but were answered with execrations and taunts. A volley was fired into the air to frighten the folks in the fort, but they, believing themselves immune to bullets, replied with their two rifles.
The soldiers then fired on them in earnest. The leader was mortally wounded, a number of his followers.were killed or wounded and im the attempt of the others to escape a number were taken. One of the "queens," an unmarried woman of 23, was sent by the magistrate to the mission hospital with a badly fractured leg, neces-slating amputation. We have bees unofficially informed that, if her life is saved, the magistrate will rot punish her severely, considering that she has learned a lesson, and probably going about with one leg will be sufficient warning to others to avoid such parties. The gang was broken up' and_ scattered. Them arms consisted of two rifica and two spears. and many a tale is told by people brought to the mission hospital.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.