The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-10-02
WAS PIRATE FIGHTER.
Standard Oil Man Tells of Six Years
in Chinese Service.


A man arrived at the Waldorf yes
terday who spent six years looking
for pirates and smugglers in the Far
East. He is J. J. Rule, an American,
who is assistant manager for the
Standard Oil company at Canton,
China, and under the imperial govern
ment he held the rank of mandarin
of the sixth class. This was awarded
him as a result of fight on the West
river some years ago, when he helped
fight and capture lot of pirates who
were about to seize river steamer.
Mr.. Rule has lived in southern
China II years, and a good part OF
that time he spent in the Chinese
customs service. He speaks Chinese
fiuently. He says he would feel as
safe in the interior of China, even
during a revolution, as anywhere
else in the world, because foreign
er who speaks the language and
knows Chinese customs is secure
when travelling in the country away
from the seaboard.
Il left Canton the latter part OF
May" said Mr.. Rule yesterday.
That was, of course, before the la
test troubles came up. Business at
that time was about normal, consid-
ering the state of affairs that then
existed.
"Pirates on the Pearl river? Well,
they call them pirates, but they are
hardly pirates of the old school, such
as used to prowl about the coast of
China. You see, a gang of them get
some inside information that GER
tain steamer is carrying treasure, and
they get on the boat as passengers at
some port; and then, after overpow-
ering the crew and beaching the
craft the pirates take to the shore
and scatter all over the province. 1t
is next to impossible to. run them
down collectively.
Il had to come into contact With
some of those fellows when l was in
the Chinese customs service. l was
on duty up the West river for five
years, and then for year and half
I was on the frontier back of Macao.
That is where most of the smuggling
is done, and we had to keep a sharp
lookout for opium coming in and also
| for junks going out loaded with
contra band grain. We had a mixed
guard of Indians and Cinnamon at
first, and they used to say that one
nationality was employed to keep the
other awake But since the dispute
with Portugal over the boundary of
Macao l understand they have come
to employ only Chinese.
Things happened in those days,
| but the hottest time We had with the
pirates was at Samshui, when l was
on duty up the West river. A lot of
cut-throats had gone on board
steamer at Wuchow ostensibly as pas
sengers bound for Hongkong. We had
word that they intended to take pos
session of her, so the Chinese harbor
master and l with a small force of
| men, went on board to arrest them.
AS we reached the steamer, the pi-
rates opened fire and there was quite
little shooting within a few min
utes. We killed two of them and
wounded one, but the harbor master
was wounded. However, we captur-
ed IA men, The harbor master re-
ceiver the decoration of mandarin of
the fifth class, and at the same time
| was made a mandarin of the sixth
class. This would have been of a
lot of use to me had l remained
in the service. The fight lasted only
about 10 minutes, for we were soon
surrounded by gunboats, and there
was no way for the pirates to escape.
Il like Canton better as a place of
residence than Hong kong, because
from it, it is easy to get into the
country. We have only eight or nine
Americans in Shameen, the foreign
concession. l was in Canton through
the other revolution. In fact I was
senior lieutenant of the Shameen de-
fense corps, but things soon got be-
yond us and British and Indian
troops were sent to protest the set
tlement. New York Times