Miss Jem: Armstrong, of San Francisco, Who Has Just Returned from China Following a . ' )erien: AE ISé Hands of Chinese Pirates Whe Released Her and the Other White Passengers After Murdering the Crew of the Steamship. HINA, the oldest country in the world, has . revived one of the oldest of all industries and is making it pay extra dividends. The rejuvenated business is that of organized ban- ditry, and while it has always flourished, in the last year 'or two it has reached unusually bloody So serious has the situation become, in fact, that tourist agencies and governmental authori- ties are straining every effort to cope with the situation. There is scarcely an outlying district of China that is not terrorized at the present time one or more bands of brigands, while the rs and many parts of the sea coast swarm with pirate ju seady to fall upon all small Yet, instead of entirely destroying all tourist fraval, 2s had fiat been Ee epidemic of an entirely o effect, ne- eording to the tourist agencies. For the thrill hunting young man or woman tourist of the _ present day it is rated as merely an additional spicy touch to the picturesqueness of old China. tig as no can trip is complete without sh so China's bandits have become an addi- Sonal Gavin card for a certain type of travel- er bored by usual form of tourist hold-ups. Recently when Miss Jean Armstrong, a pretty San Francisco society girl, returned to America from an extended tour of the East, quite the most thrilling portion of her entire journey was her encounter with Chinese bandits. She was on a small steamér en route from ong. Late one night she was two revolver shots and the feet on the steamer's deck. Ernest Cunn 3 What Happened When Dreaded Y River Pirates Captured a Passenger ~ Steamer---and Other Hair- BE A, Raising Adventtirés. Below, at, Right: Miss Amelia Morrison, Another San Francisco Girl, Who Traveled Through China Unmolested Only Because She was Escorted by Twenty- Five Different Guards. hn p Hastily slipping an overcoat over her night clothes, the pret- ty girl rushed up on deck. And there a terrible sight, more like those of the mid- dle ages, met her eyes. The steamer had been rushed by two junk loads of river pirates as it 'was cau- tiously making its way amon the mud shoals. They were led by a tremendous Chinaman, in a tattered uniform, whose natural ferocious aspect was heightened by having small daggers fastened to the ends of each of his eight rs. And even as the Ameri- cases the Americans are forced to witness barbarous trestment ; of the Chinese natives by the bandits, while they, however, go untouched. For the bandits know that while a few butchered natives will raise no great furor among the Chinese authorities, a murdered white man or woman will bring Western intervention and possible embarrassment to thyir future plans. Such was the case at any fate when bandits held up the Peking-Shanghai express and eap- tured a large number of American and European men and women, chief among whom was Miss Lucy Aldrich, sister-in-law of John D. Rockef 1 ler, Jr. The bandits showed an oriental careless. ness with the lives 6f the natives on the trains, but on the other hand took the utmost care for the comfort of Miss Aldrich and her fellow cap- tives while negotiations were being made for the ransoming of the prisoners. It is hot, however, from any particular hu- manitarian motive that care is taken by the ban- dits to refrain from spilling American and L ropean blood. It is entirely) from the fact that they have learned that their business dareers w i meet with an abrupt end if they invite interven- tion by the erican marines or a European gun- boat. When that danger is removed the fife of a "foreign devil," and particaljrly one of the "lady devils," is worth even les" than one of the traditional Chinese coins with a hoie in it. For instance, Mrs. William Chase, wife of a wellknown American business 'man of Canton. China, was attacked recently by bandits in her husband's home outside the city. As it was later learned, the house was to>be burned to the yand after being looted, and so hide all evi- nee of the assault. As it turned out, Rowever, Mrs. Chase had been warn of the band of freebooters who were operating in the geighborhood and during the present troubled times was taking no chances while her husband was absent, When, ther:fore, she heard a gentie knock on the compound gate, instead of openifig it at once, she went to an up- stairs window and peered out. There, lurking in the shadow, she aw a gang of more than a dozen ragged ruffians. ithout a second's pause