Messrs. Sandercock, Bethell, and Ferguson, although barely nineteen years of age, have endured the fatigue and hardship of the watches, and have been as cool under fire as old veterans.
Especial mention should be made of the conspicuous bravery and gallantry of Mr. W. S. Dupree, or, as he is familiarly and affectionately called by his comrades, “Little Willie.” This young man, in times of peace, is a postal clerk of very affable manners, but in the siege he has been a doughty warrior. Although only eighteen years of age, he has taken his full share of the work. He accompanied the first expedition of the American, British, and Austrian soldiers in the attack upon a Boxer rendezvous in a temple north of the Austrian legation, in which fifty-six Boxers were killed. He has also served in the Hanlin Yuan, in the Su Wang Fu, and in the latest achievement of the customs volunteers,—the capture and holding of a new and valuable strategical position northward of the Russian position in the Mongol market.
Chinese barber and his outfit
On the night of August 10 this intrepid youngster crept out from behind the fortification in the Mongol market, and crawled across the moonlit common, directly in front of and up to the Chinese barricade. Here he heard one of the soldiers exhorting his comrades to follow him and make an attack upon the foreigners. “Why should we hesitate?” he urged. “We have so many and they so few; success is sure and failure impossible.” Dupree hurried back and warned his companions in time to prevent a serious rush, for a few moments later the Chinese actually left their barricade and attempted a rush upon our works; but on a volley into them, which killed one and wounded several others, their short-lived courage left them, and they precipitately bolted back again behind shelter, from which they peppered our barricade vigorously for the next half hour without doing any damage.
Chinese barber at work
The customs mess, in spite of their exceedingly narrow accommodations, was eminently a hospitable group, and cheerfully allowed Messrs. E. Backhouse, G. P. Peachey, Dr. J. Dudgeon, and J. M. Allardyce to eat with them, they turning the stores they possessed on entrance into the common storeroom. The meals were well managed under the efficient care of Mrs. Russell and Mrs. Mears, whom all of the customs volunteers will ever remember for their constant, untiring efforts to render palatable the daily ration of horse-meat and rice which has constituted their principal food.
Sir Robert Hart, the I. G., as he is generally spoken of by his staff, as well as many outsiders, has endeared himself to all his young soldiers by his sharing with them without complaint and unvarying cheerfulness the meager diet of the mess. He has never allowed any delicacy supplied to him that the others did not partake of, but has acted on the principle of share and share alike throughout. He may in time have a successor in the service, but he can never be supplanted in the affections of those members of his staff who have endured with him the trials of the siege in Peking.