The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1900-08-01
LIKES CHlNAMEN.
Miss Wilma Rouse Who Lectured
Here Several Months Ago.

Here Several Months Ago.
| IT do not believe that single
American in Pekin has been
harmed, said Miss Wilma Rouse, a
missionary in China, who is home
on visit, and who spoke before
some ladies and others interested
in foreign missionaries in Redwood
Falls some time ago, in addressing
a Minneapolis branch OF the Wom-
en- S Foreign Missionary society, a
week or two since. And I do not
believe the present uprising in
China is any more anti-foreign than
it is anti government, she contin-
ued
Two years ago Miss Rouse was
laboring as a missionary in Ku
Cheng, in southern China, and
while there she made considerable
of study of the Chinese character
and the Chinese situation as it was
then, and she presented in a vigor-
Gus address yesterday her theory
of the condition of affairs there now.
Miss Rouse prefaced her address
| by advising the audience to pay
little attention to the newspaper re-
ports of the trouble. She said that
if one were to believe the newspa-
pers the present emperor has been
thrice murdered and has twice COM
mitted suicide, that the empress
dowager has resigned, committed
suicide, gone insane, and been muir
dered, for not one Of these reports
has ever been contradicted.
Miss Rouse stated that the trouble
in China dated back two years: when
the young emperor was seized with
a reform mania. and began introduce
ing Western railroads, telegraphs:
telephones, etc., into his kingdom.
The people bore it all stoically until
the ruler issued an edict abolishing
competitive examinations. Miss
Rouse said:
''China is essentially literary
nation Public Offices are given to
those who write the best poems and
essays in what is termed the com
petitive examinations. In abolish
ing those the emperor aroused the
wrath of the literati, who would
have none of the Western sciences
he sought to introduce in place of
the poems and essays. What aided
the revolt was the fact that the rul-
ing house represented foreign and
hated dynasty. AS svon as this dy-
nasty came into power it insisted
on the cue as the proper Chinese
couture. To make the cue popular
he excluded murderers and thieves
from wearing it. The Chinese were
forced to wear the despised pig tail
or be considered a murderer or
thief out on parole. These things
the Chinese are now remembering.
The empress dowager was wise
enough to espouse the cause OF the
literati, and they accepted her, but
they feel keenly the humiliation OF
being ruled by a woman. :
In speaking of the Chinese hatred
of foreigners, Miss Rouse's sympa-
thies are with the Celestials. The
latter, she say, claim justly that the
foreigners have forced opium upon
them and thus degraded their ma
ton. Cinnamon in foreign coun-
tries come back to relate how badly
they have been treated, especially
in America. Western America was
made habitable by the cheap toll OF
the Chinese; then they were forced
out of the paradice they had Great
ed, refused citizenship and very
often the protection of the law. The
Chinese answer the claim that
Cinnamon come to America and
work and then carry back their
savings to spend in their own coun-
| trv with tho nnaStion edo not all
foreigners who come to China do
the same?"
| Miss Rouse stated that she was
not afraid to go back to China; that
she intended to start Sept. 18th.
She said that everyone who had he
welfare OF the country at heart
should pray that it would not be di-
vided. IF it was to be divided she
hoped that the stars and stripes and