Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-10-04
4 TERRIBLE s0CIET
TIE CHINESE vEGETARlaNs WHO MURDERED TIE MISSIONARIES.

.,ost Mysterious Secret 0rder-Rent on p;,fage and Murder-Disllled and Fear. .d by Government and People-son,e Account of Them.
 The Vegetarian society of the Chi nese empire is at the present day the most talked about but the least under stood secret society in the world. The Iarrible massacre of Europeans by it's franzied members the other day is now Q matter of history But of the society itself. it's aims and tenets, its history and membership, little has been known. The blow already struck, unreasona- ble and unaccountable, may be repeat, ed If it be true that the enormous membership of this organized band of essassins approves of the Ku- Chang hor- ror then other terrible murders may be looked for.
 The Vegetarians are Buddhists of the strictest sort. They carry out this doc trine 50 far in their daily life that not only no meat, but no milk or butter, ev- ar masses their lips. Taken altogether, they form one great secret society, re- garding the membership of which prac- tically nothing is known.
 Politics undoubtedly colors Vegetari- anisn to it's utmost core. Whether or not the man who passes you on the streets of a Chinese city is Vegetarian is something that cannot be told He certainly does not say.
 Also there is grade hfter grade of vegetarianism. Some of tho devotees of this doctrine absolutely atStain from all kinds of animal food permanently. These really are the true Vegetarians, z but quite as well to be included with them, should any sort If political out break come, are the men who only ab- stain from meat a portion of the time. One sect, for example, refuses to touch any sort of animal food for the first 24 days of each month, its members being perfectly at liberty to eat meat the re. maining week. Another sect leaves meat alone rigidly on certain days of the week and on other days eats it. All sorts of grades sad shades make up this great party. It is party much to be
 
 * feaYed.
 One branch of this society says, "Fot every four ounces of meat you use in th!s life you will have to pay back eight canoes ill the next. i" Another way that they put it is that the chief doctrine of simple Vegetarianism is "a means of reetifying the heart, accommodating mer- it, avoiding ealamities in this life and q retributive pains in the next. /" # Of all these organizations the govern N ment heartily disapproyes, for it sees q < constant danger and menace to 1t iE
 their enormous strength and power. There are so many of them, and they # differ so much ill minor principles that # every grade of feeling and opinion is # provided for. Money these societies seem to get in unlimited quantities # from somewhere-where 1t cannot be # said. At all events, they have ample # funds to push their propaganda and to & gather ill new members constantly. One # society may partially die out CT become # weaker, but another is always on hand q to take its place and grow stronger out N of this very weakness
 That the secret societies in China are # exceedingly dangerous to the interests # of peace ill the Chinese empire it is easy # to tell from the lawless deeds that are # done by the gangs of men from the low
 CT classes who make them up. h tho # country districts they carry off persons & for ransom; they plunder wherever any # plunder is to be had; they assume the
 role of policemen and sail i'll pretended
 revenue cutters, stealing and carrying
 off women wherever it is possible. # They also have an arrangement with # the farmers of their locality by which \ they get regular 'indemnities" from
 them, the farmeA understanding per @ sectly we'll that if he does not give these # "lndemnities" the society will carry < oil his crop when it is ripe. before he
 has chance to harvest it.
 In the cities they fire houses at night
 and carry off property and people living
 ln the house under the pretext of saving
 them.
 Besides this they have an unconquer-
 able dislike for foreigners of every kind.
 The antiforeign and the Vegetarian ele
 ment are, ill fact, one and the same.
 They are constant source of danger to
 the stranger within China's gates. =
 New York World.