HUMANITY v. BARBARITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2471, 24 July 1901, Page 71

HUMANITY v. BARBARITY.

(Edwix Wilojiak. in Munseys Magazine. ) The Russians introduced the practice of commandeering Chinese from the old city. Without pay and without food, they were foiced to work from sunrise to sunset, when they were driven away like so many cattle, and warned to return in the morning. The bayonet and the knout were used ■ fieely to urge them on to their ,tasks. The American quartermaster's department was sorely in need of labourers. "Go into the Chinese city, and get 200 coolies — mind yon. coolies," said Colonel Wint, to one of his sergeants. "Take an interpreter with yon. Tell them we want th*m to load our junks acd carry our supplies. Offer them 10 cents gold a' day. and tell them we wall feed them and sell them rice and treat them well. No old men — no violence !" The sergeant went. He visited the Chinese city. The coolies hid and skulked, dived into their mud houses, and crowded behind walls. The interpreter called to them, told them the Americans wanted them. would pay for their work, would feed thenv They believed it, and came out in *warms. ,The sergeant recewed more applications "than he could accept. In a long procession they came to the headquarters of the quartermaster's department. They wer& set to work, and they worked like oxen, without a complaint. Other Chinese heard of oar methods. Scores deserted the Russians to get under the protection of our flag. Word was sent to -their starving wives and babies, hiding out in the country. They came back to Tientsin, and congregated around the American camp. All day long, tinder the blazing «un, these human cattle carried burdens, dragged waggems. and loaded junks, but not at the point of the bayonet or under the lash of the knout. At night they squatted in hoards, patiently waiting in front of the army ieadquarters, under the shelter of the American flag, to receive what was to them, a big r-eward for the day's work, and a portion of rice to take home to their famished families. Soon the wretched beggars who had fled from Tientsin returned. They came to the Americaai camp. The halt and blind, the sore eaten and rheumatic, crowded around and held out then- pitiful hands. They gathered up spilled rice like chickens on a stubble field. They filled their dirty sacks with discarded food and bits of wood for fuel. The American soldier threw them many a dime — an act so unprecedented, and a gift so .great, that their eyes stared in wonderment, and their lips Taurmrnred confused prayers of thanks. One old woman, hardly aMe to walk, made Tier appearance fcvery day, and threaded her way among The crowd of soldiers and ccoliep. She was never driven away or interfered with. ""You are spoiling these brutes," protested -the Paissians, of wliom it has often been said that they understand the Chinese better than others do "They would all murder you if they had the weapons. You are encouraging mendicity." Yet never an ' American was murdered by stealth, never a gun was stolen, never an arm was raised against us by these "brutes" who did our work. An American junk was being hauled up the Peiho Ereer by five coolies. It was hard and tedious work to drag the unf vrieldy Chinese scrow, heavily laden with army supplies, through the swift currents, over the shallow bars, and around the sharp curves. The coolies often had to wade through the mud and submerged grass up to their waists, pulling their heavy burden up the stream for 120 miles to Tu'ngchow. It took 10 days for the trip. Five coolies were not enough, but before the allies relieved Pekin coolies "were scarce. The Russians tad forced many of them into service, and had killed or frightened away the rest. The boat iroved slowly. Suddenly four Chinamen emerged from the high «orn at the riverside. The guard on the junk saw them, and raised his gun. They halted. One of them called out in "pidgin" English : "Belong good Chinaman. Work for Russians. TLev kill one man. Run away. Wanchee work Americans. Work Americans no l>ay." So, putting tiheir haeds to the tow rope, they speedily doubled the junk's speed. An American soldier landed and tiamped along after tiie refugees with his gun on his shoulder, talking as much to hmiself as to the spokesman of the quartet : "I'd like to- see any blanked Cossack try to ge- you back, the blankety blank blanks!" If' the Americans had had 10,000 flags at Ptking, Tientsin, and Tungchow. those cities would have looked like a Fourth of July celebration. Hundreds, yes, thousands, of Chinese begged for American flags to raise over their doors and carry on their persons. The saddest words you could tell an applicant was, "No have got." But he scon discovered a substitute. "Makee chit -— say : 'Belong Americans.' " and this saved hundreds of lives, for a Chinaman was not safe abroad in Pekin for weeks after the occupation, because of the brutality of the Russians and French. Hundreds of Amei i"can flags were roughly made out of led and blue pieces of silk stitched together by Cl-inese women. People hung them out of their windows, or carried them over their shoulders wherever they went. In the consulate compound at Tientsin there was kept uv.der guard a B-oser chief. Hp was captured in Tientsin, where he had returned a fier the flight of the legions. "Why don't you shoot nim?"' said a German officer one day, calling upon Consul Ragsdale. "Shoot him?'' retorted the consul. "I'm not in (he slaughterhouse business. A little kindness has made the old fellow over, too. He lilies it here, now. He sees the error of hio ways, and has given us some valuable information. I shouldn't wonder if I liberated him one ot' these days," continued Air Ragsdale, and the old Chinaman's face beanieS. for he understood. '"{Jotl iv Himinel you Americans are hopeless !" replied the German. "We shot eight yesterday." The naked form cf c Chinese woman floated past the American headquarters at Hshiv, v. Two soldi eis were near by. v. oiking on the telegraph wire*. "My God. I&m's komblel" said one. "Let's bury it."

