The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-09
REBEL CHIEFS CLOSE CALL.
THRILLING ADVENTURE OF A
CHINESE REVOLUTIONIST.
mr.. sun Wen at Canton, From the Win.
dow OF His Hiding Place Saw the
Execution OF His Chief Lieutenant
Fate OF Those Who Succored Him.


the close calls with death and the strenu-
o,,s days and nights that 1t has been the lot
Of DIR. Sun Wen, the Chinese revolutionist,
70 encounter, and have lived to tell Of them;
few have been in such proximity to horror
and torture and had the marvellous good
fortune to escape unscathed, says the NeU
orleans Picdyune, and leaves from the doc
tors diary might we'll go to make up the
nages OF q most thrilling and unusual ro-
nance.
DIR, Sun, a modern Chinese, a patriot
whose lifes aim it is to help overthrow
the cruel rule OF the Manchus and give to
China model republican form OF govern
nent, spent over a week in New Orleans
recently, stirring up the local Mongolians to
aid in the cause, and during the time many
n 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 repellent, awful guise, death
at the hands of brutal torturers and execu-
TONERS. bloody minded men, who delight
in causing pain and who revel in human
suffering.
Il we'll remember the night that / fled
through the narrow. winding streets of
Canton. with the death cry at my heels,
said the doctor. while telling his story to
few American acquaintance in the front
room of the Che Kung Tong, in Elk place
few evenings ago.
The viceroys guard was after me,
price was on my head, and the whole city
was aroused to prevent my escape, he
continued. "Our society had long been
planning general uprising in Canton; there
we're many thousands of us banded together
In the cause of freedom, and 1t was our
plan to rise at night. capture the garrison
and become masters Of the city.
sOne OF the Viceroy's agents joined our
society and informed on us, and then, OF
course, our cause was dead for the time.
| was in my house on the evening OF the
night we were to attempt to take the city,
busy with Hui, my chief lieutenant, per-
fecting final arrangements, when into the
room rushed young boy had in my en-
ploy.
He cried out to me that soldiers were
coming, that many Of our people had been
arrested, and that it was time to fly. Hui
and | darted through the house and gained
Il
OF my residence.
Il was just beginning to congratulate
myself upon present safety when a party
OF soldiers who had been lurking in an
alley sprang upon me. fled through dark
streets and over uneven pavements, and
just as / heard the footsteps of my near
est pursuers sounding close behind me,
and when l was giving myself up for lost,
a door in a wall alongside of which | was
running was thrown open pair Of strong
colt al ITnI fhrn,t nah
the aperture.
THE door was closed and quietly bolted.
and painting for breath and standing in
darkness with my unknown preservers
hand still on my shoulder. | heard the sol,
diers go racing 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
pne Of our society. He had heard the chase
sounding far down the street. and con-
Guiding that it was one Of his comrades
being hunted he stood by the door ready
to act at the right moment. He was
servant, sort Of doorkeeper, in the house
of wealthy mandarin, one of the Gov
eminent party, and it was in the manda-
rims house that 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 confession as to the
extent Of the conspiracy:
Il Law concealed for three days and on
the fourth day, happening to look out the
window of my room, just over the gate,
attracted by sound of cymbals and bar
barrie music, l started back with horror at
what | saw.
Il was overlooking an open space, a
sort of square, and in the square were
many people gathered, watching a grim
tragedy that was being enacted under
their eyes. In the centre OF the throng
stood several lines Of soldiers, and beyond
them | saw Hui and several of our broth
erhood of freedom being prepared for
execution.
bandages. and learned later that he had
been subjected to an awful form OF tort
IRE. His head had been put in viselike
arrangement and the machine screwed to-
gether until the flesh was torn away and
the bare skull exposed Poor fellow, he
bore the ordeal hravely, and not a word
could his tormentors ring from him.
Il saw Hui kneel on the mat in the middle
OF the square; and wretched fellow, with
with human blood, grabbed his queue and
ierked his head brutally forward, and then
fat thick bodied fellow, with features
Enthusiastically Tatar,, appeared, and hold,
ing short sword in his hand, approached
the suffering victim, The villain raised his
sword, brought it down with quick side
sweep, and Hui's head bounded from his
shoulders and struck the grinning scoun-
drel holding the queue in his hands in the
stomach.
THE trunk of the slaug htered body
spouted blood and, sick with the sight Of
my friends torture, turned away from
the window, unwilling to witness more
such scenes. That very night my preserver
came to me and told me that would have
10 leave the house, as his master, the man
DARN suspected that something was wrong
and had closely questioned him.
Il got out shortly after dark. and it was
lucky that did, as the mandarin searched
the rear building, where l had lain con-
cealed, an hour after my departure, and
finding evidence of my having been there
arrested his servant and put him to the
torture to compel him to divulge my where
abouts The poor fellow was unable to
do that, and, his cruel master turning him
over to the hard law as harborer of traitors,
he was beheaded the next day.
Il made my way to the river and found
some of the brotherhood on board little
sampan which carried rice lay concealed
beneath freight on that sampan for two
days, and the following night escaped
to Macao, the Portuguese settlement up
the river on my own launch. which had
been concealed in quiet lagoon and
brought to the sampan by one OF my faith
full servants when he discovered where l
was hidden"