Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-12-13
mand was surprised and ambuShed by

the Natives, WHO hIleu IWO-InlruS OF
his soldiers and took him prisoner
They wasted no time, but buried him
in hole up to his neck in quicklime
and then put molasses upon his head
to attract tie insects. He was. of
course dead the next morning. when
they cut off his swollen and disfgured
head and sent it with their compli-
ments to the local government.
The tax was never collected
There is an old man who lives in lux
ury on the island Of Hainan. He ac-
/ quired his wealth by long years of
freebootlng. and is known today as
the king Of the pirates. His house is
rambling bungalow, one story in
height, which encloses labyrinth of
rooms and corridors. They are fitted
mp with view to comfort, and contain
enough furniture for a seaside hotel.
Around about are fertile fields, which
| supply five or six crops each year, and
IL front is the sea, which at this point
is particularly rich in fisheries. What
with farming and fishing the old man
is independently rich from a Chinese
|
increases his income materially by
means of a well manned and we'll
armed junk, which lies at anchor in
| front Of his house, and with which he
goes off on mysterious excursions for
day at time. In speaking once with
him he took particular pleasure in stat
/ ing ''that he had been a pirate forty
years, but that now he was too old to
continue the profession" "But," he
added, 81 was pirate in the fourteen
lives preceding my present one, and I
shall be pirate after / have died and
again come back into another body in
this worldr'
He, likewise, had a handsome altar
in his ancestral hall, and in the shrine
behind it were great statues Of the
God Of War, the Tiger God and the
God of Death, and appropriately
there was no sign of the gentle God
des of Mercy, who is the most poetic
and attractive divinity in the Chinese
worship.
The pirates in the far east have
learned wisdom by experience. They
no longer cruise the wide seas, attack
ing whatever craft may come along.
There are too many gunboats patrol
! ling the coast, too many rifle guns and
too many yardarms. Law and order
in the past eighty years have shot,
hanged, drowned, blown up or burned
at least one hundred thousand fol
lowers of the "black flag" The survi-
vors are painfully aware of the fact,
as is also the younger generation,
which has filled the vacancies made
by death. Today their work is done
and safer basis
They keep spies at various places in
their neighborh0Od who report to head
quarters whenever some junk is about
to leave that has a rich cargo or
carries a large amount Of money.
Along with this goes the information
of who commands the boat, how large
a crew it carries, and how it is armed
The pirates then plan to intercept
the craft in some river or arm of the
sea, or else in some shoal water near
the coast, where there is no chance of
meeting a gunboat and where. after
| the robbery, they will have safe
means of escape. Their calculations
are carefully made, but come out right
only once in four or five times The
reason of the failures are various. 1t
may be that a foreign or Chinese gun
boat suddenly appears upon the scene
1t may be that the junk they are after
goes past their rendezvous with a Eu-
rOpean steamer or river launch, or
maphap that the prospective victim
is delayed by adverse winds and tides.
and so does not appear at the time and
place figured upon.
When they do make a capture they
are not so brutal and cruel as in the
old years. They only kill those who
resist or take arms against them. They
confiscate everything of value on
board and carry it to their own strong
holds or else to some receivers shop
or Dawnbroker's in any convenient
! town.
| There are different grades of piracy,
as of every other crime. AS in rob-
berry you have at one extreme the
! highwayman and the bank burglar,
| anu aI TIE OJIcE Tie lllS6IdDle Supdk
thief, so in piracy you have two widely
separated types in the freebooter who
takes his own life in his hand to win
his prize and the prowling night boat
pirate who steals children from the
river bank and the sea coast.
Slavery exists in China today as it
has done from the beginning of his
tory. Children have their regular mar
ket price, which varies according to
the prosperity or adversely of the
times. In general, small boy below
the age Of ten will bring from five to
twenty-five dollars, while a little girl
of the same age will command from
ten to one hundred dollars. In warm
climates little folks do much Of their
playing after the sun has gone down
and the intense heat Of the day is over.
Then is the time for the pirate child
Stealer. The trade fiourisheS chiefly on
the larger streams and rivers where
the children are stolen, and in the
great cities, where they are sold.
The fate of these poor little captives
is not so bad as might be supposed.
Most of the boys are bought for adOp-
ton by Chinese families who have no
son, and who, in adopting them, give
them all the rights which natural