Tsangchow, Chihli, Sept. 12.
In this region the rainfall during August was the heaviest in living memory and, though the waters of the Grand Canal -kept within their Danks, low-lying ground has every-_ where been flooded to a depth of several feet and crops badly damaged, if not destroyed. On the whole, the losses have not been so extensive as was feared, and only! 4n certain patches will distress be really acute when winter comes. Reports from widely separated hsien are reassuring and qt food yield in expected in the coming month, A Chinese proverb runs lao 4 han (sag plentiful rain for the pear but dry weather for the date. The truth of this is exemplified by the glut of pears on the market, while dates have suffered corres-pendingly. Generally speaking daotiang and Indian corn crops wi be good, bit ground produce has been swamped by excessive ture, The persistent rain has been specially hard on the heavy mud roofs of Chinese houses and large numbers of them have collapsed under the sodden mass, bringing distress to the poorer citizens, who are facing the prospect of rebuilding their ruined homes.
"Early in the summer the large ferry-boat at the Ts'ai Shih K'ou, commandeered by the military thr years ago and taken to Ma Ch'ang, was restored amid general re-happy result was and gentry, backed by the Publicity given tothe scandal in these columns. The boat was in a sorry condition when handed over and it has cost $3,000 to recover and refit, but spick and span with a new coat of paint and the old inscription, hacked out by the Ma-'Ch'ang scallywags, recarved on the hows, a now. parsing its old ful occupation to the great Benefit of Toe. trati.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.