The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-11

Rrotesque caves of the house were hung
with many a bobbing Chinese lantern, and
.he yell OF ''Yang-quitze'' was everywhere.
We were In for rough time of IT. I don't
say we apprehended danger, but only a
considerable amount OF inconvenience from
the nastiness Of the people. We made to-
wards a teahouse, lit with a dozen dancing,
moonlike lamps thinking IL best TO wait
Till the authorities had heard OF the uproar,
and the mandarin at the yamen sent sol
diers TO our relief. The crowd, however
were too strong. They hemmed US in, be-
came obstreperous. and hit US. AS we were
human IT may be taken that now and then
British fist came into sudden contact with
q Chinese nose. At Tung-pa we had lost
Chinese servant, but now he made his
sudden appearance twisting his hands in
cismay and quite certain should be
killed.
We emerged upon a creek. where there
lay what seemed TO be hundreds OF curiously
designed junks. A. another time / would
have paused to admire the quaintness Of the
scsne-the little oily faced river, the singu-
larry shaped boats displaying huge lanterns
OF varisgatsd coIors and showing hobs of
red and green by reflection in the water;
the houses of wonderful contortive design,
such as you see in the picture books; all
about a heaving mass of blue-smocked.
jsundice -fsc ed. shaven-headed, slit-eyed and
pig-tailed Chinese, and watery moon cast
ing a shimmering halo over IL ALT Just
then. however, one was I'm no temper to
admire the picturesque. To escape with
uncracked pates was all we thought about.
j had my hand on my revolver, but 1 hest
cIr ffr,rr
menced 1 knew it would soon be all up
with Us
We made a dash for the first available
junk. clambered on board and swinging
round fought those who attempted to fol-
low. shower of stones came at us from
the bank. The owner Of the boat protested
against our invasion. declaring he would be
killed along with Us. We had no time to
argue. but told him that for whatever dam
age was done we would pay him well. He
refused to bulge. Then I pulled out my
revolver, held IL ct his head and threatened
70 blow out his brains IL he didn't at once
get the boat loose and put into mid
stream He dropped upon his knees and
beseeched that his life be spared. / told
him didn't want to kill him. but he must
get his boat out into the stream. Mean
while his family. his wife and his mother,
hiding I'm q little cabin aft, set up furious
screaming. No doubt the mob thought We
were putting them to death.
There must have bean three or four huh
drsd people attacking US, and many
whaok we got with the stones. They rat
tied on the boat though there was a
huge hailstorm. We knocked over all the
lanterns to secure darkness. so the infuri-
ated Chinese could not see where to throw
Whilst the junk was being cast loose we
had to fight not only with our hands but
with our feet, to keep off the heather Chi
nese who attempted to climb on board The
row was tremendous i ran into the cabin
and told the old woman If she didn't stop
screaming I would certainly drown her.
Then she became quiet.
The whole scene was animated and fur
ious Whilst my companions were gal
lantly resisting any boarding OF the junk,
i got hold OF our affrighted Chinese serv-
ant, lit a lamp and insisted he should stand
with me i'm the PROV and translate what
told him. 1t must have been a curious
spectacle-a ragged, bearded foreigner.
standing. with cooked revolver, beneath the
glow of a Dubious lantern, whilst on my
dictation the Chinaman shrieked at the mob
for attacking three travellers who had not
the slightest ill-wi towards them. He
called their attention to my pistol and de-
cared that il another stone was thrown 1
was able to kill six people at time! He
exaggerated my powers. as I wanted him
TO do. Though the hubbub continued, the
stone throwing ceased for a while.
When the boat began to push off my
friends and myself dropped into shelter. A
perfect hurricane of stones then came at
the boat Fortunately were beyond their
reach. The owner kept up a yelling COM
ment on the way he was being treated. and
ii was necessary for of us to crawl up
to him and tell him that if he was not quiet
would most certainly shoot. The other
junks were alive with people. but they did
not modest US. There the three of us hud-
died in a corner whilst the lampless junk
drifted down the stream. We were soon
gliding past of boats. and danger
was over. We crawled into little hole to
talk, when once we were beyond the town.
Suddenly we realized the junk had stop
ped. We had run ashore, and the affrighted
Chinese occupants had jumped to land, run
on In the darkness and left us in complete
possession. There was nothing to do So,
tagged out with our exertions, we just lay
down and went to sleep. The next morn
ing At daybreak the wife put in an appear
ance In really a most agreeable mood, and
we pleased her by paying her well for all
the inconvenience We had caused her, hav-
ing done which we advanced on our way
without further trouble.
copyright In the United States of America
by ID. T. Pierce. All Rights Reserved]
L0NDON's RACE PROBLEM.