Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-01
Barber & Ross,
1 18th and G SITS.

reached Tie Pass. Our cart was gone. We
had left 1t far behind. We had had no
sleep, hardly any food or drink, but still
there rest. Here there were only
a few Russians, the fringe of the retreat.
Most of the army passed to the east. Some
regiments came hurrying through. Tie
Pass had been great place before; music,
women, lots of drink, many traders. Now
1t was all upside down. The women had
all gone long before. The Greeks and Poles
who remained were in fear of their lives.
The retreating soldiers looted all the shops
and sold the stuff to their comrades.
Champagne at rouble a bottle, brandy,
gin, rum-everything cheap as water. The
Cossacks had smashed all the boxes they
could lay their hands on and were selling
by the roadside. What they could not dis
pose of they threw into the street. They
left pools of good liquor muddying the dust
and went to join their commands, all ready
to leave when the word came. They set
fire to the storehouses. great piles of pro-
visions thousands of tons of hay and fod-
der. The ruffians among them robbed right
and left and no one had time or inclination
to prevent them.
Murder Of Chinaman.
"Only once did 1 see any evidence of au-
thority. A party of Cossacks in a side
street found Chinese beggar whom they
thought was a japanese spy They set
upon him and yanked at his pigtail till 1t
came Off Then they tried to carry him
away. The man clutched the spokes of a
passing cart He refused to let go his grip
The Russians tore his clothes from his back
in their efforts to drag him of.
He would not let go. They drew their
swords and hacked his hands off at the
wrists. The man turned upon them, kick
ing and biting, waving his arm stumps.
He seized a Cossacks hand In his teeth
and bit the fingers off. Crazed with pain,
the Russian drew his sword with his left
hand and stabbed the Chinaman. COM
panion slashed at him from the other side
and nearly severed his head from his body.
A third man finished the work half done
and the body was dragged to the COM
pany headquarters. The Russian COM
mander stood the bloodstained soldiers In
the yard and shot them down for killing
the Chinaman. All four bodies were left
uncared for.
'"The town was In turmoil. We couldn't
get hold of any of our stores. 1t was
hopeless. More troops were coming in,
others were going north. They said the
Japanese had cut the railway between
Kaiyuan and Tie Pass, that they would be
surrounded.
Made for Fakumen.
eve didn't have any map. We could
orly speak a little Chinese, but we decided
to make for Fakumen, about twenty miles
away Outside the town we met many
soldiers. To the west of Tie Pass regt-
mentS were moving Soutn again. 10 inc
east we could see lines of carts and long
columns of men and guns YEARLY Journey
ing northward. All about us, however,
guns and soldiers and horses We're going
down to meet the Japanese. The men
seemed fairly fresh. They hadn't been in
the retreat. They made no attempt to
stop us, and we didn't wait We made due
west following water courses, keeping
cover as much as possible.
"Mistchenko was out on the Russian
flank with six thousand cavalry and
couple of batteries. Splendid men they
were too He is lazy, Mistchenko, or he
would have done something. He had his
headquarters in village under hill. All
about him In the plain were the cavalry
patrols, sometimes ten, sometimes fifty.
sometimes a hundred men. The whole
plain was alive with them.
1--WE managed to get through to Faku-
men, Bhere we saw the Japanese flags
again, but there were only eight regulars
in the place. The town had been occupied
by the Chinese bandits. They held us up,
but we told them we had no money. The
women who went through from Tie Pass
before us had to pay one hundred roubles
apiece but they let us off. They made
lot out of the town, for they squeezed ten
thousand taels out of the military mandarin
and the merchant guilds. Some of the
beggars shot at US, but 1t was all right as
soon as we showed them the pass their
chief had given u.s."