The age-herald., 1900-07-01
HOW TWO MISSIONARIES
 SAVED THEIR LIVES

John R. Rathom, in the Chicago Times
 Herald.
 This is a little story of the way two mis-
 sionaries in China, surrounded by dense
 and hostile population of fanatics, who
 whispered tales of child-eating and black
 art against them, saved their lives and the property of their church, not more than dozen years ago-at a time when other Christian workers not far away from them
 were being cruelty murdered.
 Of all Chinese rivers the Yangtse is by far the most interesting. It's long course offers every variety of scenery from low
 marshes away on both sides as far as the l eye can sec to great overhanging precipices
 that in places totally exclude the sunlight. l Pursuing it's winding way through great 1 stretches of country above the tea ship l ping town of Hanl1ow, this river taps the very heart of the Chinese empire and cuts
 into a country where. shut off almost as | completely from their friends as if they were dead, are many little bands of de- | voted missionaries.
 One morning fifteen years ago two young | men reached the town of Hankow from | Hong Kong on a small steamer. They were | brothers-the Steele twins people used to l call them-and two years before they had | been the idols of the English cricketing world One day, just after both had been | selected Tor prominent places on tne DrlllSH | team of cricketerS to visit Australia, an
 honor the significance of which cannot be | understood except by cricket enthusiasts, l they calmly dropped out of the ranks, an- | nounced that they had decided to make | some serious use of the balance of their | lives, and a week later boldly set their l faces away from their home and all their | associates and became missionaries to | China. It was the wonder of the sporting | world for month, and then people forgot | all about it.
 l But the young men were in earnest, and l they lost no time in going out to Hong l Kong and fitting themselves as rapidly as possible for the work. Fang Soc, dang | erous' station, was about to be vacated l when they were ready, and, notwithstand- l ing that the country for miles around was | most heartbreaking soil for the planting of | the seed they carried, they willingly took l the opportunity to go.
 For two years they labored necessarily in | their little mission, never faltering in the | work But once in while their thoughts 1 drfted back to the old days and fingered 1 on the dangerous ground of happy, care | less, active past. One afternoon one brother
 came across another in the back of the l mission inclosure relieving his feelings with 1 a coal oil for a wicket and stone for l a ball. His ardent love for the game had l finally broken through the shell. Both | brothers colored up-one because he had
 
 l expressed so well his own hard struggle to 1 keep the old Adam away.
 l Then they sat down and talked it over. l Their mission work was languishing. The | simple pastimes they had inaugurated in l the settlement were looked on, even by
 those half-unfoded minds, as babyish The | outcome was decision that Gods work | would be helped, not hindered, by manly | form of sport Next day a sampan took
 letters down the river to Hankaw bound
 for home" They were orders for a | signment of the best bats, balls and | stumps that money could buy.
 | The sixty scholars that the Steeles had l gathered at the mission school set to | work leveling off a field and pitch and by | the time the box of material arrived they | had everything in readiness
 | Patience and two teachers whose services | could not have been secured for any club | in England for thousands of dollars finally | brought these awkward, numbering Chinese | boys to such pitch of perfection that a | year later big junk was chartered by the | missionaries and a crowd of officers and | apprentice lads from a British ship loading l tea down at Hankow were brought up for | a game, eighteen players a side-"England 1 versus China" The mission lads won. The l sailors hardly knew, till they got back to l Hankow, whether it was all a dream | not. When they found out some time after 1 that the missionaries "Ah Quoy'' and ''IIo | An Yid' were the famous Steele brothers l they began 10 understand.
 As time went on the anti-foreign element l they call them Boxers nowadays-began
 to get restless again. Bands of cutthroats | made their appearance both up and down l the river with their cry of Death to the | white men!" "Death to the Christans," | At Fang Soc they began to hear rumors | of burning missions and murdered work | CTS.
 1 One day the storm broke. Word came | that band of 300 wild fanatics was ten l miles to the southeast marching toward the l settlement. The Steeles had weapons; l There was not another white man within l hundred miles, nor foreign gunboat in | the Yangtse river- They had one sporting chance in a thousand, and, like sportsmen, l they took it. As they had worked out the spiritual salvation of their pupils with 1 cricket, so they decided to try to work out l their own material salvation with the same l potent force
 Presently lads with blanched faces came I and reported the rapid approach of the in- 1 cendiaries. Without any appearance of | haste, the brothers calmly ordered the
 wickets pitched on the field facing the mis- 1 sion building, and, with two teams of boys, | went out to play as deliberately as if the place had been village green in their | own native country. Hundreds of men and women crowded about the enclosure. They | wanted to protect their missionaries, who | had secured much of their affection, but at any cost they were determined to save themselves and their children even if they | had to give up the white twins to be butchered.
 l Perfectly disciplined, the lads on the field began to play, their wondering parents | looking on astonished at the coolness of the | teachers. Up came the rioters. As they | reached the outer circle of the field the
 brothers stepped forward. One of them, bat
 in hand, commanded halt and the great
 mob, amazed at the strange sight before
 them, actually obeyed him.
 Then he talked with quiet eloquence and
 in sentences brought down to the simple
 understanding of his listeners He did not
 speak of God or Christianity. But he did
 tell them something about the game he was
 playing. He said that it was a miracle
 worker, a strange and wonderful thing that