The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-09-11

Ths zisntsiss xasasrs.s ~ - -
N. B. Dennys, late editor Of the China
Mail, discontinued. TO the New York IN
dependent some facts bearing on the recent
Chinese massacre of Christians. Some dis
graceful attempts have been made by un-
scrupulous sectaries to throw blame on the
Catholic missionaries, and thus palliate
horrors which cannot be justified. Mr..
Dennys, though q Protestant, is above the
meanness of distorting facts for sectarian
purposes. We copy part of his article:
The scene of the massacre was one of the
most picturesque buildings in the vicinity
of Tientsing. That city (which possesses
considerable Importance as the. port of
Picking, all the grain tribute of the empire
passing through its busy and crowded
water face for transhipment into the shall
low junks which can alone navigate the
Pei-ho) is situated on the right banR>of the
river Of that name at it's junction with the
Grand Canal. The plot of ground which
forms the northern angle between them
opposite the city is the site of a former inn
perial palace, which, after the war of 1860,
was appropriated to the French at u nOmi-
nal rent as consulate. The grounds being
extensive, one-ha of their area was made
over to the Romish mission, which, after
much alteration and rebuilding, converted
the half-decayed relics of Chinese architec-
ture into passable chapel, schoolhOuse
and residence. The part retained as a
consulate was left as to its exterior appear
ance untouched the French authorities
evincing q wise taste in thus preserving SO
unusually beautiful specimen of native
art. From the midst of q long roof, curved
at it's ends in the fantastic but not unpleas-
ant style of the country, and decorated with
Nd ~SA Inn in trHa inn
style, rose graceful pagoda, supported by
slender pillars and connected above
by delicate carved work and traeery.
Age had set its impress on the whole, and
the winds and rains of many decades have
long since effaced the brilliant colors in
beautiful relic and, though the pagoda
was almost unsafe, it formed SO charming a
summer house, that no one wondered that
it was religiously preserved. The present
writer has often enjoyed an evening chat
with one of those whose name, alas is
| amongst those of the murdered, in this
pleasant retreat, watching the busy river
at his feet, and little thinking that SO ter
rible tragedy would ever be enacted al
most beneath the shadow of its roof.
The hospital of the Sisters Of Charity
was situated on the other bank of the Pei
no, on the southern angle formed by the
canal. 1t was a large, square, unpretending
building, in which human suffering was al
leviated without parade or fuss, the Chris
tian and praiseworthy labors of the Sisters
being chiefly recompensed by a brutal and
unreasoning hatred on the part of the sur
rounding Chinese. The patients relieved
being chiefly of the abject lower class, their
testimony in favor of the self-denying,
charitable sisters went for nothing; "wlIile,' y
as Chinaman once observed to me, ait
was not to be borne that acOmen should
publicly be seen nursing men or permit
ting priests to visit the house where they
resided" 1t was, however, hoped that this
scornful feeling had worn off, and that
respect had taken the place of contempt,
expressed, as it formerly was, in SANDER
GUS gossip, which need not, in fact, cannot
he repeated. The event has proved other
wise, and shameful martyrdo has ended
the lives of some of the noblest women
much violence to China, to a pagan race
IL ss The lower class of officials, the
understrappers and hangers on of the
various Offices, are those most injured In
their pockets by this state of affairs; sc
they set their wits to work to devise g
means of destroying the influence thus ad,
versely exerted by the priests. The easiest
and most successful method amongst q
people sunk in superstition and ready t.
believe nything, is to charge the pastors
with cannibalism and other crimes too hor.
rible to mention. The sale of children
being common in China, and numbers being
annually destroyed as "Of no use" in 8
commercial sense, the priests frequently
rescue such little ones from death or life
of misery, by paying dollar or two to the
unnatural parents. and bring up the chill
dren thus obtained as converts. Hence the
assertion that they buy children (Which is
technically true) to eat, kill for the purpose
of extracting medicine from their eyes and
intestines, or devote to prostitution none
of which falsehoods are too absurd for the
common belief The mob, excited by sucl
statements, insidiously but persistently
circulated for some time, are at length
reused to follow some ringleader in the pay
of the scoundrels who get up the move
ment, and the result is one of the oft-re
peated tales of outrage which have for the
last few years formed the staple of oul
monthly kilograms from China.
MORALE OF THE ARMY AND PEOPLE
stMonodnock," in his letter iron Metz, says
IL. al,