The Siege of Pekin 



57 



other nation should come forward with 

 similar demands, she would declare war 

 with or without preparation. In the 

 meantime she made extensive purchases 

 of war material, and sought by e very- 

 means to propagate anti-foreign feeling 

 among her people as the best safeguard 

 against foreign aggression. 



Never had the anti-foreign feeling 

 been at so low an ebb as during the short 

 reign of the young Emperor. An 

 awakening had shown itself among the 

 Chinese people, which might be de- 

 scribed as a shaking among the dry 

 bones. Newspapers in the Chinese lan- 

 guage had increased in two or three 

 years from 17 to 76. The publication 

 of the society for the diffusion of Chris- 

 tian and useful knowledge, consisting 

 not of " Christian science," but science 

 christianized, increased within the same 

 time from $800 to $18,000. The whole 

 people were penetrated with a desire for 

 progress, and though they had been 

 recently beaten in war by the Japanese, 

 they proposed to imitate their victorious 

 enemies and learn the best lessons of the 

 west as the surest way of rehabilitation. 



When the Marquis Ito visited China, 

 a little more than two years ago, I com- 

 plimented him on the influence which 

 his country was exerting on China in 

 consequence of being her nearest neigh- 

 bor. I compared it to the tide, raised 

 b}^ the moon, as our nearest neighbor 

 in the solar S3^stem ; but I took care not 

 to hint that his country, like the moon, 

 was shining by borrowed light. Yet it 

 is true that the reforms which China and 

 her young Kniperor so much admired 

 were borrowed at second hand from 

 these United States. 



Immediately on the occupation of Kiao 

 chau the Germans proceeded to lay out 

 railways in different directions across 

 the province of Shantung, which they 

 claimed as their sphere of influence, and 

 which some of their newspapers; by way 

 of anticipation, described as "German 

 China." The natives were aroused, 



much more by these enterprises than by 

 any abstract question of infringement of 

 territorial rights. To them it appeared 

 horrible that the spirits of their ances- 

 tors should be waked by the snorting of 

 the iron horse, and that cemeteries should 

 be desecrated by the passage of the iron 

 road. They everywhere set upon the 

 engineers and impeded the prosecution 

 of their work. The most active in lead- 

 ing this opposition were the members of 

 a secret society called " Boxers." 



THE REVIVAL OF THE BOXERS. 



That society is not a new one called 

 into existence, as has been supposed, by 

 the work of missions. On the contrary, 

 it gave trouble more than a century ago 

 to the Chinese Government, 'and in 1803 

 was formally placed upon the index of 

 forbidden associations. Since then it 

 has languished in obscurity until recent 

 events called it into life, and until the 

 favor shown it by the Empress Dowager 

 transformed it into a great political 

 party. The doctrine to which it owes its 

 existence is not orthodox Confucianism, 

 Buddhism, or Taoism, but a supersti- 

 tion based on hypnotism, mesmerism, or 

 spiritualism, as it is variously called. 

 Among its members are many whose 

 nervous condition fits them for spiritu- 

 alistic mediums, and through these the 

 society gets oracles from the unseen 

 world. They undergo a species of drill, 

 which is intended to enable each mem- 

 ber at will to go into the trance state. 

 When in that condition they profess to 

 be endowed with supernatural strength 

 and rendered bullet-proof. These mys- 

 teries, so piquant to the curious at all 

 times, were particularly attractive in 

 view of possible hostilities with foreign 

 nations. The organization spread like 

 wildfire among the people of Shantung, 

 and the Manchu governor, finding in 

 these people an auxiliary force, supplied 

 them with arms. 



The Empress Dowager and Prince 



