New-York tribune., 1901-04-08
A REPLY TO MARK TWAIN
WAR ASPECTS OF EQUITY THOUGHT TO
BE TOO DEEP FOR HIM.

None of us have forgotten the long and pain
full writings of soul with which we watched Pc
king last summer while the little polyglot bands
of foreign troops were pushing on from the coast.
1t slowly dawned upon minds that not only
the Boxers. but the imperial Chinese troops, and
not only the troops. but the whole Chinese peo-
pie. were grimIy determined to kill every soul
within the incosure of the British Legation.
The attempt at must encounter organized
bands imposing from weight of numbers. and
endure attacks of individuals who made them
selves singulary dreadful by their patriotic
pot shots from village windows and by stealthy
incursons among stragglers in the rear of the
army. But when the rescue was finally accom-
plished what thrills of joy and exulting pride
filled hearts we learned of the bravery.
the resource and the dogged resistance of the
little force who held off their besiegers until the
relieving force slowly being brought together
from the ends of the earth Now, however.
are asked to believe that this was a mistaken
joy and pride.
In the current number of THE North Ameri-
can Review" Mark Twain asks his readers to
consider the sufferings of the Chinese who tried
to kill all foreigners and failed To this end he
lays down principles which must give a criminal
hue to many acts of the garrison Of the legation
grounds al Peking. All of the pleas offered In
this article for sympathy toward the unsuc-
cessful Chinese who have 10 pay exemplary
damages for their misdeeds apply to those
Chinese who suffered from the resistance of the
foreigner All of his denuncations of those who
cause such suffering. through the blindness Of
their good intentions may be hurled with equal
justice at the heroic defenders of the Picking
compound for their ingenious and resourceful
resistance to the plan of crushing them as
though brayed in a mortar.
The besieged at Picking seized and applied TO
their own use the property Of Chinese civilians
When they wheat they took it; when they
found a Chinamans house giving shelter to
sharpshooters. they destroyed it, when they re-
qulred more room. they took possession of the
house of a Chinese prince and put into it their
auXiliaries, the Christian Chinese Even the pitt
full poverty of the dealer in dolorous fragments
as make up Chinese bric-a- brac did not win
their sympathy. They broke into his shop and
carried off an old and battered cannon for their
own use and pleasure. and the gorgeous reds
and yelows Of their marvellous satin barricade
stand for unblushing admission that these for
eigners deliberately gutted also the stores of
Chinese dTygoods men. There is no evidence
whatever that our friends stopped for moment
TO obtain evidence OF the guilt Of the owners
thus despoied. For all the proof that has been
published TO the contrary In stories of the siege
the besieged forces may have stripped innocent
and deserving parties. Nor is there any reason
for thinking that before taking this property
our people brought the owners into a properly
organized court and tried them by fair and
Christian methods. Are We then. 10 change our
opinion Of the place which the beseged at Pc
king will hold in history? Shall we call them
not heroes-but thieves and robbers? our inimi-
table and genial humOrist would seem to think
SO
For the case Of the Christian Chinese for
whom Or. Ament has been working has been
the same in many respects that OF our own
people shut up in the legation compound ANY
real investigation OF the case Will show that the
same principle applies to both groups of suf-
fereTs. Inter arma silent leges. When war de-
stroyS existing judicial methods of procedure
whatever temporary authority exists has to take
the responsibility OF settling which cam
not wait for the return OF peace. In the case
OF the besieged garrison the authorities ordered
the seizure of the Chinese property and the act
was right. In the case of DR.. Ament's inter
ference for the settlement of the private claims
OF certain Christian subjects Of the Emperor OF
China 1t was authorized by the only existing
authority for Americans resident in that en-
pire-Mr. Congcr-and the interference of Dr.
Amcnt right, too.
In his indignant arraignment OF DR.. Ament
MIR. Clemens has failed to consider several es-
sential points of the
First-The Chinese Christians had been
stripped of all their property in a general
movement of the population to destroy foreign
ers and all connected with them.
SecOnd-They are entitled to indemnity for
these losses. the indemnity under Chinese law
being due from the villages whose people COM
mitted the injury
Thrd-During the foreign occupation of the
Province of Chilli where DIR. Ament's efforts
have been exerted. regularly constituted
Chinese courts of Justice exist.
Fourth-If the Chinese Christians had been
told by their missionary advisers to depart in
peace, and be warmed and filled until the end
of the negotiations when reconstructed courts
might give them indemnity money Wherewith to
buy bread, they would have starved to death
long before this. Instant supply of their needs
n question of life and death
Fifth-The whole plan for persuading the VIII
lagos to indemnify these people without await
in6 the action of the courts carried out with
the approval. so Ear as DR.. Ament's interference
In it is concerned. Of the existing governmental
authority, which for Americans is the American
Minister.
These essential facts of the case of DR.. Ament
together with the dropping OF Mr. Clemens's
first charge. that the money collected or part of
it, went to the mission the mission work
leave the whole controversy centring about the
good taste and expediency of the missionary's
interference in behalf of his Chinese friends
These facts. together with the baselessness of
the charge that property of non-Christian Chi
was being taken for the propagation Of
the Gospel and with Mr.. Clemens's seeming ig-
norance OF the circumstances that the collection
OF exemplary damages has full standing i'm law
tend to show that the great humorist has lmta-
tions
Limitation is implied by the pet name which
we love. The Mississippi leadsman from whom
Mark Twain borrowed his felicitous pen name
used to carry sounding line suited to his pllr-
pose. He could roar out the depth mark twain
or three deep" even four fathoms with
slibness and confidence But let the water of
the river get a little deeper. and the leadsman
would shout mo bottomi' and placidly coil up
his line The passengers were not however dis
turbed by words of such portentoIIs Significance
They knew that the bottom of the river had not
fallen out 1t was there all right, only thirty
feet below the surface The words of the
man were a rhetorical form of explaining that
he had exhausted his resources and was he
inli1a