Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1901-04-20

Ia 1S@l u VI ~ "
insert In their treaties provisions max
Ing the preaching Of Christianity a
treaty right, in spite Of Chinese objec-
ton. Nearly all of the riots In China
have come from attempts to force the
Chinese officials to stamp deeds con-
veying property 10 missionaries for
residence or chapels. Tho animosity
In forcing a missionary estab-
lishment upon an interior city. town or
village is not obliterated in a lifetime.
IL may be barely tolerated in time OF
peace, only to be demolished when the
country Is disturbed.
When II became an assured fact that
the empress sanctioned the Boxers the
ranks were rapidly flied, because re-
wards and preferment were held out
as inducements to serve, and the ma
jority Of China's population being pow
erty-stricken in the extreme would join
any movement th2t promised an in
creased income. The Boxer headquar-
ters was the palace of Prince Tuan In
Picking. From this place emissaries
were sen with instructions first into
Shantung and afterward throughout
Chill to cooperate with the already
existing secret societies as well as to
organize new, companies. Every city,
town and village was visited, the head
men consulted and the young men and
boys enrolled.
Their gymnastic exercises, from
which they derive their name, were
taught them and they were promised
that when they had attained perfection
they would be given service under the
empress With good pay and rapid pro-
motion. They were told IL they would
regularly go through the ceremonies
prescribed every day, In from three to
six months they would acquire indom-
table courage and would be invulner-
able TO bullets and sword cuts and that
the youngest child would be a match
for a grown man of the uninitiated.
That thousands believed this nonsense
there Is no doubt, and thousands OF
little boys from 10 years of age up
ward eagerly enrolled. The exercise
consisted Of bowling low to the ground,
striking the forehead into the earth
three times each toward the east, then
south, then throwing themselves upon
their backs and lying motionless for
seveal minutes, after which they
would throw themselves from side ia
side "A number OF times, and finally
rising go through n number Of postur-
ings, as though warding off blows and
making passes at an enemy. AS a uni
=" my "NiN biNtl a Itu lulDuIt II
red sash to cross the chest and red
"tae TITO" or wide tape, to tie in the
trousers at the ankle. The time set for
uprising was fixed for the Chi
nese eight-moon seventeenth day, be-
Ing two days after the annual 'har-
vest festival" or pa yueh chieh. The
premature explosion OF the movement
not anticipated by those who orig
mated 1t, but Ii is largely due to Its
going OF at half-coCk, so to speak, thai
enabled h powers so readily TO COM
bat II after they were aware of its
existence as "A real government agency,
Doubtless h government intended be-
fore that time to give arms and am
munition to all the grown men, but
In the first place they were to arm
themselves with swords and spears
only. They were told among other
things that at the time of their upris-
ing myriads of regiments Of angelic
soldiers would descend from the skies
20 assist them in their righteous wal
against foreigners. The empress her
self believed this story as well as the
possibility Of their being i%nvulnerable
20 foreign bullets. She is exceedingly
superstitious and In the early part OF
May consulted the Chinese planchette
to read her destiny. Two blind mer
holding the instrument under n silk
screen wrote in the prepared sand un-
derneath the following message from
the spiritual world:
The millennium is at hand;
Blood Will flow like a deluge,
BleacnllS bones everywhere
VIII his autumn time be seen.
Moreover, the iron horse
VIII move from east to west.
NnOS Ugh and who's wrong
VIII then be clearly established.
The millennium Is used by the Chi
nese as a critical period in a cycle OF
years. The iron horse is supposed &c
mean a The empress understood
this to mean that In the war which she
intended to commence IL would be
clearly shown by her success that she
right. The Boxers, however, com.
pletely spoiled all her plans by theil
e~agerness to obtain loot. Being prom.
ised the spoil of the foreigners after
the contemplated uprising in the
eighth moon, they regarded the prop.
erty Of the Christians and their teach.
ers as already mortgaged to them, and
fearful lest the government troops
would acquire some OF 1t, they com.
menced the campaign themselves be.
fore the appointed time. How the
government at first made feeble efforts
to restrain them and afterward com
pletely gave In and Joined with them
is now a matter Of history.
The monumental idiocy Of the idea
that China could successfully defy the
whole civilized world was only posi-
BILE to sucfr brains as those possessed
by the densely ignorant Manchus who
surrounded the empress as her cabinet
Several of the tsung-li-yamen minis
ters like Prince Ching and Lao Shou
Heng, tried weakly to reaso them Out
OF II, and were promptly given back
seats. OF the others remaining In the
tsung-li-yamen after their retirement
none dared say anything against the
movement for g they also would be
shelved. But as they were not strona
enough to please the empress In hel
final dealings with the foreigners. she
q few days before the commencement
Of the siege, appointed Prince Tuan as
head of the yamen In place of Prince
Ching and at the same time appointed
two fire-eating foreign-haters, Oh
Shut and Ma Tung, to seats In tina
obstructive body. These men, with
rung Flu Hsiang and the cabinet, must
be held responsible for the murder
Of Baron Won Ketteler, +. Huberty
JdlltS, bdNlu olIpldHl, II, warren
Ed Wagner and the other civilians and
guards killed during the siege, as wei.
as for many missionaries in the prov.
that have doubtless persisted, but
Of whose fate we being besieged have
40 certain knowledge. That the pow
ars in the settlement of their crimes
will treat them as murderers as they
are, we can scarcely doubt, and we
hope none of them in any way impli.
Gated will be allowed to escape capita,
punishment.
CHAPTER ".
The following transcription of m,
diary gives the principal events In the
situation up to the date of the close OF
he siege:
June 1. After three days of exciting
mental strain we can at last breathe
easier. Rumors continue to fill the all
Of plots within the palace, riots
against the Catholic cathedral, rail.
way being torn UP between here and
lien Tsin, etc. But the solid fact re-
mains that a few foreign guards have
arrived ct six legations, and a ma