River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-07-19

all the powers of the world and crush
them by sheer force of numbers. But
at the present time, the Chinese mil
lions are divided into hundreds of fac
tions and societies, just as they have
been for thousands of years; and not
even fhe capture and occupation of
their capital city by christian pigs"
as they call all foreigners, has aroused
them to united action.
Whether civilization will be benefited
by the passing away of an Independent
China remains to be seen. Certain it is.
however, that a great nation which has
not enough vitality to forget its fac
tional fights in the hour of national
danger does not deserve the pity of the
world at large. 1t is nothing more nor
less than political corpse whose re-
moval is demanded by every law of ma
ture and statecraft. But should the
Chinese nation ever experience a truly
genuine revival. should it give birth to
great patriotic leader or political
Messiah, it may be taken for granted
that the powers who now rule its af-
fairs With an iron hand will be ig
ANONYMOUSLY crowded out of the cOun
try whose division has been a bone of
contention for more than a decade.
The instruction of the Boxers, al
though heralded as patriotic upris-
ing. had its origin in hatred, and there
fore resulted in murder. devastation
and the subsection of its originators.
The leaders of the marauders and as
sassins managed TO compromise the ma
tional government, but their eXtermin-
alton of Christian missionaries and
their converts was not prompted by
patriotism. They were actuated by
greed and fanaticism, he lowest of hui
man passions. They did not fight be-
cause they loved Confucius. but be-
cause they hated the God of the Chris
tians. because they We're afraid of
Christian schools and education in
Christian citizenship. They realized
that men and women trained by Euro
pean and American missionaries would
not forever submit to the eXactions of
Chinese tax-gatherers and tyrannical
officials. Their fight therefore was. and
is, one for the perpetuation of the mis-
rule which has made the Manchu dynas-
ty notorious in every country and
province of the orient and has earned
for it the contempt of the white race.
1t would be going too far to say that
all Boxers are thieves and assassins.
The history of the organization would
contradict such a sweeping assertion.
The Society of the Great Sword" was
organized as a protest and means of
defense against the bandits with which
the province of Shan Tung was infest-
ed 1t was, in fact, a vigilance commit
tee on large scale. and accomplished
much good. Highway robbery was
practiced openly in every part of the
district; men and women were muir
dered for the sake of obtaining few
cents, and rich persons were carried
away into captivity and held for ran
som. The Great Sword society. now
known as the Boxers, put stop to
these excuses and put scores of bandit
chiefs to death.
Soon after a semblance of order had
been restored the country districts of
Shan-Tung were invaded by German
Catholic missionaries who made many
converts. Being ostensibly patriotic
organization, the Boxers opposed the
PROSECUTING methods employed by the
newcomers, and to make their remon-
STRANGE as emphatic as possible pro-
ceeded to kill number of missionaries
and their converts and destroy mission
property. These outrages led to a col