Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-03

With an angry snarl he shook himself and
turned Quick a flash the half dozen
| dogs who had been putting the marks of
their teeth on his TANKS fell away. Mr..
Bulldog sprang at them. They SUNK,
wheeled and fled, yelping with fright. Like
their masters the Chinese, they could not
! fight when the odds were less than dozen
to one.
Mr.. Bulldog did not pursue. Though his
Jaws were dripping with the blood of bat
tie, he stood still, looking half-s,eepily after
| the last visible few of the fleeing enemy
Next, for moment or two. he surveyed
| ward to see If it was safe to pat him he
| heard me coming Cooking one eye. Mr..
| Bulldog looked at me. as much as to say:
rs that all the fight there is in the
Chinese?'
Then, I bent over him and stroked
| him, the mascot opened his mouth in
| prodigious yawn. Yet. cowardly as these
Pektn dogs are when facing an enemy of
ability, they will pounee upon the dying
man and tear him to pieces with more dis
| patch than the same number of wolves
| could show
| 1t is the eternal yeping of these ours by
day and their incessant bowling by night
that gives the newcomer the first and
greatest sensation of the true desolation OF
Pekin. On every hand there are visible pic
lures that complete the realization of de-
vastation. Among the most picturesque
specimens of architecture some months ago
were the pagoda-like towers on the city
walls, most of them marking gates. These
towers. in many instances, have been re-
duced to blackened piles through the torch
of the incendiary, whether yellow Cau-
casan. Other towers show the fearful work
of the shot and shell of the invaders.
Handsome Towers Destroyed.
The handsome tower over the famous
Meridian gate was burned by the Boxers
themselves at the very beginning of the
siege of the legations. That part of the
southern city just beyond the Meridian
gate, and just past the famous Beggers'
bridge, where once stood the gratest mar
ket district in China, is simply fire swept.
Hardly one of the buildings in this neigh
borhood can boast of roof: the walls are
backened and all but destroyed. The east
ern or Che-ho gate, through which the Jap
anese entered the city, is burned beyond
recognition. In these pagodas millions OF
swallows had their nests: now the swaI-
lows are dispersed beyond the city. The
Chinese, who look upon this bird as
bringer of all good fortune, believe that
their luck for the future has gone in the
flight of the swallow.
Street after street where rich dealers in
silks and furs, bric-a- brac, jade and clois-
onne once carried on their trade are now
Uttered with the ruins of the fire-destroyed
buildings. This destruction was the work |
not of the invaders but of the Boxers and
savage imperial troops. There has been a
great deal of talk about the loot captured |
by the allied soldiers, but they did not ges !
1.-THE of what was stolen and carted away |
Wy DoAtTS anu the SOlu.eTS Ol the emperor.
No one can compute the millions that would |
represent the value of what was taken by /!
the covetous yellow hooters who fled at |
first news Of the approach of the allies.
Through these thieves of their own race |
the Chinese merchants who were strictly |
non-comba tant even at the height Of the |
anti-foreign fury. have lost their homes |
and places of business. their stocks in trade |
and millions in actual cash. It will need |
many year of hard work, careful bust |
ness and strenuous saving to enable Pekin
to recover from the losses caused by the
blood-mad but frightened Boxers and i'm
perial troops.
Most Of the gates of the city, standing
at the outer end of tunnel-like passages.
been shattered. Hardly one of these gates
can now be closed at night, though former
ly, for generations. all were made fast when
dark descended. The charred remnants OF |
these barriers of wood and iron now hang |
on broken hinges.
Vandalism of the Boxers.
Up to this summer the Han-lin library, |
which adjoined the British legation, was
the great national library of China. 1t was
by the Boxers in their frantic
efforts to reduce the legations. The van
dalism of this destruction was astounding. |
There were scores of thousands of rare old
books long out of print, with hundreds OF
antedating the discovery of
printing in China, and of the greatest value
IN the historical way. It will not be posi-.
BILE to duplicate any of the works formerly |
in this library. and the loss to the outside
world was paralleled only by the destrue-
ton of the Alexandrian library.
Such ruin was wrought by the desperate
Chinese themselves that 1t Is almost re- |
lreshing to discover something that was |
lone by the invaders. Nothing could look |
more foriorn than the southern gate OF |
he forbidden city. which Reilly's Ameri-
IAN battery riddled and crushed as a mill |
AIRY necessity. The Catholic cathedrals. OF
which there were several in Pekin. were all
VaA n ta0 Rny nRx f1.nr f~. II
which the Catholics gathered and changed
INTO q fort. 4
Completely Gutted were the colleges ana
hospitals the finest buildings n all China,