The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 23, 1900, Page 6

THE UNDAY CALL this summer.” has a fine weat the outdoor clerks, linguists ; outdoor staff, boat- watchmen d the Coast rvey and Light- The indoor staff o ten grades—commisst assista t assi nd assista : ; tated the en! 3 ning an insign he might re- r a year without for- reappear in his or- Many so-calied “unat- ts are engaged on special is not advisable to ad- the reason of these two ces on the part of the CHAPTER XIV. b _< -LIEN. the previous chapter we recorded M. A---Rom v demand for a . hwar A X w s x s wer ways [query zme? lateris add note-Mht losures contained in this co; the h were such as ichwang. n his desk at of a ton he 1s com- > had loyal. n the tea. Mr. Peri- tly absorbed in his 4 the youth attentively i he known it, afforded One might have thought ilging In & reprehensible thick hair,” he said, lifting avy queue as it fell on the air when Kuel-llen stooped tray. trembled so that oned over. tural enough, uivered as if r man's quiver when venturing the ve word of love to a proud . say our hair grows long because it in front,” faltered the boy, ing low over the tray. There was no ave that of the open grate in the room Mr. Pericord stole a glance at the white scalp visible beyond the rim of the neat cap. He noticed the shell-like deil- of the boy's small ear. Although, the eye 18 used to it, the Chinese m has & distinct beauty of its own, rd seemed to see something pa- etful in that neatly shaven tang, tung-chia?’ sald the the sugar tongs. It was the had been allowed the privi- : on the S. G. in person, ecase,”” replied the 8. G. h. The boy, who pro- f English, dropped in Mr. Pericord with the pa- s took his aft- rmchair, seated by the hour of relaxation, & hour In bed. cord made no allusion to the nent, but aid presently, f 2 man who is trying to rou bring your whis- ¢ to me?” on all simple knee. H in his s his o his mornt > melodies well I rovm. , and seating himselt 1 the opposite shadow of played some of the old and simple & s which were Mr. Peri- cord’s favorites. The S. G. listened with his chin resting on his palm. At length he moved and, stooping over the arm of the chair, reached for a big violoncello, swathed in an old green bag. He tuned it a little and scraped the chords. ee if you can accompany me, Kuei- len,” he sald. After snatches of some of his stereo- typed band pleces, the S. G. passed im- perceptibly to a new Russian love song the figep ance---of - - - sv . JULIAN CRO/KEY COPYRIGHT 1900 which had appeared in Peking for the 3 introduced by Miss to accom- Indeed, he whis- cility and expres- lent of the ir duet pro- at one pas- low wall of ak like the im- nan sed of his own ac- rkened room was otion. Bhe walls, 1l room, es- firelight, have of re-echoing, poken passtons rterchanged in 1ad a sensitive this myster- sm , who y felt nce, for he eat for some min- ence, his bow hanging fdly from He uttered a deep sigh. Then, ) . 2 s and regret, he Thank you, Kuef-llen; I musteot de- tain you sny longer. The next day plecolo player was re- lieved of further personal -attendance on the § G. He was not dismissed, bi y. removed fr rear of 1 the servants’ the compound to he house. His ken from amt LS t to e himseit with certain implied re- h would prevent him com- it of his m er. osed that the b of study p subo The other ¢ was to go eparatory to inate clerkship hat would have sur- llen was obviously e’ Had there been any ascetic household they pered that the S. G. had ns for shunning the sight of , as Saul sometimes to a Kue lotted to Kuel-llen had at a boudoir, and the books, ments and plano had removed. This {solated room 1ediately over the B. G.'s nd connected with it by a ed speaking tube. Here the 1d was sometime. heard playing to himself. In epite of the opportune Russian docu- ment, Mr. Pericord evidently did not ab- egolve the boy of all suspicion. He had no gooner dispatched his curt reply to Mr. Samovar than he had misgivings concern- ing its wisdom. Indeed, in many things ual clearness of action seemed to te forsaking him. He was often preoccu- pled, as a business man will sometimes be by domestic cares. A slight sound, a the faint echo of music, would dist b m. Meeting Mr. Samovar one day he sald have no news of Miss Beriskoff, Je Samovar' “I believe her to be in Shanghal,” re- plied the Minister. After some hesitation the 8. G. sald: “The plccolo player whom you intro- duced to me bears a remarkable resem- blance to your ward, M. de Samovar.” Mr. Samovar laughed frankly. *T don't wongder; he i{s Valda's brother!” Then he told Mr. Pericord the facts of Valda's birt f course you attribute all sorts ot base motives to me now, Mr, Pericord,” he