Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-07-07
THE CHINESE CRISIS.
The German Embassador Killed and
Others In Dire Peril.

Curriers' arriving at the seats of gov
eminent of the southern vlceroys from
Picking give vivid but fragmentary pie
lures of what is being enacted in the cap
ital. These eouriers seemingly left Pe-
king day or two later than the messen-
ger of Sir Robert Hart, the inspector
general of customs, who started on the
night Of June "a. They report that the
heads of some of the captured legation
guards were being borne through the
streets at the top Of spears, followed by
zeoats chanting, 'Tapi yang kuei tie;
tapi, tapi" Qlill the foreign devils; kill,
kinrO
The city's millions have been reused to
patriotic fervor breaking out into the
widest excuses, while over half the city
could be heard the fighting around the
legations.
Sir Robert Harris runner, who was in
terviewed by the correspondent OF The
Express at Shanghai, supplements the
tragic sentences of the dispatch he bore
by d narrative Of some things he saw.
He says the foreigners were making a
last stand in the extensive buildings and
Enclosures of the British legation. They
had many dead and wounded. Among
them were some women and children.
All were short of food even of the com
monest necessaries. The women were
starving as they gave a part of their
small allowance to the children. The for
eigners, nevertheless, We're holding out
under terrific fire, upheld by the hourly
expectation of relief.
Orders were given by Prince Tuan, the
messenger says, that, since some had
been killed. not one other foreigner
should be left alive. The Chinese soldiers
were exhorted to sacrifice their lives
without hesitation if by so doing they
could help exterminate the wang kuei
TIE" Extreme precautions had been TAX
en- to prevent the foreigners from com
municating with any one outside the city,
and a number of runners who had been.
sent out were killed by the Chinese. This
messenger succeeded in getting through
10y smearing his face and clothes with
blood and joining in the outcries against
the devils" He passed the remains of
foreigners Of Admiral Seymour's force
who had been killed between Lang-fang
and Lo-fu. Their bodies had beeen cut to
pieces. and their heads were carried at
the ends of hamboos.
A special dispatch from Shanghai, dat
ed July 2, says that the taotai of Shang-
hal notified the Chinese newspapers that,
beginning June 81, no notice will be TAX
en- of DEGREES of the so called imperial
government, as Prince Tuan had seized
the power on that day.
Various accounts Of the murder of
Baron Won Ketteler reach Shanghai. The
correspondent of The Express says that
Prince Tuan, who is the dictator at the
capital, tried by means Of a trap to in
duce the ministers TO leave the legations
so that they might be massacred by ia
natics, thus evading governmental re-
spoifsibility for their death. The Amer
lean, British. French and Russian min
listers suspected a plot and refused to
leave the legations. Baron Won Ketteler,
however, accepted the invitation and left
the German legation with a small escort
of German marines. Opposite the for
eign Office building he was assailed by
the Chinese soldiery and was shot four,
times. The foreign office was burned by
the marines in their endeavor to defend
Baron won Ketteler, whose body was
hideouSly mutilated