The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-09-25

A"Ss5 SouucctCu WIFI tn0 thurman mas
sacre on the 2Ist Of June by Chinese mob
at Tien-tsin of the French Consul, num-
Der Of other French subjects, including
several priests and the Sisters of Charity
attached to the French hospital of the
city. The London Standard publishes p
private letter, written from Cheefoo, June
30, in which tho barbarities practised on
the fatal day of the massacre are fully, do
>picted. After telling how the French Con-
slsl, M. Fontanier, NJ. Thomassin, an at
taehe of the consulate, and his wife, and
two Catholic priests were murdered, the
letter proceeds to give details of the san
Culinary sequel to these crimes. %
The mob, led on by soldiers, set fire to
the consulate and the church of the CathO-
lie mission, and burnt all the other inmates
who could not escape. simultaneously
with the assault on the French consulate,
the mob and soldiers surrounded the hos
pital of the French Sisters of Charity. HAY
ing set fire to o portion Of the building,
they entered the gates and dragged all the
Sisters of Charity out~into the street
There they stripped them naked, exposed
them to the public gaze, plucked out their
eyes, cut off their breasts, ripped them
open, dragged out their hearts, and de-
portions Of their flesh among the Infatuated
mob. No European witnessed these out
rages on hnfhdnity save the poor victims,
who, in presence of each other, passed
ttaEpngh the terrible ordeal, and perishsd
without hope of release, and without any
support in that extreme hour of misery and
| torment save their confidence in merciful
God, whose behests they have endeavored
| to fulfill amongst barbarous people at
the peril of their lives. Chinese spectators
of the bloody scene relate other horrors
perpetrated on the innocent ladies that
cannot be mentioned. The lady superior
ess of the hospital, it is related, was cut in
twain while yet alive. God alone and the
sisters know what they endured of agony
and bodily sufferings. Their modesty out
ragged, their purity defiled, their poor frail
frames torn asunder, their blood scattered,
and their lives destroyed by sayages whose
murderous rage inflicted all those and
'other outrages amidst a scene of horror
that alone would be horrible to encounter.
One short hour sutficed to extinguish those
noble martyrs of charity. Their labor of
love amongst the poor of Tien -tsin for six
years was thus crowned in bitterness and
earthly shame, by the very people whom
they Lad succored and fed and clothed and
tended in the hour of sickness and pesti-
lepce.
No sooner had the mob and the soldiers
glutted their thirst for human blood on the
L unfortunate SiSteIS, IMAM tHty buiHb Inc
entire hospital. Nearly one hundred chill
drcn, who had been received into the Or
phanage attached to the hospital, persisted
in the flames. The mutilated members Of
the dead sisters We're thrown into the burn
ing ruins, and thus, together with the little
children they were charitably nurturing,
| was the holocaust completed.
Such tale of horrors would suffice, but
more still remains to be told. Mr.. n. Pro-
topOpotf, Il Russian merchant, with his
wife, to whom he had only been married
two days, were met in the town OF ITEM
tsin by the same infatuated MOB and SOL
diers, and attacked with spears and swords.
) Mfr. Protopopoff fell almost Immediately
ASxel,Has cruelty, murdered. His wife, who
TSNe on q spirited horse, fed for her life
bit being Iepulsed from the road, turned
back, and attempted to leap an open sewer
in the town. She fell with her horse, but
extricating herself, hid for a few minutes
in the sewer, until she was dragged out and
, killed by the mob. The bodies of these
J two Russians were thrown into the sewer,
and afterwards recovered by their friends.
They had been stripped naked, and had
been subjected to most barbarous usage.
! A French merchant, M ChalmaisOn, hear
! ing that the Sisters of Charity were being
attacked, tried to get near the hospital tt
defend them, but he was caught in the
street and hacked to pieces. His wife,
hearing of his death ,Aed to the house of Il
native Christian aud renamed there TIL
night, when, disguised in a Chinese dress
g she ventured to her house, thinking to see
the body of her dead husband. After q
. fruitless search she endeavored to get back
: to the Chinese house, but being discovered
: by some of the Chung How's trained troops
(the Chung How Rihes) she was killed by
! them in the street.
About fifty Cantonese men, who were
suspected of being on intimate terms with
the Europeans, were murdered during the
: excitement, and even towards tue end OF
the day some miscreants were proving
about the foreign settlements. One OF
them was taken with loaded pistol and he
q confessed that he had been sent to kill some
.of the Europeans engaged in the customs
: service.
+ What the French authorities will do is
wrapped in the future. The Count de
Rochechouard, the French Charge DAT.
fairs at Pekin, by last accounts, is detained
at the Imperial capital. Some report that
: the Chinese Emperor will not allow
him to leave Pekin, as they declare they
have no power to protect him from being
5 nul dered, either on the road or at Tien-
q tsu, by the same assassins who have al
ready killed so many of his compatriots
Whether the French Charge d'Affaires is
/, Detained for other motives it is difficult to
. state. Possibly his departure is feared lest
e lie should take immediate steps for retri-
= button for the fearful blow inflicted on
French prestige in China, and that by
| keeping him at Pekin time may be gained
to soften down the painful impression
. caused by the late massacre. A short time