The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 18, 1900, Page 6

r 1 {/ ikt M) ~ OR one whole day a Califor- nian had the Forbidden City Qe o b . . o : b E ma m ris of defense aring at us e Russians er 1ld lay their he crime ’ g pr in the world who hs v . through the de- e Forbld- eresting col- I was v L 1 States forces, but being in the cor gave me chhr- tunities for obs > t 41d not come to many, an having always been ter- ested in the rare and curious and a stu- dent of Oriental subj 1 was able to pick ou ss would have been passed 2s worthless by a person who @14 not know t e or significance of d give thousands d with him his br China before and u ifterence between a price- worthless modern. It think that with the treas- before him lack ot pogreriess to help ze. People like to taking such and that s not ff compared to some of nd statuettes which were scatiered in the confusion of thelr owners @eparture At Tientsin there was some big looting. The greater part of it was done by the which seemed to be spe- lied for the purpose. They wast- ed no time, for they were all prepared. There were scouts to locate the loot, sol- diers to seize, coolies and bearers to gath- er and carts upon which to load it. They loaded more carts than I could count with 80lid silver from the burned ruins of the SACRED JADE TABLETS oF THE EMPERORS AACTHER CLOISONNE PEACOCK INLAID WITH (I, Plég Ep o ' 1 that they cowmn. cans tescued a large metal, which, 1f I sold to a repre- The builion es and debrls of stow quant nderstood rig ars’ worth, 1s some on the road to a small one, after all, for ie town had never been heard of untll hie war and Peking as famous The terror w lies str into people r never been equale the as o us. The suffering must have been terribie among the aged and m, the women and young children, who were left to starve or perish. Many of them spent days hiding in the mud and rushes of the river banks, in trees, In cellars and in wells. We found them everywhere, and there was enough of murder and brutality among the Russlans to partly justity their fears, for all foreigners look alike to them. The condition of the city when we en- tered it gave the best Jdea of an épidemic ANCESTRAL TABLETS oF LAPIS LAZUL! GOLD-BRONZE INCENSE BURNERS, —— JADE BRACELETS of fear. Infants had everywhers been left. Bundles of silk and jewelry which had been made up to be carried off were* on the tables, floors, in halls, on side- walks and streets. Just wherever the I had been with the Nipth Infantry in the Philippines and had become used to the country and people and also to those precautions which are the only safeguards of the llves of Europeans when living in the fevered climate of the Asian tropics. ‘There never had been any great enthu- sfasm in our fights with the Fllipinos. We did not esteem them worthy 'of our metal and always felt more likegoing out and driving them up and corraling them as we would sheep rather than fighting them as men. But when the Ninth started for China there was all the work they could do lald out ahead of them. It was a handful of men to fight an empire, which had been preparing for years to make the fight of its life. ‘It was a plece of work of which Americans could be proud The road to Peking began when we passed the Taku forts. From there it was nothing hut death upon every side—one long valley, of death until we reached the safety of the abandoned Tartar Clty. There is a different code of morals in Asta from that under which the rest of the world abides. *“In China” is an ex- cuse for anything. There are no weeds in China but the people. Everything but human life has a value. Kill, kill, kill as they may, still the people increase, and, like locusts, de- stroy that which they must depend upon for life. The very soil has been robbed of its richness by the swarm of humanity whirh gnaws over its surface. A The tich rob the poor, the mandarins rob the rich and the Viceroys rob the mandarins, while In return the poor must plifer as they may from those who have el A second thief is best owner, and none who had been through dust and mud, Mannlicher bullets, Boxer knives and blood of their friends, stopped to think ‘Whether or not it was right to take the booty which the Tartars had left. The Manchu rulers of China came as robber barons and have lived as fendal lords, taking by the right of might all that was worth having in the empire, 50 the true Chiness were as pleased to see the allies secure prizes as they were to get them. The first taste of loot was secured by the Britisht with their Pathan and Stkh regiments in Tlentsin. At that time the Americans were too much occupied with their work for the relief of Peking to pay any attention even to the piles of silver which strewed the ground under the ruins of the mint at the arsenal. A guard was placed around them to prevent the Sikhs from completing their work of cleaning up the ground and the remainder of the treasure was secured by the navy after the army had left for Peking. But “east of Suez where there arent no ten commandments and the best s like the worst,” good resolutions melt away, or, rather, arguments and reasons pre- sent themselves which do not exist in ar other part of the world. To see one m: owning wealth untold while ten thous of his nelghbors are drowning their ch! dren to save them from std 3 one man with finger nalls three inches in length and protected by silver cases while another wears his nalls to the quick and starves as he does It, makes your blood boil. To see the long-nalled man order a hundred bastinadoes upon the feet of the short-nalled one because he will not pay taxes that are beyond his power to ralse, even though he does drown his children and starve his wife, will make you blow up with wrath and rage unless you do gomething to relieve your feelings. This the soldiers of the al- lies did. They took from the wealthy and pald wages to the suffering poor. We got a thousand blessings to one curse and the blessings of the poor avall a man more than the curses of the rich can harm. In the intense heat and after-the suffar- ings the men had gone through on the march there was but little vitality in them. As soén as any needed It they hired bearers to carry them. The poor coolies felt that they were slaves ¢ the end of their journey, instead of being tortured or decapitated, they wers pald five or ten times as much as they had ever before received for the same work, it was more than they could understand and the way that they showered he: thanks and prayers upon us made t in taking the hoarded stores ar robbers and paying good wages to the de: es we had right t and that Wwith the future stood the be Hunting for the loot of Peking was sclenca. We of America who were 1 to finding wealth in bureau draw aa ways of a race whe secured ment. U poured out by n hidden the rarest of gems coin, sealed In stone jars which had been felt used for preser were known to the willing helped. Sabers wer divining rods to locate bay: ered them. It was har greeable, but the resu ts to remove t pains. What the total value king will amount to wi fifty years. Thers in Ct tell what they ki eay that statistl culating mediv dozen ci in Amer! meney. The Japanese did no the soldiers did not. Any with a plece of silk worth a was severely punished. The Japanese general had other work for his men. Part of it was to suppress ipers,” who were hidden on roofs and in trees to pick us off with their al rifles, and besides al notseless Man that there was a busy express line ning between the imperial treasury and Japanese headquarters. This was merely because the Japa attended to business and had found before time whers the money was. Th Chinese did not have their strong b labeled as we do our banks and places deposit. Banks in C are ¥ on the “Q. T.” It Is well for ma sons. The Government, has even reason to for robbers are b conspirators ning. here is trouble the Japar e the same good managem: to & During the last Chino-Japanese war id that La, the great o AND JADE . ——————-———m N e QLR et 700 5 2OV EITZENBURG = FORBIDDEN CITY - AND IMAGES e growing fright of thelr owners caused them to be dropped. Apparently all of the bedding and cloth- ing except that which the peopls wore f upon their backs had been left behind, Property in China 15 properly trans- demned, g erred, not by sale or barter so m by robbery, 2 3 g to their lcst work ani b ir 1c oundary. uch as never hoped for anything better than a them there merwiful death at cur bands, When at Now the Japanese have caught agaln. For days and days a steady gtream of