concluded with the same air of frank- “But I declare you would do me 1 injustice. You know what Chinese and ir relatives are. Valda had, unknown to me, renewed acquaintance with her preclous family, and, of course. they pest- ered her for foreign positions. This Wang, after all, played the piccolo well. But if ou have the slightest suspicion of his ness, honesty send him back to me. My at- tache, Vassilich, has taken a fancy to him. Mr. Pericord 4id not send Kuel-llen back. Nevertheless, he was Informed that the boy sometimes slipped out to the Russian Embassy, and he appeared by no means set at ease by Mr. Samovar's explanation. CHAPTER XV. THE OPENING OF THE YEAR 1900. In the meantime had come and gone the great festival of China New Year, which heralded in the twenty-fifth year of the unhappy Emperor Kwang Hsu, the fifth cycle of the Manchu dyn he repre- sented, and the last year of the nine- teenth century of Christendom. This nineteenth century had been almost as pregnant in change and prophecy for ina as for Europe. It had seen the steadfast encroaéhment of Western inno- vations on a civilization which had en- dured without change for over 2000 years. It had suffered the shock of three foreign wars and witnessed the iIntroduction of militant Christianity, of modern weapons, of foreign loans, of telegraphs, of rall- ways. It had felt, what made a far deeper impression than the burning of the Sum- mer Palace or the destruction of the Pei- ang fleet, the suave but inflexible grip of a methodical and conscientious for- cigner on the collection of the revenue, and watched with impotent jealousy the ure extension of his fingers until in the mifi of a great civil service they spread over all the corners of the empire and threatened to close in on the very likin and land-tax, which supported a mil- lion of proud but greedy extortionists. In fact, solid and impenetrable as was the bulk of native conservatism, no ob- servant Chinaman could leave his inland home without realizing that an irresistible encroachment had taken place and could never be pushed back save by the ex- termination of every foreigner, and every convert to forelgnism, within the limits of the empire. ; For Europe and America, on the other hand, the year 1900 was welcomed with rejoicing as the eve of the :millennium; the threshold of that twentleth century which must surely witness the culmina- tion of scientific soclalism, bringing with it the sublimation of enlightenment and the universal dominion of peace. It was to be the century of the brotherhood of nations; a liberty, fraternity and equality which should include even China m its benevolent embrace. On this day it was the custom for all the high mandarins of the Tsung lf Ya- men to pay their respects to the legations in a body. The appearance of these cav- alcades, these processions of elght-bearer chairs, this sea of sign-poles, this swarm of conical-hatted retainers and peacock- plumed secretaries, In the quiet precincts dors, like tributary states, as contempt- fble as Korea. And the stolld millions, whose din around them was like the hoarse murmur of the sea against an islet, took note of this officlal contempt for the foreigners and looked curiously through their gates, wondering how soon the sig- nal would come to divide among them- selves the spoils within. On previous occasions there had wont to be a show of at least a spurious cor- diality and empressement on the part 3t the visiting mandarins; the glass of champagne which they took at each le- gation assisted the hollow cheerfulnesa. But this year every one noticed an im- palpable something in the bearing of these visitors which rendered cordiality impos- sible. They seemed with one accord to look on their foreign hosts with a sort of shivering curlosity, as if behipd them they saw ghostly apparitions. It was ob- served that at the German embassy they refused to take wine. The whole cere- mony was felt to havs been a flasco and every one was relleved when it was over. And all the time in the surrounuing streets and for miles znd miles through- out the monstrous ity the increasing and reverberant din of crackers and can- non seemed to be sending a tocsin of un holy revel, as if the stolid millions had awoke to a consciousness of their con- glomerate strength and were indulgine in war dances of deflance and insult Even New York on the Fourth of Juiy “SEEUF YOU' CAN"ACCOMPANY ME; KUEI-LIEN," HE of Legation street, brought home to the observer in a most startling fashion the isolation and “taboo” of the foreign Min- isters in Peking. Only then did one real- 1ze how utterly Ignored were these repre- sentatives of the great powers by the court to which they