The Savannah morning news., 1904-08-28
PHYSICIANS ESCAPE
FROM A CRUEL DEATH.
story of Effort to Overthrow the
Rule of the Manchus in China.

From the New Orleans Picayune.
Few people have had the expert
ences, the close calls with death, and
the strenuous days and nights that
it has been the lot of DR.. Sun Wen,
the Chinese revolutionist, to en-
counter, and lived to tell of them;
few have been in such proximity
TO horror and torture and had the
marvellous good fortune to escape
unscathed, and leaves from the doc
TORS dairy might we'll go to make
up the pages of a most thrilling and
unusual romance.
DR.. Sun, modern Chinese, pa
triot, whose life's aim it is to help
overthrow the cruel rule of the
Manchus, and give to China a model
republican form of government,
spent over a week in the city re-
Gently, stirring up the local Mon
golians to aid in the cause, and dur
ing the time many a story did he tell
in his faultless English to interested
American listeners of his hair breadth
escapes while engaged in the
struggle for freedom in South China.
1t was in Canton, back in 1895,
that DR.. Sun saw death close upon
him. not an easy, gentle death, as
nature grants, but death in a re-
pellant, awful guise, death at the
hands of brutal tortures and ex-
ecutioners, bloody minded men, who
delight in causing pain and who revel
i'm human suffering.
Il well remember the night that 1
fed through the narrow, winding
streets of Canton, with the death cry
at my heels" said the doctor while
telling his story to few American
acuuaintances in the front room of
the Che Kung Tong, in Elk Place,
d few evenings ago.
The Niceroy's guard was after me,
a price was on my head, and the whole
city was aroused to prevent my es-
cane" he continued. Our society had
long been planning a general rising in
Canton: there were many thousands of
us banded together in the cause of
freedom, and it was our plan to rise at
night, capture the garrison and become
masters of the city.
"One Of the Viceroy's agents joined
out society, and informed on us, and
then. of course, our cause was dead for
the time. l was in my house on the
evening of the night we were to at
tempt to take the city, busy with Hui,
my chief lieutenant, perfecting hnal
arrangements, when into the room
rushed a young boy l had in my en-
ploy.
He cried out to me that soldiers
We're coming, that many of our people
had been arrested, and that it was
time to fly. Hui and I darted through
the house, and gained narrow lane
that skirted the rear wall of my resi-
dence.
Guards were turning into the lane
from around the corner of an adjacent
building, and they saw us as soon as
we saw them. AS I afterwards learn
ed, we had hardly left the house when
soldiers entered the front door and
took possession, searching every room
and loOting freely.
The soldiers in the lane pursued us
with cries of eXultant rage, and we
turned into an alley leading to pop
ulous street, hoping to lose ourselV es
in the crowd that was abroad. L be-
came separated from Hui, and as night
came on l found myself in poorer
quarter of the town near the river.
Il was just beginning to cOntratulate
myself upon present safety when a
party of soldiers who had been lurking
in an alley sprang upon me. 1 fled
through dark streets and over uneven
pavements, and just as 1 heard
the footsteps of my nearest
pursuers sounding close behind
me, and when l was giving
myself up for lost, door in a
wall alongside of which 1 was running
was thrown open. a pair of strong arms
seized me, and l was drawn through
the aperture.
The door was closed and quietly
bolted, and painting for breath and
standing in darkness with my UNI
known preserver's hand still on my
shoulder, ! heard the soldiers go raw
ing by. and concluded they had not
seen me vanish in the wall because of
the blackness Of the night
The man who rescued me proved
TO be one of our society. He had heard
the chase sounding far down the street,
ana concluding that it was one of his
comrades being hunted, he stood by
the door ready to act at the right mo-
ment He was a servant, sort of door
Keeper, in the house of "a wealthy man.
DARN, one of the government party,
and 1t was in the mandarin's house
Where I found temporary refuge.
Il heard the next morning that poor
Hui and two other of my chief officers
had been captured, and were that very
day TO be tortured by the most cruel
devices to eXtort from them a confess
sion as to the extent of the conspiracy.
Il lay concealed for three days, and
on the fourth day. happening to look
out Of the window of my room, just
over the gate, attracted by a sound
OF cymbals and barbaric music,
.arted back with horror at what l
saw.
II was overlooking an open space,
"a sort of square, and in the square
We're many people gathered, watch
ing a grim tragedy that was being en-
acted under their eyes. In the center
'I the throng stood several lines of
soldiers and beyond them / saw Hui
ana several of our brotherhood of
ton
Hu's head was swathed in bloody
nandages, and / learned later that
me- had been subjected to an awful
FORM of torture. His head had been
iul m a viselike arrangement, and the
Inachlne screwed together until the
Iesh was torn away and the bare skull
ttposed. Poor fellow he bore the or
c'a' bravely, and not a word could his
''Ihentors wiring from him.
saw Hui kneel on the mat in the
mode of the square, a wretched fell
low, with red stains on his arms and
clothes. foul with human blood, grab
peg his queue and jerked his head bru-
l'liF forward, and then a fat, thick
p'aied fellow, with features unmistak-
S'lF Tartar. appeared and holding a
snort sword In his hand, approached
We suffering victim. The villain raised
AIa sword, brought II down with q
I'loh side sweep. and Hui's head