Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-04
THE CHINESE ATROCITIES.

Eye Witnesses Accounts of the Late Out
RACES by RebeIs-Heathen Priests and
Blood-Drinking Amazon Led the Cruel
Bands-AwfuI Punishment Melted Out to
Prisoners.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 81 Special. Eye
witnesses of the suppression of the recent
revolt In Manchurea, China, have reached
Shanghai, and the steamer China brought
letters giving vivid pictures of horrors such
ras have not been known since the Mahdi
capture at Khartoum. Last spring the
bandits who roam the country just outside
the Great Wall of China Joined forces and
entered upon regular campaign of plunder
They were armed with Winchester rifles,
and being mainly composed of prescribed
Chinese criminals. they fought desperately
and defeated all local troops sent against
them. Some of the large bands were led by
Buddhist priest. One of the most famous
OF these priestly marauders, Han Chan
Chung, was lately killed in an engagement
with Viceroy LIS troops at Mo Wo Kun,
about 200 miles northeast of Jehol. was for
many years enshrined in Mongolian temple
as the living Buddha. 1t was he in company
with another member of the church militant
who led the attack on the large city of Cho
Yang when it was captured in November
On that occasion, which was the most inn
portant incident in the rebellion, the rebels
mustered force of some 5000 men, 20 or 30
ordinary bands joining together for .nc
occasion.
Horrible Atrocities Reported.
A Shanghai correspondent says there is
no doubt that horrible atrocities were per-
petrated by these desperadoes, who showed
unusual daring and ferocity. 1 have been
told by eye witnesses of the massacre of
almost entire villages, the burning alive of
children, the brutal treatment of women,
the carrying off of everything from the
! iouses of the wretched people, and do not
think any story of this kind could be cons1d-
cred an exaggeration.
In a large Manchu village in the Jehol dis
trict $50 marauders swooped down in the
night, captured all whom they did not kill
outright, carried off all the women and then
put 60 men in large stone house. securely
fastening the doors. after which the fiends
set the building on fire, while the terrified
children and the few women who escaped
into the surrounding hills could hear the
shrieks of fathers, husbands and brothers as
they were being burned alive. This was the
village called Kutulan, in the Jehol project
ure. But it is only one of a dozen such Incl
dents.
Christians Most Cruelty Treated.
1t should not be forgotten that, though
the rebels are not particular whether they
raid and destroy Christian or heather vii
lagos so long as they get plumber, they gen.
orally indulge in peculiar and revolving
deviltry when their wretched victims are
known to be friends of the religion of "for-
eign devils,'' and they have gone great dis
tances to wreak their vengeance upon pro-
fessors of the Western faith.
At place called Talijow, which has been
Christian for two centuries, they massacred
nine Chinese Sisters of Mercy and burned
the orpharage with so little inmates. Such
amusements as piercing the bodies of VIC
tins with heated Dayonets and spears, goug-
ing out eyes, disembow cling or burying alive
can be heard of wherever these descendants
of Alilla's inhuman hordes have passed.
One band is said to be led by huge
amazon, who rides astride like man. and is
reputed to drink blood to maintain her
courage.
Lii Hung Chang takes credit for promptly
suppressing the revolt, but it was really the
extreme cold which settled the rebellion.
The robbers could not endure campaigning
in winter weather, and they retired to the
Businesses in the hills. Their power is
broken, however, and spring will not see
them on the warpath again.
Cruel Punishment Melted Out.
The imperial troops showed no mercy to
the conquered rebels Many prisoners were
taken, but the punishment meted out to the
rebels was of the most revolving character
and the executions were conducted on a
wholesale scale. Men were beheaded in
hundreds, and the entire trunks of trees
were utilized as blocks along which the pris-
oners were ranged in lines and their execu-
tioners simply moved off their heads when
a signal was given. Generally in China the
are arranged in small knots |
kneeling before the executfoners, but here
the wretched miscreants were too numerous
for the usual rules to be observed, and they |
were seized by the queue by soldiers from
the other side of the improvised blocks and |
their heads Topped off. They were not even |
tied, and the headless trunks fell against the |
block or tumbled backward or to one side, |
as their weight inclined when the fatal |
sw ord severed the neck. The heads were |
hung in long rows on poles as warning to |
Others and in very short time the intense |
cold froze the bodies stiff, butt before the
camp followers and ghouls had stripped |
them of all clothing.