Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-10-11

the only thing that saved from massacre
all the foreigners in Pekin.
On that day, June 20, the members Of
the legations had decided to accept Chin
ese escort to Tientsin. Baron Won Ket-
teller dissented, and he resolved to enter a
protest with the Tsung-li Yamen.
He started for the Yamen, and when
nearly there was shot by the Imperial
troops who were to form the escort of the
legations to Tientsin. 1t was afterward
learned that these troops had been in
structed to murder the legationers as soon
as they were in their power
BLOOD AT CHRIsTIANs' DOOR.
Detailing the events of the outbreak the
correspondent says that on the morning Of
June l3, "the Bloody Thirteenth" as 1t
will 90 down in history, the native Christ
ain converts in Pekin arose to find their
gate. posts smeared with blood, mark put
there by the Boxers So that there should
be no chance of the fanatical and infuriat-
ed mob missing their victims.
So perfect was the system Of espionage
planned by the Empress and Prince Tuan
that not only had they map Of every for.
eign compound and native Christian COM
pound in Pekin, but their spies had track
ed each Christian family as it moved
about.
So great was The fury against foreigners
that scrap of foreign paper, an old for
eign medicine bottle, often meant death to
its owner. On the night of June Is the
knife fell. Foreign compounds were looted
and burned, the streets ran with the native
Christian blood.
By June Is the large Methodist Episco-
pal Mission property, situated one-half
mile from the United States Legation,
down side street from the Great Haut-a
men street, and almost in a curve of the
city wall, alone of nine or ten mission
compounds in Pekin, was left standing.
It's street chapel was burned the evening
of June 13. but further attack was re-
pulsed by the advance of the United
States marines, twenty having been sent
by Minister Conger to help guard the mic
sion, where were gathered for protection
seventy missionaries and 800 native refu.
gees, who had fed thither from prosecuted
country districts.
DEMONS CLAMoRED FOR BLOOD.
On the night of June IA great mob had
gathered on the south side OF the wall and
began beating at the great outer gate of
the Haut-a-men street. The night was
calm, the sky clear, except for the lurid
flames and smoke rising from foreign COM
pounds, but the din and uproar in the
southern city held every heart terrified. A
pack of blood hounds in widest rage could
not have sent forth the demoniacal din
and clamor of the infuriated Boxers and
their sympathizers.
"Kill, kill, kill, kill the foreigners !"
they shouted. "Climb the wall Climb
the wall Kill, kill, kill ~ Such beast
like, demon-like yells and shrieks, the
beating of drums, almost unnerved the
bravest. The Chinese are not brave as
nation, and every moment the terrified
souls locked in the foreign compounds
waited to hear the mob rush through the
last gate.
LOCKED OUT THE MOB.
After three hours of this awful sound,
the clies in the southern city suddenly
ceased, and apparently no further effort
was made to enter the northern city that
night. On June Is a runner went the
rounds that the Boxers would take the
mission compound that night.
Messrs. Tenksburg and Ingram, of Tung-
Chow, of the American Board of Missions
in Pekin, and DR.. Inges, of the Pekin
Presbyterian Mission, shouldered their
guns and in the early evening set out for
the Rauta Gate, distance of quarter Of
mile. They reached it without nishap,
forced the huge key from the gatekeeper,
under the curious eyes of 200 armed Man
chu soldiers OIL the wall above them; lock-
ed the gate to prevent southern city mob
entering that night, and returned un-
harmed, carrying with them key whose
only comparison is to crowbar.
That night the mob rose in redoubled
fury. They began early in order to effect
an entrance before the closing of the gate
at dark. but the Americans had been there
first. They beat upon the iron covering
of the old gate. tLey screamed and yelled
in fury of disappointment, but to no
avail, and about o'clock in the morning,
hoarse and weary, they ceased and went
back to their novels and palaces to think
of new plans to get at the foreigners.
The key was returned the next morning
at daylight, but taken every night follow
ing by military order. 1t now rests in the
United States Legation as the first trophy
of the war.
MURDER OF Won KETTLER.
On June 10, at p. M, Tsung-li'Ya.
men informed the foreign Ministers by
letter that they would be expected to
leave Pekin within twenty.four hours un-
der nrotection of Chinese soldiers. The
French Minister, Sir Claude Macdonald
and Minister Cunger were all for going,
but Baron Won Ketteler, more suspicious
of Chinese treachery and diplomacy, saw
massacre for all outside the city gates in a
counts swarming with red.handed Box
ers and uncertain sodiery. The following