Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1891-09-05

trate' Office about half past seven O'Clock
in the evening.
The magistrate sent orders for soldiers.
took d hasty bowl Of rice, and hurried to
the scene Of disturbance. BY the time be
arrived the ere Nd had increased TO several
thousands, and already brlckbats bad been
thrown through some upper windows.
The timely arrival of the magistrate,
and after him of several companies of
troops, prevented this riot from going
further The day following Wednesday
"a large crowd gathered, and several ar
rests were made for insolence. When
was about sitting down to my noon meal
messenger came, saying that my chapel at
Chang-men was being looted. took my
dinner and walked to the neighboring
chair stand and hired a sedan to take me
to the Wu-yu2n district maeistrate). Just
before reaching the office, some very tbad
fellows came running after my chair,
shouting, kill the foreign devil q! The
chair coolies demonstrated, but only got a
cursing for their pains,
Reaching the Wu-yuen, | found that
the magistrate, having heard of the dis
turbances, had gone in person to do what
he could. So | sat In the reception room
until he came back He had arrested one
and beaten another, who refused to 90
home when told to do so, and he thought
there would be no more trouble He adj
vised me not to 20 to the chapel, as it
would only attract a crowd and make mat
rers worse. After taking the conventional
SIP OF tea, | left, after requesting a couple
of runners to follow me for a short dis
lance to reblke any insolence that might
be offered.
Upon inspecting the mission building
| found that a hole had been broken in the
rear wall of the chapel grounds, and that
many stones were thrown on the roof,
breaking some tiles A few dollars will
repair the damage done so we may con-
graduate ourselves in having escaped a
serious outbreak, by the good hand Of God
in raising up defenders for US in the very
time when much needed.
In addition to the above, DR.. Lyon
speaks Of the intense excitement of the six
weeks previous and confirms the story re-
fering to the brutality that accompanied the
murders at Wusuch He speaks of both
Victims as Englishmen, which has since
been corrected by a special dispatch which
identifies the slain missionary as Mr.
Argent, an American.
Other letters have been received at the
various missionary boards of the city, all
of which confirm the report of outrage
and that widespread feeling of alarm
for personal safety existed at the time of
writing the letter in China.
1t is to the credit of the Chinese council
of ministers that the imperial decree was
issued so shortly after the news Of the out
RACES was brought TO the attention of the
officials. This was done on June ~, and
the document contains specific instructions
to the authorities 10 arrest the leaders of
the riots and inhict capital punishment
upon them
The general impression that the Chinese
government is hostile to the Christian
missionaries IS not shared by the officials
of the various missionary societies. They
say that the government of the country
has Of recent years greatly aided them.
Whatever opposition the christians
meet TT the present time is attributed to
the circumstances set forth in the decree,
which SAYS that sit is evident that among
the rioters there are some powerful out
laws whose object is to secretly contriye
dGd plan to fuG discomfort among the
people by circulating false rumors and
causing them to become agitated and ex-
cited, and then to avail themselves Of the
opportunity to rob and plumber, and peace
able and law, abiding persons are enuced
and led to Join them, resulting In ter
mendous uprising
And again:-"The doctrine of Christ
ianity has for its purpose teaching of men
to be good Chinese converts are sub
jects to China, and are amenable to The
local authorities. Peace and quiet should
reign among the Chinese and missio
naries
But there are reckless fellows who
fabricate stories that have no foundation
Williams of this class are not few injnumber
and are to be found everywhere"
Other than these causes the only difficult
ty that the missionaries encounter arises
from local opposition to them in various
outlying provinces or among the hill
tribes Cf the interior who are little else
than bandits and rol and murder Euro
peans and Chinese.
The work of the missionaries in China
Is gradually gaining strength and I'M
peius. Previous to the Marking treaty in
1912, which opened up the FIVE ports of
Canton. Annoy, Ming Pc, Shanghai and
Foo Cho0. the work was necessarily cir
and even the Jesuit missions,
which had been established in the early
part OF the sixteenth century by the i'm.
mediate successor of st. Francis Xav er,
were in a lauguishing condition. The
treaty -raEta3 equal privileges TO all sect9,
but confined TIE work of the missionaries
to the seaports. Alter tine TAPPING re-
belhou in 1861. which resulted in the total
destruction of four missions and
the determination Of ten thousand
treaties were signed that gran
ed greater protection to the missionaries
and gave them an enlarged field for work
Gradually the mission stations are push
ing furfGaranG further into the interior,
and recently tbe Inland Missionary society
wa. organized r5r Tue purpose OF c0nhuinu
t3eir work to the inland provinces. Under
ordinary circumstances il is only in such
territory that prosecutions are resorted to.
and the hope of the American boards of
missions that these would shortly cease
was high until the recent trouble was an