she rushed to her husband's study, in which two rifles were always kept in readiness. After hastily barring the door of the house, she dragged these to her upstairs window and barrieaded herself in the room. Too minutes after she had made her preparations the can girl came on deck, the bloodthirsty leader had clawed away the chest of one of the steamer's officers for mot moving at his commands. Then followed a scene that Miss Jean Armstrong declares she ever forget. The native crew of the steamer was hast- hérded to one end of the ship. Their hands were bound and in spite of their piteous pleas for mercy they were shoved overboard to drown in the muddy wake of the steamer. A number of the native passe were drowned, the captai the pirates himself dispos- ing 9 more than a dozen. Only a of the Chinese passengers, the - German engineer of the steamer and Miss A and the rest of the white pas- + shoved into as they rowed © frantically 'away, they , river pirates whipping the cargo of 'the steamer over the side into their junks, i Armitro ng's adventure was of many reported fo the American authorities. In most . Newry Pests derride, 1aI8 -----t ng nt, ' NNN NS. One of Puvis de Chavanne's Paintings in Which He Bandits Subject Their Prisoners While Holding Exhibiting the Severed Hand of One of the bandits swarmed over the gate and ito the com pound. Mrs. Chase opened fire. eo With wild cries they sought shelter from her bullets. At the same time theyp-ia.turn opened up fire on the upstairs window. Five times dur- ing a long afternoon they attempted to rush the door of the house and each time Mrs. Chase's steady fire drove them back; ih fact, after th last rush she had taken toll of more than half the band The end of the siege came in dramatic fashion. Neighbors who had heard the firing had aoti the troops. These, came tearing to the house, surrounded the compound 'and crashed through the gate. The bandits were trapped and fought to the last. For no quarter wa: chown and every single one of them concerned in the attack on the brave American woman was cut down. It is such attempts es these that both Chinese authorit and tourist agencies fear. It is to wr the taking of American or. Eu- Above: Mrs. William Chale, the Plucky Wife of an American Business Man in Canton, Who, When Bandits Attacked Her Howe, Shot Half of Them Before Soldiers Arrived. pare mg 3 e Shows the Horrible Ordeal to Which Chinese Them for Ransom. One of the Outlaws Is Male Prisoners to the Terrified Women. ropean lives that they take particular guard. And a notable instance of their precautions were the elaborate plans rec made for the trip of sixteen-year-old J lia Morrison from San Fran- cisco through bandit-infested China to H Dur the long and winding journey Miss Amelia Morrison was chaperoned by twenty-five different government or tourist agency repre- sentatives. She left San Francisco under the care of Captain Yardly, master of the steamship President Cleveland. She was met at Hawai and again at Hongkong, where the ship landed her. At every step of her way, at Hongkong, at Canton, at Shanghai, at Tientsin, gt Pekin and at a dozen smaller cities before she arrived at last at H n, she was met and shaperoned by agents. And though she passed through a coun- try where sporadic fighting is still going on and which is heavily infested with bandits, not once did she have the slightest trouble. Authorities in ¢lese touch with the bandit dan goers of China put the recent wave of lawlessness down to two factors. The first is the fact that for years there has been fighting, and in between the campaigns the soldiers frequently turn ban- dit for a livelihood. The second factor said to account for the pres- ent wave of brigandage is the abolition of tor ture. Years ago a bandit, when put to dedth, was not simply executed. He d od by any one of a dozen horrible means, that served thor- oughly to impress the fear of the punishment. ut in recent years the death sentence in China can only be carried out by one of two means, either by lopping off the head of the condemned man or by sho As good Buddh eve implicitly in the re- incarnation of their soul in another form, a pain- less senténcé of death is something to be laughed at.: They are quite willing to take their chances, and while the government executes every man proved to have been implicated in banditry, either by shooting or, when ouilets are scarce, by the old-fashioned executioners sword, the pain- less death sentence has gone a long way toward encouraging the present crime wave in China. at iy nity ln ANN) most Chinamen are - ils