The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-23
~
san Francisco Call.

. A number OF foreign officers, who were
shooting snipe an the rice fields back OF
the village Of Wei-hai-wei, China were
responsible for a series of peculiar acct
dents not long ago. The kind Of fowl they
brought down wore pigtails instead OF
feathers and were distinctly game In
one sense Of the word.
The first day they set out one of the
officers, a German Of high rank, shot a
Chinese laborer by mistake. 1t was
slight flesh wound in the arm, but the
laborer was highly incensed, and made q
wordy attack in unintelligible lingo on the
officer.
| 'He says he will be laid Off for a week.
an interpreter. The crowd was not espe-:
cially flush at the time, but coin to the
amount Of IS was raised on the spot and
given to the Chinese. The latter was
fully appeased, and went off the envied
superior Of his less fortunate brethren
Five dollars is good round sum to the
leverage Chinese workman who draws q
pittance SO small that an American would
| be ashamed to take the money.
| The officer was not molested or rebuked
for the shooting. It was plainly an acc1-
dent, but even If 1t had not been 1t Is
doubtful that any action would have been
taken in the matter. Chinese life is
scarcely at premium in Wei-hat-wei,
which Is as poverty stricken Chinese
Village as can be found on the map. The
natives live from hand to mouth. They
are a stalwart tribe. many of them stand
ing six feet in height, and are much
darker skinned than the southern Mon
golians. They are good to look at,
healthy and muscular, but are absolutely
and entirely without ambition. They are
stolid to q limitless degree: utterly indlf-
ferent to physical pain, and seemingly in.
capable of mental anguish. A story is tolc
of one man who caught his foot In traI
: set for some animal. and calmly lay dowr
. and slept until his fellows came to rescue
time. Later the foot was amputated, ant
t the man killed himself because he wa!
unable to make q living thus crippled, ant
; his relatives were too poor to support him
| Suicide seems to be panacea for al
: evils to the Chinese, and he general.
chooses some horrible torture for his TAX
ing off. In this instance the man VIII
! owned the trap sent compensation t
. | the family Of the unfortunate fellow, an
? the next day two Of the sons of this Chi
;, nese were found with their left arm
y caught in similar traps. It is proverbiall
' ! unWise to give damages or rewards t
: Chinese, but the German officer and hi
T friends were slow in realizing the fac
:, and came near having long list OF crime
I on their consciences
d The island Of Wei-hai-wei, which is
fashionable Chinese summer resort in tn
s Yellow sea, lies about mile from tn
s village of the same name. 1t is patronize
/. almost exclusively by foreign naval off
o GERS and their families. Hunting Is tn
Il main pastime Of the officers, who are a
IL off duty, Of course, and enjoying fe
J. months vacation. There are no write
II game laws in China, but there is a soci
4 code that is religiously lived up to
"a foreigners. Native Chinese shoot whe
"a and where they please, but a white ma
a caught shooting out Of season Is blacl
\ balled by the clubs Of which he is q men
=. Der and is completely ostracized by 81
- ciety. The Chinese bird shot Is made
~ scrap iron cut into bits. It Is extreme
- hard on the teeth and highly indigestibl
- A Chinese considers a shot bird unfit +
e. eating; therefore he traps birds for h
r, own table and shoots those he takes
~ market. Wise John. Birds are extreme
", cheap in China, a good-sized quail brin
ing only few cents. The natives find
~ far more profitable to carry bags for t
70 foreigners than to shoot birds themselve
tn The island Of Wei-hai-wei is built
d. on thoroly modern plan. It boasts
e, frst-class hotel and q number of artist
he bungalows, that stand out in striking co
i'd trast to the mud huts OF the village. 3
I'd the village is. on the whole. far me
picturesque than the island. The hu
ha which are fashioned Of mud and stone, !
lie mind one strongly Of the adobe shacks {
up by the Mexicans along our weste
coast They seem to have stood just
they are for a thousand years. And a ]
tie beyond the village, twenty miles to
right, is an old-fashioned walled-in CT
nix the inhabitants Of which are q little Ii
to progressive than the villagers, for the l:
- ter have at least been able to see opp,
he tunities for adding to their incomes tt
me ne the foreign invasion from the island.
I'm The report that one man had recei,
SIS for mere flesh wound in the a
spread like wildf1re thru the village. "A
days later an English captain, aiming
in order to strike a. bird lowering n
lem baited trap, brought another laborer
!. O. the ground. The man sprung into ST
4 j just as the officer pulled the trige
and received the shots full In the thi
The wound proved serious in this ca
Can The Englishman had the man carried t
see nosp d h,n On - tba s tnna ~ s1o sop