The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-08

| with fact they usually took the ground
that whoever criticised them had i'm.
bibed the prejudices of the white PEG
pie in the treaty ports. This was no
at all my case, but it appeared peculiar
that there should be such a prejudice
1t also seemed that i'm the missionaries
| knew that their own fellow countrymer
| found fault with them they should in
! quire closely into the reason and try tc
| remedy it.
/ had done little talking with these
white critics, because it is their habit
to crystalline their fault-finding in two
| chargeS-frst, that the missionaries
manage to live well wherever you find
them, and, second, that they make all
the trouble there is in China"
1t is not a rational point of criticism
| that missionaries live comfortably.
| To begin with, they do not have the
means to pamper themselves, and,
] again, the better they live the more ia
vorably they impress all Orientals.
| admit that wherever | saw their homes
| they were descent, and they had plenty
| of serVantS-who are dirt cheap over
there. But when / compared their poor
comforts with the dangers by which
they were surrounded / could only be
glad things We're not worse with them
However, the question to be met Is not
how comfortable they are, but how do
they conduct themselves toward the ma
tives? 1t is well that they should have
good homes and servants a-plenty to
keep their face" in China, but it is
very, very i'll indeed if their conduct or
relations with t hose strange people
shame them in the public sight
Fearing that my friend would misun-
derstand my criticism, | refused to
make 1t, but he persisted, and assured
me that I would not offend him.
well, then" said I, Il will tell you
honestly what T have seen and heard
and what deductions / have drawn
"irst of all, men too often volunteer
as missionaries to satisfy their own
needs instead Of being carefully select
ed to satisfy the needs of the Chinese.
In America the men who are sent out
as missionaries are too frequently per-
sons who have failed in other walks
and who take to this work as a last re-
sort, as a certain means to get an in
come, and because they thus cease to
shift for themselves and have a church
or rich society to lean upon. do not
criticise the men for this; 1t is the sys-
tenn that is at fault
con the ship bound for China / was
struck by the mediocre mental charac-
ter of too many of the men. They
We're often villagers and men of the
narroWest horizon. 1t was these who
declared what they would do and have
and would not have when they reached
their stations-as if the ChristIanizing
of an ancient, a polished, and a highly
cultivated race was to be carried out by
a word of command instead of by the
most sage, deft, tactful and sympa-
thetic means. I'll have no convert
who permits his wife to cramp her
feet said one, and that fairly illus
trates the mental attitude toward
their work of too many whom I met.
Small feet, concubinage, even the reve-
rent regard of all good Cinnamon for
their ancestors were to be instantly
discountenanced, before the true modes
of life and worship were established in
their places.
when I Travelled in China | found
that the ablest and broadcast Cinnamon
Al p9punoJuoo 7I9M uemeuluO 5Iqg
7soul il 5u!HuIq1 10 GBM mo o. sBM
u sc I7doId-s9MBuo!ss mo 10 IoIABu
could not understand or justify the be-
haviour of our Observation-Disclosures as
it was our way of thinking. If these
able Cinnamon were COMPOUNDED by
what they saw, it is easy to understand
the source of the hostility of the peas
antry. In China a woman never may
reveal fhp outlines. OIL n1 hnIN M do
so is indecent beyond the excuses of |
the most dissolute of the sex, Innocent |
and beautiful statues of the nude are |
viewed with disgust in China. The wo- |
men cover even their hands; their faces |
may only be seen with difficulty |
through the lattice shades of their Sc
dan chairs. The poorest women, who /
work out of doors, reveal only their
hands and faces. Fancy, then, the eff
feet upon the Chinese Of seeing the |
wives and sisters of the missionaries !!
dressed as they would appear at home, I
In garments which closely follow the I
lines of the bust and hips.
And now as to the relations of the
sexes Women of good repute keep in |
ioors-are kept in, if you please. The
women roam freely about
as they will. kissing is regarded as q
vicious and an unspeakable act, yet our
women kiss their husbands
and brothers In the streets when they
meet after being parted for time. In
China when a bride is about to be car
led i'll her flowery' cher bridal chair)
o the bridegroom's house she has to be
,orne to the chair by her father. No
'ther male relative has ever touched
ven her hand for years not since she
vas an infant and played with her
brother. If she has no father, broth
r or an uncle may take the liberty and
perform the office of lifting her and
arrying her away-because it could
lot be imagined that any girl would
cave her home and people of her own