10 Conservative *
THE "PUNISHMENT" OF PEKING.
The following ia taken from the Oat
look and vividly portrays the work
accomplished by the allied powers in the
movement upon Peking :
"There is not only no business doing
in Peking , but the very sources of com
mercial prosperity have been cut up by
the roots. In the northern city were
four allied banks , each with the charac
ter 'Heng , ' denoting Perpetuity , and
the syndicate ( owned by a Eunuch of
the palace ) was supposed to be as safe as
the Bauk of England. In the third
week in June the Chinese soldiers
plundered each of the Perpetuities ,
which have ceased to exist as have all
other cash shops and banks. The streets
are abundantly supplied with bank bills
which blow hither and thither with the
gusts of wind and the swirls of dust ,
and are impartially rooted in the gutters
by the few surviving pigs.
"That the Boxer movement was essen
tially an Imperial one is now proved
beyond doubt. Its yellow handbills are
headed with the words 'Chin Ming,1
denoting 'in accordance with Imperial
Orders , ' and its proclamations embody
the same language. The Boxers even
went to the length of issuing a new coin
of enormous size and thickness , with
the legend , 'T'ien Hsia T'ai P'iug'
The Empire at Peace , ' a prophecy re
mote from the facts as developed. The
Mauchu and Mongol palaces in which
these schemes were devised and carried
out are now abandoned. Prince Tuan
is reported to have set fire to his palace
before he left Peking. That of Prince
Chuang is occupied as Japanese head
quarters. The hated missionaries , and
the remnant of the flock whom they
have succeeded in saving , are now liv
ing in the handsome dwellings of some
of those who lately tried to kill them , as
the children of Israel occupied the
fenced cities in the land of Canaan ,
cities which they neither built nor
bought.
"The capital of a country is that
country in smalland Peking is patrolled
and governed by 'The Powers , ' which
issued proclamations in Chinese for
bidding disorder , and directing those
who may have complaints to whom to
go. The city gates are the center of its
life and the symbols of its power. The
outer brick tower of the Oh'ien-Men
caught fire from the great conflagration
set fire by the Boxers , and made a
magnificent spectacle while it was
burning for a day and a night. The other
tower was accidentally burned late in
August. The Japanese blew up the
outer tower of the Ch'i-Hua Gate and
destroyed it , and fire was also set to the
outer tower of the Ha-Ta Gate the day
after the foreign troops arrived. It is
now a wreck , having afforded a pic
turesque sight to those who witnessed
the bombardment of the southern
approaches to the palace August 15 ,
when the three outer gates were blown
in by American guns. The Tung Plen
and Sha-Kuo gates of the southern city
were each broken in by shells the day
before ; an 1 all the nine gates of the
northern city , as well as the seven
remaining ones of the southern city , are
guarded by troops of the eight Powers
cooperating in a military occupation.
The stern portcullis of the outer tower
of the Front Gate ( never opened except
when the Emperor passed through ) is
destroyed , and for the first time there is
a straight road from the palace grounds
to the southern city , not for the Emperor ,
but for every Chinese and every
foreigner alike. It is a Great-Wall-of-
China obliterated at a blow.
The Templet * .
' The marble altar where the Emperor
worships old legendary Shen Nung is a
convenient place for the cavalry horses
to be left in charge of the nearest coolie ,
and the choice spot of earth , which the
Emperor is supposed to cultivate with
his own hand every successive spring ,
as an example to the tillers of the soil
all over the empire , is , amid the dense
growth of omnipresent weeds , quite
indistinguishable.
"Across the wide street opposite the
Temple of Agriculture , with its Altar
to Earth , is the vast area , at least a mile
on each face , inclosing the Temple of
Heaven. For many , many years it was
absolutely inaccessible to foreigners , and
even during the minority of the present
Emperor it has always been difficult to
set one's foot inside. Now there is not
a single Chinese anywhere to bo seen ,
the keepers having been all driven away
by the British when they took possession
immediately on reaching Peking. One
can drive his cart quite up to the lofty
terrace leading to the triple cerulean
domes denoting the threefold heaven.
Each gate is sentried by a swarthy Sikh
soldier the very personification of the
domination of a greater empire than
that of Borne in its best days who
merely glances at you as you pass , or
asks unintelligible questions in Hindu
stani , and makes a respectful salaam
when he is informed in several European
languages as well as in Chinese that you
are unable to catch the drift of his
observations.
"The door to the great circular build
ing devoted to the ancestral tablets of
the Mauchu dynasty stands wide open.
It contains a huge tablet on the north
ern side to Imperial Heaven , and eight
cases four on a side to the eight Em
perors who have thus far reigned during
the past two hundred and fifty-six years.
Every one of the eight cases , with heavy
carved doors , has been broken open , and
every one of the eight tablets to the
deified ancestors has been taken away
by British officers for transmission to
the British Museum an act of more
than justifiable reprisal for Chinese
treatment of the foreign cemetery , and
also perhaps the most stunning blow
which the system of ancestral worship
ever received.
"The Emperor's Hall of Fasting is
used as the headquarters of the British
army in this part of the city , and every
day it is partly filled with many car
loads of loot silks , furs , silver and jade
ornaments , embroidered clothing and
the like which is daily forwarded to
the British Legation , where it is sold at
auction for the benefit of the army , and
is soon replaced by as much more. The
personal apartments of the Emperor in
the rear serve as the bed-rooms of the
officers , who look mildly surprised when
the circumstance is communicated to
them at their dinner , and merely give
an inquiring glance , as much as to say ,
'Well , what of it , don't you know ? '
Looting the "Six lloimlti. "
1 'The Government of China has always
been conducted through the agency of
the six Boards of War , Eites , Works ,
Revenue , Civil Office and Piinishments ,
mostly situated on a street named after
one of the most important ones the
Board of War. At the wide doors con
cealing the arcana of this Chinese
official life , foreigners have for the most
part hitherto gazed from afar. At
present the doors of all stand wide open ,
and any who list can wander through
the courts at will. The Board of War is
the headquarters of an Indian regiment ,
the tall and dusky warriors of the hill
tribes of the Indian frontier making
themselves at home in the ample apart
ments at their disposal. The thrifty
Japanese contrived to get the west side
of this same street redistributed so as to
come within their lines , and then set a
caravan of mules working day and night
for a long period , and then carried off >
from the Board of Revenue treasury a '
sum reported to be at least three million
taels of silver ingots. This same
Oriental race , who appeared to know
much more about Peking than the
Pekinese themselves , promptly fastened
their talons on all the principal Imperial
granaries , and are said to have in their
possession rice to the value of 7,000,000
gold dollars their indemnity being thus
automatically paid with no diplomatic
pressure whatever , or any consent asked
of any 'Power. '
"Immediately to the south of the
Imperial city , and adjacent to the
British Legation on the northwestern
side , lies a large tract inclosed by a lofty
wall , which is generally known as The
Carriage Park. There are several
spacious halls , one of them among the
very largest to be found anywhere in
China , and these are designed for the
storage of the various sedan chairs ,
chariots and vehicles of strange and
hitherto uudescribed varieties built or
presented for Imperial use. This Car
riage Park , it should be noted , was a
grievous thorn in the side of the besieged
occupants of the Legation throughout /I
