'Two more evening robberies were perpetrated in Hankow a few days ago. In one of these cases, a boy' messenger was being sent from tone money-shop to another with a large bundle of cash-notes containing five thousand notes. A thief fell upon him in an alley, and snatched the notes from him. The messenger attempted to call for! help, and was immediately shot by the robber and very severely wound. ed. The police were attracted the scene by the noise, but they arrived too late. The thief, seeing his danger, had dropped the notes and fled.
The other case was that of a stationery shop, whose proprietor was counting and putting away a large sum of money which lay on hhis counter, The robber entered the shop under pretence of wishing to change some dollars. He then ran behind the counter, drew a pistol and shot the proprietor, and made off with 500 strings.
The Salt Tax Although the extra salt-tax, about which there has been so much agitation, has not actually been repealed, owing to the absolute necessity of raising funds for the current expenses of the province, it is understood now that, the pressure of public opinion being so great, the tax will be repealed with the Chinese New Year. Meanwhile, the extra tax is proving a source of wealth to certain of the dealers in salt, who are charging an extra 154 cash per chin, although the effect of the tax isto raise the cost by only 60 cash.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.