The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-07-15

| fucius, within it's borders, is the mecca
I of all educated Cinnamon. The prov
/ ince has also been noted as the place of
! origin OF nearly all of China's great Sc
| cret societies, and it has long been no
4 torious for revolts and seditions. It is
not at all surprising, when you know
the character of the people and their
I history, that the Boxer movement
started in Shantung
I In the eastern part of the province,
up in the mountains which part the
waters of the Huang Ho, lies the pros
porous village of Fei-Cheng, near
which the Boxers murdered DR.. Brooks
early this spring, at the beginning of
this years anti-foreign movement.
The Boxers were originally organized
to protect themselves from a band of
outlaws who were in the habit of plum
dering them occasionally but. as usual
with such associations in China, they
soon found it more profitable to join
hands with their plunderers and to ex-
tend their operations.
Plumber the Original Motive.
There canbe no doubt that the chief
motive at the beginning of the present
demonstration was the hope of rich
plunder in the great province of Pei
/ Chilli, which lies north across the
marshy plains of the Yellow river.
The political complexion of the move
ment has been supplied by those who,
like many earlier Chinese intriguers,
/, have simply used the already or
ganized secret society to accomplish
their purposes. 1t will not do to believe
too much of what is told of the rabfd
anti-foreign sentiment among the Box
ers. At Tai-an. right in the heart Of
their home country. for over twenty
years a most successful mission has
been maintained, and one of their larg-
est native congregations is in the viii
lage of Fei-Cheng, before mentioned.
Neither the missionaries nor the native
Christians at these points were dis
turbed.
It seems strange if the Boxers were
starting out on a mission of extermina
ton that they did not begin with the
foreigners nearest at hand, or why. if
they had overlooked these, that they
should attempt to force a difficult pass
age north across the flats and marshes
instead of attacking the treaty port of
ChifOo or the German settlement at
Kiao-Chou, both of which were near
and easy to reach. After leaving their
province, the first point the Boxers
strucg was Chen ting-fu, a large city
lying at the foot of the mountains near
RE western boundary OF Gel-N01H-
Cheng-ting-fu is an old city and has
one of the finest ancient temples to be
found in China, with an immense
bronze Buddha, over sixty feet high.
The Catholics here have large mis-
sion, claiming 80 900 converts, and a
fine cathedral When the Boxers at
tempted to loot it pitched battle oc-
carried with the native Christians in
which the Boxers were beaten with a
loss of seventy killed. The Catholics
claim a million converts all told in Chi
ma Advancing northeast about fifty
miles, the Boxers reached Pang- ting
fu, the capital of the province. which
lies about eighty miles southwest of
Pekin, and almost 100 miles due west
OF Tien Tsin, with which il is connect
ed by river. Pang- ting-fu was the pres
ent terminus of the Luhan railroad, be-
ing built by the Belgian syndicate from
Pekin southwest to Han-kow, a dis
lance of about 500 miles At Pang-
ting-fu the Boxers ignored the presence
of a large body of American mission
aries, but attacked the party of Belgian
engineers engaged on the road and pur-
sued them when they attempted to es-
cape down the river to Tien Tsin, fin