Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1915-08-17

18th, 1895, and the ratification took
place at ChefOo, China, May 8th.
1t did not follow however, that
Formosa became japanese territory
thereby, as one might reasonably
suppose when the commonly-believed-
in Chinese honesty is considered. Not
at all!
When the Japanese officials went
down to Formosa to take possession
of the island, they found that in the
interval between the forming of the
treaty and their departure south, the
| Chinese FOrmosans had decided they
would not become subject to Japan,
but would have a republicl
A new flag was designed bearing a
very fierce and long-tailed yellow
tiger on blue ground, large silver
seal was made, and huge procession
headed by men carrying the new flag
and other banners and officials carry
/ ing the seal, marched through the
streets of the Capital and Formosa
was loudly proclaimed the "Island
Republic"
The Chinese General Tcheng-Ki-
Tong, who while military attache' of
the Chinese Embassy in Paris some
years before, had been found guilty of
embezzling public money and was re-
called because Of it, after conference
at Peking and Tientsin with the
Chinese officials, was sent to Formosa
to complete the organization of the
new republic. The funds for the
venture were largely furnished by the
higher mandarns of the middle pro-
vinces of China, who were easily per-
suaded to it by the Peking govern
ment, acting through Governor Tang
and General Tcheng- KiTong.
The whole story, although it re-
cords this "mOnstrous act of duplicity
. to which the whole history of warfare
shows scarcely a parallel" is still one
of the funniest things in all history,
and the installation of Billy Waters,
eK-barkeeper, miner, and champion
pugilist" of Montana, as chief artill-
cry instructor and finally minister Of
war, is not the least amusing incident
in this almost unknown bye-path of
| history.
For some weeks, without the slight
est pretence Of secrecy, ships convey
ing troops, ammunition, etc, piled be-
tween ports on the main land and
Tamsui, the port in Northwestern
FOrmOsa, eCen after the ceSSiOn Of the
island from CHINA to Japan had been
made and ratified!
The Japanese officials and forces
landed in Formosa the 29th of May.
Lord Itching Fang, the adopted son
of Li-Hung-C Chang, had been deputed
as Imperial Commissioner to formally
hand over the island, but as there
had been several skirmishes and much
rioting and lOoting in the Capital,
Lord Lii, after trying in vain to get out
of the upwelcOme task made over
lures to the Japanese and promised
that if they would first suppress The
rebellion, then he would hand over
the island His terror was so great
that finally the Japanese allowed the
| formal transfer of the island to take
place on a Japanese man-of-war in
the harbour of Keeling, and Lord Lii
departed from the island in disguise.
The new president of the Republic,
also feeling that discretion was the
better part of valor, had divided
$50, 900 among his own body-guard as
release money, and he too escaped
secretly from his yamen, taking as
much of the republics funds as he
could get away with. Here Mr.
Davidson says: "At two a. m. on the
5Jn Uf June, the yellow Republican
Tiger gathered in his long tail and
laid down and died for lack of nour-
ishment. The president had made an
unexpected exit, the minister of for
eign affairs had urgent business else
where and the eight members of par
lament who had been drawing the
princely sum of fifty cents day had
gone down the river to Tamsui and
escaped with their families"
Rioting, fires and looting followed.
The arsenal was broken into, the
powder magazine exploded and Tai
peh, the capitol. was in danger of
being utterly destroyed. Finally
after about SlOOO,OOO worth of dam
age. had been done, the Chinese
merchants prepared petition to the
Japanese and sent it to the coast, re-
Iouesting them to come to Taipeh in
| all haste and drive away the looting
! Chinese soldiers.
The Japanese troops, although only
five hundred strong, and expecting to
meet twenty thousand Chinese, left
]. Keeling as soon as they knew the
, truth. Taipeh was in deplorable
condition, murder and looting going
on every where and new fires continu-
ally breaking out in different parts OF
the city. Rewards of 100 taels foI
the heads of Japanese soldiers and SOC
= taelS for the heads of japanese officers
had been offered, and here as in Port
Arthur during the war the year previ-
. Gus. the heads of the japanese troops
and officers whom the Chinese had
succeeded in killing were displayed
, on stakes with the eyes, noses ano
+ mouths gouged out with spears.
1t was weeks before the island was
really subjugated and the japanese il
possession, for trouble broke out il
the south and troops had to be sent
down to quell the disturbances there
All this is over now and Formos;