The Problem in China
Written For
The Hue
Bv
Hon. Edwin II. Conner,
United States Minister to China
UK Chinese question will lie set
tied In u satisfactory manner and
within reasonable time. The rep
resentatives of tlu povvcri that
wero compelled to send troops to l'ekln
to rescue tile members of the foreign lega
tions nnd their families and friends nro
unking progress In the negotiations look
lug to a linn! settlement of the relations
between the Chinese empire ami the nations
of the world. When they have agreed as
to the amount of the Indemnity and the
manner In whlih It Is to be raised, the
Chinese government will aecede to their tle
mantis and there will be restoration In
large part of the slattis which existed be
fi re the boxer riots.
The Chinese government realizes fully
that reparation must be mnde for the
wrongs done. The government Is doing al
In Its power to elfecl a settlement. Th
lending viceroys and prominent men of
China now undei stand that a great mistake
was made in eounti unnc'ng t In boxer move
ment. Tho) have sluwn repeiilance and a
dlsprsltlnn to yield to the representatives
of the powers. No sueh outbreak will be
permitted again as hug as the present
leaders are In power. 'I hey have been
taught a terrible lesson. The settlement
will be effected along the Hue of I'rosliloii.
McKlnley's circular to the powers and with
due regard for Ann rlean Interests and the
inteiests of all foreigners. It will be made
so that there will never again be an at
tempt on the part of the Chinese govern
ment to shut the door In the face of
foreigners. And that si tlleine nt will be
satisfactory to the win Id
Wlun rrder has been ristired, the terms
Mayor let or Jennings,
Hon
John X Baldwin Minister Conger. (Invernor Rhnvv Senator I lolllvor
(IKOl'l AT THE CONOKH HANQl'KT Flashlight photo for The lice by llostwlck
of peace made known and the government
Is fully restotcd to power again our mis
sion work will go on, the educational move
ment will be taken up again, railroad build
ing will be n Mimed, trade and commerce
will be restored and In general the rela
tions i f China to the world will be much
the stine as before. The progressive men
of the Chinese nation will be In control of
the affairs of government and they will
make China a better country than It ever
was before.
All this is file desnlte the fact that tin
OOVKHNOH SHAW GHKKTS MINISTKK CONOKH.
Chinese government was fully icsponslble
for the hour outrages and the movement
to expel all foreigners from China and de
stroy everything that was foreign. The
Chinese government was drawn Into that
movement by tho powerful princes and vl.o
roys and gave cucoutagemeut to a move
ment which had taken deep hold on the
highly superstltlotib Chinese people. i he
governor of Shan Tung province furnished
money and support for the secret society
wo know as boxers, armed the nan and
seized upon the movement to further hU
reactionary dcMgns. The movement spread
over Into Chi Id, the province in which
l'ekln is situated, ami w,is taken up In the
end by tho Chinese gov eminent under dlioe
tiou of tho empress. The horde of boxeis
who nt first besieged l'ekln was supplanted
by the army of the empne ami It was
Chinese soldiers, drilled and armed by the
government, as well as boxer mobs, that
resisted the march of the allies to the re
lief of the legations. What was at llrsl
a revolutionary movement was In the end
taken up by the government and adopted
by It. Hut the government now realizes
what an awful mistake was made and how
costly It will be for them.
Work of a HuililliUt I'll Mr.
Tho seciet society which we call the
boxers Is onu of the ancient seciet societies
of the. empire. China has a great many
secret i-ocletles and some of them have been
In existence for centuries. Hut the bnxcts
had not been of any Importance for perhaps
i century and had not been heard of. Two
years ugo a Htlddhlst priest of the piovinre
of Shan Tung took up the boxer society anil
ruvlved or reorganized It ns a religious
movement. He claimed supcrnnturn! powers
could call down from above an army of
millions of Chinese warriors fully armed and
equipped for battle; could by manipulating
the body make It Impervious to the bullets
of tho enemy and with these powers he pro
fessed to be able to drive all tho foreigners
out of China. The society grew with great
rapidity nnd tho Ignorant Chinese were
drawn Into tho society by thousands. Hut
at the outset it was not directed against
foieiguciu. Nut until Hie governor of the
pi ov into took It up and commenced to aim
hoxirs did the society become a medium lor
expelling to: eigne I'M. The assistance of a
powctful princess was obtained and the so
i lely spiead to other prov im es. Hp to
the time oi' the killing of Itev. In. Iliooks,
a missionary, there had not be.'li a lorcigU'i'
haimed, ami his death was mole an accident
than ih sign. Hut the powiiful men who
dlieeted the course of the boxer society
wero determined on making war on evoi)
thlug foreign, not on (lie nilsslonai les alone,
hut on all enterprise:!, railroads, business,
s.iiools and everything that had In en in
(reduced into China. They eueoiiragid the
hovels in the fanatical belief that they
would he able to expel all fori Igm rs. They
believed they were Invincible. The were
moused with a religious frenz and then
led on by what they believed was neces
sary for China.
