The Brunswick times-call. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1900-1902, 1900-08-31

At no time of the year is trip over
the road from 1'ien-tsln to Picking
pleasant one. The distance is about
80 miles If one follows the great high
way which skirts the banks of the Pei
Ho. The railroad is another means of
communication and, of course, the
quickest and easiest, but unfortunately
the Chinese would not allow the allied
powers to send their armies to Picking
by rail. For only a short distance
above Tien-tsin is the Pei-Ho navigable
to any but the most shallow river boats,
and the stream which circles to the
west is 10 better.
1t is true that troops might have been
marched along the elevated embank-
ment Of the railroad, but this route was
the one tried in June by Admiral Sey-
mour, who was compelled to turn back.
So the highway seemed to present the
most practical route to Picking from
the sea and it is along this path that
General ChaiTee has been fighting his
way i'll company with the English,
French, German, Russian and Japan
esp forces.
There are several c6ndHioQs which
the country between TN n-tsin' and
Picking may present. These conditions
depend upon the season of the year.
They are all unattractive conditions.
During the early summer or dry season
the reads lie many inches deep WITH
fine dust which powders everything in
sight and which would be disturbed
p choking cloud by an army - the
march.
About the middle Of July the dry
season ends and the wet one begins.
Then come the torrential rains. These
last for six weeks or So and they
change the dusty roads into streams Of
mud, while the adjacent plains are con-
verified into marshes through which
flood fed rivers cut their turbulent way
to the sea. Along in October winter sets
in with surprising promptness. The
marshes freeze over, snow falls 3nd
icy winds sweep the plains.
Just at this time of the year the road
to Picking is muddy one. When the
soldiers get out of the mud they get
into the water In addition to the
floods, 1t is possible for the Chinese
to open the bikes on the banks of the
Pei-HO and produce a thorough inunda-
ton of the country. According to re-
cent accounts they have done this, and
the only paths left open to the allied
forces were the great highway and the
railroad embankment.
The relief force under Admiral Sey-
mour made the characteristic British
mistake of taking the hardest way.
The country west of the Pei-Ho is full
of swift and treacherous streams, and
the whole plain is a big swamp. 1t
would be almost impossible to march
across it without opposition, yet the re-
lief force started out across it over the
railroad whose destruction was known
to be one of the main detectives of the
hostiles.
1t was preposterpus to suppose that
1000 men could protect so miles of
railroad running through ar. inf .,iendly
population of 100000 or r000, so
when the relief forces re- ID LANG
Fang, half way between Peking and
Tien-tsin, they found the railroad
destroyed ahead of them, their COM
munication cut in their rear and them
selves literally smothered in the mass
of people about them.
The Chinese cart road from Tien-
tsin to Picking follows the western
bank of the Pei-IIo until short dis
lance below Tung-chow, where 1t turns
west to the capital. The proper rout9
for the relief force to have taken was
to go by boats up the river to Tuna.
chow. DISSEMINATING there, they wouxl
only have had to march ~ mills
west over easy ground to reach pekiN.
If, however, the opposition was
strong or the fighting too severe &c