The Sentinel=record., 1913-11-16
CHINESE BRIGANDSI
 IN LARGE BODIES
SOME OF THE BANDS HAVE AS sUMED THE PROPORTIONS
 OF MINIATURE ARMIES
Local Police Unable to Cope With Them and Regular Army is Not to be Depended Upon.

Picking, China, Nov. 15- -Brigandage in China has spread until some rob Der bands have assumed the dignity of small armies They muster both foot and cavalry and are as large as two American regiments. No prov ince is free from bandits. From Man shuria where the Hung ghutzesand from Kiangsu to Turkestan, come re. ports of freebooters who defy the au- thorities.
 There is no local police to cope with the outlaws and the army is not at present a dependable branch of the administration. China is never free from brigandage, but it is only at per iods of transition, when the author itiy of the government is shaken by political disorders like the recent re- bellion, that the band} attain such large porpotions.
 The American missionaries who fled from their homes in the interior of Fukein province are still at Foo chow, unable to return because no protection can be assured them by the government. The American consulate at theFoochow and she Legation in Pellin have been trying in vain for several months to get the Chinese government to take vigOranus action aganist Hwang Liang, the outlaw who proclaimed himself Sixteen Emperor Of the Ming Dynasty.
 A consular from Shensi says that province is practically administered by outlaws, who worl: solely in their own interest. The governor adheres to the central government only be cause there" is no interference from Picking for him to describe himself as loyal The governor, or tutu, as he is called was poor andunscrupu' lous official but now he has amassed large fortune and a numerous har em.
 The consul gives an account ot how the commanding general like wise obtained wealth and authority Being appointed commissioner for the suppression of opium in the province says the report, he started on a tour with body of troops. He took the precaution always to send word ahead announcing his approach, policy which, as is customary, brought forth munificent presents from the people. If the presents were ample no opium was discovered. He confiscated only the prepared drug, that being most easily portable and of the highest value, and brought it back to the i'm por.ant and centers and sold it. A member of the American consu' lar service who came recently to Pc king from Canton says that piracy a long the rivers and canals is more extensive than ever before. The att thorities are endeayoring to terminate l it by giving the chiefs government offices and incorporating the ordinary pirates and brigands in the navy and army It is evident that this time honored practice has not passed a U
 way with the Manchu dynasty.
 The French Legation has received news of the burning of a Roman Cath olic mission church during the plum dering and burning of a town ill south ern Honan, and not far from Tsaoy ang, where the American and Norwei gian missionaries were made prison CTS in September. The government 1 has sent troops in large numbers tc light against Whit Wolf" the brig and chief who is terrorizing that sec tion of the country, but according tC the report of another American con sul, the soldiers, though sufficiently numerous. are not making serious eff | forts. They have been trying, osten sibly, for several months to round uT the brigands, yet walled towns are still besieged, captured and footed bS | them.
 A missionary in a Ilonan city de scribes how a band two thousand strong impressed villagers to carry fuel up to the gate of townbarret against them, in order to burn dowr the gate so they might enter and loot the place The villagers between two fires, for when they approached the gate they were shot at from the wall; by the soldiers garrisoning the town and if they refused to adynce the brig ands laid them low
 Within hearing of the walls of Pc king village blunderbuses can b' heard nightly By firing at intervals their old-time guns, sometimes SC large that two or more men are re quired to carry them, the villager' | try to scare off the robbers. Thi summer a village within few min utes walk of a group of temples 0c cupied by some American and Britisl families in the w stern Hills outsid Perking, was plundered by band O