Hankow, Oct. 28.
The local vernacular press is evincing anxiety about the number of suicides which are taking place in Wockang and "Hankow. Un-Goubtedly many such incidents o¢- our which are never reported to the publiey but there have. been four attempts at suicide in the river of which one was successful and three suicides by opium within the last five days which have been subject of enquiries by the police. The firet case was that of a bar-her named Wo living in Wuchang. He was 28 years of age and got married last. year, incurring very heavy debts over the festivities. Constantly pressed by his creditors and unable to make enough by his needle to keep. himself and. his wife, he jumped into the river and was dead when a boutinan hauled him out, The next case was a man formers ly working in-a cotton mill at Was chang which "suspended business some. time ago. is" naned Shang and was thirty years of ge. There being practically nothing In the hesse to eat, ko went gut nomina ally for 4 walk. On his return he said that he was faint and went to bed, bat in reality he had Secured enough opium to kill himself. leaves a wife and one child to fend for themselves. After him came an out-of-work aged 40 named Shih, whose wife is teo ill to do thing. To get away from his roma he jumped into the river at the Hankow side, but he was res coued by the river police and taken back to his home, Love impelled the foarth to seck oblivion. Me was a Middle School student nineteen years of age, His affections. were centred on a. title student, and ber parents proved obdurate and reported him to. the Principal of the School, who proved stern, Young Mei was hauled out by the river police and after a Ieee ture from the magistrate was hand-back to his parents. Love also recounted for the succeasfol suicide of young wife of the same age, She was married to an officer who left for the front during the recent campaign and bad not written. She herself was ill in a small hospital, but managed to get enough opium to Kill herself driving the night.
'A man who had come to Hankow to escape from the communists had conly managed to get a job at $8.0 month, and lived on the verge of starvation. When he was told that hho was dismissed as there was 0 more work for bini, ko walked down to the Bund and jumped into the river from one of the bolks, He too was rescued by the police. But a small trader up at Wang Chia Teng accomplished his purpose to kill himself, "is little business was a failure, but. he managed to borrow a dollar and a few cents and: went out to invest these in small articles to sell. "He was held up and robbed of the dollar, ea he spent the cents con opium and gave up the struggle.
seems incredible that three per= id lose their lives over.25, but such was the cute at the Ko Family Village beyond Hanyang. Stated in cash the amount more imposing, being. 7,000 and the fight about it was ea strent= ous that the mother and the daugh-ttle boy on the other side were Knocked into the village pond and drowned: Each side is now accusing the other of responsibility for the deaths, and the courts will have to settle the dispute.
Two other cases of drowning happened off the Shung Kian wharf. A toy was helping his father with net when he lost his balance and fell into the river. His father caught "his clothes but lost his balance is turn and went in too. Neither could reach the boat and another boat which put of arrived too late to save either of them, and stores and an army supply department, also the Commander-in-Chief, who was still nominally at ig: and that, if innocent people were killed, due to their close proximity to legitimate objects of attack, the fault was not that of the attacking forces.
The rate of exchange has fluctuated {rom 180 to 280 and back Taiyuanfu dollars for 100: shops Peking "dollars,, 4
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.