Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-15

score, because their mothers breasts
had dried. Disease added its toll. And,
one by one, those men who had been on
guard duty 80 and 40 hours at stretch
we're given a chance to rest. That long
rest which Is unbroken by whine of
bullet or shout of sha-sf1aol
The legations were not alone in their
predicament. The West Roman Catholic
Cathedral also was besieged by the
Boxers. Their attempts to burn it, as
they had done with the East Cathedral,
we're thwarted by heroic fathers Of
church militant. Torch after torch of
inflammables was thrown into the ca
thedral compound: only, to be extin-
guiShed. Attack after attack was made,
only to be repulsed by the fathers and
their converts. Its scanty supply Of food
was soon exhausted and the last days
of the siege the nuns, priests and con-
verts were driven to stripping and eat
ing the bark and leaves from the trees
of the cathedral garden.
In the East City a small group of
Protestant missionaries who had re-
fused to seek shelter in the legations
also barricaded themselves and fought
similar fight. When the rescue came
they, as well as the East Cathedral,
were found to have weathered the
typhoon.
The rescue was on q strict parity with
the siege. The same Alice-in- Wonder
land touch. 1t was one of the finest
examples eXtant of non-co-operation.
Ostensibly the relieving forces were
under Admiral Seymour of the British
Navy; actually they we're divided into
national units, each jealousy COM
manded. This army Travelled up from
Tientsin not only at the pace of the
slowest, but of the most unwilling. 1t
halted for days at time while the
commanders bickered and fought for
precedence.
Tired in Course of Time.
Even with its hesitations it could not
remain on the hoof forever. Yet only
when the walls Of Picking were in sight
did it bestir itself.
A British Punjab company was the
first to Arrive at the legations, through
the Water Gate. They entered with
hardly a shot being fired to oppose
them. The Boxers were too busy cast
irg away their red insignia and melting
into the protective coloration of the
Picking countryside. Not one in a
thousand Of the Boxers we're ever
punished.
The vengeance fell-as is so often the
case with an inoffensive citizenry-upon
the Chinese dyellers in Peking. Already
they had been disgracefully looted by
the Boxers on the excuses that they
we're harboring Chinese Christian con-
VertS. Now they were looted on the pre-
text that they were sheltering Boxers
Van loads Of objets de vertu were
shipped to Shanghai and to Europe.
Those same gentlemen who had distin-
guished themselves during the siege by
the intensity of their unwillingness to
fight suddenly grew swashbuckling.
Astounding their courage as they
smashed their way into silent court
yards! The basis Of several large Occi-
dental fortunes was laid at this time.
Orders. strict orders, we're issued by
the Ministers that footing must be
stopped But since the defenders had
grown accustomed, out of sheer self
that the legates promulgated, these also
were ignored.
The siege was over and the final
pages apparently written in as sorry a
volume of history as has ever been re-
corded. But only apparently. The
siege remains, craven with peculiarly
powerful acid, on every foreign heart.
That most sacred of beings, the envoy,
had been shown not to be in the least
structure of diplomacy had received the
edge of an ak at its foundation. The
legend of the siege, instead of sinking
into the category of q thrice-told, half
forgotten tale, takes on new life from
year to year. A dozen times in China
/ have heard the quavering prophecy
IF Tuchun So-and-So brings his
army here we'll have another Boxer
siege, mark my words!"
And the words were not only marked
but seriously credited.
In Marking I have talked with con-
suls and commercial men who shook
their heads and said TO me wistfully:
Il wish ] were transferred to Picking.
This place is regular trapl"
In Ichang, Chungking and FoochoW
I have heard the same fear expressed,
the same plant voiced
Walls, the foreigners cry. Give us
wallsl