were accredited. They lived as unnoticed in one small street of the vast city as any Insignificant colony of Shansl Mohammedans or Mongolian camel drivers clustered in reed huts out- side the northern gates; as unrecognized by the high society of the capital as the Chinese colony in New York. The im- perial city, the home of the Government of the empire, the center of all the in- trigues which they were here to take a hand in, was to them literally nothing more than a wall; none had ever entered its gates, walked In its spacious avenues and wondrous parks, nor even, from the parapet of the Tartar wall seen more of its thronging palaces than a glimpse of yellow tile through the tops of trees. Twice a year these powerful represent- stives of forelgn states were permitted to bow before the Emperor's éfligy—and even the poor boy himself was but a waxen effigy—in one of the pavillons out- side the gate; once a year the great man- darins of the Forelgn Office condescended to pay an official visit. Soclal intercourse there was none; the legations were sim- ply tolerated and ignored, and the real capital of China retained its haughty se- clusion unbroken, treating KEurope and America, in the persons of thelr Embas- SAID.! cannot compare witn fhe smallest Chi- nese village for flendish revelry of noise when China’s New Year comes roun. And Chinese crackers have at least the meritgpf continuity. The winter had passed away and the ice of the Petho melted, bringing Peking once more In touch with the outer worid. With the advent of the first steamer from Shanghal, carrylng a swarm of merchants for Tientsin and syndicate mongers for Peking, the somber mediaeval atmos- phers, which had reasserted its sway dur- ing the closed months, seemed to be dls- sipated by the revivifying influx of West- ern clvilization and American enterprise. But only at the first flush; old residents of the north could not long shut thelr eyes to a something in the air, an uneazl- ness, a mysterious and ominous agitation like that beneath the ofly surface of a whirlpool, which reminded some of the peculiar symptoms which, in 1870, had preceded the massacre of Tientgin. On that occasfon China, always stolid and impenetrable to the outward eye, had been convulsed in all {ts prejudices by a treaty which had opened the interior to mission- aries; and the result, after two years of imperceptible seething, had been the sud- den and fanatic outbreak which resulted in the barbarous killing of a score or more of Catholic nuns and priests, as well as of the French Consul himself. Then followed twenty years of acqulescence, culminating in 18% In a series of anti- missionary riots all along the valleyof the Yangtse. Another spell of ten years wit- nessed the Japanese war, the Invasion of missionarfes Into the remotest provinces, the seizure of Port Arthur by the Rus- slans, Klaochau by the Germans ar Wethaiwel by the British, an projection and active construction of r Toads everywhere, as if all obstacles been overc 1 China ex the happy hunting gro ne ted o italists, while its ancient prejudices proud mandarinate, its cluded were ignored as images whose day passed for This railway enterprise and foreign en- croachment was most conspl us in th two northern provinces of Shantun Chilf. In the mountains of the tung promontory, pecullarly sacred to the memory of Confucius and the cult of T ver. han- dha, German mining engineers were p pecting everywhere under the es German marines. The hardy and pendent natives were being handled dic- tatorially by the iron fist of German sol- djers. It was a ment to wh t were not used. Chu, the Govern: eral, in his capital, Chinan, felt th any moment a German agent migt a Yamen of his own and red Viceroy, to the position of a head, until such time as the w! ince, spulation of tw lons, s penly annexe chau. of this menace t ernor 'n the people themselves into a practice drill at hom taken root dur in 18% The same thing was going tiguous province of Chill. A great trunk raflway line had been cted nect Canton in the extreme sot Peking in the extreme of over 2000 miles, Yangtse at Hankow. This was ergetically rushed forward by Belgi gineers, who, by the spri already a hundred miles king to Paoting- In an from Tientsin northward to Shankalkw and Niuchwang, a system was gr in the hands of British gineers which would speedily {mperial province of Manchuria Trans-Siberian trunk line h desecrating as it did all of the people, aroused a fee gimilar to that in Shantung. T (In reality the Dowager an edict encouraging the peop themselves Into vol r o defense of thelr homes. Im this w Boxer organization was estal Now as soon as the imperfal sanct raised this secret society