A German soldier, writing home from Peking on the 15th October, says: "Whenever we go out, we never fail to take a loaded rifle with us. Every night a number who intend to steal or attack get killed. We lead a genuine highwayman's life here; we commandeer whatever we desire to have. ... We are compelled to shoot every Chinaman who shows himself at night time. And, unfortunately, this takes place very often."

The lawless looting, which the rules of war against barbarians were said to warrant, was continued until there was nothing left worth carrying off. And even then the practice was not everywhere forbidden. The Japanese were the first to stop it, and the Russians soon afterwards followed suit. But then the Japs had netted very much more than any of their allies. They had gone about the work of plundering with the systematic thoroughness which crowned with success everything to which they set their hands during this war. Their countrymen who had resided in Peking for years, and knew every nook and corner of it, pointed out all the lootworthy places to the newly-arrived troops. The Mint and Treasury were among the first places visited, and some of the Mikado's subjects who entered these buildings as poor men left them in the possession of comparative wealth. Millions of easily-gotten taels are said to have thus found their way to Japan. But this was generally done in the heat of the combat, not when the fighting had wholly ceased and order was theoretically restored. So that technically, at all events, the Japs were not out of order.

The Russians are said to have been second in the race for gold, but they lagged far behind the Japs. And much

of the booty they secured was sold by them for a mere song. Indians could be seen all day long squatting in the streets of Peking selling silver shoes, silver ornaments, gold rings, watches, jade, jewelry and silks, and often getting higher prices than the articles would fetch in the shops. The British were dilatory and apathetic. I was told by a person who claims acquaintance with most of the dramatis persona of the story that on one occasion some British officers were informed by a European that there was a vast quantity of silver and gold to be had for the trouble of carrying it off and at the price of a modest commission which he would ask for revealing the whereabouts of the precious metals. The officers thanked him and said they would accompany him on the following day as they were then busy looking after their men and discharging regimental duties. Next morning the man called again and begged them to lose no time, as he feared the Russians had got wind of the godsend. But, still absorbed by their duties they requested him to return in the evening. Instead of running further risks, however, he went to some Americans, who, closing with the offer, at once secured the prize and paid him a much higher commission than he had dared to ask or hope for. When the English officers were ready to avail themselves of their luck it had vanished.

The looting which took place in the imperial apartments of the Forbidden City was marked by a series of unrehearsed scenes of grim Satanic humor to which even a modern Hogarth could hardly do justice.

The civilizers burst into the imperial chambers despite the respectful requests of the mandarins present; but it was only, forsooth, to have a look, or take a photograph. Then they handle the furniture, but merely in order to ascertain the nature of ihe

metals, and the hardness of the wood. Then drawers were pulled out and cases opened, just that they might glance at and admire the barbaric splendor of the Chinese Court. And then there was a pause, during which the intruders looked less at the valuables and more at each other. One man would lift up a costly jade ornament or a fine piece of silverwork, study it, glance furtively around, re-examine it with a blush, lay it down in a half-shamefaced, half-regretful way, and move on to another drawer. Then he would return to the first and begin these rites over again. One gentleman had

for and and

only just turned his back a second on a most artistic ancient piece of jade work, was coming back to-admire it once more, when he saw it disappear in the side pocket of another, who remarked with a diplomatist's euphemism: "One cannot go without a souvenir." That word souvenir was the formula which every one had been seeking for. Once found, they all breathed and plundered freely. Each one wanted a souvenir, and as there was little time to pick and choose he took a number of articles home for inspection.

The full tide of looting and robbery now set in and could no longer be stemmed, even by the sturdiest of those who were wont to be "honest in the daylight and virtuous in presence of a crowd." An officer of high rank, coming in, shook his head sadly, but exclaimed hopefully enough: "Gentlemen, no looting please. Each one may take a little souvenir, but nothing more." But coolies carrying coals to steamers in Hong Kong could not be more expeditious than was this respectable gathering of military and civil officials in stowing away the most unwieldy vessels, images and ornaments between their coats and their skins. It was very comical to see self-respecting indi

viduals, their features serious and solemn, while their bodies were so monstrously mis-shapen that even as gargoyles they would have been impossible. One officer left with what many fancied must be a ladies' tournure, expanded by the heat to alarming dimensions. His friends explained afterwards that the protuberance was caused by a magnificent vessel of old china, which he in some mysterious way secreted on his person. A civilian finding a coolie, pressed him into his service, and loaded him with articles valued, it is said, at several hundreds of pounds. Somewhere near a group of mandarins and Europeans the coolie dropped a vase, and was duly abused by his temporary master. Attention being thereby drawn to the irregularity the coolie was sent back. But the European, keen on souvenirs, was allowed to take home all that he himself was carrying.

