The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-21
IN WAR WITH THE JAPANESE
BY WALTER CLIFFORD SMITH.

tune was with them. Suddenly the
ridge upon which we stood trenbled as
if in the shock of earthquakes; above
/ the fort rose for a thousand feet O.
straight pillar of fieecy smoke in the
midst of which black masses poised and
fell. A shell had found its billet in
the magazines When the japanese.
+. reached the wreck they counted a thou
sand mangied bodies
| That explosion threw the garrisons
| of the other forts into panic, which was
| increased when the fort on the little
| island, then the principal object of Ito's
| naval broadsides, also blew up. The
Chinese soldiers waited for nothing
more, but ran to the edge of the bay.
| carrying with them the breech-blocks
| of their great guns, which they threw
in the deep water. Only a single fort
in the series, the one furthest east, held
out at all, and that was finally carried
by assault. AS the Japanese swarmed
over the parapetSwhich was festooned
with New Year greenery-an officer ran
to an open door of the magazine. There,
in sack of gunpowder, We're short
lighted joss sticks. dropping their dead
white ashes as they burned slowly down
into the black explosive grains. On
shelves were little bricks of gun-cotton
and beyond mass of conical shells. It
was a scene to try the nerves of any
man. but the Japanese officer was not
afraid. Turning the contents of his
canteen into the sack, he seized the
punk, carried it out and thus saved the.
fort and the lives of himself and COM
rades.
Upon the capture of this fort the
Chinese fleet began bombarding it from
position 1000 yards away. Although
two Krupp guns, which the fleeing gar
rison had not disabled were pointed to-
wards the bay they could not be used
in reply by the Impractical japanese
infantry. signal to Admiral Ito was
hoisted asking that gunners be sent
ashore, and while waiting for them the
captors of the fort had nothing to do
but to take the fire of the enemy with
the best grace they could. General
Odera soon came up to congratulate his
men. He had reached the middle of the
parade ground when a shell burst just
above his head. A japanese war cor
respondent nearby was killed outright;
but the General, though seen to be bad
~ wounded, kept his feet. He made his
way to the shelter of a bomb proof,
where he sank to his knees, then to all
tours and then prone to the ground.
When his officers reached him he was
at one shoulder, had slanted through
his body, coming out near the hip on
the opposite side.
In the meantime a battalion was in
chase of the Chinese fugitives. who
could be seen running along the beach.
Some snow had begun to fall and the
view from the ridge where Mr.. Cowen
and were looking on the stirring piano.
rama was cut Off Firing broke out
on the bay and we soon heard bad news
from Lieutenant NJ. J. O'Brien, the
American Military Attacfle, who had
followed the battalion with Colonel
Taylor and Captain De Boulay of the
British army and the flag lieutenant Of
Sir Edmund Fremantle, the British Ad-
miral of the Asfatic station. Just as
they had reached the sandhflls back Of
the beach the naval officer refined in his
horse and said:
See those ships"
Showing 6imIy in the snow squan