Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-07-23

! temporary certain pO!EtSu SOuI1ASAtS
with reference to conditions in China,
that benighted republic in the far
away Orient whose civilization ante
dates that of the lAnglo-Saxon by
many centuries. & 5
Further and more detailed informal
ton is appended from the pen of
Walter NJ. Crawford who is engaged
in experimenting score or more Of
schools and colleges for boys The
extracts appearing below are from
letters addressed to Miss Flora Spic-
er, to whom we are indebted fer the
information herein contained Mr..
Crawford was formerly one of Miss
Spicer's pupils. Later he attended
the university Of Minnesota, from
which he graduated. Fl
Mr.. Crawford is q relative of the
family of Rev. o. 10. Boyce, 2219 4th
Il street. S. 81, district superintendent
Of the Methodist Episcopal church,
being q first cousin of Mrs Boyce's
mother, Mrs. w. D. Wilder.
The Mabel" referred to in one Of
] the letters is Mrs. Crawford, who
formerly lived at Kasson, Minn, but
who met Mr.. Crawford while both
were attending the university. Sub
sequently she joined Mr., Crawford in
the Orient where The latter had been
engaged in his vocation for upwards
of a year before they were married.
The hrst letter from which quota
tions are made wassiated February 2,
1914, at sChungking.
sSs Amid Flying Bullets.
..of course, z says Mr. Crawford,
you are hearing aascllt the troubles
in central and western China, SO 4
4 will wriss TO say as.-i,s a. for
which we are devoutiy thankful. but
we have had some trying experiences
gin the last few weeks. 81
One morning we were awakened
ny firing which was hitting our house
on top, and we rushed out to find the
streets full of people running in every
direction, many carrying their belong
ings to some fancied place OF safety.
sSoon great smoke arose along
the wall by which our house stands
and we ran out on the wall and looked
down. At its base we found that rob
ber 'hordes who had been attacking
4 the city had tried to- set It son fire by
building such immense bonhres that
the embers would fall over the wall
and catch among the buildings.
House Catches Fire.
It happened that our house was
Just opposite, or rather above, one Of
their fires The heat was iterrible
and we had to gather water at the
same time in case the houses caught.
Ours did and 50 did others, hut we
soon put them out where we were, as
did those in most Of the places. but
some parts OF the city Jared worse
and many houses we're completely
destroyed, but the fires were finally
put out entirely.
When the robbers failed to burn
the city they waited few days for
reinforcements and renewed the at-
tack, using small cannon. This
time they entered the city. We fed
to DR.. Met Cartney's house, where we
remained for two days, as being far
ther away from danger and safer from
attacks. @
Attack Is Renewed.
When things ca1nied down some
what we returned to our house, which
was a. great mistake, as the lighting
again came our way.
we had just gone to bed, thinking
the worst was over, when we heard !
our servant clamoring at the gate.
We opened it and let him In. and he
came with a rush and none too soor,
as close behind him was q soldier pur-
sued By the robbers. Before the soil
der reached our gate he was stab I
bed, but came on, falling at the FOOT
81 the gate right at the heels Of the
servant
wanted to drag him In as he was
not vet dead but the robbers were
SO close We barely had time to close1
aud bar the gate They shot through
~, but NE dropped Nat on the ground
: IN !, III @ flaesx vvauf