Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1901-04-13

and although 1 nave ordereu the city
gates not to close until our return to
Picking, / am anxious 10 avoid keeping
them open any later than necessary
So General Chang strod across the
room to the door opening into the
court, and where upwards OF 300 OF his
men were standing packed like sar-
dimes listening to everything we had
been saying. as Chinese custom Is. and
shouted out, Bring the two wounded
men In here" Now all 81 the men had
seen Governor HUI snubbed and heard
Colonel Chao revlle him and his rail-
roads, and had heard their general say
the men would die III brought out In the
cold, so s~upposing they were to act In
a similar way, they, upon receiving this
order, held n confab, and a very noisy
confab. among themselves for q few
minutes before replying. and as l
watched Governor Hu's face grow pale
as the connection Increased, l felt that
we were in real danger right In the
midst OF the officers, and that my pre-
vious view that / could insure my own
afety by threatening Hu's life would
avail nothing, as they hated him as
much III not more than myself. j could
plainly see that | must change my man
and make the general my target II the
necessity arose.
Then n voice shouted out from the
soldiers almost the exact words OF the
general. ''They cannot be brought
here; the exposure would Kill them"
Chang looked at HUI TO see what eff
feet this had upon him. but Hu was
no coward and calmly replied, THEY
must be brought fl kills them; by
her majesty's commission, l demand
It," The general was but blufing and
sullenly gave In. Bring those men at
once, lead or alive, you scoundrels."
he shouted stentoriously, and In. a
hurry, tool" AYE, aye" responded a
hundred throats. n a number OF men
left the our yard at once. The camp
must have been some distance away,
for II was over half an hour n near
ly candle-lighting time before the two
men, each carried on n litter on the
shoulders Of six men, were brought In.
The first man vas covered all up In
blankets and pretended to be uncon-
scious, but proved to have no fever,
slow pulse, absolutely no wound but
a scratch at the lower end of his right
shoulder blade, which might have been
made by a finger mai or possibly by a
pistol ball grazing the skin. The hypo-
cIite Chang bent over me as | was ex-
aiming and asked In q voice OF pre-
tended sympathy: rs he badly hurt
Can he recover? And how long VIII
he be ill?" to which l replied; Not
badly hurt; win recover; Will guar
antee he Is all right day after tomor-
row If you will send him at once to
my railroad hospital at Fengtai." l
said this thinking the British minister
in Peking, Sir Claude Macdonald,
might be glad to get hold Of these men
for proper punishment, and that IL
they were In the hospital at Fengtai
they could easily be obtained, other
wise / would have ordered this man
to be dismissed at once as shamming.
The second man also pretended TO be
much worse of tina he really was, but
really did have a small bullet
wound in his shoulder, from which l
extracted with forceps a fragment Of
blue cotton cloth, and then sent him
also to the hospital, guaranteeing his
recovery within ten days. General
Chang thanked me for my interest and
promised to reward me for my services
the men recovered, hen nodding
coolly to Governor HUI, he and his
stan marched out of the inn and left
and allowed a subordinate to es-
brought us down. which was as great
lack of courtesy and positive insult
as he could give to the empress dow
high commissioner.
Our return journey was without In
The city gates were open
awaiting us and were closed immedi-
ately upon u entrance. Governor
Immediately memorialized the
throne, stating the result OF his In
quiries, reported the impotence of
Colonel Chao and requested that he be
turned over to the board OF punish
for a penalty. The empress ac-
L. o., AN,sIplra tho VaArNnRinl nn1 haFGnlf
decided 10 deprive Colonel Chao of one
step in rank, degrading him to u ma
jor. This appeared in an edict at once;
at the same time she commended Hu
his promptness and general abil-
ity.
But. alas, for Governor HUI! General
Tung Flu HSiang, the man who was to
prove the curse Of China, was unac-
quainted with all these circumstances,
and had yet to be heard from. This
man had obtained his reputation first
as a br!gand and afterward as a cad
of her majesty's army in putting
down a rather formidable rebellion Of
the Mohammedans in his own province
Of Kansu. Bold, cruel and unscrupu-
he had murdered his own provin-
Gals, who were but poorly armed and
without discipline, in most till
manner, and had not only suppressed
uprising, but nearly eXterminated
rebels. His fame spread ar n
as a wonderful general, so hat
when the empress again pow
ar by forCibly Selling the throne from
weak but good intentioned kuang
EIsu, she decided at onC to bring this
man Tung and his Kansu ruffians to
to assist her In maintaining
her authority against all Corners. 1t
was en- route to Picking that his adj
vance corps, under General Chang, had
The adventure at LukouCh'aio. AS soon
Tung Flu Hsiang learned of Colonel
Nhao's degradation he was wild with
rage, taking the view that the insult
was not only upon Chao but upon him
self.
Knowing the empress was in n pre-
condition without troops she
,ould depend upon, this courageous ad-
;enturer, at his first audience, upon
his arrival in Picking. promptly told the
empress that unless Chao were restored
o his rank Immediately and Governor
Hu were removed from his offices as
of Picking n director gen.
rial of railways, as we'll as prevented
rom taking his sea in the tsung Ii
amen, or foreign Office, to which he
jus been appointed, he, Tung,
would disband his army and return TO
<ansu at once. The empress remon-
,trated with him in vain, alleging that
had only done his duty, and that
With his knowledge of foreigners he
would be n BILE official in the tsung
yamen. But Tung remained obdurate
md the empress reluctantly yielded
dismissed Hu TO private life,
where he has ever since remained.
AS Governor HUI was alone RESPONSE
Die by his firm friendship for the Eng
ish in obtaining for the Hong Kong
Shanghai banking corporation, an
corporation, the loan for ex-
ending the Peking-Tien Tsin railway,
nd had signed the contract which gave
he real control of the railway to the
stockholders, his dismissal
rom office should have been prevented
~ diplomatic action. AS it was. only
mild remonstrance by the diplomatic
representative of Great Britain was
made, and tbs tsung IL yamen passed 1t,
IS usual, unheeded. Governor Hu re-
to me a few DAYS after his dis