PAGODA NEAR PEKING
In and around Peking are to be seen many specimens of noble architecture; among which is this beautiful Pagoda, built hundreds of years ago. Such buildings are not erected now, and in some instances they are found standing almost solitary and alone, miles from any great city.
I knew Hu was very unwilling that I should hear all of this speech, which he realized I would perfectly understand, and I felt sure he regretted having brought along a surgeon versed in Chinese.
To me it was a revelation. I had heard that the Mohammedan troops from Kansu, under the famous general Tung Fu Hsiang, were ordered to Peking immediately after the coup d’état to support the Empress in her anti-foreign policy. I had heard that they were fanatical, ignorant, and intensely hostile to foreigners. But that they would dare to insult the Empress, in the person of a special commissioner appointed by imperial edict, and reveal the purpose of their general in such open language, and that before a foreigner, I would scarcely have believed short of the testimony of my own ears.
Hu realized that it was useless to attempt to argue with or conciliate these men, and at once set about the object of his visit, as yet unachieved, namely, to find out the condition of the wounded soldiers.
So, upon Colonel Chao’s finishing his diatribe, he politely turned to General Chang, without further noticing the enraged colonel, and said:
“I have been told two of your men have been wounded by one of the foreign engineers, and as I have a very skilful surgeon in my employ, who attends to all the people who are injured on the railway, I have brought him along to examine your men, and if you will permit him I am sure he can heal them.”