On August 5th, while I was standing talking with a Japanese sentry, on an outpost barricade of the Su Wang Fu, a Chinese soldier in full uniform walked quickly up the narrow lane our barricade commanded toward us. I called on the Japanese to fire on him, but he remarked: “Let him come on; he has no gun, and may want to sell something.”
True enough, just before reaching us he held up his hand in front of his face to indicate that he wished to speak, and so was allowed to come around the corner of the barricade. He was a young man of not over twenty-five, but showed the marks of being a confirmed opium-eater.
“I have brought you some eggs,” he remarked, hastily exposing ten of the precious ovules to view. The Jap counted out forty cents and gave him, and advised him to clear out, which he speedily did, remarking as he left: “I will lose my head if I am caught at this.” As he could buy the eggs in the market for five cents, his percentage of profit was very handsome.
Chinese gentleman entertaining a friend with an opium pipe
After the so-called truce of July 18th, the native soldiers occupying the wall to the east of the American marines’ barricade strictly observed the terms of the truce, and never either enlarged their barricade nor fired another shot.
These were the only ones, however, who did so. From all the other barricades we were frequently fired on, and every night or two a vigorous attack would be made upon us, during which the Chinese would expend many hundred rounds of ammunition, firing their rifles into our barricades or the roofs of our houses, and scarcely doing any damage, as we would all seek shelter until the enemy were tired out.
Only once or twice did they actually come out from behind their barricades with the intention apparently of rushing us; but upon receiving a volley, and having several killed or wounded, they would hastily bolt back again to cover.
One night the author was selected by Adjutant Squiers to lead a company of ten coolies in an attempt to remove the stinking carcasses of two mules that had been lying festering in the rays of the summer sun for several days, directly under the noses of the American marines entrenched at foot of the city wall. The stench they emitted was overpowering, but there seemed to be no way to remove them, as to show a head, even, at the barricade was certain to bring a volley from the Chinese on the wall to the east, just beyond the moat. The situation having grown unendurable, it was necessary to risk life even to remove them, and had to be attempted.