FATE OF CHINESE RUMOURMONGERS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2052, 1 September 1885, Page 3

FATE OF CHINESE RUMOURMONGERS.

-©- lr may be easily jjucs&ed, writes a coi-ioi|ionil-iit of the Age fioin Foaehow, the amount of excitement caused by the u-potts that the Fiemh weie leturning to Foochow, and tlie^c repot ts won- ottcn t uncut in the city In Fehnury, dining a wwk of veiy cold weather, it was dia tressing to sco crowds of uufoittiritc people clearing out into tin- countiy with then kw .wticlea of {uimtonc. I'oov women and children, many of the former with those misci.ibly eiipplod feet, hob bling along, with faces upon which was mitten the most abject tenoi. At length the Mandarins took the mnttei in li.iud, and notified that the next inventor of false lopoits about the French fleets would be decapitated. Slioitly after a Chinaman reported that lie had been the Fiench fleet bearing down for Shaip FY.ik. This is a peak at the mouth of the llher Mm, and about 30 miles j|fioni town. The stoiy, like the others, pioved to be untinc : and orders were ghen for the anest find decapitation of the offender — the execution to take place in a couple of days, at eight o'clock in the morning The culprit had a fneud who wasnsing much influence (that is, dollais) with the mandai ins foi the ie\eisnl of the sentence. On the morning appointed foi tlie execution, befoic ught o'clock, theic were on the giound a few Europeans, sonic Chinese ollicials, the exccutioiuci, and the criminal. In a short time eveiy tiling was leady, the culpiit was caused to kneel down, hw neck baie, and the lie.ul bent a little foi w aid. 15»hmd him stood the c\ecu tionei with a naked sword in hand, leady to do Ins pait when the signal would be given. The ptisonei seemed to take thing-, wondci fully easy, and appealed by his manner to feeljceitam that the mindaiins would accept his ol e , and tint his fi tend with the paidou would an he m good time. The clock struck eight ; a signal fioni the chief official was gncn, and actu illy, while the pi Nonei was speaking hii head Killed in the dust. A few minutc> after the dead mnn's fiicnd, who w.ts a \cry stout man, aiihcdma guat state of c\citeiiient, and picsented a paper, which pioved to 1)0 the pardon, to thf chief othcinl, who read it and tlien coolly mnaiked : "It is no good to h.ivo a fat n.an foi a iu< ssenger." flic speetatoih thought tliat if a kuinsliaw (tli.it i-., a pu scut) had been given t> the (hicfolhci.il, the di.id nnn irouldha\c found it to be money well spent.