The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-18

many more Japanese had oone the same as himself? Naturally, that could ont be stated. even if he knew; and probably not more than two or three men in the world knew. It was obvious to any one that there might well be fifty, or a hundred or any number, and that they could penetrate everywhere; i for if the Russians wish to build a house or barracks or fort to lay rail- way siding, to ferry a. regiment across a river, to carry a trainload of provi- sions from the station into the inner most part of a fortress, to repait warship, thep must employ Chinese coolies, and what European can tell when Chinaman is not Chinaman?
 About that, funny thing happened l--rtiver. 1 was then a Buddhist river junk three days journey up the once', said my informant. T was one among many passengers going in a big mendicant priest, and I spoke with slight Mongolian accent. We passen- gers all huddled up togethRr in the bot tom of the junk to sleep at night, dirty and with all our day cloths ana re- pulsive thing to Japanese, foreman of a tannery at Mukden. He had the smell of the lanyard and the stale hides pret- ty strong. At night our boat moored to the bank at a small town, along with other boats. While we were all asleep there was a sudden alarm, great bang and crash, and the boats mat roof, with a lot of snow, fell on us, and ev- erybody seemed to be shouting. The shock, the cold, wet snow, and the con- fusion and darkness, dazed me in my waking moments, I forgot myself and I ctruck out wildly with both hands, The tanner next to me was also only half awake and he let out a bad word Lin Japanese. The next minute he re- Imembered, and spoke Chinese, but l had spotted him, and as I didn't know Iwhat the alarm was about l hastily Whispered 'Anata-to watakshi-to Mi Ihon-futtaire' you and l are Jap lanese-and we stood together ready for lthe worst, for river pirates, Cossack Iraiders, or we knew not what It was nothing, after all, only badly moored Hunk breaking adrift and smashing in to every other. But it was a queer in ltroduction to fellow countryman in an loutIandish place, eh? tell you honest fly hadn't suspected him for one of us, nor he me. So you see how it is.''
 Of course, I do not mean that the story was told to me in fluent English like this. I have omitted the incidental eccentricities ofk narration.
 It was impossible to extract any ad- mission that this man had been a band lit. He had seen the Hung -hu-tze, as Ievery one had who travelled in the country, but he would not say he had been one of them; it was obviously in the nature of things, and needed not be denied
 He said the bandits were quiet at present, for several reasons. The com ing of spring weather meant agricultu- Iral activity and therefore fewer men available for other pursuits. The band it's had no concerted plans nor settled policy Some of the leaders of bands were meeting secretly to discuss whether any combined movement could be organized in the summer and autumn, when farm work would again be slack and recruits for robber bands |would be plentiful. Probably something could be arranged, but not what the louter world seemed to think; not the formation of a grand army of national liberation, nor any such ambitious thing.
 The Hung-hu-tze were chiefly mens of no very high motives. The were mal- contents, ne'er-do-weels or escaped criminals, Chinese, Manchu, Mongol 7 | A C.. Russians, fugitives from the Siberian prisons. Most of them had no aspira- tions or thoughs beyond mere self-pre- servation and the need of daily bread Their motives were almost entirely of the most sordid, and political questions of national issues never entered their heads, except in so far as they might directly affect the bandid business They took to the business for a li- velihood.
 The stories about the Hunb-hu-tze being in the pay of Japan were absurd; 1t was plain that there was no way to convey any pay to them, nor any means to guarantee that the pay would be earned.
 Any man who might become mem- Der of band might in time come to in- fluence the other members of that band in any desired direction; that was all that could be done, and it could not amount to much. Still 1t might be worked up into a force with some cohe- sion in few months; and if they could show a few successes every Chinaman in Manchuria would be ready to join the winning side. That sort of thing however, counted for nothing, because what was wanted was body of men willing to harass the Russians without waiting for them to be already losing Of such men the numbers possible tc raise were small comparatively But they were good. With little instruc- tion they made distinctly peter soldiers in every way than the Russians, wheth- CT Cossacks or others.
 My informant, while denying that he ever witnessed an engagement between Hung-hu-tze and cossaks, stated that on several occasions the bandits had defeated superior number of Rus. sians. The latter usually allowed s themselves to be outwittedandneglec the most ordinary precaution.