To-day Yeing New Year's Day thera is a sports programme at the school, though the heavy snow which fell a day or two ago has put a keenness in the air which will make the chilly spectators envy the the school holiday there is little other sign of the celebration of the foreign calendar, the apprentices in a litre a ttle closer to the fre, an intervals of business think happily of holidays and warmer weather a month's time when they will celebrate New Year after their own fashion.
The demand for cotton has much stronger this year than last, and the price advanced sharply from the $27 per picul of last year to about $44 where it stands "to-day. Flour has also advanced about $1 from the very low price of last year, good quality' local flour Teallzing $440. per 100" catties. There is talk of a cotton factory going up here shortly now that the provincial railway is fast nearing completion. Construction trains are now running as far south as Hwochow, and one enterprising foreigner has already made the trip from Kiehsla to Hwochow. "It involved wait of two chilly hours before dawn, but what was that when the trip which normally takes a day and half by rickshaw was done in five hours? Regular passenger trains scheduled to start running on that section from to-day, and the line should be down. to Hungtuny Linfen in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.