The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-16

Locking the door led to its being immedi-
ately kicked hingeless and one more pull
ing up OF the shutters settled their use
fulness forever. The mob about tae train
now appeared to embrace everybody from
the camp and all the small boys IN the
province. They were everywhere. Hang
ing upon the sides OF our car, overrunning
the roof and clambering, wherever foot
or hand hold could be secured. on cars fill
ing the adjacent tracks. For the first time
noise became a feature of the occasion
and there were peculiar calls and grimaces
which. happily for US, were beyond our
comprehension. Heads came into the car
windows in numbers TO the extent the cas-
ings would permit, and streams of tobacco
with other spittle made the car filthy IN
the extreme. 1t was torture TO sit there
and be baited. tormented and spit upon by
pack of cowardly scoundrels, melted by
their first proximity to fair women to das-
tardly thoughts, only the presence of a
half dozen resolute men deferred them
from attempting to put into execution.
The object lesson in the study of human
nature was forceful one. Phases of it
were suggestive of the brute which often
will not yield to the savage instinct TO kill
until 1t sees or smells blood. Here were
human brutes showing the same craving
to destroy. yet strangely waiting the sight
OF blood to break into the frenzy mangling
and killing alone appeases.
A CRITICAL MOMENT
This came appallingly near before the
train pulled out. The colonel-who had a
revolver he repeatedly declared while we
were yet on the platform he would pull
and empty into the crowd-lost the last
yestige Of command over himself at the
taunts of a fellow who appeared to be the
ringleader of the mob. The man had a
strong face. clean cut in its features and
stern to an almost heroic degree. In in
telligence, IL the countsnance be any cri-
terion, he was above his fellows and
had undoubtedly picked upon the col
onel the most likely man of the
would infuriate the natives All along
he had been singing the colonel out as his
especial mark for contemptuous epithets
and suggestions. and the latter, whose per-
sonal bravery no man could with impunity
question, became very FESTIVE. Finally,
when a volume of tobac eco juice struck him
half way up the leg. his hand went back
TO his hip pocket in flash, and in less
time than it takes to tell II, the pistol was
On a dead level with the Boxers" head
within the window not six feet distant. A
piercing scream from one of the mission
aries disconnected the colonel for a second.
Just long enough for his arm to be
clutched, with the result that the shoot
ing iron" went back to,its old place and
another crisis had passed.
To the credit of the Chinaman 1t should be
said that. with the revolver staring him full
in the face, and finger on the trigger he
could not but know meant business. he
never blanched Instead the eye glittered
in keeping with the hooking curl of the
lip and the man would have fiendishly
hailed death itself in that through his sac
rifice his associates would be incensed to
the point of killing every one of us.
There were no very long breaths drawn
by any in our party as the bump of the To-
connective against our car indicated 1t was
being coupled on preparatory to starting.
The finale of the siege had been reached,
and what the last moments would prove
was enough to make a fellow sit and choke
on his heart, for it seemed to be away up in
the throat and would not stay down where
it belonged.
Wherever the eye rested, in passing be-
yond window or door, were dark and low
ering faces, eyes that betokened the wrath
within, and lips set tight, indicative of the
passion the slightest inadvertence would
let loose. There was hurrying and sour
rying up and down the edge of the plat
form, a rushing of feet on the far side of
the train, ominous murmuring of many
voices, and a something in the air, indie
scribable and overpoweringly apprehensive.
Then, when it seemed as If the point of hu-
man endurance had been reached, there
was d creak, a heavy jolt, jerk nearly
throwing us from our seats, and we were
off. Even then the men and boys who had
been hanging in the windows and sprawl
ing in the doorway did not abandon their
places of vantage, while the noise overhead
proved there were numbers still there. But
one by one they fell away or scrambled off,
and at last we could breathe freely and
congratulate ourselves that all things have
an ending, even a wait for a train in a
Boxer district of China.
J. G. PANGBORN.