New-York tribune., 1900-07-05
THE BOXERS.
A SOCIETY NUMBERING MORE THAN FOUR
MILLION.
From The London Chronicle

From The London Chronicle
OF the many hundreds of secret societies Of one
Opposed to the present vnastyHobpSsei to IL mat
i 10 say. to the extent of wishing rise against
fuential of those few is the brotherhood now
speak about so lightly These Boxers are IN reality
in China. we'll as in Singapore. Penang. North
known as the sam Hop wui while among the Eu s't
Tcpean population Of Canton. Shanghai and Peking
Ciety This society called also the Hung League
in existence so many hundreds Of Years m hat it
origin IS buried In ohscurity. Originally. however
jet according to the societS's FSresnt inv op3
Of EXhortation." was first and foremost to foster
9rothery love, unity, harmony equality and free
Gately. almost completely neglected by the latter
Tupt and cruel ruthan determined to stick at moth
IN @s bg iR o h way & OF crime and yany but trusting
The membership of the Boxers. roughly speaking
Is rather over than under four millions for the
brotherhood believed to have four million
known to have increased s @ snce [6eh
me Inc society Is composed OF lodges each of which
considerable, Every president has under him two
every command else suffer a horrible death
Next In power 10 the vice-presidents is a master
treasurer and number of lesser aEenits an aab aCS's ~
whom has particular duties assigned to him, AS As
for recruits, they have the option OF voluntarily
themselves of this privilege they are liable to
De tlluer ueCOyed or else brought In by force
body of the members of each lodge is deputed al
regular intervals to produce" "a certain number
of recruits within given period. Occasionally
such recruits have to he captured. their Capt1lre
being often effected in the following way: We will
take II that \ Is the recruiting member and the
individual to be recruited. a sees in the street
Without prOvOCation he approaches him SLAMS him
III the face and then takes to his heels NaturaIIv
B, in higl fury at once Off in pursuit of his
assailant, and soon others join in the chase Then
suddenly the entire crowd, ostensibIy pursuing A.
but in reality AS accompiCes. pouuCe upon the
luckleSs b. bind him hand and force hin,
headlong into sack and carry him o he meet
ing place OF the lodge or TO some place
There are no less than thirty-six articles relating
10 the Boxer Brotherhood and some S3S orders As
for the secret signs countersigns and passwords
they are so numerous that probably compare tively
Few or the members are acquainted with them ali
Many of the passwords take the form OF verses
Thus a. meeting stranger in the street, will re-
some secret verse At once If the stranger Is aIso
a Boxer he will reply by reciting the two lines
which follow. The signs, however, are so com
plete and so admirably arranged that individual
Boxers are able TO communicate with one another
at considerable distance. in the middle of a
surgtng crowd All these signs have been IN nded
down from generation to generation for many
hundreds OF years, with hardly change OddIv
enough. there is no Grand Master OF the Rover
association. but there is instead sort of central
of the five Grand Lodges. which are situated AZ
Foo-klen. Quang-Tung. Che-ktang Yun-Nan and
Hoo-Nan, respectively. This government ft is which
controls the actions of the millions members
scattered over the world. Again and again at
tempts nave been made to suppress the Boxers
out IN vain Tor now can such a society be anni-
Inflated when the men employed to nut il down
are themselves in all probability influential breth
ren, who would lose their heads at once were the,
SO much as suspected OF treachery their cause?