The culminating act of this farcical series of vanishing tricks was performed by a gentleman said to be a Yankee. Coolness, rather than ingenuity, was its characteristic. In the Imperial apartments a number of high court dignitaries were left behind by the Emperor and Empress to look after the palace and its contents. They were all well stricken in years, all men of commanding appearance, true Chinese dignity and exquisite politeness. Anxious to hinder the gutting of their Imperial Master's rooms, but loth to hurt the susceptibilities of the cultured crowd, they stood in statuesque poses as the troops were passing in and did the honors of the high house under trying conditions without any loss of selfrespect. The American walked briskly up to one of these venerable men, took off his valuable beads, and was in the act of tearing the mandarin-button from his cap, when an Ambassador appeared like a deus ex machina on the scene, and kept the button in its place.

But the Yankee walked off with the beads.

It would be silly to blame only, or even mainly, the troops for all those abominations. Greed, lust, cruelty, which often lie in germ for a life time, suddenly grow when once gratified, till uprooting is impossible. And in armies they can become infectious. No wonder that the allied troops, not satisfied with what they pillaged in the Chinese quarters of the cities, sometimes looted the houses of European residents, carried every portable article away, and wantonly destroyed what they could not carry. Pianos were demolished with bayonets, mirrors shivered in a hundred fragments, paintings cut into strips. This was done by Europeans in the houses of the people whom they had been sent to protect. Mere Chinamen had little grounds for complaint after this.

Base and wanton destruction became a passion in many. I witnessed many of its elementary manifestations with psychological interest. I saw soldiers enter an apartment stocked with Chinaware, fill their pockets with cups, saucers and cream ewers, and such like things of moderate size, and then take to smashing the valuable big vases. I talked with some of them in the hope of understanding the workings of their mind, but their reasoning powers were temporarily disordered, and there was no foresaying what form their next outbreak of passion might take.

For these things the Governments of the Powers are alone to blame. They refused to treat China as a civilized State; and this refusal is at the root of China's present and their future calamities. It is superfluous to remark that this refusal is unjust-seeing that injustice is no drawback in international politics-but it is a political blunder which no historical falsification can palliate. China not only is a highly organized community, but had reached

this stage of development long before there was any civilized State in Europe. No man of average honesty, who is acquainted with the masses in China, will hesitate for a second if asked to say whether China is really less civilized than each of the Powers who would fain regenerate her. Stress may be laid on each ally's power, which is derived from her mighty army; but then the allies themselves profess to be yearning for and striving after the abolition of militarism in all its forms as an ideal. And this ideal has been realized by the Chinese, to whom Japan owes all her culture.

China has never meddled in European affairs, never given the Powers any just cause of complaint. In fact, her chief sin consists in her obstinate refusal to put herself in a state to do either. She is not encroaching upon the territory of others, although her population has become too numerous for her own. Her only desire is to be left as she leaves others, in peace. She has a right to this isolation. Russia allows no foreign missionaries to convert her people. To induce a Russian subject to abandon his church for Protestantism or Catholicism is a crime punishable by law. Why should a similar act not be similarly labelled and treated in China? It is, of course, useless to expect the Powers to change their line of action. But it is hardly too much to ask that the Press should modify its language describing it. Why should cultured and more or less truthloving peoples persist in speaking of the glorious work of civilizing China, when it is evident that they are ruining her people and demoralizing their own troops besides? The future historian will find it difficult to explain how it came about that the free Christian peoples, whose generous blood boiled with indignation against the high-handed action of the British in South Africa were at the very same time enthusiastic in