Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-05
BOXERS AND FIRE
TWO DEADLY FOES AT THE
PEKIN SIEGE.
SANDBAGS OF SILK AND SATIN.
Aged President of Imperial College
Tells the Story of Their
Rescue.

New York, Oct. 5.-The New York
Times has received a communication
from the Rev. DR.. Wm. Alexander Par
sons Martin. the aged president of the
new imperial university of China, re-
citing the facts of the siege as he saw
1t. DR.. Martin first went to China as a
Presbyterian missionary half a century
6 and is widely known as the author
of many books dealing with China. His
communication in part is as follows:
The rescue was the work of Christen-
dom, aided by Japan, which deserves to
be admitted into the honored brother
hood. The British troops We're the first
to enter, coming in by the water gate
unde a portion of The wall held by our
legation guard.
The first visible sign of our great dam
ger was the burning of churches, mis-
sions and legations in exposed places.
The enemy even set fire to Chinese
shops filled with foreign goods. partly
from hatred to foreign products, but
chiefly in the hope that the flames,
driven by a south wind, might reach the
foreign quarter. A tower of the great
front gate was consumed on that occa-
sion. On the day after our flight, they
set fire to two imperial buildings adj
joining the British legation, believing
that the flames would overlap the wall
and so they would have done had not
our people repealed them by tearing
down outlying structures and by pour
ing on floods of water. How it fright
ened us to heear the fire alarm, when it
meant a blood thirsty enemy at the door.
SO imminent was our peril that even
women and children passed buckets
from hand to hand.
One of the imperial buildings thus de-
stroyed was a grand coach stand for the
palace. The other was the Houlen acad-
emy-the focus of learning and summit
of the whole literary system-its price
less library largely in manuscripts, was
reduced to ashes or trodden under foot.
Nothing shows the bitterness OF the de-
termination to DESTROY us like the sac
rifice of such a
At short intervals every night, and
often through the day, we We're subject
to a fusilade, the soldiers taking no aim,
but firing upward in expectation of some
shots falling on our heads. Needless to
say few took effect. The same is true
of the bombardment in which hundreds
Of shells burst in mid-air, still in sorties
and conflicts at critical points, our losses
We're very heavy.
Not only We're our men at their post
of danger night and day, but the women
We're equally on the alert and equally
brave. They a sand bags in great
!, number over ten thousand, using cur
tains Of silk and satin as well as other
costly materials. The sand Bags were
used to strengthen our d%efences, many
of them serving for parapets on house
tops where guards We're stationed.
The cheerfulness of our ladies did
much to encourage the men. All knew
that the enemy would give no quarter
and that the women falling into their
hands would suffer a fate worse thar
death. Young women requested their
friends to shoot them and a mother of
Six resolved to shoot her children and
then to kill herself. Stern necessity adj
mits of no argument . During an attack
one woman broke down and went into
Mysteries and one went mad. These were
solitary instances of weakness. In gem
eral, calmness and even hilarity pre-
vailed. Dun provisions We're running low
when our troops approached. Horses
and mules had been eaten and dog meat
was threatened. Each night the attack
grew in ferocity. We feared the enemy
would escalade our walls, burst in some
weak point, or spring a mine and blow
us in the air. On Monday the 18th of
~ 49, ~ 9SANASA oASA 10 UP W |
to the machine guns of our deliverers.
Nomusic could be so charming. Women
fell on each others necks and wept for
JOY. Yet our friends had to wait for
daylight to force the gates. This they
did early in the forenoon, almost with
out opposition. The Chinese had been
coWed by frequent defeats and thought
of nothing but flight. The empress dow
ager and court fled the same day, in
tending to set up a new capital at some
inaccessible point in the far west.
On Sunday was he'd a Thanksgiving
service conducted by an English chap
lain in the open air. ASST SEED Dy Tr. Ar
thur Smith.
Through these trying days I was kind
" cared for by the United States minis
ter n his excellent wife. To them, next
after God, my thanks are due. Mr..
Squires, the secretary of the legation
and his worthy wife, deserve my thanks
for their kline hospitality.
The Chinese government is incapable
of reconstruction, n 1t is probable that
a partition will be arranged between the
great overs.
W. A. P. MARTIN.
P. S.-The new imperial university, of
which I have the honor to be president,
Is coupled as a barracks by Russian
troops. 1t is likely to share the fate of
the Manchu dynasty.
Pekin, August 26, 1900.