Ghastly Stories Cause Suchien to Welcome even Soldiers:
Raids by Daylight Frow Oun Ow Connesronoc Suchien, Ku,, Jan, 25.
Suchien is very busy getting ready for the New Year, 'Even though. prices are soaring, the streets, even now, are cro think the whole' city some two weeks ago was glad to welcome two camps of soldiers.
The tufei in the surrounding country are terrible. A night or two before the eoidiers arrived, several men were caught in the night coming in over the wei tsi mud wall, It was very much feared their friends would come and rescue them, and about a we ago our city gates were adorned with four heads. One of them was a young man of about 24, and after his relatives had been allowed to remove his head, they paid considerable sum to a leather merchant for so many stitches to connect it again with his body, There are various stories about him; some say he was a spy, others that he has a brother who is a in the army, clothes, he began enlisting soldi for the Fengehuin army, raised about 500, took them north and handed them over to the tufei.
Some of the tales from the country make one wonder when the sorrows of China will be ended, In one country village brigands carried off 18 persons. One by one, they were asked how much ground they had, and how much money they were worth, On receiving an answer of no ground" and "no money" from eight of these, their wore cut in three pieces 'a kind of guillotine knife used here for cutting Kaoliang stal The other 10 have ground, but no money is forthcoming for their deliverance, and report has it that are being starved to death. I em" hourd the other day of a young widow woman who was killed and skinned because no ransom was forthcoming. Another one who every one pitied had bound feet. As they hurried hor along the road, her binding cloths came off, and anyone who has seen a bound foot with broken toes know what that means. One by one her toes dropped off and th> brigands finally shot her on the side of the road.
It is considered out of the question for women to go to the country itinerating and some places have sent word advising the men not to go. One of our missionaries said to a messenger, "And what about you? How will you get back?" He replied, "We have an arrangement with them, They fire guns every day, and we supply food to them! They do not need darkness now to cover their evil deeds, for in many cases they carry away in daylight." In a village where your correspondent last spring epent a week, and where they talked of the soldiers as "God's gift," the tufei spent a whole day looting.
We are having bitterly cold weather and no mail has come in for three days, for the mail boat is frozen in on the canal, Ice is being stored just now in large quantities, An enterprising man hopes to sell ice cream to the Chinee in summer, There are still some cases of black measles and some very sudden deaths have occurred,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.