Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-04-25
4 YELLOW CRIME,
THE SIEGE IN PEKlN.

IN PEKIN.
the bridge. a few hundred yards north
OF the legation gate without stating
his motive to any one. although 1t Is
supposed he intended to converse with
them, and II possible find out their.or-
ders in regard to us, walked from the
gate up the street along the canal to
the bridge. He had no sooner arrived
there than several Chinese soldiers,
concealed behind the wall OF Prince
Su's place. fired upon him. The sentry
at the legation gate saw him hold up
his hands, then heard report and
saw him fall. He was seen to partly
raise himself up, when several of the
rufiian soldiers hurriedly ran out,
picked him up and carried him behind
the corner of the wall and beyond the
reach of rescue. His fate was prob
ably hasty death at their hands, If,
indeed. he was not already mortally
wounded. When I heard of this sad
affair. an hour after Its occurrence. I
could scarcely believe that my friend,
who had welcomed me to China in 1885,
had come to such cruel end. He had
not an enemy in the world, was uni
formly gentle and considerate. His
Won ketteler's. the first day of our
siege. cast deep gloom over the en-
tire community. Promptly at p. m.
the Chinese soldiers opened fire upon
all legations from behind the sur
rounding houses. but. very Fortunate
~ for us. most of. their bullets flew
high and went entirely over the Legal
ton district and must have injured
Chinese residents in Picking at a dis
lance.
Little did we imagine that many
weeks of siege under shot. she'll and
rifle fire must be endured, with abso-
lutely no word from the outside world.
before we. or at least such of us as
survived, would again come forth,
Many left their homes hurriedly, taxi
ing with them nothing but the clothes
on their backs. Having left my own
nome q week previous and gone to the
my family. l had been requested not
to bring IN any supply OF provisions,
as 1T would alarm people. and it was
hoped quiet would be restored In few
days. So that when obliged by the
Chinese ultimatum to leave Picking or.
as we decided after Baron Won Ket-
telers murder, to take refuge in the
British legation and await re-er1force-
inehts' was too late to visit my home
anything from my storeroom. For
tunately for my little family, II. q.
Squires had laid In an abundant sun
ply OF rice flour and other stores and
he offered II l would undertake ia
move all Of his stores safely to the
BRUSH legation to contribute to nv
needs. This was only too glad to do.
SO taxing Two OF his servants and the
only Two or mine who remained faith-
II
until p. IN. removing Suutres. stores
to the British legation.
purchased also from one of the for
eign stores within the lines of defense
two dozen tins Of condensed milk and
tour tins of Boston baked beans. a
very Inadequate provision to feed six
children and two adults for two
provided for as myself, but BROW.
dentially within the region we had
adopted as our lines of defense We're
several large grain shops, full of rice.
wheat and millett. Our carts were
kept busy for several days hauling
these supplies into the British Legal
lion, Where they were placed in charge
out as needed. We thus had suf-
ticient grain not only for all the for
eigners, but also for the two thousand
odd refugees. coolies and servants,
VINO mad from one motive or another
cast in their lot with us. From the
grain shops. too, we brought in their
mlllstones and as we had altogether
over $50 mules and horses we started
VI ten mule-power mill, which
ground out flour all day for the needs
of the besieged. Being occupied daily
with the sanitary work and attendance
on the sick was unable to keep much
of diary, so instructed my son Rob-
.yf a to n <<,.,
following transcription from his diary
gives the events of our daily life until
the end of the siege.
June 81 most of the Chinese coolies
and many foreigners were set right to
work filling sandbags for fortifying all
the weak places in the legation, while
the ladies with needle and thread and
a few sewing machines inside the
compound manufactured the bags by
the thousand. This was kept up until
10000 to 25,00O sandbags were made.
The Belgian legation and the Metho-
dist mission We're set on fire and COM
pletely burned. Jung LUIS troops kept
up desultory fire upon us all day,
but scarcely any of the bullets took
effect. 1t was reported that Prince
Shing's troops We're firing on the Box
ers, who were attacking the customs
compound and Austrian legation. This
report was afterward proved false. The
French were driven from their barri-
cade In the customs lane into the
French compound.
The Chinese set fire to native house
just In the rear of Mr.. Cockburn's
house, hoping 1t would catch to the
latter place. 1t was very near and as
the wind was strong was only prevent
ed With the greatest difficulty from
spreading to the legation. 1t was put
out at last. after two hours hard fight
1rg. Some of the marines stationed
as watchmen on the roof of the Cock
burn house had seen Cinnamon sneak
sene and had fired on Them but had
not succeeded in preventing the fire
being set. The Austrians, Italians,
Germans and Japanese were forced
| by the heavy firing to leave their lega-
tions and come here. The Americans
also started but We're sent back. The
Austrlans and Italians We're never able
to retake their legations, but the Ger
mans and Japanese returned very
shortly to theirs The Germans found
a Boxer prisoner missing on their re-
turn. June %. A fire was started just
outside the north wall of the COM
pound at 10 q. M, which was put out,
or thought to have been put out, for
~ broke out again in the afternoon,
this time burning a part of the Han
lin library, which adjoins the legation
en- the north. The fire was sep
a1ated from the legation by
of the buildings in the court was
pulled down to prevent its spreading.
Also thousands of wooden printing
blocks were thrown into the fire to get
rid of all combustible material in the
| immediate neiphhOrhOod These block G