The Chinese press reports that the district of Hsin-chang, in Ché- Kiang, has been much ravaged by locusts and that the farming people, following an old custom, de cided to have an idol procession la the hope that the gods would be placated and remove the pest. The District Tang-pu (Counc regarding this act a8 a revival of outworn superstition, moved the District Magistrate to forbid the procession. The people were much annoyed at this interference with their project and, being incited by! those of the baser sort who love turmoil, got together more than a thousand farming people from some ten villages and paraded the city seeking to intimidate the Magistrate and threatening to destroy the Tang Po, The Tang Pa appealed to the Magistrate for protection and he called on the commander of the th company of soldiers, stationed jurisdiction, to disperse the mob. He also arrested five of the leaders and held them og hostages for the future good behaviour of the disturbers of the peace.
The next day a crowd of country people, numbering some 300, marched to the city; the women in the van, These carried bundles of grain that has teen injured by Tocusts and as they paraded the streets they shouted "Beat down the Tang Pu that insults the gods" "Beat down the Tang Pu that oppresses the people."
They demanded that the Magistrate "should release the men he held as hostages. The crowd burst into the premises occupied by che Tang Pu and smashed up every-hing breakable. The Magistrate felt that he had not sufficient force to cope with a threatened riot and, méreover,-reflected that these were Jean Fredet (The Book Page, p. 278)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.