Author: DIAMOND JUBILEE NUMBER
Title: Peking & Tientsin Times. Saturday, June 19th. 1897.
Description: Tientsin: The Tientsin Press, 1897. Broadsheet printed on silk. pp. 6. 550 x 385 mm. Fine. Whilst commemorative newspapers printed on silk are not particularly rare, it is unusual to see a multi-page broadsheet, these items normally found as a single front page. The complete issue here [Vol. IV No 16] was issued to commemorate the diamond jubilee of the commencement of the reign of Queen Victoria, 4 pages being devoted to the achievement of the times> the front page bearing local adverts and the last page with parochial news. An interesting article recounts an attack on Rev. Arthur Smith who was travelling on a boat to Shantung together with his friend Dr. Porter. "Messrs. Porter and Smith then sent their cards to the Yamen of the River Police, to let Yu Fu Yeh know what was happening, the yells of the mob being in the meantime maniacal, and the missiles showering upon the boats with a determined ferocity which boded no good to the occupants." Dr. Porter's servant found a Winchester rifle which was discharged into the air to discourage the assailants. Just as the mob appeared to be gaining ground, three soldiers arrived who managed to disperse the crowd. The missionaries were then given a military escort to the the boundary of Tientsin. The Rev. Arthur Henderson Smith [1845 - 1932] was an American missionary and author who helped to present China and its people to a Western audience. In 1898 and 1899 an indigenous anti-foreign movement arose in Shandong province. One of the missionaries there, possibly Smith, named the participants, mostly farmers, the "Boxers" because of their athletic rituals.

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