Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-25

in a white mans uniform I expected that
lous. He Is the contrary, though nobody
resists a smile when sentry calls. who
go lere? FIend! Allell." Their officers tell
me that they could get all the Chinese re-
Out Of the tenth Sergeant What's-his-
name" has made a wonderful transforma-
ton. The pigtail is rolled up under a reg
ulation British bluejackets hat with the
brim turned UP all round. He has khaki
skirt and khaki breeches with puttee leg
glngs of the British type. Apparently the
British had more confidence in their "pid-
gin Tommies than the Germans in theirs,
for the Germans have brought up none of
the native companies which they have been
drilling at kiao-Chou. Skepticism is vast
ed, if the British Chinese are any test; for
in the little action which they saw in the
relief of Tien Tsin they seemed to enjoy
fighting their countrymen.
Unless We wanted to be cut up by Boxers
we were told that we had better not walk
to Tien Tsin along the railway. In fact, this
twelve miles Of the Tien Tsin-Pekin rail-
way and Taku, Tongku and Tien Tsin are
all that the allies hold at present After
we had rested under the shade of tree
drank something and chatted with two
British officers for few minutes we walk
ed to the Pei-ho along the bank of one or
the numerous irrigating canals which con-
meet with that river, where waited three
hours before Captain Wises tug, when
had to wait on the tide, appeared. In the
days when Tien Tsin became the great port
of the province of Chilli the depth of the
Pei-ho permitted ocean draught steamers
to go up to Tien Tsin. The Pei-ho has
changed, but not the Importance of the
port.
plains. with nothing to break the monoto-
nous view except the villages strung along
the river banks and the comcal mounds
those fdr-famed sacred graves of an
'fOraiPn
destroy in order that his railroad might
not be as crooked as corkscreW. All
the houses are of mud, implanted I'M
adorned the outside, and the land
is a of mud In the brief rainy sea-
son now approaching. With the wind throw
ing dust Ia your eyes. 1t would be deSolate
enough in ordinary times. But these are
far from ordinary times, either for the Chi
nese or the foreign devil in China. Last
year the rain was slack. crops failed and
distress became one of the contrtbutlve
causes, but not the sole cause. of the Boxer
movement which seems at this juncture to
have become the authority of the empire.
AS far as your eye can see on the plain now
living figure greets it. The advancing
force. to save from massacre ministers and
attaches in this late day in the worlds pro-
gress. moved down human life as thor
oughly as the careful reaper CLEANS his field.
The people fled. and with them such Boxers
as We're left alive after contact with
troops. The match was touched to the in
terror of every house.
Dead Cinnamon in the Pei-HO.
l did not attempt to count the number of
dead Chinese which lay on the banks of the
river, where they had been washed by tidal
flow. They were not into the thousands,
some one had told me, but there must have
been more than hundred If one of the
savage chow dogs of the country was net
munching an arm a leg he was lying
near by the corpse, gorged, and waiting
.1rfh l.; ;-l,
work.
1t was dark before the tug approached
Tien Tsin. Just outside the town we passed
another launch, or, rather, small steamer.
which had on board the wounded Of Admi
raj Seymours force. Their work in the war
with China was over, and they were return
ing to their ships. A Russian 'pontoon
bridge prevented our tug from going as far
as the young naval officer who commanded
her expected to go. He tried to get the Rus
sian sentry to make an opening for him; he
might as well have asked the Sphinx to
conJugate understand in English. This al
lied army is a Babel of tongues: a Midway
Paisance of civilized racial characteristics.
L struck out across the pontoon bridge
into the European settlement to seek the
American consulate and information as to
where l could get a nights lodging, and to
call on Captain McCalla. A Russian officer,
with three Cossacks and a Chinese cart be-
hind him. came trotting along a cream
coored pony. He invited me to throw my
blanket roll into his cart and he started out
to show me to my destination. He was a
little mixed on his topography, and eventu-
ally a citizen told that the street which
we were following led in the opposite direc
ton from the consulate. The officer would
take no excuse. Americans and Russians
ought to be good friends he said. He. his
cart, his Cossacks and his pony (Which he
had captured from Chinese general, he
told mel escorted me to the very gate of
the consulate. one of the Cossacks insisting,
in rough good nature, upon taking my
blanket roll up the porch, where the
consul, Mr.. Ragsdale, was resting from the
worries Of the siege. Captain McCalla was
asleep, he said. He reiterated what 1 had
already heard on all sides-the admiration
which our sailormen of Seymour's force had
won from all the foreigners. An orderly
came with a message for the captain, and
when the consul woke him up he received
me.
The last time that had seen the captain
at APART, where he had given a tired
correspondent an American breakfast which
had made that correspondent feel If he
were something of man again. Before
left his room 1t was long after midnight.
The story Of the expedition which set out
to rescue Pekn and had difficulty to rescue
itself as he told 1t to me will relate in
later article. Suffice it that he left out
three important facts. One was that he
was shot through the flesh Of the back, the
second that a shell wounded him in two
places. the third that he went on directing
his men on the firing line without stopping
for repairs" and hobbled into Tien Tsin
at their head