The people of Sebastopol were worked up to a high pitch of excitement last Monday morning. The cause of the disturbance was a terrific blaze in Chinatown, which while it lasted, roared like a seething tempest.

About 7:15 o¹clock Willie Palmer while passing by what is known as new Chinatown, discovered clouds of smoke coming through the roof of one of the houses. He immediately applied the whip and spurs to the steed he was riding and, like Paul Revere, rode through town with hurricane speed, spreading the alarm as he passed. Someone rang the school bell and a few seconds later men, women and children rushed frantically from their homes and places of business. The race towards the scene of the conflagration was of the nature of a steeple chase, some clearing high fences with a single bound, while other feet hammered he middle of the street. Chief Palmer of the local fire department, although he made a poor start, finished with the leading sprinters and was one of the first to reach the blaze.

In less than ten minutes after the fire started it was evident that the two rows of buildings were doomed to total destruction. A strong north wind was flowing and sheets of flame fanned by the breeze, leaped high in the air. The heat was so intense that no one could approach near the burning structures. It was a difficult task to save other property from the fury of the wind and flames.

Someone suggested that the hood and ladder truck be used and a search warrant was issued by Chief Palmer. After the fire fiend had spent his fury the truck and a single ladder were found in a vacant lot.

Had there been a breeze from the east, it is safe to say that the entire town of Sebastopol would today be a mass of charred ruins.

The fire originated in the house occupied by Sang Tai. It is said that a Chinaman, while smoking opium in the upper story of the building, upset a coal oil lamp and instead of smothering the blaze with a blanket he fled from the scene in terror. Although the alarm was turned in early it was utterly impossible to subdue the flames owing to Sebastopol¹s woeful lack of fire fighting facilities. The structures were all built of redwood and they burned like tinder. About one hour after the fire started the buildings composed a smoldering heap of ruins. Fifteen Houses including the Joss house, were completely wiped out.

The buildings were occupied by Sang Tai, Wing Hop, Wai Lee, Sing Wah, Hop Wah, Han Wah, Quong Wah, Hung Chun, Hong Fat, Ling Fat, Wah Sing, Fe Kee, Chung Hi, Chung Chun and others.

The buildings belonged to Henry S. Barnes of this place and were valued at about twenty-five hundred dollars. The reconstruction of the houses is still a question of doubt.

At midnight Thursday, the local Chinamen ushered in their new year with all the pomp customary to the time. Firecrackers and bomb shells were exploded and the pow-wowing was deafening.

The white population turned out en masse Friday evening and all made a tour of Chinatown. The Mongolians were not very hospitable this year, as they claim that times are hard, but they give away such presents as they can afford.

Last Thursday evening, while the local Chinamen were having a hilarious time, officer Woodward appeared in the celestial realms and stirred up a little hornet¹s nest. The Mongolians charge that the official demanded the sum of five dollars from each merchant for the privilege of exploding firecrackers. The levy of a firecracker tax being a novelty to the Chinese, they refused to comply with the order.

The oldest and most important of the Chinese newspapers, the Peking Gazette, dates from the eighth century. It is a kind of bulletin of laws and official organ, publishing the details relative to every movement and incident in the imperial court, as well as the officials and a record of the sittings of the tribunals. These communications are furnished to the Gazette¹s editor by the functionaries of the palace; they are set up with an infinite care and are printed only after having been revised and corrected very attentively. They are not published consequently till two or three days after having been communicated to the editor, who meanwhile keeps publishing a daily unofficial edition of the Gazette. The paper is sold in the streets of Peking by news vendors and criers. The subscription price of the official edition is about $4 a month, of the unofficial edition $3. There is a manuscript edition which costs $3 monthly.

Outside of the capital the first Chinese paper published appeared at Shanghai about 30 years ago. It was soon followed by the Tien-tsin Journal and the Canton Journal. These newspapers were founded by Europeans, who were in fact, only nominally in charge, the real inspirators and editors of those independent sheets being literati, mandarins anxious to place themselves beyond the reach of imperial persecutions. There are indeed no restrictive laws against the press in China, but neither are there laws guaranteeing the freedom of writing and speaking, so that Chinese journalists are always at the mercy of the police.

The Shanghai News, which is the type of Chinese independent papers, is sold for 1 cent a number. It contains an editorial similar to a magazine article, well studied, well written and treating of political and social questions. Official decrees are published in the columns of The News, as well as local information, cable dispatches and sporting reports, for there are horse races at Shanghai. The regular reporters are able and intelligent; they disguise themselves in order not to be recognized as belonging to The News corps. But they have not yet come to the practice of interviewing.

The French Jesuit missionaries have founded a 1 cent newspaper, which was a monthly at first and is now semiweekly. It is read by the Chinese Catholics. There are also a few scientific and literary periodicals. It must be noted that as a general rule the Chinese papers do not published articles bearing on questions of actual and practical politics, so that there are in the empire no opposition or semiofficial organs. They usually are satisfied with publishing an eclectic review of affairs. They are read in the most faraway provinces. The Shanghai News circulation is about 15,000 daily numbers, and that of the Canton Gazette amounts to 3,000 numbers. Since 1885 The Shanghai

News published an illustrated weekly supplement, which is a very curious specimen of Chinese art in that line. Besides those native papers in Chinese there are some printed in English at Hongkong, a few in Portuguese at Macao and one German paper at Shanghai. ­New York Tribune