The age-herald., 1900-08-25
AMERICAN FORCES
 ARE STILL IN PEkIN
The Report of Evacuation is Discredited by Officials
 of the State Department.

high. This wall is built in the form of square and is about two miles long on each side. Quite wall, isn't 1t?
 "The Chinese bombarded the foreign part of the city from these walls, and most of the fine buildings are in ruins.
 "The big battle occurred on the 18th, and it did look silly to run infantry up against those walls, but 1t was done, and at a frightful cost
 "The British used their 45-pound lyd- dite gun with terrible effect In fact, don't think we could ever have run them out of there without that gun.
 "The Japs were next to us and they fight like demons and can outdrill any troops I ever saw. There is not two inches difference in the height of any of them They lost heavily and stood it bravely One of them volunteered to blow up a part of the wall with gun cotton, and blow him. self up with the wall Git could not be done otherwise), and he was allowed to try it, so that his troops could get into the city. How he ever got to the wall nobody knows, but few minutes after he left an awful explosion occurred, a big part of the wall was down and the brave little Jap went with 1t. How Is that for heroism?
 'The Russians also lost heavily, and they are a class of men who have my deepest sympathy. Some of them could speak Ger man, and as we have a good many Ger mans in our regiment, We learned a great deal about them.
 Their salary amounts to about 35 cents In our money per month, and it was dis gusting as we'll as pitiful to see soldiers of great nation like Russia walking around picking up little scraps of hardtack that we had thrown away! We fed lot of them, and more grateful set of men you never saw. Now, don't mean by this that they had no rations. Oh, no! But you should see their bread. It is cooked in large, round loaves, looks like burnt ginger bread and cannot be broken in your hand. And just think of tive were the first to tell them of the Spanish-American war and the Fil- ipino insurrection as they were just from Siberia, where no newspapers or anything to read is allowed!
 We went into the walled city on the 14th, and the sights there were sickening Without exaggerating, there must have been anywhere from ten to fifteen thous- and dead Chinamen all over the city. Most of the place is in ruins from the lombard ing. and is on fire, and thousands of bodies are burned.
 "The Chinamen never touched their dead and wounded, and matter where you look, it Is nothing but dead bodies in all stages of decomposition and common currence to see a dog chewing on one It was awful Horrible We had to stay in there two days, and had charge of fatigue detail who were forcing the China men at the point of the bayonet to bury their dead. had two severe vomiting spells before I got through with that job
 T helped pick up eleven of our own men the day before who had lain on the field all night. Our regiment got into tight place had to lie there all day and wait for night to escape, as the instant you raised your gun you would get the stock shot off or the shot out of your hand before you could raise yourself up to firel This may sound like an Arabian Nights story, but 1t Is an honest one, and will be sworn to by most any American soldier here, and there are plenty of guns to show for it that have bull lets in the stock. I was right between two men that got shot in the rifle and the splfnterS from one of struck me.
 'The Chinamen are certainly dead shots and there were daily 100000 of them mak- ing targets of us but we were too we'll en- tfenched for them. Our loss in the regi- ment was 98 men and officers, killed and wounded.
 You could tell lyddite victim as soon as you saw him, and there were thousands of them. They were black in the face and splotches of green were on their bodies, with long strips of skin torn off and bleed ing at the mouth, nose and ears.
 The women and children did not escape. Mothers with babies in their arms and children of all ages were scattered all around The stench from the bodies in the burning buildings was simply unen- durable.
 There was a mint here, containing mil lions of dollars worth of silver bullion, and all troops were allowed to take all they wanted of it except the Americans It finally caught fire and that stopped it. l stood guard there in charge of a squad one night, and it was quite a job to pro- tect it, as there are several fortunes there yet, and the bullion is plainly visible among the bricks of the fallen walls.
 "All troops except us were allowed to loot, and there was plenty of it. Mag nifcent furs and robes that would easily bring from $150 to $500 in the United States were plentiful.
 "The grandest sight was when their magazines was exploded by one of our of our shells. There was a cloud of smoke fully mile thick that was blown two miles high in about second. The explo- sion was terrific It broke all the window panes in the new city foreign), and killed over over 700 Chinamen. There are seven arsenals here, valued at over $2O.- OeOOOO, and the enemy left them behind. l haven't time to write more, as I am act ing sergeant major of the Third Battalion.
 When this reaches you, write me- wher- ever am, as you can find out where I am by the papers. JOHN D. WHITE
 Corporal Company L, Ninth Infantry"