Evening star., 1900-10-09
rounded by boxes instead of walls The

rounded by boxes instead of walls. The
pavilion had a roof. but no sides. Low
walls were improvised of boxes and bar
relS, and in this frail place some of the peo-
pie were camped. During that stormy
night a Swede who had been half insane
before went stark mad and raised his
earthly howls above the roar of storm and
battle. Between claps of thunder and
booming of cannon could be heard his
shrieks.
THE third and last night of horrors was
that of August Ii, the day before the relief
came On that night the Chinese were
fairly frantic and moved heaven and earth
to break IN and kill us. Firing that had
seemed furious before was tame compared
with the hail of shot and shell that poured
In upon us that night. 1t came from all
quarters and seemed to be from every i'm
aginable kind of firearm. We had received
reports of the approach of the relief col
umn. and knew that it must be near, from
the frantic attempts of the Chinese to slay
us. We expected that any moment might
be our last, as many breaches We're made
by shells, and determined assault at any
one place would have opened the way for
the hordes outside.
Few Women Undreased.
Few Of the women undressed during
those three weeks. If we disrobed, there
was not night that we did not start re-
reatedly to dress, fearing that the Chinese
lad at last broken through. We had no
idea where we would go or what would
happen. Then there were the fire alarms
which were of daily occurrence during the
first weeks of the siege. The Chinese fired
buildings all around us, trying to burn us
cut.
Here 1 recall feature of the siege that
will be remembered by all who were inside.
1t was the ringing of the chapel bell. This
was rung whenever there was a general
alarm, either of attack or fire. The sound
of that dreadful bell sent our hearts down
into our shoes. But curiOusly enough, the
bell had it's effect the Chinese, too.
They seemed to be afraid Of it, and stopped
firing for time when it was rung. So
we used to ask the men to give the bell
long and vigorous ringing.
No Suffering From Hunger.
'"There was no actual hunger during the
siege. We had boiled rice three times
day, and cracked wheat and horse and
mule meat. Fresh meat we did not have
except once. One day, about the middle of
the siege, a soldier on the imperial wall
duck and chicken. The soldier brought
them to Mrs. Conger offered him
money. but he said he would trade the
meat for g. glass of beer.
In the Nick of Time.
at is not generally known believe how
nearly we came to being taken. In another
twenty-four hours a mine would have been
exploded under the northern wall of the
legation that would have left the way open
for the Chinese. The enemy was right be-
side US. 1 went with others to the wall,
and by removing little stone at the loop
hole we could see the Chinese at work and
hear their conversation. Our party dis
covered that. mine was being laid, and,
under Mr.. GamewelFs direction a counter
min la ha
about ten feet deep We did not know eX-
actly where the Chinese mine was, but we
could sometimes hear them at work. They
had run their mine about ten feet under
ours and we're directing it well inside the
compound, and had begun to store powder
in it for the explosion when our relief came.
After Relief Came.
There was severe firing, you know, after
relief came. The Sikhs, who seemed to
have suffered less from the heat and ia
tigue than the Americans, were ready to
fight within twenty minutes after their
rival They sat in the tennis court, which
was in the center of the compound, and the
bullets whistled about them. They were
surprised to see us women and children
walking about and exclaimed: why, are
you not afraid of this fire?' We replied
that the firing was nothing compared with
what we had been through. The Sikhs
thought it was pretty hot, and got up and
broke through the wall and cleared out a
lot of Chinese.
"Mr. Pethick Ii Hung Changs secretary
was with us all during the siege. He was
much incensed, as We all were, over the
duplicity Of the Chinese government. He
expected to find his house in ruins, as the
houses of all other foreigners had been laid
in ashes, but after relief came he went out
and discovered that the Chinese had placed
locks upon his doors and that not a thing
had been disturbed. The books lay on the
table where he had left them, food was
untouched in the dishes and the house was
exactly as he had left it. The Chinese
knew who he was. Evidently they also
knew Ii Hung Chang"
Number of Legationers.
Rev. c. H. Fem, who with his wife and
baby endured the siege, said:
ION June 20 we were hustled into the
British legation by the ministers, who at
last saw that trouble was on, after every
body else had been telling them for weeks
to be prepared. We had to get out with
ternoon a man, accompanied by a friendly
Chinese. went back to the church and got
his bicycle, and returned unmolested. So
we made up q party of forty and made
several trips, getting out clothing and food.
For some reason the Chinese did not dis
turb us.
.'Inside the lines formed by us we dis
covered 5000 bushels of wheat that had
just come in when the siege shut down
upon U.S. That was our salvation. We also
found plenty of rice. / was one of the food
supply committee and was put in charge
of the eleven rude mills and fifteen mules
that ground the wheat 1t was slow work,
but we ground out enough to exc out the
supply. There were eighty-five horses
eaten by US during the siege. The popula-