I'tlHl lf till- Mnrli'N.
Tho llrst outrages came m the early sum
mer of last year, when a native village of
Christians was attacked and destroyed and
many Chilstiaim killed. Tho missionaries
and tin i i- converts made brave resistance
and many acts of heroism were performed
by the (!od-fcniiug men sent to China to
evangelize the nation living lu darkness.
Tho missionaries did not cause the boxer
movement. It was not directed towatd
them, but toward all foreigners and every
fori Ign Innovation by which the Chinese
empire was being modernized. In a few
weeks tunny missionaries perished. They
were heroes all. When the history is known
of all that they eiidurid and all that they
did lu China their names will be high lu
the list of martyrs.
The foreign ministers and their families,
with many missionaries and other foreign
ers nnd many native Christ Inns, were cut
olf from the rest of the world early In .lime
of Inst year, at llrtt by the boxers, who
formed a great mob outside of the part of
tho city set apart for the legations, and the
sicgo lasted until August in. There were
Hon A. II Cummins Hon C M Hail
over 100 residents of the legation during the
siege who wero foreigners nnd about as
many more native Christians.
I, lie IIiii'Iiik tile Mi'HC
The story of what happened during that
teiiible sit go has been fully told lu (he
American newspapers. Nothing can be
added to it. No person who has not expert
diced sueh a siege can have any conception
of what It Is like. Kor weeks we livul to
golhcr ns one great famllj, men, worn- n
and children of many nationalities, huddled
together In houses where we had lusullbieut
room and f vv of the comforts of life, wdh
loud portioned out to us to save It as long
as ptHslhlc, living a pail of the time on
horse and mule meat, with mail) sick ami
wounded nnd no way to care for them, with
con-iant tiling fi urn the horde of Chinese
Just outside the legation walls, Willi women
and girls busy helping with the making of
hart h ades, constant danger wherever we
were tioui the bullet of the Chinese, the
terrible attacks upon our Hues repe.itid
night after night, with the noise of the til
ing and tho added noise of Chinese lire
crackers and the blowing of bonis, not
knowing what minute we would be set upon
and all be slaughtered, not knowing vv hat
our friends were doing for our succor, una
ble to communicate with the outside vvoild
- il was all like a terrible nightmare to us
and no words can describe our lullnlte joy
at ! livcraiif e when the soldiers of the le
lief column broke through the wall or sav
agery which surioiiuded us and once mure
opened the civilized world to
Women Were mi I until rn I Ion.
Tho lira very of the women lu Hie legation
during Hint time was our greatest lusplra
Hon and the way the valiant murines re
slsted every attack ami when necessary
broke down the barricades the Chinese bull!
in our front was one of the things whli h
buoyed us up in our days of trial Now
that It is all over, the best that can happen
Is sp ly settl ut or tho matter with the
Chinese government to the end that the
damage done may be speedily repaired.
EDWIN II. OONHKK
Chinese Domestic Life and Customs
By Mrsli. II. Conger
Of the Besieged Legation
IIKKK Is a vnst difference between
tho people ol the northern prov
inces of China and those of the
south. This difference is in
the habits of the people, in their Ian
guage, In their social and domestic customs
and In everything. For Instance, In the
southern countries around Canton and else
where one aees many women at work or lu
shops or out on tho stieot, hut go Into l'ekln
nnd you might suppose It was a city of men
alone, for you see no women. In the north
ern provinces the women are kept from
view. If they go out It is lu a carriage
with the curtains drawn. They may rhlu
in a chair, but you cannot see them. They
lemaln in their houses much more than in
tho south.
