Soochow, June 26.
Thid is indeed the commencement season. The commencement exercises of several of the. boys' and girls' academies have already been held, and several more are to be held during this and next week. The commencement of Soochow University is in full swing. It began with Alumni Day last Satur. day, when the corner stone of China Hall was laid; and the exercises will continue until Friday. One naturally thinks that if all the good advice that is now being poured forth on these young grad-nates could be put into effect, what a wonderful young China we should see!
The farmers are rejoicing to-day over the heavy rains, which relieve them from pumping water on the young rice that has just been planted out. For several days last week the water-wheels were going from about 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. to keep enough water on the rice.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.