The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-23
WOMEN MAKE TROUBLE
INNoCENTLY ENOUGH, MISSIONARIES
OFFEND THE CHINESE.
Methods That Must Change Before
Christianizing Process Can He
Called Successful.

AnteCating the Boxer outbreak in China
by many years We're the frequent and
widespread assaults upon and manifesto
tons against the Christian missionaries.
Though foreign interference in Chinese af-
fairs brought the soreness against foreign
ers 10 head. that irritation began with
antagOnism 10 the missionaries The Chi
nese officials worked upon this hostility
TO bring about the present outbreak. And
the chief victims and sufferers by this up
rising have been the missionaries and their
native converts
The Christian churches everywhere
should ponder these facts, and doubtless
will do so, in order to arrive at a means
OF conducting their labors in the future in
such ways as TO minimize the irritation
they must cause among the people so con-
sentative and tenacious In preserving their
customs and superstitions as the Chinese.
/ was told in China that / had studied
the relations OF the missionaries to the
natives so as TO be able 10 present the
facts in a light in which they had not
been viewed by the sponsors for the mis-
sionaries of CiTistendom. 1t was urged
that much good would come of 1t IL I
would make public my views and impress
sions 1t was sage. a vigorous and
successful missionary. at the head of a
large school for Chinese children, who
tried to persuade me to breach this most
delicate subject. He knew that I had
crossed the Pacific with more than hun
dred English and American missionaries,
and that, afterwards, 1 had made two or
more journeys into the interior, and had
met manX missionaries and questioned
some very shrewd Cinnamon upon the ex-
traordinary enmity TO the missionaries of
the highest as well as the humbest people
of China
MISSIONARY fOINT OF VIEW.
1t was upon my return to the treaty port,
after a second journey inland, that this
Droad-minded missionary asked me what
! thought of the missionaries and their
methods. L at first declined to answer him.
This was because. in my talks with other
missionaries of narrower mental grasp, i
quickly saw that my point of view was not
theirs.
Instead Of arguing or meeting fact with
fact. they usually took the ground that
whoever criticised them had imbibed the
prejudices of the white people in the treaty
ports. This was not at all my case but
II appeared peculiar that there should be
such a prejudice. 1t also seemed that IL
the missionaries knew that their own fell
low-countrymen found fault with them,
they should inquire closely into the reason
and try TO remedy il.
/ had done very little talking with these
white critics. because II is their habit to
crystalize their fault-finding i'm two charg
es-hrst. that the missionaries manage 10
live very well wherever you find them, and,
second, that they make all the trouble
there is in China"
AN IRRATIONAL CRITICISM
1t is not rational point of criticism that
missionaries live comfortably. To begin
with. they do not have the means to PAM
per themselves and. again, the better they
live the more favorably they impress all
Orientals. 1 admit that wherever I saw
their homes they were decent, and they had
plenty of servants-who are dirt cheap over
there. But when I compare their poor
comforts with the dangers by which they
were surrounded could only be glad things
were not worse with them. However, the
question to be met is not how comfortable
they are. but how do they conduct them
selves toward the natives? 1t is well that
they should have good homes and servants
a-plenty TO keep their face" in China, but
j. is very. very ILL., indeed. If their conduct
or relations with those strange people
shame them in the public sight.
Fearing that my friend would misunder-
stand my criticism l refused TO make 1t,
but he persisted and assured me that L
Well, then said l. Il will tell you hon.
estIy what 1 have seen and heard, and
what deductions have drawn.
First of all, men too often volunteer us
missionaries TO satisfy their own needs
instead of being carefully selected to salts
fy the needs OF the Chinese. IN America
the men who are sent out as missionaries
are too frequently persons who have failed
in other walks and who take TO this work
as a last resort, as certains means TO get
an income. and because they thus cease
To themselves have a
or rich society 10 lean upon. L do not
criticise the men for this: it is the system
that is at fault.
THE WRONG SORT OF MEN.
ION the ship bound for China L was
struck by the mediocre mental character
OF too many of the men. They were often
villagers and men of the narrowest hori-
zon. 1t was these who declared what they
would do and have and would not have
when they reached their stations-as il the
Christianizing of an ancient, 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
sympathetic means. I'll have no convert
who permits his wife TO cramp her feet,
said one, and that fairly illustrates the
mental attitude towards their work of too
many whom j met. Small feet, concu-
binage, even the reverent regard OF all
good Chinese for their ancestors were TO
DC instantly oiScOuntendnceds DelOre the
true modes of life and worship were estab-
lished in their places.
When / Travelled in China found that
the ablest and broadcast Cinnamon could not
understand or justify the behavior of our
missiOnarieS-proper as IL was 10 our way
OF thinking. If these able Cinnamon were
conrounded by what they saw, 1t Is easy
TO understand the source of the hostility
OF the peasantry. In China woman never
may reveal the outlines of her body. To
do so is indecent beyond the excuses or the
most dissolute of the sex. Innocent and
beautiful statues OF the nude are viewed
with disgust in China The ladies cover
even their hands; their faces may only be
seen with difficulty through the lattice
shades of their sedan chairs. The poorest
women. who work out OF doors. reveal only
their hands and faces. Fancy. then. the
effect upon the Chinese OF seeing the wives
and sisters of the missionaries dressed as
they would appear at home, in garments
which closely follow the lines Of the bust
END hips.
NO WOMEN SHOULD GO.
''And now as to the relations OF the
sexes. Women of good repute keep indoors
are kept in. II you please. The missionary
women roam freely about as they will
kissing is regarded as vicious and an
unspeakable act. yet our missionary women
r.. n. fr,..