Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1901-04-13
4 YELLOW CRIME
SIEGE IN K

sNoEGiat "a AAlC VI NAS
d~anchurian railway, and was sug-
Sested by a high palace eunuchi him
self In the pay OF Russia:
lungs influence I'm Picking now be-
came all POWERFUL; his soldiers swag-
yered about the streets In their fancy
red and black uniforms, growing daily
more menacing to the foreigners they
passed, until finally several incipient
riots occurred which resulted in one
foreigner having several ribs broken
and several others being assaulted, so
that several Of the foreign ministers
united and requested hat his army
corps be removed some distance from
the capital. The empress agreed reluc-
family to this, but only gent them a lit
tie over a hundred II away.
Tung early after his arrival made the
acquaintance OF Prince Tuan, a stupid,
ignorant Manchu, who soon became his
complete tool. The question Of a sue
cessor to the sickly Emperor Kuan Hsu
had been discussed for several years,
as he had as yet no issue and seemed
likely at any time to die childless. The
SOM of Tuan, of Duke Ian and of
Prince Lien were all considered eligible,
and from amongst them must be chosen
the future emperor OF China. Tung
saw hat Tuan would become his tool
much more completely than either of
the others, and proposed an alliance be-
tween Tuan's son and a daughter of his
own, agreeing to support the younger
Tuan's candidacy for the throne, With
his whole army II necessary to accom-
plish the p Tuan agreed to this,
but stated the succession must be made
without it's being known that he was
under obligations TO favor lungs
daughter, but that when an apparently
open competition for selection of an
empress was made, and the various ell
sible damsels appeared at court, that
lungs daughter should arrive from
Kansu In time and be the favored re-
cipient. on this understanding every
thing became smooth sailing, and The
contamination OF their plans, as far
IS Taun's interest was concerned, oc-
Cured when in solemn conClave OF all
the princes OF the blood and great min
listers OF state, on January 4, 1900, Pu
Chun son OF Prince Tuan, was solemn
~ named as successor to the previous
vious emperor, Tung Chih, n poor,
sickly little Kuang Hsu was succeeded
without a successor to himself but a
successor to his uncle being appointed,
which, by imperial edict, makes him an
interloper. This vas a nice piece OF
vengeance the empress dowager worked
out, partly to eng herself on her
nephew for his unsuccessful attempt to
shelve her and run his government
himself. Tung's intensely anti-foreign
sentiments soon made him many
friends at court, among the oldest and
most conservative Manchus, as well as
some Of the Chinese. But it vas among
the former that his influence was great
est.
Many of these men, stupid In the eX-
treme and too cowardly themselves
| aNar IN haya nrtUinata1 anV of the de-
signs that have since been worked out,
Joyfully fell In with his plans inspired
by his ambition for his own success,
but always put forward as for the sal
walton OF his country. Hsu Ting Kang
VI, Chi Shin, Chung Chi, Chung Ii,
Ma T'ung and Ii Ping Heng became his
warmest friends and admirers, and
formed a cabal, which soo controlled
the entire administration Of govern
ment. BY lungs direction all impor-
tant offices as they became vacant or
could be readily made so were to be
filled by the Manchu friends Of the
cabal or II Chinese, as rarely occurred,
then q Chinese who was Of their own
set n their own creature. This gave
them a powerful patronage under their
disposal in the lucrative taotaiships
and other posts formerly more or less
evenly divided between Manchu and
Chinese, but now almost entirely linn
tied to Manchus. Kang VI was sent on
a mission southwark through all the
provinces to extort money to raise
more armies, as well as to feel the pulse
of the people in regard TO, and encour-
age them in. their anti-foreign tenden-
cies. Ii Ping Heng was sent to ex-
anime and report or all the defenses OF
the Yang Use valley, as we'll as to de-
nounce my official of progressive ten
denotes. Yu Hsien was to succeed the
latter as governor of Shangtung and
to SOW In that province the seeds Of
disorder and riot that have yielded
such a bitter crop when ripe, as only a
poorly organized semi-patriotic but full
ly o society could do. that was to be
called the | Ho Ch'uan or Boxer organ
i~zation. This program has been fully
carried out and what the result has
been will be more fully described in
part only, as we In the north only know
part, in the following chapters.
CHAPTER II.
With the appointment of the Manchu
Yu Hsien as governor of Shantung
province, to be the successor to the
anti-foreign Ii Ping Heng, whose re-
moval the Germans had succeeded in
effccting, commenced the government
recognition Of the Boxers society as
an agent to expel missionaries, mer-
chants and ~displomats alike. This
man, whose hatred of foreigners ex-
Ceeded that OF mis- predecessor, was no
sooner In office than he caused the lit
erati all owe the province to revive
among the masses the Great Sword"
and Boxer" organizations, which had
been a bit shaken by the removal Of
their encourager, Ii Ping Heng. The
foreign residents Of Shantung, who had
hoped the new government would be
an improvement over the last, soon
found they were worse off than before.
The native Christians were prosecuted
most bitterly by their heather neigh
bors n their complaints at the va
mems treated with disdain.
Yu Hsien did his work thoroughly
and rapidly, knowing the foreign pow
er which had compelled the removal of
Ii Ping Heng would also cause his re-
moval. But as he vas only placed in
Shantung for the deliberate purpose Of
making trouble, his removal would
mean for him a better post as the re-
ward OF his success. This came when
the Boxers" of Chinanfu prefecture
attacked and murdered a young mis-
%sionary of the Church of England
named Brookes, who was travelling
from Chianfu city to his station of
P'ingyin. The British government de-
manded his removal from office and
the Chinese government acquiesced,
but their treatment of him upon his ar
rival In Peking alone would have suf-
feed for an intelligent observer to
make clear h policy Of the empress,
without any other confirmatory evil
dence, abundance Of which, however,
was not lacking.
Instead of being reprimanded, we
find him granted immediate audience
with the empress, and the next days
Court Gazette informed an astonished
world that the empress had written
with her w brush the character
Flu" happiness, and conferred it upon
him publicly. Then followed his ap-
pointment as governor of Shansi, a rich
mineral province, in which the Picking