The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-08-26
Lieut.. Davidson simultaneously
Held Every Position From
Engineer to President.
HIS WORK AT T0NG-KU, CHINA.
Says the Fighting at Tien-Tsin
Was the Hardest of Modern
Times - Heroic Jap's
Self-Sacrifice.
REPUBLIC Special,

| REPUBLIC SPECIAL.
Sioux City, Ia, Aug. 25.-An interestin,
letter has just been received by A. J. David
| son of this city from his son. Lieutenan
| Will c. Davidson. U. S. S. Monocacy, sta
toned at Tong-Ku. The letter follows:
| United States Ship Monocacy. Tong g-Ku
| China. July 4.-Dear Father and Mother
| l have made another change. Shortly afte
| I finished my letter of the 9th, receives
orders detachlns me from the 3rookly,
! and sending me to this ship. The Monocac,
| Is. as you must know, a side-wheeler of the
| vintage of 1850. She is tied up at the :iocl
here and her captain, Wise, is the com
| mandant of the station here. consisting OF
| all nations. He has the railroad, severa
| tugs and other things. and has to furnish
transportation for all :ne foreign armies
| to Tien-Tsin-a big job. I came over on ths
10th. and on the 11th was put in charge OF
| the railroad system. / have been working
night and day ever since.
THE Chinese had torn uo the road 8
short distance this side of Tien-rsin, SC
that the line is now repaired for only sew
enteen miles but 1t soon will be repaired
the entire distance. twenIy-seTen miles
Imagine a naval officer iE charge of a rail-
road! My first job was to send up 1,50C
Russian guns and ammunition. This was
all to be done by a. m. 1t has been thai
way all the time since. A regiment OF
troops lands at the wharf and receive or.
ders to send them out to the end Of the
line Immediately. So far ] have been very
successful, considering that all my engi-
neers are new men. One day / had to run
the engine myself. I am getting along
pretty we'll, but never know what will turn
up next.
Battle at Tien-Tsin.
Now about the war: The foreigners are
still trying to drive the Chinese out of Tien-
Tsin and their forts, while the Chinese get
even by bombarding the foreign settlement.
Day before yesterday the Chinese attacked
the railroad station at Tien-Tsin and drove
out the French, but met the English. who
held them in hand-to-hand fight until the
Japs came Up. and then the Chinese were
driven back. Yesterday there was q COM
bined attack by the allied forces-we could
hear the bombardment from here-twenty-
seven miles-and at a. m. we a terrific
explosion go up 2000 or 5000 feet. We learned
later that 1t was a magazine Of one of the
Chinese forts The latest news Is that all
but one of the Chinese forts have been
captured. and that this fort and the whole
city were surrounded and would be attacked
to-day. a trainload of Russians was sent
UP last night. Captain Davis. one Of my
best friends. was killed and three more Of
my friends wounded. 1t was the hardest
fighting of modern times"
Through Railroading.
A second letter was inclosed with the first.
and was as follows. the heroic self-sacriflce
Of Jap being related:
'Tong-Ku. July 1s.-Dear Father and
Mother: 1 am through railroading. By a
vote of the Admirals the railroad was
turned over to the Russians this morning
ours and the British Admirals dissenting.
could write volume on my troubles of
eight days of railroading. I was superin-
tendent, president, general freight and pas
senger agents and everything combined,
with meager force of Englishmen, two
Americans and a dozen Chinese to do the
work. 1 simply worked night and day; was
continually transporting soldiers. horses,
artillery and provisions for all nations. But
that is done, and this morning 1 am resting
for several hours. Day after tomorrow
am going to Tien-Tsin with one OF our
river boats.
THE fight Of the 18th was terrible. It
was drawn battle, with the foreigners wait
ing for dark. But the artillery fire had
demoralized the Chinese during the day, and
then at a. m. the Japs planted a mine un-
der the west wall and one of the men held
the fuse and exploded the mine. at sacrifice
of his heroic life"