The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-08-29
A Square Mile of Filth, Death
and Utter Desolation.
THE HORRORS OF WAR
Illustrated in Every Detail in
the Captured Town.
Rows of Chinese Heads DecOra-
ted the Outer Wall.

stone walls of the Chinese city of Tien
Tsin, presented on the days of its occu-
patton by the allied troops a square
mile of such filth, ruin and death, tur-
MOL and pillage as history could hardly
duplicate. Under normal conditions the
place was no better than a huge cess
pool, fostering with the accumulated
rubbish and Stops from a population Of
nearly a million, packed into labyrinth
of novels, around the palaces of viceroys
and petty taotais who absorbed their
wealth and gave them not even sewers
in return. Now it is the incarnation of
all the suffering, horrors and waste of
war
The European soldiers, when they
fought their way up to the walls saw
floating in the canals and bitches out
side dozens of Chinese slain by their own
people because they refused to fight
The bodies We're headless and their
hands we're tied behind their backs The
heads were discovered afterwards. Rows
of them decorated the outer walls, hung
by their pigtails-
Five flags were flying from the high
pagodas on the city walls when the
newspaper correspondents entered, the
French. japanese, American, Russian
and British. 1t was hard enough to get
eign officer, but the real trouble will be
to get them down."
DEAD EVERYWHERE
The suburbs of the city presented
foretaste of what was inside. Shells
had torn the huts and plOwed the
ground, while the dead men scattered
about among dead horses, pigs and dogs,
testified how thoroughly the bullets had
swept the region the day before
The sights inside compelled respect
for the fighting qualities of the Chinese
Their dead were everywhere. Dressed
in the course blue coolie blouse and
n Tod until oh a rae
guaranteed to render them invulnerable
to foreign bullets, they were strewn all
along the top of the wall wherever they
had fallen. Walking a quarter of a
mile along the entertainments the bodies
averaged one in ten feet and the wall
was nearly ten miles long. Throughout
the city the demolished houses and
hundreds of killed gave evidence of how
vastly more effective had been the for
eign shell fire within the walls of the
city than the Chinese bombardment of
the foreign settlement, which lasting for
a month had killed only a dozen people.
The viceroy had constructed in the
palace yard two comfortable and impen-
etrable bomb proof excavations, guard
ed by sand bags, but the common people
We're less fortunate. Many women and
children were lying dead in the streets
torn terribly by shrapnel The living
populace were utterly Indifferent to their
dead. They would not take the trouble
to drag them out of the streets or even
cover them with mating, as a foreign
them under foot without bothering to
turn aside. Before the shooting in the
streets was finished thousands of Chi
nese had emerged from their burrows,
carrying white flags or the flags of for
eign nations, principally the japanese.
LOOTING THE CITY.
Most remarkable of all the sights was
the footing of the city, the middle of
the place was like an ant hill kicked
open. Chinese swarmed everywhere,
thousands and thousands of them; div
ing into the flames of the burning shops,
getting under falling walls and into
choking clouds of smoke. Most of them
were half naked, grirny with smoke and
sometimes dripping with blood They
preyed upon one another. A Chinese ap-
pearing with a prize must fight his way;
other Chinese sprang upon him and
clutched the plumber. They rolled among
the corpses, pulling and tearing while
children being trampled down cried for
help and the mob poured right along
over them
The palaces. the mint, the pawn shops.
the first objects of attack. Near the mid
die of the city was the most prosperous
pawn shop, an institution that had prob
nese were accustomed to store their win
ter clothing there for safe keeping. When
flowed in like a tidal wave. There were
British officers, naval and military, sol
of Sikhs, but principally Chinese. In a
twinkling all was pandemonium- The Chi
to be found, and the others followed them.
The two forces collided in a gateway, a
and another line fighting to get out with
great armfuls of loot, while an occasional
soldier went through the crowd like one
OF the broadway squad Tien Tsin ex-
penenced a sweeping redistribution of
CONTINUED THREE DAYS.
The looting hourished for three days.
On the first day it was entirely unre-
stacks of goods by simply standing at the
city gates and holding up the best laden
flowed out Pack horses, carts. rickshaws
coolies loaded with trunks and sacks, and
crowded all the roads leading down to
the settlements English officers rode
and soldiers slung bundles on their bayo-
nets.
On the SECOND day a conference of COM
handing officers decided to adopt repres-
stve measures. The commanders, except
ing the French, empowered the British.
loot. This order the British ATTEMPTED ia
execute by holding up the looters as they
entered the foreign town. They took all
bundles and reported the names of claim
ants for future inquiry. Naturally this
among the soldiers of other nationalities
Captain Bailey, the provost marshal, a
big-bodied, big-voiced Englishman. ex-
planned that the prohibition was designed
to restrain civilians from getting the
sPoils, which should go to. the men who
Is that all seized loot will be sold, the pro
reeds to be divided among the soldiers as
prize money, but soldiers, wise through
Former campaigns, comment Scientifically
AMERICANS RICH FIND.
The Japanese so far as casual observa-
ton showed, did the least looting. be-
cause of the admirable discipline under
which their soldiers are held. The Ameri-
cans had all to themselves one large ar
senal, which they occupied on entering the
city It contained not only cannon. but
a me store OF small arms, swords of Gu
rfous and rich pattern, rifles of various
makes, with stands of the long two-man
guns, which are simply giant rides throw
ing a ball which from the report and
whistle the soldiers in the fight Judged
20 Dc one-pounders. Munitions of war