The leader., 1899-11-01

IlAItllOAA VT W IL FL
witnessed six battles and was present
at the surrender of the Chinese fleet
At Wei-Hai Wei Mr.. Smith happened to
be in the company of some newspaper
men, and they started ont for the wa
ter front with the intention of reaching
a certain point of land where a good
view of the ships could be secured
There were 10, 900 japanese soldiers
surrounding the city. Mr.. Smith and
his friends as they walled along the
shore were soon discovered by Chinese
gunboat She came up and surveyed
the little party of newspaper men and
concluded to fire The ball struck some
mules near by, and they started to run.
Mr.. Smith and his fellow journalists
continued on their walk The gunboat
was then a Thousand yards away, when
suddenly a company of japanese soldiers
was spied on nearby hill The gun
boat turned around and from distance
of 300 feet tried to kill the Japs with
her rapid fire machine guns. The Japs,
instead of retiring, picked off the sail
ors ON the vessel A fight for ten min
utes followed, and the gunboat then de-
cided to sail away
During this contest the newspaper
men were standing on levee, and un-
der it had been placed ton of dyna
mite They started back for the hill
and entered a large Chinese house which
| had been looted by the troops. The
newspaper men We're hungry, so they
! searched for food A can of nodded raj
sins was all that could be found Mr..
| Smith was looking down on the floor
when he saw an old Chinese geography
and picked it up as souvenir. 1t was
fortunate moment for him.
The house had been occupied by an
! English officer, Colonel Theodore Smell
/ by name who had been the instructor
| to the Chinese navy. He was at that
1 moment with the fleet in the harbor.
/ Mr. Smith and his companions went
out of the house and sat on stone wall
/ to eat their raisins. a quarter of a mile
away We're the Chin Chen Yen and 9th
er boats, and when they saw the hungry
crowd on the stone wall the Cinnamon
opened fire Shells soon began to drop,
and the war vessels were covered with
smoke All the newspaper men lay fiat
on the ground except one man, who
stood erect and unmoved. He had a
camera aud took pictures during the
storm Of shells. Mr. Smith declares that
the act of this photographer was one of
the bravest deeds he ever saw.
Later the party started back for the
city, but one Of the gunboats, discern
ing their intention, attempted to head
them off. This compelled the CORE
spondents to seek shelter until the dan
ger had passed. While dozen or more
shells were whistling over their heads
and bullets We're dropping on all sides
the newspaper men felt that it was a
good time to keep quiet. Pretty soon
the thing became monotonous and Mr..
Smith began to be restless. He hap
pened to think of his geography and as
an amusement decided to take the vol
ume out OF his pocket and look over its
pages, AS he did so piece of paper fell
out and fluttered ON the ground. He
had enough curiosity to pick up the
fallen paper. Upon examination it
proved to be most valuable document.
1t was the official map of the city and
harbor of WeiHaiWei 1t had been
drawn by Colonel Smell and was his
personal property All the important
Notifications around the city, the loca-
tion of the different guns and the posi-
/ tion of the distractions in the water
We're clearly shown. AS soon as the Chi
nese boat got tired Of firing her guns
she steamed away.
Mr.. Smith, realizing the Importance
of his discovery, hurried at once with
/ the other newspaper men and soon
reached the japanese lines He then
went to the army headquarters and in
| formed the authorities of his find. In
handing III the map he requested that
it should he returned to him after use.
That same evening the map was for
warded to the commander of the Japa-
nese blOckading squadron. He was the
famous Admiral Ito and decided to
make use of his latest information He
uation and only waited for the coming
of daylight to put his newly formed
plans into execution When the next
morning arrived Admiral Ito sent his
torpedo fleet into the harbor, with the
result that the Chinese feet was very
badly damaged and soon surrendered.
The officer in charge of the captured
Chinese fleet was Admiral Ting. On
one of these boats was the same Colo
| mel Smell WILLIAM R. BRITToN