Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1901-04-27
4 YELLOW CRIME
II SIEGE IN PEKIN.

"a NHS S
his motive to any one although II Is
supposed he intended to with
them, and IL 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
the legation gate saw him hold up
his hands. then heard a report and
saw him fall. He was seen to partly
raise himself up, when several OF the
rufflan 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 a hasty death at their hands, If,
indeed, he was not already MORALLY
wounded. When / heard OF this sad
an hour after It's occurrence. /
could scarcely believe that my friend.
who had welcomed me to China In 1885,
had come to such a cruel end. He had
not an enemy in the world. was uni
formly gentle and considerable. His
fate. following so closely upon Baron
Won Ketteler's, the first day of our
siege, cast a deep gloom over the en-
tire community. Promptly at 4 p. m.
the Chinese soldiers opened fire upon
all legations from behind the sur
rounding houses, but, very Fortunate
ly for us, most of their bullets flew
high and went entirely over the lega-
ton district and must have injured
Chinese residents in Picking at a dis
ance
Little did we imagine thai many
weeks of siege under shot, shell 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
home a week previous and gone to the
United States legation as a guest with
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 q few
days. SO that when obliged by the
Chinese ultimatum to leave Picking or,
as we decided after Baron Won Ket-
teler's murder, to take refuge in the
British legation and await REINFORCE
ments, 1t was too late to visit NY home
outside Of the foreign lines and remove
anything from my storeroom, For
tunately for my little family, II. G..
Squires had laid in an abundant sup
ply of rice, flour and other stores and
offered II | would undertake 10
all or his stores safely to the
British legation to contribute to my
needs. This / was only too glad to do.
so taking two of his servants and the
only two Of mine who remained faith
full out of nine l worked from 8 a. m.
until 4 p. m. removing Squires' stores
to the British legation.
1 purchased also from one Of the for
eign stores within the lines OF defense
w dozen tins OF condensed milk and
four tins OF Boston baked beans, a
very inadequate provision to feed six
children and two adults for two
months. Many others were as poorly
provided for as myself, but provi-
dentially within the region we had
adopted as u lines of defense were
several large grain shops, fun OF rice,
wheat and millett. Our carts were
kept busy for several days hauling
these supplies into the British Legal
ton, where they were placed in charge
of a commissary officer and issued
out as needed. We thus had suf-
icient grain not only for all the for
eigners, but also for the two thousand
odd refugees, coolies and servants,
had from one motive or another
cast In their lot with us. From the
grain shops, too, we brought in their
millstones and as we had altogether
over $50 mules and horses we started
VI q 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 l was unable to keep much
of a diary, so / instructed my son Rob-
ert, aged 16, to do SO for me and the
following transcription from his diary
gives the events of u daily life until
the end of the siege.
June II most of the Chinese coolies
and many foreigners were set right to
work filling sandbags for terrifying all
the weak places in the legation, while
the ladies with needle M thread and
q few sewing machines inside the
manufactured the bags by
the thousand. This was kept up until
10000 to $4,000 sandbags were made.
The Belgian legation and the Metho-
dist mission were set on fire and COM
pletely burned. Jung LUIS troops kept
up a desultory fire upon us all day,
but scarcely any of the bullets took
effect. 1t was reported that Prince
Ching's troops were firing on the Box
ers, who were attacking the customs
and Austrian legation. h
report was afterward proved false. The
French were driven from their barri-
cade in the customs Ian into the
French compound.
The Chinese set fire to a native house
just in the rear of Mr.. C~ockburn's
house, hoping 1t would catch to the
place. 1t was very near and as
the wind was strong was only prevent
with the greatest difficulty from
spreading to h legation. 1t vas put
out at last, after two hours hard fight
irg. Some of the marines stationed
as watchmen On the roof OF the Cock
burn house had seen Cinnamon sneak
and had fired on them, but had
succeeded in preventing the fire
being set. The Austrians, Italians,
and Japanese were forced
by the heavy firing to leave their lega-
lions and come here. The Americans
started but were sen back. The
and Italians were 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 a.. m, which was put u
or thought to have been put out, for
II broke out again in the afternoon,
this time burning a part Of the Han
lin library, which adJoins the legation
on the north. The fire was sep
aIated from the legation by
only one narrow court, so n
or the buildings in the court was
pulled down to prevent its spreading.
Also thousands of wooden printing
were thrown into the fire to get
rid of all combustible material in the
immediate neighborhood. These blocks
represent days OF labor each and were
used In printing valuable Ito the Chi
nese) books. Many valuable books
also persisted in the flames. At night
a guard was placed in the Hanlin
yuan, or garden, to watch the smoking
remains, and as this point is of great
est strategic Importance barricades
will be erected here and the position
Friday, June 2. The customs COM
pound and Austrian legation were
burned, the Austrians remaining in
French legation to help them there.
The back part Of the Russo-Chinese
bank compound was burned, also a
In tho IanonaSa latratiop which