The Washington herald., 1907-04-14
"Indiscreet Letters from an
Eyewitness to the Terror.
GOLD AND JEwELRY LOOTED
No Head TO the Defense Because OF
Legation JeaIousies-Fightin by
Day and Night UntfI Men Are Too
Tired to stand-The Relief Bxpedi-
tion Arrives just in Time.

ments is contained IN the volume 'Indls-
Greet Letters from Peking," edited by b.
L. Putnam Weale. The name Of Mr..
Weale on the title page may be taken as
a guarantee of the authenticity of these
letters, as he is one of the best
known and most able of all the writers
on far Eastern topics His "Manehu and
Muscovite" was an ably written prophecy
of the Russian-Japanese war some three
years before the fact. ana his The Re
shaping Of the Far East was a fire sum-
mary Of tile forces at work after the de
feat of Russia
The siege of Pekn has often been de-
scribed. but never adequately. Always
there has-usually for very shame's sake
been something held back. DR.. Morri-
son, the famous Chinese correspondent
of the London Times, has gathered for
ty-three volumes on the subject in Eng
lish alone. but even these all together do
not give complete picture Of what toek
place. The two best accounts OF the
reign of terror IN Pekin have been Dr.
Morrison's own book and the graphic
account OF the French minister, made as
report TO his government.
Where most Of the accounts OF the
siege have lacked has been that none Of
them have dealt with the strictly person
al or private side. None Of them have at
tempted 10 embrace the story of the Box
er year, the sack of Pekn, or the extra
ordinary scenes which marked this latter
day vandalism. For the first time, in
these intimate letters which together
make so remarkable a book, has the story
been told faithfully, vividly, and with
brutal candor.
The identity OF the author Of these
letters is nowhere disclosed, but judging
from the internal evidence he was an at
tache of the French legation, evidently a
young maa, and one more used TO the
field than TO diplomacy.
At the beginning-his first letter is dated
May T. 19O0-the writer tells about the
heat, the dust, and the il-temper OF
some Of the members of the legations.
They are beginning 20 notice that Pekin
is not what il was before the Japanese
war. Since then there has been intriguing
among the legations.
The old Pekln society has therefore
vanished, and la its place are highly sus-
pieious and hostile legauons-iegations
petty in their conceptions of men and
things-lcgatiOns bitterly disliking ono an
other-in fact. legations richly deserving
I all they get some of the cynjcs say. The
PekiR air is as = have already said high
/ ly electrical and unpleasant In these hot
spring days with the dust rising in
heavy clouds. Squabbling and cantanker-
Gus, rather absurd, and petty. the lega-
tions are spinning their little threads,
/ each one hedged in by high walls in its
own compound, and by the debatable
question Of the situation politique.
In twelve days more the change that is
coming has impressed the writer of these
l letters Already they have been wonder
ing; now he tells Us that they are begin
ming TO call them Boxers" these Chi
nese members Of the Society of Harmon
! ious Fists" They are also talking about
marines that have been sent for, but with
the Jealousy among the legations. no one
wants the other fellow 60 have the honor
OF sending the first guard. II is learned
| that the Boxers have already moved from
their particular habitat, which Is Shan
tUng. into the province OF Chih-H al
ready they are in some force at Chochou,
| only seventy miles 10 the southeast OF
/ Pekin-always massacreiug; always ad-
vancing, and driving IN bodies OF native
/ Christians before them on the march,
By May 2S the storm cloud has devel-
1 oped great proportions. The Pekin-Pao-
| tingfu Railway is being destroyed only
six miles from Pekins all the European
| engineers have fed into PelIin, and worst
/ Of all. the Boxer banners have been un-
/ furled, and 10, and behold. as they float
I in the breeze, the four dread characters
/ ''Pao Ching Mieu Yang have been read
Death and Destruction to the Foreigner
and All His Works. and Loyal Support
| to the Great Ching Dynasty" Writes our
attache.
Guards have been ordered from the
ships lying out at the Taku bar. The
guards viii soon be here, and when they
have come the movement win cease. Thus
/ have the eleven legations spoken, eacn
/ telegraphing a different tale to his gov
ernment, and each more than annoyed by
| this joint action Incidentally each one is
/ secretly wondering what is going TO hap
/ pen and whether there is really any dan
/ ger.
| That is the dominant note, not only be-
| fore the siege, but during the entire
period Of trouble-the legations standing
alone; no unity Of action for the CON-
mon good: nothing but pickering and jeal-
ousy and rank incompetency.
Still the rumors grow and the dangers
| threaten. In the interim our attache
halts in his narrative long enough to give
| a fine description of the city of PelIin,
| a history of the place. giving a brilliant
| idea Of the wonderful stage effects. the
fierce medievalism in senile decay, the
superb distances, the red dust from the
/ Cobb that has choked up all the drains
and tarnished all It's magnihcance. The
change that is coming seems absurd:
| OF course. Boxers coming through the
/ gates cannot be true. and yet-shades OF
| Genghis Khan and all his TartaTs. what
! is that? When / had got as far as this
/ from all sides came "a tremendous blaring
( Of barbaric trumpets-thOse long brass
| trumpets that can make ones blood cur
| ole horribly, blaring Which has now up
set everything 1 was to write and also my
/ inkp0t. In the tumult of ones emotions
one does not know what to believe and
what to fear. Everything seems a little
/ impossible and absurd. especially what
am now writing from hour to hour
Now the Boxers begin to invade Pelzin;
are seen in the streets; a japanese officer
/ Is killed: the German minister sees a
Boxer calmly sharpening knife on his
boot. chases him with a stick, and dis
| covers other Boxers. 1t is getting serious
The first real fighting about Pellin was
on June Il, and IN a graphic letter the
writer Of these interesting documents
| describes it. The Boxers destroyed by
fire all the foreign houses in the Tsung-n