The National tribune., 1900-09-27

head, but each one held himself firmly,
head forward, to receive the stroke; that
was the queer thing. Could you?
In the war Of 1910 at Port Arthur
| and at Wei-hai-wei. | saw Chinese artil
| lerymcu. Il mere handful in each fort. say,
20 or 30, entirely unsupported by infantry,
stand to their guns and keep on working
| them while the Japanese were swarming
UP the hillside in hundreds, until they wcrn
within pistol shot. and net until then did
| the Chinese make up their minds to aban-
don the hopeless struggle against such
| odds
Many times has it hccn stated. by per.
sons who We're not there. that the Chi
nesc fed without firing Il shot; don't say
they never did so. bat | say what | saw.
There is one thing | saw that nobody
will probably believe, for | could hardly
| believe it myself even when | saw it.
| Only very few, who know China very
well indeed. can understand how it is pos
siblc such thing could have happened.
| ! was accompanying Il friend of mine
Hritish-Who had business at Il town far in
the interior, Il town with an extremely
! bad reputation for ruflianism. where no
missionary could ever stay, and where
only two had ever been seen.
When we got to the town there was
soon big outcry. rs usual, Foreign dev-
| lis in our town, Kill Them kill them
~
stones Mt the place where we were, and
calling TO us to come out or they would
burn us ont.
1t was growing serious. so at last my
companion. who knows these people per-
| fcctly, told me to get the biggest note
book and pencil | had. so they could see
| it clearly, and make as if writing down
their names and descriptions as he pointed
them ont to me, one by one.
SO he opened the window suddenly. and
We commenced operations. He pointed to
ore. and | looked and said. Yes, | see
him" and wrote Man in blue trousers,
without coat" and so on.
BY the time | had made the third sup
posed entry in my book, there was
crowd, hciter skcltcr, yelling that the devil
was taking notes to cast spells on them.
In general. courage is not Il charactcr-
istic of the Chinese. The average char
acter Of the race is distinctly timorous.
But they are susceptible; impressiOnable
rs wax III the hands of a man who knows
them and gains their confidence.
y small proportion Of them have abso-
lTtcly no fear. but the blind, mad fear
/ lcSSncSs of the Dervishes. the purely ami
NAL fury Of the Fuzzy -wuZzy," the big,
black. boundin' beggar that broke Il Brit
ish square These are a few, and mostly
in the north.
oI lllt blEtT ElH'. II fDilSltltEiDiP pro-
portion, possibly more than half of the
whole nation, can on occasion display Il
stolid fortitudc. Il philosophical indiffer-
erce to pain, and even death; but they
have Ia know why, and to see some ad-
vantage in it. In his spirit they are very
ready to conclude that it is not worth the
| trouble, or that some other way is better
and so the result amounts to almost the
same as running away.
IIt Cinnamon usually. that is TO
perhaps - per cent. of them, are capable
of being induced, led and encouraged to
the very highest pitch of bravery-if
somebody takes them in hand
l doubt, however, if there is any China
man who c0lld do it; there are no Cor
dons or Eitcheners in the race. There
seem to be no master minds, no strong
wills with o gift for influencing men and
holding them under 4 spell of personal
magnetism.
Such a thing seems non-existent in the
Chinese race.