Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1904-12-16

Our compound OAe grounds around
dwelling house, is ratDeT domestic. I
though it conveys u hUn..reI inuna
lions a day of the presence of wax, |
writes the New York Posts special /
correspondent from the Leid ne:id, quar- 4
tiers OF General Uku's army near Muk |
den. Manchuria.
Next door all the women of the vii I
lage had been collected together. with 1
their offspring, if at breast one night !
there was considerable connection.
Soldiers had dispossessed them. and /
they had to come with their babies 10
seek shelter of the underground bomb
proof in our garden. As soon Us COM
planned to. japanese officers compelled
tie soldiers TO give back 10 the Chinese
women their shelter. They had, how
ever. 10 come TO our compound 10 grind
their miliet. for here were the only two
little dOnkeys that wore through the
attack on Shihlipo. one was wounded
with d shrapnel ball. but he could sill
walk the round of the millet grinder
Though lie had TO be blindfoldel so he
wouldn't eat too muchJ, dragging a
loglike stone over a fiat stone, thus
thrashing the millet from its husk.
Here are farms-indeed, all Manchu-
ria so far as one sees in 20 mile
journey up from the peninsula is one
great garden of millet and beans, dot
ted with walled settlements, where the
cultiyators huddle together with their
dogs to offer common resistance against
the bandits who otherwise would eat
and steal all they had. What these
rustic Manchurians live for is no more
than the half wolves of the surround
ing plains live for. They have appe-
tites to be daily appeased; they rear
young who have to he fed and who are
a link with life Otherwise there are
no ambitions, no possibilities in exist
ence.
BY order of the army we were billet
ed upon a native family of some stand
ing The wife has a severe and rather
patrician face; the husband possesses
Chinese novels, the "Siho Story" which
reminds you Of robin Hood" and
three fourths of Chinese dictionary,
compared with which the Century Die
tionary is a vest pocket affair, yet from
the torn papers in his windows and
the dust upon his lintels and the rag
ged condition of the straw mat upon
the general bench which serves as a
bed you would think him poor. That
is merely to deceive the predatory
mandarin and the burglarous Hung
hutse.
His children are named Number One
Wong. Number Two Wong and so on,
so he can keep count. l suppose, of the
growth of the Wong family. Number
One Wong is charming by any stand
ard He is cheerful and bright and
sensitive Since the other afternoon
he had eaten nothing, when l saw him
cutting the door jamb with an old
Chinese razor, great tears falling from
his round cheeks.
Whats the matter with Wong Yu
todayt" asked an interpreter. Whats
he cutting up the door jamb for and
crying"
"Oh, he very angry said the inter
prefer, because his mother, she petted
one of the other children
got Wong Yu some chestnuts and
pear and piece of unspeakable ma
tive je,l.ed candy and gave them tc
him, with slap on the back.
''Toshi, toshi, toshi," he said at once
Frightening like a sunrise. Then ht
gave part to his severe looking mother
and to his sick father and to his I'm
sympathiZing brothers and sisters, ant
that afternoon we heard nothing ex
cept Wong Yu's childish, delightful
laughter
He showed me some original draw
ings of Manchurian formal decoration
and gave me the Manchurian names
for them-the OK, the ass the vol
and the temple. Wong Yu cannot reat
yet, having innumerable characters t
learn by heart, but you would be sur
prised to see how many characters hi
elder brother, Wong Sha, can give
name to, Notwithstanding he is bu
twelve years old and that since Hal
cheng we have not seen single school,
They learn them by every one sayin
the same thing over in unison (whicl
westerners tell me is done in America
all pronouncing over and over the sam
word at the same time.
Some of the women are wives 0
carriers who were Communicated b.
Russians to assist their transport. Tw
of the carriers recently returned, hay
ing sold their carts furtively in Muk
den, making their way then far to tn
west to the railway which borders net
trail territory. thence south to New
chwang and thence up the capture
Manchurian railway home to ShihlihC
They brought no information of tn
Russian side. not having had the ca
pacity to observe and report militar
conditions. They found their home
stove in at the roof and blown in q
the side and in occupation by Japanes
and the attaches Of Oku's army. The
found the trees which stand here an
there being cut down and made int
logs. which, in a gulch yonder. wer
being cooked" as the soldiers call 4
Into charcoal.
BY means Of charcoal in improvise
hibachis-Marshal Oyama has one im
provised from a Russian drum-qual
tiers of officers and men are to b
warmed. They are even to be used /
the front trenches TO mitigate the ria
ors of frost The soldier is clothed wit
waistcoat of goatskin. such as 70
see in De Neuville's paintings of Il
French in the war of 1870. and ovt
that an snveloping blanket topcoa
goatskin Lined. So feet and hands wi
suffpr most and tho hihacbi l., 20 c;,