The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-05-09
CHINESE SOLDIERS.


we lett one OF the nOrd1ern porIS WIN
about 600 agriculturists on board. The
term agriculturist is equally happy and
expedient. 1t battles the inquiries of peo-
| pie who are inquisitive as to the move
ment of Braves" and it possesses the
further advantage of being absolutely
and incontrovertibly true. The soldiers
| we took on board were the veriest clods
from the regions of the Lower Yangtze.
They might have known much about
rice and coffee growing, but their ideas
| of rifles and cannon did not extend to
an accurate perception as to which was
the ''business" end. In the cotton fields
of Kiang-su and the tea slopes of Honan
! they were intelligent and useful. In their
new capacity of soldiers of the army of
| Formosa they did not know enough to
go inside the house when it rained.
nese war appliances-torpedoes with
| the safety-cap unremoved, shell with
charcoal instead of powder, Winchester
repeating rifles with Peabody cartridges
to put in them; they were ciphers with
the rim off, as far as military purposes
were concerned, except in warfare ac-
cording to prehistoric modes, with fists
and sticks and stones.
Nevertheless, they were far from be.
ing pleasant fellow-passengers. They
had neither the insolence nor the ami.
mostly of the Kwang-Tung militiaman;
on the contrary, they seemed rather in
clined to be friendly with the white men;
but their bewilderment and the fact that
there were about twice as many of them
| as the steamer could hold with any
degree of comfort led to perpetual
trouble. Among the cargo which had
been taken on board for the sake OF
appearances, and for the better obtain
ing of a port clearance. was a certain
number of bales of cotton. Some of the
more luxurious of the passengers began
pulling few of these bales to pieces,
| with the view of making themselves
beds. Others, who were smoking, blew
the glowing embers out of their pipes,
with the result that only the exertions
of all the crew and the agriculturalists
combined saved the ship from being
burned before we got out of the river.
For this offense some dozen men or so
were spread-eagled in the tween decks,
| and received thousand strokes of the
bamboo on the thighs. Lest it might be
thought that this was brutal, 1 may re-
mark that the punishment sounds a
great deal worse than it really is. The
blows are delivered at the rate of about
three to the second; commander OF
two hundred men stands by and TALES
roughly, and when the whole affair is
over. the culprit probably feels more
Inundated than hurt, though the after
effect on the muscles must be unpleas-
ant.
Far more serious were the sentences
of fifty blows with the rattan, which not
few got for stealing from one another
or from the ship. Snch affairs occurred
daily, and the victims usually had the
skin cut at every blow after the first
dozen, and were left in most misera-
bic plight. Stealing pinnacle lamps,
wrenching handles off doors, carrying
off every small metal article that could
be moved-such were some of their ex-
PLOTS. Add to this an absolute impos-
sibility to obtain privacy. A man would
thrust his head through the glass of the
cabin window, in order to have better
look at you. His establishment at the
breaking of the pane of glass, which,
probably, he had never seen the like of
before, somewhat made up for the an
noyance. At meal-times scores of in
quisitive eyes noted every movement of
the foreigner at his ''chow," and walk
ing on deck was made venturesome by
the curiosity of the warriors as to the
texture of ones clothes. To manage
this rabble we had probably the best
kind of officers that could have been
found. The Captain was an intelligent,
well-read man, who would probably
have been in far pleasanter
service had it not been for his
violent temper. He had on several oc.
casions been in trouble for assaultine
his crew, and the nature of his language
was of an intensely seafaring character
though on occasion he could talk very
well on large variety of subjects. He
soon gave crew and agriculturists tc
understand that in his ship he was
naaitye apres Dieu. Any remOnstrance
was dealt with most drastically. AL
lieutenant of the braves was pitched |
into the scuppets for talking too loud in
the cabin, and warrior who got sea-
sick in an improper place was hauled
by the seat of his trousers to hawse |
pipe. There he lay and shook his fist |
truculently at the skipper between
spasms. in his impotent fury. The
chief mate was a more good-natured
and more physically powerful man OF |
the same kind. The second mate was
character. He was an Irishman who |
had fought on the Confederate side in
the American civil war, had s.hown the |
bloody shirt" afterward, and had been !
more or less in hot water wherever he |
had been. His training had been bad,
perhaps. All the Southerners who were
honest, he said, had died. They could |
get nothing to eat. He himself had had |
to drink water through his teeth fol-
fear of swallowing the young alligators.
As a consequence he had ever since pre-
ferred whisky. and drank largely on
occasion to keep up his average.-Anoy
Cor. London Standard.
l. l. =