New-York tribune., 1901-12-07

attendant upon the introduction and extension
Of European commerce have had their share
In producing the uprising. The railroad and
the telegraph were at first regarded with the
deepest suspicion by all the Chinese. When the
Peking railway was built it generally be-
Iieved by the natives that the sleepers and the
piers for the bridges all LAID the bodies
OF infants to secure the stability of the struct
ure. Despite this strange belief, however, there
is a. fatal fascination for most natives about
the rails. which about the height Of
Chinese pillow, SO that in the dim light Of the
night the engineer may see before his swift
speeding engine a long row Of brown forms,
each stretched across the track, with his head
beyond the rails. On such occasions il has
sometimes been necessary to run trains dead
slow" for miles together. In the early days Of
the line to the Tangshan coal mines there
sort Of market rate of 80 taels for Chinese
killed by accident. but it was alleged that too
many Chinese seemed disposed to get a living
that way, and modification of the rules went
into effect When the telegraph lines were
first put up the ignorant peasants thought that
the rusty rain water dripping from the wires
was the -'exudation of supernatural blood, per-
heps that OF outraged spirits of the air. boding
Ill 10 all whom it falls Dr. Smith con-
cludes this portion Of his work thus:
And with these views, held with every degree
rehSarSed hearing o
every Chinese day by Gay with varied iteration
it is not singular that we have a we'll laid train
which may at any moment produce an explosion
OF magnitude hltherto uneXampled- Taking
al the complex factors into account, the wonder
rather is that the explosion has not come long
ago.
All these causes emphasized in the Chi
nese mind by the reforms which the imperial
government, melted by foreign urging and by
the advice of such Chinese as had gone abroad
to be educated, decided to put into effect. These
too, which mainly educational, reacted in
the Chinese mind against the foreign devils''
and finally resulted in the growth and activity
Of the Boxer movement. The Boxers, it may be
as well TO remark here, fiourished eXtraor
dinarily upon the banquet of suspicion and
hatred Of the West that had been studiously
Prepared for many decades that it drove the
imperial government finally to a point where it
had to choose between the Boxers and the for
agners. AS all the world knows, the former
alternative was chosen The English name of
his society, are told, is derived from its
ancient Chinese name, which means literally
Fists Of the Righteous" But the Boxers could
not have enlisted such popular support they
had but for feature which is thus described:
1t was the supernatural element in the Boxer
claims that gave the sect its powerful hold upon
.ne popular imagination and faith. The divin-
lties worshipped We're of the most heterogeneous
sort but many of them We're deifed heroes of
A'lhct dynasties, whose spirits were supposed
- animate the believer to such extent that
-e could do the very deeds that had been
NtCuSht ages ago-deeGs the knowledge or
Mil4ch had been everywhere popularized by the
az perVasive theatrical representations and the
e4oaHy universal story teller AT the temples
o. the various divinities in the presence of
their pictures the initiated made their prostra-
uohs and invoked the aid of the gods. At GER
tam stages Of this experience they seemed to be
literally madnen daring everything and fear
ing nothing, frequently proved later when
I!!ey came into collision with foreign troops
When the trance period had been passed through
successfully the worshipper was held to be
quite lnvunerable, and ready to submit TO
the crucial tests Of his ability to resist blows OF
the sword On his bare arm, or the thrusts OF
pixies in his abdomen; bullets or even cannon
palis could not harm him, the proJectlles being
ia91liessly dispersed with wave OF his hand,
and the smoke dissipated to the right and the
ieft Credulity and suspicion struggle for pre-
efnlnence in the Chinese character, so that IT
was necessary to demonstrate these claims pub
nciy. frequently, and often in the presence of
numerous spectators. Thousands and tens of
thousands testified that they themselves had
tndisputable.
Although DR.. Smith deals painstakingly
with this big subject, his work is not by any
means without the flavor of humor. He tells,
Tor example, tale of a Boxer who had seized
three Christians of family. and was about
TO behead them. when, beginning with a prelim-
anary flourish of his sword. he awkwardly snnote