The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-06
BLOODIEsT OF WARS.
Horrible Slaughter In China's Tai
Ping Rebellion.


And now 1 must indu g in little an
cient history which, however has high
ly pertinent present-day moral. The
Yang-Tse has bloody memories. You
cannot steam up its waters without be-
ing reminded that within the recollection
of men, who are not yet old it was, to
use Macbeths word, "incarnadined" with
slaughter. This was the theater of the
TAPPING rebellion. That vast uprising
ragged from Canton to Ten-Tsin but its
worse horrors were here. Few persons,
think, have realized tie fact that no sin
gle event in the history of the human race
involved such loss of life. If memory does
not mislead me, Mr. Burke, ii his front
cal defense OF Natural Society,"" calcu-
lated that in all the wars of storic Eu-
rope 100000 human b. ngs had perishel
Mr.. Forrest, who was her majesty
consul at Ningpo during the Tai p ,ng re-
bellion, reckoned that it had cost 21OO0,-
600 lives. TIE French revo ution, with It's
10000, or at most 10000 victims, was as
nothing to it, the butcheries Of Caesar.
Tamerlane and Napoleon bore no COM
parson
The first estimate that 1 met placed the
total at 100000. This seemed to be so
extraordinary as to be credible, and
took some pa ms to ascertain the opinion
of men who We're living in this region at
the time, DR.. Griffith John of Han-Kow.
the translator of the New Testament into
Chnese, and man who is universally re-
spected, assured me, that judging from
his own personal observations he did not
deem the total mentioned excessive In
1860, when the movement had been in full
progress for nine years, Dr. John went to
nf uybO 1,
lien Wang, Heavenly King. In going to
Soo-IchoW up the Grand canal "the
boats he says, had to be pushed
through heaps Of dead bodies, many of the
victims having been killed by the insurg-
ents' but probably a stin larger number
OF men, women and children who had
committed suicide 10 escape their furv."
Not only the Yang and its tributaries
put every lake, pond and well was crowd
ca With the corpses of fugitiVes from the
brutal license and barbarity of the Tai
Pings. Tens of thousands Of square miles
IN tnese central provinces were depopu-
lated. For thirteen years bands of thieves
ana rebels wandered unmolested over the
country, and huddled in the ruins of de-
wasted homes. To this day the land has
not recovered its former prosperitv
Inc leader Of the revolt was a moor Wis
lohaFy named Hung tsiu-tsuen born near
canton, and. was educated more or Iess',
at Protestant missionary school. There
ne teI in with Rev. Issachar Roberts
who seems, unfortunately. TO have heer,
nearly as visionary as his pupil
me OBJECT of the rebellion was to over
throw the Manchus. and its chief secured
certain amount of outside sympathy bv
processing himself in favor of Christianitv
ana Oh foreigners. Success turned his
p g' ne called himself the brother of
Jesus Christ, published any number oF
theological proclamations, and was going
10 establish righteousness and The preat
peace. 1t was marvellous how any persons
could have been misled as to the real char
acIer OF the fanatics, for, while the words
Oh the Bible were never out OF their mouths
their campaign was one of rapine. Inst
and murder '
visitor TO Nankin while Il was in re-
Del hands, was told that Kan Wang had
gone to Can Hway to spread the great
peace. The smoke Of burning villages. -
says The writer, showed what sort Of
peace a was / have looked over the pious
etusions of the Tien Wang without finding
syllable that could account for Euro
pean sympathy with this terrible scourge.
IN one OF his edicts he announces a reVe-
iatlon IN favor Of a multiplicity OF wives
Adam says the fanatic, was right TO
take only one wife; but know better. ana
WIZ teh you 10 take ten " There is evil
dence that this command was obeyed TO
The letter and beyond it. The Heavenly
KING himself took 108 wives. and Il was
told, says Consul Forrest, that he nur-
dered such wives as offended him" | can
not refrain from giving one extract from
book by this wretch on the descent of the
heavenly Father. 1 doubt whether in the
annals OF human fanaucism anything more
astounding was ever penned
through the grace Of the heavenly Fa-
ther the number Of gadies at the court
IS very great, and you should not XIII
Ohem) for every trihing offense. When tbe
ladies' wait upon you my elder brother II
is Of course their duty, but sometime thew
may be apt to excite your righteous indiQ-
nation, in which case you must treat them
gently, and not kick them with your boots
on; for if you kick them with your boots
on it may be that some of the ladies are
iations Of their friends, and then YOU viii
interfere with The kind intentions of your
heavenly Father. who loved to foster hu-
man life"
When 1t is remembered that the writer
Of this blasphemous stuff, and those TO
whom it is addressed, were acting. ana
had been for years on the watchword
XIII, burn, and destroy" that the hun
dreds of ladies referred 10 were mostly
captives, the wives and daughters Of men
who had been butchered; and that the re-
commentator not "to kin them for every
trining offense" was supposed to be quite
compassionate one has a picture Of the
orgy Of blasphemy and bloodshed that like
surging food roEed over Central China
with its hundreds Of millions Of DeOpse for
nearly fourteen years.