Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1890-03-12

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which to locate the barracks, officers
quarters, magazines, etc.
| Among the first to be sent there was q
civilian official named Haitce. One day
whilst out with small party they were
attacked by band of Chinese soldiers.
They fed, some were shot, some escaped.
Haitce only was captured. He was taken
back to house in the principal street
OF the model little town of Monkay, tied
down upon table and skinned alive.
Now, at this time the famous Colonel
Dugenne was in command of the For
eign Legion Of Tongking. Every body
knows what the Foreign Legion is
almost the only force in the world where
sound man is enlisted instantly with
out question being asked. No matter
what your nationality, what your color,
what your past, you are welcome in the
Foreign Legion. A man may even de-
sert from the regular French army and
re-enlist, unquestionei, in this hetero-
geneous force. In return for this pre-
liminary indulgence. however, you must
put up with many inconveniences-the
worst climates, the hardest work, the
front line of the attack, the forlorn
hope and the most iron discipline. Once
out OF civilized parts, and there is prac-
tically only one punishment in the For
eign Legion-the punishment that can
oily be awarded once.
To keep such body Of men in order,
this is perhaps necessary, and the off,
GERS to enforce it must be hard men,
men with bodies of steel and hearts of
stone. And the hardest of them all was
Colonel Dugenne. When the author
tiles heard of the outrage I have de-
scribed, they understood that it was no
use to wipe it out with rosewater. So
they sent Colonel Dugenne and his chill
dren. He came and looked at the place.
Burn it," said he. But it wouldn't
burn. being all brick and stone. "Blow
it up" said Colonel Dugenne. And they
did-they blew the whole town literally
to bits. Compared with Monkay, Pom
peii is in good preservation. You need
an alpenstock to get through the streets.
And the house where Haitce was tortured
is now hole in the ground twenty feet
deep.
You are not long in discovering that
Monkay is not like other places. AS we
were rowing up, big red pheasant was
sitting in tree not twenty rods away.
picked up my rifle to try and shoot its
head off, as we do with cartridges in the
Maine woods. "Don't fire here" said
Watts, quickly; ''the people at the fort
would think there was trouble, and
probably turn out lot OF men," The
Resident, M. Rustant, walked down to
meet US and take US to the residency.
This proved to be an old temple, or
pagodc, as the French call all native
buildings, divided into rooms by board
partitions and very meagerly provided
with modern furniture. Outside, a six.
foot moat was dug and lined with spikes
hardly walk about in it. On each side
of the moat was = stockade built Of
heavy bamboo, eight feet high, and
sharpened to a spike at the top. At
each corner lookout was built of sods
and bamboo in which sentry stood
always with loaded rife. The front
of the residency faced the river, where
q little gun boat lay at anchor. The
back of it looked towards the frontier,
and therefore the back entrance, with
the okitchen and Offices, was further
protected with thick walls of sods, to
guard against the bullets fred across at
it from long range. The residents
guard consists of 100 native militia. un-
der two European officers. But at night
as we sat at dinner in the cold bare cob
webbed, bat-tenanted central hall of the
lily open and night guard of thirteen
men and sergeant of the foreign lega-
ton tramped past our chairs to an ante
room and grounded their arms with a
crash on the stone floor. At midnig ht
we were awakened by the same tramp
and crash as the guard was changed.
And there is no ''show-pigeon" about
this; all these men and their ball cart
ridges may be needed at any minute.
Next morning we went to pay our re-
spects to the commanding officer, and
look round. First we climbed up to the
forti7I on the top of the sugar-loaf hill,
where there are half dozen light guns
and small force of French artillery
men, into which no native is ever per-
mitted to set foot. The frontier river
winds along like silver thread three
quarters Of mile of; the citadel is just
below, and the half dozen houses of the
foreign population; and through glass
you can see the Chinese guns and SOL
diers in their own fort, on similar hill,
couple of miles of, or less. All these
guns, of course, are trained straight at
one another,
Then we walked, always with an es-
cort, through the ruins of the town down
to the river. The river, which consti-
tutes the actual frontier, is only about
forty yards wide, and can be forded at
low tide. On the French side the bank
is high, while the Chinese town is built
almost down to the waters edge. Across
the river, Of course, not soul ventures.
If Frenchman should try, his head
would be of his shoulders, Or worse, in
J Eve minutes. With : good deal OF diff