The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-10-19
flow They Looted in China.


mound of riches. hurrahing in all the
languages of the globe. hurryins.
struggling, stumbling. falling, picking
themselves up. swearing, Curslng, eN-
claiming. while each carried Oft some
thing. l say it looked like an ant-heap,
cru he'd under ones foot. where the
terrified workers fly in every direction.
one with a grain of wheat. another
with bug, another with an egg. There
were troopers. their heads buried in the
boxes OF red lacquer belonging to the
empress; others, half smothered in the
folds OF brocades and of pieces Of silk;
still others, who had placed rubies,
sapT hires. pearls and rock crystals in
their pockets, in their hats. in their
cloaks, and who hung around their
necks strings of great pearls. Others
carried off clocks and dials in their
arms. The sappers of the engineers
had brought their axes and broke up
the furniture to secure the precious
stones with which they were enCrusted.
There was one smashing a lovely Louis
XIV clock to secure the face. on which
the hours were marked with crystal
figures, which he mistoOk for diamonds.
Now and again the cry of fire was
heard Everybody rushed out, letting
everything fall, and eXtinguished the
fire, which was already licking the pre-
cious wall, by heaping on it silks and
damascenes and furs. 1t was like a
dream of a hashhish eater"
When the count returned to camp
after an agreeable adventure in rescu-
ing twenty-seven ladies of the EN-
peror's harem-night was falling. The
men came back loaded with booty
eearing the most heterogeneous COllec-
tton of articles, from silver saucepans
to astronomical telescopes and sex
tants-a prOdigious mass of material
i w hi frtN
carry away The English camp filed
up in the same way, but there every
thing was carried on in perfect order
In the French camp the soldiers were
masquerading. The artillery men ar
rived enveloped in the garments of the
empress. their breasts decorated with
the collars of mandarins. In the Eng
| lish camp. on the other hand. the ar
! ticies had been placed in piles in each
tent and they had already begun to
sell them at public auction.
Count D'Herlsson noted one curious
fact Nothing" he says. "tempts SOL
dlers like clocks and other objects con-
tanning mechanism. Now, the Chinese.
like all Oriental peoDle and like all
people with whom machinery is still in
a rtd1mentary stage, greatly admire
mech nical articles. especially of the
| amusing kind. From time immemorial
Dur sovereigns and officers of customs
| nave turned this mania to good ac-
count, and have sent or taken to them
all the curious inventions Of opticians
ot toy makers and of manufacturers
OF automatons. 1t viii never be known
now many musical boxes, toy organs
clocks with complicated chimes. alarm
| COCKS, rabbits with tambourines. pano-
| rsmas, clocks turning windmilIs crow
ing ckS, climbing monkeys. singing
blroS IN brass cages standing on pedes-
tals which are wound by turning a l5av
Mechanical flute players, monkey yfo-
lnlsts, trumpeters, players on the
! caTlonet' and even whole orchestras OF
l4SIt-iy .iiotiheys seated on an organ. little
t1ghtrope dancers, walters and son
were FOUND in the summer palace. The
ooms Of the empress and Of the v-o-
men were literally overhowing with
them. Will
Part of our soldiers were wide
awake and part were but overgrov,n
children; the latter in the majority.
Inc clever ones had supplied them
serves with jewels, the coined money
ana ana tne dollars, bonbonnieres. snuff-
BOXES, dishes of gold and collars OF
pearls. The others had been princi-
pally tempted in the midst Of unheard
OF riches by these mechanical toys Of
European origin, all of which had beer,
most generously left them by the Eng s.
lishmen o
Therefore, the second night that we
passed near the Summer Palace was
exciting, insensate, head splitting
Each trooper had his bird. his music
| box, his monkey, his clock. his trunn-
peter, or his rabbit The clocks struck
continuously, in every tone, at all
hours, now and then accompanied by
the sad snap of spring broken BY in
experienced hands. MuItftudes of rab-
bits playing on their tambourfnes
formed bass. accompanied by the
cymbals of monkeys playing 1000
waltzes and quadrilles, together with
as many music boxes, which dominated
the cuckoo clocks, sweet notes of the
flutes, the nasal notes of the cIario-
nets, the screeching of the cocks. the
notes of horns and cornets, as we'll as
the hearty bursts of laughter coming
from the easily amused crowd
1T was a nightmare"
The pillage lasted two days. when.
by the exercise of a little tact. it was
stopped. A few days later the Summer
Palace was burned by order of the
generals as an act of public and au-
thorized vengeance for the murder and
torture of members of the allied forces.
as contrasting with the looting. which
had been a matter of private and un-
authorized greed. of which the count
disapproves. venturing the following
comment on what should, in his Opin-
ion, have been the modus operandi;
In my opinion, this is how the thing
should have been carried out if it had
been possible to control our men: All
the riches of the palace, as we'll as
those of the palace of Pekin. should
have been taken out and packed up
and divided between the two victorious
nations; all things suitable for mu-
scum should have been set aside, the
rest should have been sold and the
proceeds devoted to compensating the
soldiers of the expedition. or to light
ening the taxes and appropriations; we
should have imita ted, in fact, that
which the Prussians in France. and
before them, Napoleon. had carried out
in Italy
Had we proceeded in this systematic
way, no one could have made any OBJ
jectfons. excepting philosophers
dreamers and people who insist upon
comparing war to an assassination,
and it's booty to the fruit of robbery
All of which is herewith respecttuliF
commended to the moralist, VINO may
be reminded, however. that so tar as
the Smithsonian Institute is concerned,
the whole article has been reproduced
solely on the grounds of its etnno-
graphical interest.