t a national organizati secret socletles, heretof against the Emperor slonary, felt that their revel in anarchy and would for the time b of rebellion and cloak the patriotic cry, They began with t Christianity, slaughte The anti-foreign feeling once the foreign Ministers at Pek! thunderstruck to ceive that China was still as retrogres: as ever. A rallways and tel as they had f dawn of a new simply served as red t fanaticism. Still they did n tion street had for so many olunteer m on in the north Aarald ped at civil worried by the cry of w long since »pted the we that nothing could be d‘ e alone the trouble wou own accord. So, whenever a ery from some poor missionars his tofl of years swept awav that there appeared to be som turbances In the provir and nese Ministers as politely asser the grave assurance that perial edict would be fort their excellencles need have no 1 Such was the state of things at the date of the spring race meeting. CHAPTER XVL THE RACE MEETING The cup race of the Internatl was the principal soctal e king legationers during May After that the which followed close or ter, rendered riding in June the not to be brou bles till September. Apart from a little pig and deer shoc the winter, riding was almost the o T ement of the you men of Legation street one K one pony; most, even « niors on $100 a month, considerable ambitious raci were the sturdy M which were desce! the British cav: after the occu They came down grass-blown mu: virtuaily wild s of a foreigner made th the tng In ery m srnable, be mounted by so that they could first throwing ver their heads. In this state they ar After the Peking foreigners had taken their pick, buying them at m $20 to $50, droves passed on to T in, and thence by steamer to- Shanghal, where they fetched at auction from $50 to $100. But no one would rec grifin in the close-cl superbly muscular form after a month or two of beans and wheat and hard training. Then one saw that the ngolian pony makes of the best military mounts in th here were ard of 200 of beasts in the stables of L This was noted by princes who were w spring meeting with t “Do you see that, Yu?” he sald to his companion, as a score of young legation men cantered on to the course, as spick and epan as their ponles. ‘“We equip a couple of squadrons of light cav alry on those yang ma, which would ride around any of those Cossacks they can bring up for the first three months at least.” “And they would feed the foreign devils up: great the for the same length of time, after we have cut off their provisions,” responded Yu gloomily. “Ah, I am glad you mentioned that, Ho-chl,” sald the Prince. “We must see to that when the time comes. Wa must pen them all up in one legation, hey?" “That is the first thing to do, your Highness.” The o who rode ge Dl swarthy and big-limb cently clothed in semi-milita and surrounded by a br Manchu princes and Ch A gloomy hatred seeme brow like a thundercloud haughtily watching the as: eign fashion in the grand stand ¢ The foreign Ministers, as th past, bowed to such of the nobles as they were personally acquainted with, but without formality, since these In the Prince’s following were uninvited guests. Invitations to the grand stand had indeed been {ssued, but had been ignored by the Prince. Prince Ching, on the other hand, together with such of the Tsung 1 Min- isters as could afford to defy the Tartar. were to be seen in the Inclosure sur- rounded by the brightly dressed women of the legations. Sir Claude Macdonald, a graceful cava- ler with melancholy face and sweeping mustache, rode past, accompanied by Mr. Conger and several ladles. He nodded fa- miliarly and {ndifferently to the Tartar no- bles, allowing them to see that they were of far less Importance to her Britannic Majesty’s representative than the thoughtful, sturdy republican on one side of him., and the brilliant Chicago belle on the other. “Who s that farmer-like fellow who sits on his horse as If he were a sack of rice? inquired the Pr! “It is the Flow Flag minister the ex-Govern was German Inter but, meth cal, matic as Baron von acthing te your remark as a instead of a Chi I am capable the master I ser stances.” conterminou dignit gaining ir excellency a slight on so rsonage as Prince NOVAr, “lI must nting that in the Ke ssian I trust that the dignity of any circum- “I am afrald M. le Baron forgets that s back r de he has n pose san with teel a pac r one He ng Manchus get the What do you say lished. “Come, gentl vivaciously, * not at th is going to bet me Mr. C 2 “It depends on who's up. my lady,” repiied the fatherl in English. “If it 1s Mr. ¢ self I will bet you a dozen boxes, always goes at a trot. " Inter- hould (Continued Next Week.)