The woman's corpse was swollen. Her hair floated on tne surface of the water. With a long pole she was dragged into a little inlet in the bank. Ojie of the soldiers took half of his tent sheet, and covered the body. With their spades, which they carried to dig holes for telegraph poles, they made a grave hi the soft sand. Rolling the corpse upon the sheet, they lifted it into the grave. Gently they covered the liemaiiis with soil, and even went so far as to throw up a little mound over the spot, in feeling recognition of Chinese burial customs. Sentimentalists, you say. Well, perhaps. Would that there were more like them !

At Tungchow two Russians were pursuing a woman along the -banks of a canal. The terrorised creature looked at the slimy depths of the filthy sewer, and then glanced over her shoulder at her pursuers. In a moment she w.ould have leaped into the foul -waters, less foul than the fate that awaited her. A number of Americans were cracking Brazil nuts on the stone steps of a deserted fruit store. They heard the shouts of the- Russians. Wit/h a string of oaths, one of the Americans grabbed his gun and started. I followed with the others. The woman stumbled and fell. A Russian clutched hold of lier. The foremost American-, a stalwart trooper of the Sixth Cavalry, took the Cossack by the neck, and hurled him down the embankment, where he just escaped immersion in th-e dirty depths -of the sewer. The woman arose and iie<l down a narrow street, not understanding the meaning of the encounter, but seeking shelter in some hole in the wall. The Russians, thinking the interference nothing more than an exhibition of rivalry, crawled up the tmik and walked away, amid a volley of American oatLs that would do credit to an army teamsler. In Tiuigchow. on a bamboo bed in a deserted, looted hovel, lay an emaciated old Chinaman. An American bent on investigation — perhaps on looting — burst open the -door. The poor old wretch turned his face to the wall, his irame shaking with fear. He thought his end had oome. The big Arizonian took him by the shoulder and turned him over. He was a picture of abject despair. His lips were parched with thirst, and he was evidently in the last throes of starvation. The American found a cup on a shelf in the room, swabbed it out with his coat lapel, poured into it some coffee from his canteen, and held it to the starving man's lips. The Chinaman's staring eyes bulged with feai, but he drank every drop. From his pocket the American pulled out some hardtack, gave it to the man. filled the cup again from his canteen, and went out. I saw the act. '"He will d'-e any way," I said. "S'pose so."' muttered the soldier, hurrying away, lest I shoiild see the moisture gathering in his eve.