There are many fenuile servants, or amah,
ns wo call them, but they are mostly mar
ried women, the wives or other servants.
Wo had an amah who was the wire of our
gatekeeper. They are careful and painstak
ing people. Their wages ale lovy, but their
Income is ample. This is due to tho system
of "squeeze," which Is hrnily established
and Is a custom which has been reduced to
a system and endured for centuries. Hy
this system the compensation of the Bcrv
nuts nnd employes is Increased until they
live well. Whenever you send a servant out
to innko n purchase you know that tho
servant will get his "squeeze," or percent
age. Tin re Is no way ol detecting him nt
it, nnd you might as well make up your
mind to let it go on rather than to try to
disturb an old-established Chlneso custom.
The system extends nil tho way through
rrom high to low. Tho servant of tho min
ister exacts his "squeeze" and gets a 1 It t lu
moro than the servant of tho first secre
tary of legation, nnd tho llrst secretary's
servant gets moro thnn tho servant of tho
second secretary, and so on. That Is 'ho
custom with Chlneso officials and with for
eigners. Tho "bqueeze" 1b taken In every
transaction and it all comes out of tho for
eigner. For Instance, we had a gatekeeper
nt tho American legation wo wished to dis
charge. Wo woro told that If wo did so tho
now employe would exnet his "squeeze" and
also that of tho discharged gatokeeper. Wo
would have to pay both. Thus It Is that
the Income of employes Is Increased sub
stantially. And the system Is so well estab
lished and so universally recognized that
It Is useless to try to prevent it.
I)lllleiillli-N of DliilietH.
Hut the customs differ in different
provinces. Tho language of the coolies Is
different In each province. They nro
densely Ignorant. They never mingle with
each other. They have no means of ex
changing views, Hence their language de
generates Into dialects and these nro dif
ferent. Our servant we took along with us
when we stnrted home went with us to
Canton and Hong Kong, but he could not
understand the language of tho men about
him. Tho mandarins understand each other,
but nmong tho common people, the coolies,
there are mnny languages or dialects.
It Is this stability of customs that makes
China what It Is, I am not sure but that it
Mrs John N Ualdvvin.
Mrs, E 11, Conger. Miss Conger. Miss Pierce, Mrs. A. H. Cummins,
NOTABLE WOMEN AT TUB CONOKH BANQUET.
Mrs J ,1, Stewart .
Is tho best for them. Their system of
"squeeze," or taking u percetilago on every
transact lull, is all right. It Is only one of
their vvajs and not a had one at all.
The Chlneso' people, I have observed, aio
mine triiBlwoithy than the Japanese. Why,
in Japan you will Hud Chinese employes
nnd clerks and accountants in most of the
banks. They are better than the Japanese
They lire splendid mitheinat Iclans. They
aie quick, accurate, patient and good busi
ness men. They are quit t and not so nerv
ous as the Japanese ate The Japs are
iii I steady ill their habits, hut the Chinese
in vi r ihnngc. It Is their safely nnd Hint
of ihelr empire.
I was one of seven women who were the
llrst ronigners ever to see tho einpiess
dowager That was two years ago last
tall We were the llrst women not Chinese
that the empress had ever seen. There
weje seven iii our parly and we went to tho
palace nnd were ushered Into the throne
room 'Die empress was not thou on the
throne, or al least was nut r iguized as
empress and had no olllelal slundlug with
the legations. Hut she was Heated on a
sort or throne. The emperor vviih lliele also
and we saw him at the same time. The Hist
word other than Chinese evi r heard by the
impress was spoken In English. That Is
significant or Hie way lu which the English
language k Invading the win PI. The wife
or the British minister was doyen of the
party and spoke to Hi empioi-s Hist. It was
a pleasant event for us.
I. n nr. niim- ol' i inn iiirioc,
Tho English language Is already Hie Ian
guage of commerce In China. It Is used In
commercial transactions largely, Tho trad
ers and the busliuss men use It. 1 think
that in the future the English people will
have great Inllueiicc In China In cuininercml
affairs and in the missionary work. Iliil
Chlncro customs are tenacious ami will en
dure, and China will bo In tho future much
what it has been in the past.
MHS. EDWIN II CONOKH.