Pests of the Chinese: How Treaties Are Arranged: Can the Race be Civilized? frum " Correspondent.
Ningyuen, Sze., Aug. 24.
The outside world does not often hear from this southwestern corner of. Szechuan. Yet things are happening here every day that would make good newspaper copy if they happened in Shanghai. Our chief claim for distinction is in the presence of the Lolos or aborigines all about us. They are genuine savages, cruel and dirty and ignorant and lazy. Their houses are very crude, for they are a nomadic people, and do not make real homes for themselves. They live in the mountains and do not seem to mind the cold. All the year around they go barefoot, and it is against their "principles to wash their feet. The women wear pleated skirts which reach to their ankles. "The people are big and strong, with very dark skins.
There are a few "good"? Lolos who are registered and are, allowed to come into the city. They wear cloth badges on their clothes for identification and protection. The "bad" Lolos dare not come in, but they come uncomfortably close in their raids. Often we hear shooting at night which means that the Lolos are attacking some unfortunate farmers. They usually set fire to the buildings in order to drive the people out so that they can seize them and_ take them into the mountains. Sometimes they are ransomed, but more often y go into permanent captivity. " Their lot is indeed bitter. It is estimated that in recent years a hundred thousand Chinese from this region have been kidnapped. The land available for Chinese farming has been reduced by one-half. The-land adjoining the mountains is unused because the Chinese do not dare te cultivate it and the Lolos do not care to do so.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.