Chinese looters--Soldiers and Boxers in disguise--Disgusting
greed--Buddhist priests--In official palaces--Digging for
treasure--The less daring Chinamen--Flags of truce--Appealing
inscriptions--A prevailing impression.
Taking things all round, there is no doubt that those who mostly
benefited by the looting of Tientsin were the Chinese themselves.
There were crowds of them outside every house where looting went on,
and they sneaked in and out, carrying away valuable things. They had
the advantage of knowing where to find them. Even Boxers and Imperial
soldiers had hastily thrown off their uniform coats, and returned to
the city disguised as coolies or peaceful citizens. Their greed was
disgusting, and among themselves they acted like wild beasts. When
one of them came out of a house with some loot, others sprang on him
_en masse_, overcame him, knocked him down, and his loot was divided
among the bystanders, who in their turn were attacked by others behind,
until in the _mêlée_ many were injured, and the smarter ones got away
with the goods. The Chinese whom one saw in Tientsin soon after its
fall were ruffians of the very first water. Their faces alone were
a sufficient certificate. What ghastly, murderous expressions were
concealed under the servile, submissive manner towards every European
that went by!
Then, again, numbers of Buddhist priests prowled suspiciously in the
crowd. They were to be seen everywhere, but especially near official
residences and where treasure was to be obtained. These fellows, these
chief instigators of the Boxer trouble, had evidently crept back into
the city under the mask of religion for the double purpose of looting
and spying.
[Illustration: CHINESE LOOTERS]
When I visited the palace of the Commissioner of Salt, held by the
Americans, I took a walk round the site with an officer. We discovered,
in a secluded part of the palace, one of these priests and a mate
digging among the hot ashes. They had already dug out a quantity of
silver and all the official Commissioner’s seals, which the monk
quickly proceeded to hide in his sleeve when he saw us. The American
officer pointed his revolver at him and called for a guard, while I
confined myself to taking a snapshot of him with my camera, as he
tremblingly went down on his knees and begged for mercy. The guard
arrived and the looters were made prisoners.
[Illustration: DIGGING FOR TREASURE]
[Sidenote: RESPECTFUL NATIVES]
For days and days after the fall of the city one saw crowds of men,
women, and children, half naked, digging for treasure among the ruins
of burnt houses. There they were, dozens of them, scraping off the
ashes and _débris_ as fast as they could with their fingers, until
their nails and finger-tips were worn and bleeding. Occasionally they
struck a few strings of cash or a piece of silver, and then there was a
scuffle and a row, with mutual blows administered in profusion.
The less daring Chinamen whom one saw, peeping out of their houses or
standing tremblingly in their doorways, seemed scared out of their
senses every time that a European came in sight. For additional safety
they each flew one, or even two, flags of truce made of paper or cloth.
Specially careful individuals, who valued their lives, had sewn a
white flag to their coats in front and another behind, lest the flags
carried in the hands should perchance not be sufficient protection. It
was a constant remark among the Allied officers that China would be a
paradise if one could keep the Chinese in the same behaviour that they
displayed after their defeat. They bowed and “chin-chinned” to every
“foreign devil” that went by, those sitting down springing up on their
feet each time that a soldier passed. Tea and cold water were served
out to anybody who wanted it, and the stolid, blunt Chinaman behaved
to everybody with a civility never before shown by the sons of the
Heavenly Empire.
[Illustration: THE FLAG OF TRUCE]
The appealing inscriptions in English, German, and French, on the
doorways and on their flags of truce, were amusing beyond words.
They were written in trembling handwriting, mostly by Chinese who
had an imperfect knowledge of English or French: “I am poor man,
allies officer please not rob me;” “Great Japan spare me;” “Inside
belong friend England, please do not kill.” A common one was “French
protection” or “Vive la France,” and appeals to the German Emperor
were also frequent. The majority of inscribed entreaties were to the
Japanese, probably because the Chinese could write them in their own
characters, which read the same in both languages, but also because
Japan was at first regarded by the Chinese populace as the leading
nation in the war, and the one most to be feared. Even in their little
flags of truce, always decorated with the colours of the favourite
country, one hardly met with any British or American flags. Out of a
hundred people, ninety carried a diminutive Japanese emblem, four the
French flag, four the German, one the British, and one the American
flag. The reason of this was not only the difficulty of depicting
the flags of America and England, but also, in no small degree, the
impression prevailing among the ignorant Chinese population that the
British had been badly beaten in Africa, and would not be able to
fight nor send soldiers.
[Sidenote: FLAGS OF TRUCE]
Any Chinese found in the settlement or neighbourhood without a flag or
a pass was instantly made prisoner or shot.