Show THI5 SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING FEBRUARY If IfT? eaam How a Grim Tragedy Planned for Revenge Scattered Four Hundred Manchurian Robbers — Assembled for a Bridal Feast ' and Why the Marriage Was f s f 4 t Postponed From Staff Correspondent MUKDEN Manchuria kUT from behind the smoke screen of grim war Oriental politics intrigue and banditry now overshadowing the frozen plains of Manchuria the details of a most unusual tragedy are beginning to filter It began with jealousy among rival gangs of Chinese guerrillas and the preparations for a wedding It ended in a merciless hail of bombs dropped by Japanese army aviators on four assembled near hundred RailRoolimen on the Mukden-Antunroad They were there at the bidding the notorious bandit of chief whose young brother was to be wedded to the pretty daughter of a wealthy villager of Kaohmen The wedding was Indefinitely postponed About three days earlier just before my arrival at Kaohmen a horde of Chinese bandits town m had attacked the ' of the the absence guards looted the barracks and burned several houses When I arrived the Nippon soldiers were keyed up to a spirit of Ine only revenge trouble was that there didn’t seem to be much they could do about it The attack I soon had been learned one n Li launched by a bandit chieftain This felextraordinary low by clever generalship and by a growing reputation for accomplishing results had risen above his fellows He was easily the greatest bandit ox the Kaoli-me- n district Almost everyone admitted it Almost everyone I another because say bandit still had a place in the esteem of the outlaw citizenry This other was Teng Tieh-me- i n had Now Li one asset which Teng TIeh-mdid not have n had a younger U This younger brother brother it seemed was not entirely without social qualifications and had made himself pleas- ing to a wealthy villager who had a young daugh- j’ ts g An Actual Photograph of Japanese Soldiers at the Mukden Airport Carrying Bombs to Ikeir Planes for an Attack on Gangs of Manchurian Bandits ter was to ( become the wife of the bandit chieftain’s brother the ancient traditional rites Even the ravwere observed ages of war fail to change to any great degree the hoary customs of the Chinese In explanation I want to say a few words about these cusA Ghastly Nipponese Reminder to Chinese toms ’In the hurly-burl- y life Bandits — the Severed Head of a Manchurian of the western world they are Outlaw Nailed to a Framework Where Othera aometimes forgotten The whole social and political of Ills Culling May See It organization of the Chinese is subased on the family The A single concerted roar marked the preme duty is that of the child to its of the bombing fleet as the ships parents The father is supposed to be start rolled and bounced over the frozen responsible for the good and the bad qualities and actions of all his kin He terrain and then took to the air Because of the falling snow It was is praised for their virtues disgraced necessary to fly at an elevation of only by their faults about five hundred feet The bombers That wealthy villager whose daughpassed over a curve of the Mukden-Antun- g ter was to go in marriage to the brother railroad and I noted the locaof the bandit chieftain may have had tion It was not far from the spot some secret worries over the impenddesignated for the bridal ceremony ing event But the safety of himself plane rose finally the wedged-poin- t and his property was probably at stake The rose with it Then the same and besides a daughter’s marriage is filanerest at the point of the wedge formanot so much a matter of concern a3 a tion started to circle to the left Alson’s at least in Kaohmen most directly benrath were perhaps But elaborate ceremonialism — not four hundred people massed together" unlike the weird rites which charactern near a clump of evergreens ize the funeral customs here — holds The wedding party! All the bandit forth at marriage rites leaders under Li The dictum of Confucius that “all Even as the aviators watched figures virtues have thur source in etiquette’’ darted from the fringes of the crowd In the Chinese is never forgotten and started to run Then — the leading mind the observance of traditional plane dropped a bomb then two more ceremony Is the distinction between In a moment bombs were dropping from every Japanese plane and frozen earth and snow were flying m all directions from the scene of the Chinese Then the bombers soared wedding away and in a few minutes were back at the barracks Did anybody hear from Li No not yet At this writing it is not perfectly clear whether or not he still lives An admission of his death might place the lives of his followers in peril of the vengeance of Teng Tieh-mReport has it that one of those killed was the prospective bride- - Fu-tie- v g Fu-tie- snow-lade- el Fu-tie- Fu-tie- ter A marriage between the younger brother of n and the pretty Li daughter of the wealthy villager would be a clear Accoup for U cordingly it was arThe wedding ranged was to be held in the open near a snow-lade- n clump of evergreens A holiday was called on terrorism and the charming little Oriental bride-to-b- e arranged her trousseau 4 It is a strange fact that some of the Chinese hereabouts have welcomed the Invasion of the Japanese The point is that they feel safer in both person and property under the Japanese expeditionary forces than under the Chinese bandits So on the day before the scheduled wedding ceremony two old citizens of Kaolimen came to the barracks occu- Fu-tie- Fu-tle- Fu-tie- n ei been courteous slderats and L’ Photograph of General Honjo Who Is in Charge of the Japanese Expeditionary Forces in Manchuria A Recent goom It has been learned on fairly rt liable authority that the little Man- churian lass who was to have been hi bride survived Another tragic angle If that is true she had to go to her father’s home ’with her face completely veiled and will be expected to observe a prolonged period of mourning If her father died too she will be obliged to mourn for three years wear white garments and abstain from meat wine and public gatherings But she may be glad eventually that the wedding was so rudely interrupted As the wife of a bandit she would have been obliged to consider her fate his And indications are that he could not have lasted much longer The Japanese and Chinese regular forces have now agreed to work together to exterminate the bandits with the understanding that the Chinese will execute not only the bandits they themselves catch but those captured by the Japanese as well 1 hope yet to see a Chinese wedding con- - even 7 An Unusual Action Photo From the Manchurian Front — Tho Body of a Bandit Chieftain Just Killed by Japanese After an Outlaw Attempt to Interfere With Traffic on the South Manchurian Railway But news of wedding with the ceremony n chance to find Li and all his chief followers together in the form of a mass target transformed Sentle Fu-tie- evry man Many of their closest friends and companions Some More for live Executioner — Bandit Chirflalne Captured by Nipponeae Troop After a Desperate Battle on the (rout al ’ Ka ota ire ‘ dvilized and barbarous peoples So the nuptial feast was prepared the nuptial cotumery was gathered together and the families about to be Joined retired early filled with bright expectations for the connubial day Dawn brought a leaden sky — an HI omen But the bride was placed In a sleigh surrounded by her (Junes equivalents for bridesmaids and driven to the knot-tyin- g rendezvous many of their brothers Meanwhile the railroad police barhad gone to death at the hands of Li Fu ticn racks where the Japanese soldiers were and his henchmen Here quartered was a beehive of quiet acperhaps was a chance tivity Neatly groomed Nippon warThe riors were pacing the floor awaiting fof revenge The gunrds broke bread the command of their leader and drank good Man- fdanes were inspected Pilots had been to see that the bomb-rack- s churian wine with an morrow full were to the ejeIn the stronghold of It was mid morning Snow was fallIJ Fu tien and in the ing lightly The Mikado’s captain home of the wealthy looked at his watch and gave the nod villager whose daugh- - Everyone rushed for the planes Kina Ksuuiaa SvoJlcl loo IMS Japanese Soldier Are Shown Undergoti g Inspection Before Shankaihun Front for a Froceedina te the Battle 'k ilh Bandit Gangs Clad Like Eskimo Snow-Covere- d r n |