The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-21

war correspondents here are not sup
posed to make such risky excursions
without permission.
Tenseness Everywhere.
I made the expedition alone, and the
first thing that struck me after dark
ness set in was the inconceivable
tenseness of everything The nerves of
nature seemed to be drawn to the
swapping point. Everything seemed to
be on the watch, to be lurking ready
to spring. to be strained with anxiety
lest something else should spring first
from an unexpected quarter. There
was heavy, oppressive sense of i'm
pending danger in the air, a prefer
natural calm as if the universe saw
with prophetic eye that some world
| rending catastrophe was about to hap
pen. and was holding her breath in
horror
The sky was thick with stars, but
they were not the same stars as I had
| seen at home. They looked whittier,
wilder. more scared The country
| through which ! passed was very
thickly populated, but the people must
have crouched in their houses like
| came dark the roads were deserted
and no lights were lit. There is some
| thing uncanny about the look of
country place, inhabited by cheerful
people, fond of gayety and social in
tercourse, where the silence of the
tomb comes with the darkness and not
| a light appears
1t takes an internal influence to 81
| lence the sound of music and the
laughter of girls during the happiest
| hour of the twenty-four. It takes war.
| One or two solitary lights twinkled
| in the distance, but even these went
| out when / came within earshot My
| footsteps seemed to cash the silence,
| which became palpable, dread menac-
| ing. This silence was made deeper
| by the frightened, hysterical barking
Of the village dogs. These Chinese
dogs would naturally bark at any
thing passing at night, but when the
thing passed had an uncouth shape and
| foreign smell they simply
| fell into an agony of fear
! and terror, which contrasted with
the deathlike silence of their masters
They sounded like dogs barking by
night beside a corpse, but it was a
corpse awaiting the Gabriel blast of
the Yellow Resurrection.
Looking back on one occasion, 1 saw
that three bright lanterns had ranged
| themselves across the deserted road
and were moving in peculiar man
ner. Thinking that it might be a
| Russian guard, l very hastily retraced
my steps in order to explain who
was before they opened fire, where
upon the lanterns suddenly vanished
into a dark Chinese house ON the way
side.
Could it be that while the people
i'm that house had been telling one
l.. -.
scouts had ridden to a place a few
miles distant, they suddenly heard as
If i'm answer TO their prayers, the
sound of foreign boots and spurs and
the tramp of a horse going by
Meanwhile the barking of the dogs
was heard along the road almost con-
tinuously, like the death wall that
runs from house to house in a Mahom-
medan city sorely stricken by the
plague. In some places there are
breaks on account of cornfields or de-
serted houses; other places on the
contrary. are marked by wild, sudden
bursts of barking from seven or eight
dogs at once. As l passed slowly on
ward between the double wall of an.
CRY sounds ! felt as If l were an OBJ
ject of universal fear and detestation
I felt that I was Ishmae without Ish-
maers armor of callousness.
l shudder like a man who suddenly
discovers that he is cut off forever
from the rest of humanity by some
awful visitation, like an ancient jew
who finds all at once that he is leper
white as snow, or that he is possessed
of a devil.
In Fear of Life.
Near the place through which 1 pass
ed some people had recently been killed
by robbers. In my native Ireland ]
| should have dreaded, under similar
circumstances, to meet these people S
ghosts. i'm China | dreaded to meet
their murderers. or course, had my
revolver ready but how could | be
sure. in this darkness. Of using it in
time? A fash from one Of the hedge
rows on either side Of me. and 1 should
never hear the report; blow on the
head from behind and l should never
know what had struck me.
The fate Of my poor friend Lewis
Etzel. the Daily Telegraph correspond
ent at Niu-Chwang, was decisive on
this point In all North China there
was no better shot than this brave
American. but that did not save him
from falling in the night time by a
Chinese bullet And worst OF ALL |
knew that I could never fire first. FOR
/ might make a mistake which I would
never be able TO explain satisfactorily
10 the rife balls that the report would
bring uylng with the speed or light
ming In my direction The Chinese had
been forbidden 10 leave their houses
after dark. The Russian outpost
knew that none Of their men would
venture out there. Consequently. the
man who would break that vast silence
by discharging "a pistol into 10 would
be IN the position of man discharFing
a pistol into a powder magazine.
In spite ~ the starlight and ~ the
] lat Al d
| gloom. my eyes were not ~ much good
| 90 me once an animal ~ some kind
| walked in front ~ me for " few yards
| and Ihnn alnannnarnd. MIfhnuf my L.