DAYS OF FEAR IN NANKING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1390, 16 March 1912, Page 6

DAYS OF FEAR IN NANKING.

e A REIGN OF TERROR. KILLING THE REVOLUTIONARIES AND THE JIANCHUS. How anxious days wero spent in NanKing by many Americans, while the Chinese revolution sjient itself in murder mid firo about them, is told in a lottur from the Rot. W. J. Drumniond, a repre■eontativo of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, in that city, ot>e of tho places where tho fury of tho revolution was focussed. Ho writes . "'I' 1 '. 0 ] )nrt . which Nanking has r-laycd in tins revolution and which it is likely to j) ~y JS ~ot small. While we .vtro awaiting our turn to raise the white flag, business was at a standstill, nnd tho people poured out of Nanking in a steady stream, iho powers of transportation of the railway, the river steamboats, rlio launches, the houseboats, tho aninah and sedan chairs, wero taxed to tho utmost. The presence of the Tartar gencril with his Manchu troops 'n the city made it inevitable from the beginning that thero would be a severe struggle here The presence of fully fifty rev :iutiouary emissaries in the city kept the people in a continual ferment like tho boiling of a pot on the fire. The Tartar general had a high platform built in tho Tartar city, and mounted, it with jjuns. "At first ho was supposed to have the upper hnnd over tho Viceroy, and had control of the guns on the cilv wall, and in the forts inside and outside tho city. Tho people believed that these guns wero all trained on tho city, and were in terror lest ho should shell the city. To appease him the raw troops, who wero strongly suspected of revolutionary sympathy, were sent out of the city, and practically deprived of ammunition. This gave General Djang, the one in command of the old 6tyle or northern troops, his opportunity, and, from that time on, both Viceroy and the Tartar general were entirely under his control. At tho time of this coup-d'-ctat it was reported that the Viceroy had committed suicide. While not true in a literal senso, it was true in a political sense, for henceforth wo wore under military instead of civil law. That same evening wo wore told that tho revolutionaries wore going to attack the city, especially at the Han Si Meng, the gate nearest to us. Chinese In Terror, "One of our sources of danger through the whole trying time was our closo proximity to a largo anil woll-fillcd arsenal, guarded by a camp of. General Djnng/s soldiers. The Methodist hospital practically adjoined this arsenal. While tho Chinese stole like frightened chickens through tho silent streets carrying their bedding or huddled together, I lay down without taking off my clothing, expecting the attack at three o'clock as reported. At five I was awakened bv unusual noises, and got up to h?:ir the report of rifles in the direction of the Viceroy's yamen, and to sea a liou:« hnrnin? in tho same, direction, but not far aw&v. This firing was repeated helwwn .'.ii and ■seven o'clock. This was due in th* setting free of a large number 'A ~ e -r.r*x.»r> by tho revolutionaries and as ittick made by these two parties on ti« Viceroy's yamen. , Then, too, began that r»!?E './ terror among tho Chineso, for Gentr&l Djasg'a soldiers. made it hot for any rerclntionaries left in the' city. Thke released prisoners were pursued and worsted, as were their revolutionary leaders. Tt* soldiers went everywhere, enterin? Igcjks, searching for white flags, and hasling ont and executing on the spot mtn whom they accused of being revolutionaries. Men without queues especially were the object of their attentions, as these were all supposed to be revolutionaries. All the civil magistrates had fled or wero in hiding, .and the yamens as silent as tho grave. Headless bodies were found lying by ones and twos all along tho principal streets. "The morning after I.found two bodies lyingrin'itho street ■•about 'a block away from our' homo,, closo to tho arsenal nbovoiiucntioned. 7.l;wentout andi.-viewed them. The heads were hung up, ono on each of two lamp posts near by. Ono had a queue and seemed to be of the coolie class, one was without a queue and seemed lo be of the student class and was well dressed. Many of the students of the University ond in the orphanage, and most of our helpers wero without queues. These did ■ not dare bo seen on the streets. The teacher. .in tho orphanage in the South city camo over to his home at Han-H-mung, was halted by the soldiers, searched, and questioned. When told that ho belonged to the foreign 'lianj' they, let him go. Attack on Schools. "Then began the attack on tho modern style military and naval schools. All the students found in tho buildings, some forty or more, were executed on the spot, and tho buildings absolutely destroyed. In ono was n new wireless telegraphic apparatus, very valuable. This was ruthlessly destroyed. The soldiers invited tho poorer classes to come and help themselves, and for days tho streets were lined with people carrying away tho material. When the attack on tho schools'began no one knew where it would end, so tho short-haired students still left in tho University and orphanage and our shortv haired helpers trembled for their lives. "Having, had warning of these attacks on the school, I thought, it was time to take our short-haired helpers and teachers away from there, so one ovening after dark I got a carriage, and with a foreigner riding beforo on horseback, and another behind, wo escorted them (eight of them) ovor to tho Theological Seminary. In a couple of days they decided themselves to leave the city, so we were kept busy for days escorting those queueloss evangelists, teachers, and students and their families through the I Feng gato to tho railway station. That goto they called the tiger's month, v Some of them wero so frightened that they held on first to my coat tail and afterwards to Dr. Garrilt's hand, so frightened that they left their luggago carrier to go as ho pleased, and it is needless to say that in tho crush ho never turned up with tho baggage, and truly it was a. fearsome gauntiot to run, for tho gate was only oponod for an hour or so each day, and soldiers lined up on each sido of tho way with batons which they used freely, swords nnd guns with bayonets which they used rather recklessly around the people's ihoads, and such a crowd and confusion." General Djang evacuated tho city shortly afterward, and the revolutionary general, Ling, entered the city.