The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-12

Cincinnati Enquirer.
When I first met him in Hongkong
the gentlemanIy Roy Clifford had done
this thing. He had lost caste; he had
thrown it away; he was, not to put too
fine a point upon it, a scoundrel. And
that. of course, makes his case perfectly
clear to YOU
The gentlemanly Roy Clifford was not
noticeably gentlemanIy when I first met
| him, and he was not at all sober He
asked me for a drink. and led me into
a fifth-rate sailors drinking den to OBJ
tain 1t.
BY reason of a prejudice I have against
very bad liquor he made me very I'M
comfortable there. But it was not fer
nothing. I learned a good deal about
beyond-the-pale folk from gentlemanly
Roy.
1t seems he had been probationer
missionary In Tien-Tsin. There he had
sickened of the whole business. and, so
he said, grown to loathe European in
fiuence to China, lock, stock and barrel,
Then he had loafed in England for a
year, while his people made futile en-
beavers to bring him back to New York.
They failed completely, but the gentle
manly Roy picked up lot of military
lore while loatlng.
man few thousand dollars, and full of
his newborn hatred of all things prim-
tive he drtfted through the East, spend
ing
He was drifting, and not too whole
somely, when L first met him. He will
never drift any more.
In a town called Chang-kiu, which Is
in the north of Shangtung, the gentle
manly Roy, some time before his thou
sands were finished, was warmly taken
up by community of young Cinnamon,
who considered that they had a mission,
and whose particular secret society was
an Offshoot of the Celestial Order of
Radiant Faith and Ancestral Dignity.
The young men Of Changkiu were the ex-
tremists of the order. The order has
for its object the maintenance, at all
costs, of Chinese tradition
The Purely Radiant, as the Chang-kfu
members unassumingly called themselves,
were sight to behold upon parade, after
the gentlemanly Roy had been for five
months their drill instructor. There was
no better drilled troop in China.
And you are to bear in mind that theirs
was no child's play. They represented
the wealth of Chang-kiu; they rode their
own horses; they had magazine rifiss,
each man, d small arsenal of their own,
and two kuick-fring guns.
Then of sudden came the terrible sig
Order Of Radiant Faith, etc. became
affiliated with that Of the Boxers" as
we call them. Rumors of bloodshed BE-
tween Pekin and the Pechli gulf flied
the veins of Shantung men ike wine.
The gentlemanlY Roy Cecil was called
upon TO lead the Purely Radiant across
the Pechli border.
They placed extraordinary faith In the
apostate foreign devil He had always,
before and after mis- loss of caste, pos
sessed what is called an aristocratic bear
ing. That pleased and soothed the young,
bloods of Chang kfu.
The day of the ultimate test had ar
rived, they told him. When its sun set
China was TO be China still. and forever,
or the West was to rule it by machinery
Clifford required no urging. He had
slipped his caste very completely.
Beside the great lake of Parting the
gentlemanly Roy's troop had a fiery
skirmish with a body of Russian soIdiery.
did great execution and retired in good
order without loss.
Three wounded Russian prisoners were
killed at leisure and in a very Horrible
manner by members of the Purely Radi-
ant. BY an oversight the gentIemanly
Roy was allowed to witness the tail-end
of this episode. And that, from the
point of view of the Purely Radiant. was
a grave tactical error
ever, after Clifford had delivered himself
of some plain werds.s
On the banks Of the Hun no It was tina
the Purely Radiant. strongly REINFORCED
now by members of the merely Radiant
Order and Boxers, had it's first starid-up
enga cement with the foreign devil They
attacked a column, then in full retreat
upon Tien Tsin. and under the command
of a British naval officer of high rank
Up to a certain point the engagem ent
was not merely a fierce one, it was
fight in which the European column
seemed brought to the red edge of abso-
lutte humiliation.
To begin with. the white men had been
surprised, faded and weary after long,
unsuccessful expedition; they were ham
pered by lack of local knowledge, and by
their burden of sick and wounded But
here was the lamentabIe feature of their
Chinese guns ottcfassea
those of the White men. and at the out
set, at all events. were better handled.
What the Radiant ones could not out I
class was the indcmfta bic bravery OF this j
sadly deeirna ted little British column An
Oriental. a fatalist. has always GER
tain eager recklessuess FL fighting that
Is closely akin to v1for. With the Anglo !
Saxon, On the other tSnd. Heitaer re- |
lfgfon nor philosophy provide any spur. |
His bravery Is a thing mtlffuted
Consequently. wheE you spice Il with i
rage. tiarors in a dash OF fear of torture |
and back ire whole With that kind Of |
dcspesa tev cxhIlaratLan which ecmcs 10 !
true naep when they face great odds. |;
then ycuF Anglo Saxon. from be.h sides |