The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-12

AOI NH ISSlGtuCe.
easily be kept under watch, but the way
they pick me out here gives me the creeps.
Other sampans landed at the wharf when
mine did and put white men ashore, and I
had no notion but that 1 chose my own
ricksha out of about twenty looking for GUS
tom there. L engaged in this service of my
own free will, intending to do cheerfully
whatever might be wanted of me in soldier
work, but the game as. 1t is working makes
me think of assassination rather than war
or military training. When 1 took the
job l felt that the pay would be big enough
to hold me, and 1 never thought for a mo-
ment that / might want to get way from
il. What / have now seen of 1t makes me
think that / could not get away from it if
1 wished. L have the sensation of being
under watch wherever / go. For all 1
know, the boy who attends to my hotel
room is a spy on me, who will see that
none Of my traps go anywhere except to
the steamer by which L am booked Al
though L would have been ready to go for
ward to any point on straight orders, the
treatment handed out to me by these peo-
pie. as if 1 was a suspicious character,
hiohOo hC oiSoSy oOOoN thCh
and puts thoughts into my head as to what
might happen if / should try to get away,
and makes me wonder If it might not be a
good plan to give VI the billet while I can
put myself under the American flag. instead
of running chances of finding myself off in
the interior somewhere in a net from which
escape may be hopeless. But even if I do
not like to feel myself like a pawn on a
- T. 49,
a right to do business in their own fashion.
and 1 ought not to complain so long as
they live III to their promises with me.
which they have certainly done so far in
giving me money in advance; so 1 shall
probably see the thing through"
AWAY FROM THE WORLD.
Other letters undertaking to throw light
on the purposes of the movement are prob
ably largely surmise, for the operating
agency makes no confidants of it's subjects,
going so far, indeed, as to provide against
leakage by them by i~solating them wholly
from their kind when actual service begins.
No letters have reached here from any point
beyond Hong-Kong. Since, doubtless, let
tiers have been written at other points, and
since it is not likely that restraint has been
imposed on the act of writing, it is inferred
that the letters are not permitted to go for
ward. Recruits may think themselves at
liberty to write to whom they please and
what they like, but the native censorate ap-
pears to be prohibitive of the transmission
of even the most innocent matter. Surmise
from Hong-Kong that the recruits are to
instruct Chinese troops in foreign military
methods, and that for this purpose they are
to be scattered among the provincial gar
risons, tend only to mystify the movement
and probably to mislead concerning it. The
surmise fails TO account for the contrast
presented between the circumstances that
convert the present recruits into puppets,
and the fact that in various Chinese prov
inces no secret attaches to the employment
Of foreign military instructors, and that
such instructors are apparently as free in
ence as if they were engaged in military
work in other lands. Their friends have no
difficulty in reaching them by letter or in
person at any time. The only foreigners
heretofore concerning whose service with
Chinese troops any one may not know are
the Japanese, who are believed to be scat
tered in considerable numbers among Chi
nese troops as instructors, and whose racial
resemblance Z SllleSt accommodates ltSelI
so readily TO false queues and native dress
as to make it practically impossible for
other foreigners TO detect the counterfeit.
Since the identity of Americans could never
be masked in that way. their secret employ
ment and the care taken to keep from them
their destination and the nature of their
work point to a scheme certainly designed
to exclude condolences.
A member OF a firm whose relations with
the Chinese here are peculiarly intimate
says he has tried to fathom this movement
for his own satisfaction, but that he has
made only Indifferent Roadway. He is con-
WINGED that the operations are conducted by
a secret society, probably abetted by those
high in authority, although they dare not
lend their names to it or to attempt to
secure for IL official countenance. Its pur-
pose, he gathers, is revolutionary. without
affecting either the dynasty or the present
rule. He is informed that it aims at Of
fetal corruption, especially that kind which
looks to private enrichment at the cost OF
famine and other widespread distress. The
movement has behind IL, he hears. the con-
viction that China must keep low in the
fpeople can be rid of their own oppressors.
Their advance to the plane TO which their
industry and the resources OF their land en-
title them can be secured only when they
shall be able TO force official justice, with
freedom from excessive taxation Com