Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-24
CHAPTER xxx.
The Chinese Scream

The French invasion was twOtoI1, one
| quarter Of the Italian Chinese crossing Into
| the Gulf of Lyons to Cette by towed floats,
and 80 along the canal from Cette. across
the narrow part OF France, 20 where the
| canal meets the Garonne near La Reole.
and thence to the Giropde and the BiScay
! coast. This horde. with half the French
| horde proper, making altogether twenty
millions, were to he British
| So It happened that, while the French
| horde proper were pouring through Bel
| GUM by Vervlers, Liege, Namur and Char
| lero pressing toward the practically ua-
| fortified northern frontier OF France be
| tween MGubcuge and Rocroy, at Hlrson
| five million Italian Chinese had already
| decimated the western geaboard, and had
| been organized into stores collecting. and
| barge, raft lighter and tug-COllecting ana
| constructing brigades
| All behind these two invading hor2es
| what resistance there had been was over.
| with the exception of some half dozen de-
tached strongholds whose EarrisOns were
gradually yielding to famine; and every
| where to the east and north Of France,
| again with some exceptions, was the I'M
| sparing pigtail These exceptions were
| Hungary, Turkey, Lapland Finland. For
in Europe the Monaghan invaders found
| some twenty seven millions of Monaghan
| inhabitants already there and 1t was one
| of the purposes OF that great inventor and
| consummate statesman, en- How, that these
| should be left alive to form (the llungarians
especially the nucleus OF a new civilization,
| which was to be neither like the old west
! eru, nor like the old eastern, and ike moth
| ing in the world save something which he,
| Yen. had quite definitely mapped out in his
| own wide space of brain.
| The western sweep of the yellow wave
had in fact, been slightly swelled by some
| hundreds of thousands o: European Turks
| and Magyars.
/ Near Chartered was made what was prac
| tically the last battlefield stand of CONT
| mental Europe. The Elysee. with rash
pride. had issued manifesto to the people
of France, inviting all who could not fly
to give in their names as lighters at bureauN
established in various quarters of various
cities. To this call 200G00 French youths
and cid men responded an unframed army,
of which the last reSidUes Of the reserve OF
the territorial army formed the nucleus,
set forth to hurl themselves upon the in
finite.
1t was computed that each fighting Eu-
ropean destroyed, one way and another
thirty yellow men. But could the arm or
each, dead weary of slaughter have de-
stroyed 800 or 5000, still the effort would
have been wasted. Over the carcasses of a
thousand dead struggled million living
To shoot the vagabond Atlantic with can
| non Is mockery of ones self
The garrison Of Paris remained; but the
occupation of the French capital, supposed
| to be impossible to any other army, was,
| though bloody IN Its accomplishment, not
extremely difficult to this.
A corps and half, making nearly twice
the number which, in its palnlest days, mac
inhabited the city of light and joy, sat
| Seine, their lines occupying length from
the Acheres-Po railway line to the
Foret de Bondy well beyond that outer
| ceinture of foTtihcauons composed or great
strongholds such as Cormeilles, Francon-
vile, Cotillons, Montmorency, Demon
The first care of the besiegers was to
| isolate the city: and in every direction, dur
ii ing one night, all the lines OF railway
| radiating from the center were blown up
along a distance OF some score OF YARDS
Then at once. with light Siege train, a
brigade was thrown forward. and an at
tack begun upon St Germain-en-Laye.
Precisely what was the thought of the
French general, what his ultimate nope, IN
making his determined resistance Is not
known. But a determined resistance he
: did make. Such had always been the
splendid desperation, the tragic pride, OF
I | France.
The Chinese on their part, might very
well have drawn lines round the entire
outer ceinture. and waited there tlll all the
, cats and dogs of Paris and its villages mad
been eaten but this no longer suited their
| mood The yellow man in his senses, Is,
indeed. afraid of cannon. But the entire
race was by this time no longer in its
senses; here was a people dancing mad.
gorged with gore, flushed with victory.
greedy of agones. Fear they. no longer
! knew. To celebrate forever jubilee OF
devils In scarlet world--to raise ever
/ higher monuments built of human corpses,
and shrek and dance around them-to 1--we,
to roll. to die In red-this was their sole
remaining instinct.
his staff, received telephone message from
St Germafn:
} Chinese are being moved down by thou
sands but gtiIl they come"
And half an hour later, by Geographic
} click-clack from the mighty seven-battery
5 Fort de Marty:
"Strong assault by Chinese. No. . re-
doubt carried by ganSwoys and scaling lad
ders In teeth Of guns. Loss Of enemy inn
Z measurable"
And an hour latc- from ST. Cyr:
Chinese now swa1niug over glacis. Bat
terry in rear carried. Ammunition cannot l
No more. So southwark and eastward
spread the tale of huge carnage, Of steady
rapid advance. By niEhtfall Of the flrst day
! of siege st. German. Marty, ST. Cyr. Yer
: sa!lles, ChatiIlon. had fallen.
It was on the next morning at the hour
| when the sun should have been seen to riss
that men were first startled by contlhu-
ance of the darkness of the night
The secret of this phenomenon va2. OF
, course, unknown at the time. In England
presently, It was given out by the scientists
that some monStrous thing had happened
probably in some region OF tho South Sea
some unparalleled passion OF Nature
which had poured owe" the earth in incon-
ceivable mass its scoriae and tufaceous par
! ticles and multiform volcanic ashes, dark
entng the day. That some new properties
were present in the atmosphere could moi
, be doubted; for at the same time an intoler-
| able oppression settled upon the chest, and
, perhaps by reflex action down sank the
: spirits of men; the minds of the children
= assumed the garb of Grape and sackcloth
which the Mother had put on; and an awe
and a charncl horror and a fear such as
the heart had never yet known, gripped II
| | now.
In England Il may be presumed this IN
/ utterable pail of gloom lay much less hoav-
: uy upon the imag inationi for here the Chi
l uese and their reign of terror were mere
nconcelyable nightmare. not present ract
| But In England. too. the universal nerve
, felt the strGngeness and the thrill OF thai
CHASTITY obscurity
| It was chastity because Il vas not COM
: plete Utter gloom would have been more
tolerable Toward noon, during all the