The Washington herald., 1907-04-14


alarm. At his feet lay a native woman
trussed tightly with ropes, with her body
half-ehaTred. and reeking with kerosene,
but still alive and moaning family. The
Boxers. inhuman brutes, had caught her,
set fire to her and flung her on the road
10 light their way. She was the first
victim Of theiT rage we had az yet come
across, That made us feel like savages.
BY June 16, the legations at Pelsn have
settled down tc a new phase OF existence
Barrieades have been built across the
streets, each legation doing its own work.
Word comes that the Boxers have caught
a lot OF native Christians one Of the
leaders gets some volunteers. surrounds
the temple and captures the whole party
The Boxers are ali shot at once though
it is hard, sometimes. TO tell Boxer from
Christian.
So the Christians were told to line up
against the wall OF the temple 20 facii-
tate the summary execution in progress
Then a big fellow rushed out Of corner
yelling. 4 have received the faith" Our
leader looked at the man with critical
eye. and then said TO hi = in his quietest
tones: stand up against the wall. The
Boxer stood UP, and revolver belched
ness OF eye for which he is distinguished
our leader had seen a few req threads
hanging down below the fellows tunic.
The man, as he fell with a cry, disclosed
his sash underneath. He was a Boxer
chief At least thirty men were killed
here
This is grim war enough, but this is
only the beginning All through this
ogH IA
Chinese government. The legations have
been left 10 themselves. II the Boxers
succeed in exterminating the foreign
devils" well and good; II not, then their
work viii be disavowed Thousands Of
Boxers are now at the PelIin gates. Al
ready they have destroyed the Tartar city.
and inside there are still divided counsels,
and the shoe is beginning to pinch.
The siege proper dates from June 2.
In this wise has our siege commenced;
with all the men angry and discontented;
with no responsible head; with the one
man among those high-placed dead. With
hundreds Of converts crowding Us at
every tuTn-in a word, with everything
Just the natural outcome of the yacilla-
ton and ignorance displayed during the
past weeks by those who should have
/ been the leaders. Half the officers are at
loggerheads; volunteers have been roam
ing about at will and sniping at anything
they happened 10 see moving Ia the
distance; ammunition Is being wasted;
there are great gaps in our defenses,
which any TesOiute foe could rush In
five minutes, were they so inclined; there
is not a single accurate map of the area
We have 10 defend.
/ One genius for organization turns up
I Ia "A JapeHese colonel VINO does heroic
work; elsewhere there is confusion. Bull
/ lets are flying overhead all the time,
dirt is accommodating. But what OF the
Americans during this time? A letter OF
June 25 has this:
/ Meanwhile the Americans on the wall
are behaving more erratically than ever.
/ They have retired and reoccupied their
/ positions three OF four times since the
siege began. and the men are now m0re
than mutinous. Yesterday they came down
| twice-no one could quite make out why,
and after a lapse Of an hour or two in
each case. they returned Matters reach
I ed a crisis this morning, and council Oi
I war was called by the British Minister
| composed of all the officers commanding
/ detachments The meeting took place
/ under the American barricade on the Tar
1 tar wall itself. apparently 10 give conf
dence 10 the men and 70 make them
/ ashamed OF themselves. Bat the most
] curious part Of IL al was that our coia-
mander-in-chief excused hims-E on ths
/ diplomatic ground that he was sick, and
amid the smiles Of all. Capt. T., thl
Austrian, presided, and laid down the law
/ This clearly shows how absurd is ouI
4 whole system. They say that the wh0l-
/ reason IS that there is internal trouble
/ in the American contingent, and that one
I OF the officers is hated. Whether this s
! really so OF not / do not know; We never
know anything certain now.
The writer takes some OF the sting out
OF this fling at the Americans by writing
I further along;
! But although the American has but
/ little discipline. as a sharpshooter on tE'
/ defensive, lie is quite unrivaied. by rea
son Of his superior intelligence and tht
/ interest he takes in devoting himself tC
the matter in hand.
After some days Of fighting there come.
the board OF truce, which accomplished
nothing, and early in July the heavy
shells come bursting into the Inflated
city. Mines. also. were dug. so that ths
besieged fell asleep ready TO be blowr
up. In a letter of July 8, We get som,
idea of the horror OF it:
/ Nor are the dangers merely prospec
tive. They are actual and grimly dis
gusting. During the past week the cas-
/ ualty list has gone on rapidly increasing
and to-day our total IS close on 100 ldlleC
I and wounded in less than two weeks in
/ q fFzI,T Of OF 4
| rifles. The shells occasionally fly low anC
take you on the head; the bullets flich
through the loopholes or as often tax,
you in the back from some cnflading bar
/ ricades, and thus through two agencies
/ you can be hastened toward the unknown
/ As far as I am personally concerned, il
/ is largely a matter OF food whether this
affects one acutely or not. If you have
a full stomach you do not mind so much
| and even shrug your shoulders should
the man next 20 you be hit; but at ol
) in the morning, when everything
| is pale and damp. and you are stomach
sick. il is nerve-shaking 10 see mar
/ brutally struck. and gasping under IN,
blow ] have seen this happen threl
times; once it was truly horrible. for / wal
so splashed with blood
Pretty soon the chancery Of the British
I legation is turned, periorce, into hos
nital. and on dispatch-tables. lately lit
| tered with diplomatic documents. Oper
ations are now almost hourly performed
Then there IS one particularly big Chi
nese gun that bothers the besiegers, ans
the plucky little Japanese colonel organ
lzes a sortie 10 sieze il. 4 handful O.
the bravest men sally out, but they ar'
beaten back, many wounded, some killed
and the gun continues to devastate. Dis
cipline began to get bad in July. lootnl
] nrenf On and insults TO woman and nor.