The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1892-02-10
Bcheaded by Hundreds.

A Shanghai correspondent gives de-
tails Of terrible atrocity committed by
Chinese rebels on the border OF Man
churia, and OF equally terrible punish
ment inflicted by government troops up
on the captured rebels. These rebels
were led by several Buddhist priests,
and they were especially savage against
native Christians. At one place they
burned sixty children and butchered
nine Chinese nuEs. At another they
cremated sixty men whom they impris-
oned in a barn. Their expeditions were
solely for plumber and without political
purpose. Viceroy Ii sent a large army
against them, and their strength was
broken. Hundreds Of prisoners were
taken.
The punishment meted out to the
rebels by their conquerers was most re-
voting and the executions were con-
Quoted On wholesale scale. Men were
beheaded by hundreds, and entire trunks
Of trees were utilized as blocks along
which prisoners were ranged In lines
and their executioners simply moved off
their heads when the signal was given.
Generally in China the condemned are
ranged in small knots kneeling before
the executioner, but here the wretched
miscreants were too numerous for the
usual rules to be observed and they
were seized by their queues by soldiers
from the other side Of the lately i'm
provised 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
when the fatal sword severed the neck.
The heads were hung in long rows on
poles as warning to others, and In q
short time intense cold froze the bodies
stiff, but not before camp followers and
ghouls had stripped them Of every atom
Of clothing.
The rebels, 1t appears, were mostly
bandits, who roam the country just out
side the walls Of China. Last spring
they joined forces and entered upon q
regular plan Of campaign of plumber.
The most horrible atrocities were per-
petrated by these wandering despera-
does. Eye witnesses state that almost
the entire population of villages was
cruelty maltreated and murdered. The
burning Of children alive, the brutal
treatment and murder of women, the
carrying off of everything from the
homes Of the wretched people, was the
general line Of conduct Of these inhu-
man flends.
A case in point is the occurrence at
village called Kutulan, in the Jehol pre-
lecture, Manchuria. A band of 500
marauders swooped down upon this
place in the dead of night, captured all
whom they did not kill outright, and
finally carried away with them all the
women. Before going, they put sixty
men in large barn, securely fastened
all places of egress, and set fire to the
place. The shrieks OF those being
burned alive reached the ears Of few
persons who had escaped to the hills.
The scene was frightful in the extreme.
This, however, is only one Of a dozen
such incidents.
The rebels raided and destroyed Chris
tian and heather villages alike, but to
captives Of the former places they acted
In a particularly ferociouS manner. At
Talijow, which has been Christian for
two centuries, they massacred niTte Chi
nese sisters, nuns, and burned the or
phanage, which contained sixty little in
mates. The piercing of the bodies Of
captives with heated bayonets and
spears, the gouging out of eyes, the dis
emboweling or burying alive of victims,
were among the atrocities practiced by
the rebels. One band is said to have
been led by q huge amazon, who rode
astride her horse like man. 1t was re-
ported among her followers that she
drank the blood of victims in order to
maintain her courage.
The suppression of the revolt Is not
entirely due to the efforts of the Chinese
Government. 1t was really the extreme
cold that had the most to do with 1t.
The robbers could not stand the cam
paigning in the winter weather, and
they retired to their strongholds In the