St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-09-19
An American at Tien Tsin.

10, Of Robert E. Lewis of Shanghai,
dated at "Tien Tsin," camp of the Allies,
1pIv 20, 1900. The letter was recently
orbljshed in the Burlington Free Press
and will be read with interest by Mr..
Lewis many friends in St. Johnsbury:
came north, leaving Shanghai on
1plv 10th, and worked my way in past
tbr allied fleets, past Taku and Tongku,
end then so miles by steam launch up
+be Peiho to Tien Tsin. After looking
over the situation for couple of days, |
returned to Taku and finally got on to
the American flagship Brooklyn, which
with the others is 1 miles off the coast.
was shown at first into the apart
ments of Mr.. Shipley, the right-hand
man of the admiral, and flag lieutenant
If the United States fleet. He secured
the proper endorsement of my papers
which were from the consul-general at
Shanghai, and then / was informed that
Admiral Remey would see me. l was
shown into a beautiful suite of rooms,
snotessly white except the leather-cover-
ed chairs. The admiral came half way
across the room and shook hands with
me. He had seen my papers, and asked
me many questions about the battles
around Tien Tsin, and about my work
which he said he thoroughly approved
Of | left the commander of the United
States ships with high appreciation of
his willingness to see me-a civilian only.
| had worked my way back to Tien
Tsin, had arranged at each point to
have my boxes of testaments, hymn
books, magazines, papers and aerated
waters forwarded, as they arrived, and
had gotten some Of the necessary ar
rangements completed with the authori-
ties. also had two tents up as Y. M.
c. A. reading rooms, to the south and
the north, and then my illness began,
and for a week l have not dared do
much. 1t will pass away, and l will be
ready soon, / trust, for work.
One of the courtesies shown by the ad-
miral was to allow me to go from Taku
to Chepoo and return on the United
States Despatch boat cairo without
charge for the purpose of sending impor-
tant kilograms.
There are now about $4,000 fighting
men here, not counting the marines on
the war ships at Taku. The Chinese are
fighting like savages, cutting the threats
OF the wounded, horribly mutilating the
dead and torturing their prisoners.
These things have infuriated the foreign
troops, and the camps seem to thirst for
blood. l have been on several battle
fields. There are stacks OF dead Chinese,
the river is choked with them, the air
has been treighted with the odor from
burning dead bodies. The Chinese do
not bury their dead, so our troops, to
save pestilence. have been obliged to
burn them.
The Chinese have fought desperately
no one credited them with such ability
But this Boxer movement is a fanaticism
and it has made new fighting men of the
natives. They almost had the allies de-
feated on July 18th, when the attack or
the walled city took place.
The Japanese are we'll behaved soldiers
it may be they will prove the best fight
ers of them all. They do not get in
toxicated nor look slouchy. Two regu
lar American regiments have arrived
from the Philippines. The 14th arrived
yesterday with 200 sick. The 9th has
400 out of 1000 men sick with bowe
trouble-not in very good condition for
the great Pekin campaign, which we
hope will come off in few days. | have
seen two messengers who got out from
Pekin; one arrived with eight letters
sewed in the lining of his hat. He was
given 5000 to try to take the message;
through. Our temperature is 104 in the
stade, and the baked lakli plains and the
sand storms combine to make it I'M
healthy. The water supply is partly
taken from the Peiho, filtered, anC
ought to be boiled. But for armies, this
would be impossible to do, so, as there
are so many dead bodies in the stream
YOU can imagine what the drinking
water must be.
War is an awful thing! The native
city of Tien Tsin must have had 1000,
600 people, nineteenth of whom were
cheering on the Boxers or fighting the
foreigners, but now of the 100000 moi
10000 remain, the rest have fed Oh
fallen. The devastation is terrible
Thousands of burned or sacked houses
Shops temples and yamens. But th'
nation is kicking against the bayonet'
and it will, and ought to be, hurt. L
must be taught some way to observe
treaties, to quit numbering Christians
missionaries and ENJOYS. 1t will be {
hard lesson, but | fear it must learn Il
through the harsh, but sure methods o
war.