The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1895-08-24
RIOTS AT CHENG TU
Dr.. Stevenson Tells Of the At
tack Of the Mob.
RABBLE ENTIRELY TO BLAME
Women and Babies Escaped From House
TO House. Finally Reaching
the Coast.

Vancouver, b. c., Aug. 17.-Among
the passengers by the Empress of Jap
an were Doctor Stevenson and family,
missionaries at Szechuan, China, who
narrowly escaped murder at the hands
of natives in the first of the recent
riots DR.. Stevenson belongs to
Canadian Methodist mission, and is
now en- route to his home in Milton,
Ont, having had to leave China owing
to the i'll health of his wife, who Is
still suffering from the effects of recent
horrors. DR.. Stevenson said that the
vicious official system of the empire
is responsible Tor the persecution or
missionaries. Left to themselves the
people of Szechuan were peaceable and
well disposed toward them. The mis-
sionaries had built a hospital in Cheng
Tu, now destroyed, at considerable
cost, and DR.. Stevenson was one of the
doctors employed. on the 2Sth day OF
| May placard was posted up, declaring
| that the foreigners fried children for
the oil in them. request was made
that these placards should be torn
down, and a few were torn down.
though several persons objected.
"Dr. Kilborn," continued the doctor,
was just filling Mr.. Jackson's teeth
and 1 was doing slight work about the
dispensary, when we heard some chill
dren yelling and throwing small stones
This was about 4:SO. We sent out cards
at once to nearly all the Yamens. They
were received, except one sent to
Tsong Pao Kiachii, Human man, who
followed up his refusal with vici-
Gus proclamation.
Dr. Kilborn had a double-barreled
gun and l had a Martini rifle. We held
the crowd at bay until chairmen ar
rived, who promised to keep the street
clear, adding that the officials would
soon appear Good liars, but bad po-
lice, they soon allowed the people to
come right into the gate.
again we cleared the street. Our
wives had picked up the babies in their
night clothes and ran TO the hospital
through the dividing wall, and we soon
heard the crowd beating at the hos
, pital gates on the back street. DR.. Kill
born blew a big hole through the top
panel of the gate and frightened the
3 crowd back. We now went into our
t dispensary buildings and tried to lock
ourselves in, but we soon heard the
2 roar and crash of glass and panels
2 on the dwelling side. We made several
e vain attempts to escape into an ada
cent lot. We finally found a hole in the
wall made by a stone thrown by a
rioter.
1 There was just room for one to get
through the hole 1 was the last to get
out, and pointed my rifle a. a man who
was yelling strike dead While we
] inf ba ia
grounds a brutal soldier kicked Mrs.
Stevenson. levelled a gun on this
D wretch, and had he tried to follow it
c up there might have been another story
to tell.
p Next day the party made their way
v to the China inland mission house;
y from there they watched the destruc-
T. ton of the two old houses of the Cana
p dian Methodist mission. The mob
= broke in and DR.. and Mrs. Kilborn, Mr..
q and Mrs. Hartwell, the children and
Misses Breckbill and Ford escaped by
l. ladders over the back wall. They en-
tered small house and bribed the
= owners to conceal them inside the bed
- curtains. For three hours they waited
in terror, while the work Of destruction
4 was going on about them. At night
they succeeded in getting away. The
y same condition of affairs prevailed at
II the Episcopal and Roman Catholic mis-
~ sions. In all II places were looted and
the inhabitants barely escaped with
=, their lives.
There is much the sameness in the
reports from the different towns and
% there is no doubt that there was a gen.
- eral agreement among the rabble te
~ drive out the missionaries"