Nope -- sorry, but this apparently really happened!  see Louis Budd, _MT:
Social Critic_, pp. 269 ff.



Please help me by answering this question about the Person Sitting in
>Darkness.  When MT mentions that Catholic missionaries collected money for
>Catholic deaths during the Boxer Rebellion , and demanded 680 heads for 680
>Catholics murdered , isn't this strictly fiction even though MT mentions a
>specific location in China where this was allegedly to have taken place ?
>Perhaps he mentioned heads in a figurative sense?  Please help     Herm
>Schloss, Tucson, AZ  e mail [log in to unmask]
**=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=**

Dr. Harold K. Bush
Assistant Professor
Dept. of English
Saint Louis University
221 N. Grand Blvd.
Saint Louis, MO  63103

314-977-3631;   fax  314-977-1514;  home 314-861-3929