A bold raid upon a fleet of Standard Oil junks this week, only a few li from the city, netted the brigands a temporary haul of several thousand dollars worth of case petroleum. When the junk crews showed resistance, the bandits seized and bound them and, before the others, staked down the skipper in charge of the shipment and, by slow degrees, broke his legs. Others of the sailors who had displayed too much enthusiasm in the fight were subsequently inhumanly tortured. Standard oil agents were informed that the oil would be held for ransom almost equal to the market value of the shipment. Most of the shipment was finally recovered by the American gunboat Monocacy.
Attacks were also made upon the Standard Oil tank steamer Meitan, both on her way up and downstream from Wanhsien. Except for the ship's armour plate, which was quickly lowered, the first affair might have resulted seriously, for the bandits kept up a riddling fire as long as the vessel was in sight. A number of rifle shots pierced the upper deck and one member of the crew barely escaped being killed.
Similar attacks have been made this week upon the steamers Alice Dollar, Took Yuen, Hsin-shu tung, and others. The captain of one of these steamers reports that the bandits in attacking him so exposed themselves as to be an easy mark for a reply, but that, like the other captains, he felt restrained by absentee diplomatic officials who refuse to sanction retaliatory measures.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.