284 THE CHiyESE ''BOXERS" 



wealthy travelers oarr}' arms, and during the winter months house- 

 breaking is so common that one or more members of well-to-do farm- 

 ing families watch all night. Hence, beginning by looting the homes 

 of Christian Chinese, the " Boxers " proper attracted to themselves a 

 great company of the hopelessly poor, who, joining them for plunder, 

 would be as ready to fall away when booty was no longer to be ob- 

 tained. The anti-foreign character of the outbreak was apparent even 

 in this robbery, as in more than one instance when those who were 

 in no way connected with the foreigners had suffered, their goods 

 were returned to them and apologies offered. 



There is no evidence of a distinctively religious animosity in this 

 disturbance. It is, of course, true that in a few minds the fear exists 

 that the new religion will overthrow the old. But it is doubtful 

 whether there has been sufficient growth in the Christian Church ta 

 generally excite this fear. Missionaries are attacked, not as religious 

 teachers, but as foreigners, and Chinese Christians are robbed and 

 murdered as those who " sui yang kwei tsi " or " follow the foreign 

 devil," and not because they have changed their religion. The at- 

 tacks have thus far been borne chiefly by the missionaries because 

 they have gone to the interior, while most of the merchants are in 

 the coast towns and treaty-ports. 



Those who know the Chinese people find much to admire both in 

 individual traits and in national customs. But the government of 

 the empire is a tangle of " ways that are dark and tricks that are 

 vain." The Chinese method of the past sixty years, of so-called in- 

 tercourse with foreigners, is ver}^ 'iptl}'^ expressed by this quotation. 

 The official class has never taken foreign relations seriously. In case 

 of trouble the programme has been to promise everything, but to- 

 do nothing which by any means could be avoided. Local officials- 

 have more than once directly instigated anti-foreign outbreaks which 

 have resulted in murder or destruction of property, and when the de- 

 mands of the foreign government could be resisted no longer, have 

 been degraded by the Pekin government; yet when the dust had 

 settled sufficiently into the eyes of the too easily deceived foreigners, 

 the same officials have reappeared in positions of greater prominence- 

 . The Chinese, high and low% are adept actors. Li Ping Heng was- 

 governor of Shan-tung Province at the time of the seizure of Kiao- 

 chau by the Germans, following the murder by V>andits of two Ger- 

 man priests. Among other concessions secured by the German gov- 

 ernment was a decree against Governor Li perpetually disabling him: 



