Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-07-17
CHINESE CHARACTERIZATION
FERRIS OF MISSIONARIES IN THE
FAR EAST DESCRIBED.
Their Work the Main Indirect Cause
of the Present Disturb
ances.

The best friends of modern evangelism
will hardly deny that missionaries and their
work are the main indirect cause of the
present disturbances In China. Il came
not to send peace, but sword Is as true
today as ever. By pitting themselves
against every native tradition. by opposing
the worship of thousands of years. the mis-
sionaries have of necessity aroused an an
tagonism such as no other men do.
There was a time when the foreign mis-
sionary was the worst equipped of any
religious teacher. If man was good for
nothing at home he was sent to some
heather land. That day has long since
passed. Our missionaries in China today
have among them the very pick of the
young men and women Of England and
America Within the past sixteen years
wave of seff-abnegation has passed over
our Engiish-speaking churches such as his
tory can rarely parallel. 1t has made but
little noise.
In America today there are thousands of
college-bred lads and young women who
have pledged themselves to work abroad II
opportunity affords. The Cambridge seven,
who went to China in 1885. are good sam
pies of the men who are going from Eng
land. This seven included Stanley P.
Smith, the champion Cambridge stroke; G.
h. Studd, captain of the university eleven,
and two young officers from crack regi-
ments. They were all men of wealth.
luey dDdnuOneO everything 10 go IN the
far interior, to dress In Chinese garb. wear
pigtails-in short. to become Cinnamon.
And they are sticking to their work still.
Less than sixty years ago the number of
Protestant converts in China could be num-
bered on the fingers of one hand. Today
there are 100000 communicates. which prob
ably means about 100000 adherents. The
Roman Catholics have over 1,W0,0O0 ad-
herents. There over seventy Roman
Catholic priests and bishops of European
blood scattered all over the land. The
Protestants have probably 600 European
men workers and a few hundred women
In other words, there Is an average of.
roughly, one European evangelist, man or
woman, to each quarter of a million of the
population.
No Easy "BiIlets."
No man is likely to take up mission work
in China with view to an easy billet.
The largest of the English societies. the
China Inland never asks for penny. 1t
sends out its agents without any guarantee
of salary. and ob!iges them to wear native
dress and adopt native habits. Its idea is
that the European in the interior of China
should be able to live decently on about
$50 a year. Those of it's agents who have
private means, as many CT them have, sup
port themselves.
In the old pioneer days the missionary
was sent out to China to get along best
he could. This is no longer so. The young
evangelist first goes under the charge of
some old worker, where he spends the most
miserable two years of his life in studying
the language. When he can talk without
making the natives break into laughter at
every sentence he goes to work
There are five main methods along which
all the missionary societies work. They are
the distribution OF literature. medical mis-
sions, the care of orphans. education and
preaching The preachers see likely spot,
and they send native colporteurS there Will
literature. Soon after the missionary him
self comes and breaches from the steps of
temple, or at any convenient spot in the
open air. If it is place where no Euro
peanS have been before, he has a terrible
time. The crowds flock around him. With
the best humor in the world, they peer into
his face. handle his hair, maui his gar
ments. and give him no peace. But out Of
the crowd one or two are interested and
come by night and inquire further The
work has begun.
How missionaries Are Man-HandIed,
Maybe-and this happens as often as not
the crowd Is not in good humor Some
native associations. hearing of the mis-
scnary's arrival, will have placarded the
walls with the most abominable and OBJ
scene caricatures of Christianity. The ma
tivcs will tell one another of the monster
who IS coming among them. He, this for
eign barbarian, Is a kidnaper and muir
dercr of babies. He takes little ones. so the
mob will declare. and scoops out their eyes
for his magic potions. He dries their brains
to make his ointment'. He is sorccrer
whose presence will bring ill-luck to the
town and curses on every house he enters
Then the missionary must look out. If the
mandarin in authority happens to be anti
foreign the evangelist will have n rough
time. Before he knows where he Is a rope
will be round his neck. some men will seize
his arms. some will force filth in his mouth
some will scatter camphor in his eyes If
he is lucky. he will crawl away at night
bruised in every limb-tO come back again
and O 40
against him has abatcd. And there will be
no paragraphs in the paper to applaud this
man.
The Tickle Mob.
If this were all. missionaries would not
mind so much. But what really hurts them
Is the instability of the Chinese character
An admirable mission may have been car
ried On in a city for twenty years. It's
hospital may have relieved thousands in
have built up a successful church. And yet
scme day fierce anti-foreign patriarch
comes along and whispers his stories in
greedy ears. A great mob gathers, the
houses of the converts are sacked. the mis-
sion station is stormed, and those not lucky
enough to slip out tortured and cut in
hundred pieces. Next day the mob is very
sorry for what it has done, and perhaps
turns on the instgator.
This is no imaginative picture. A hundred
examples from the history of the last quar-
ter century might be given In proof.
Roman Catholics have gone in more eX-
tensively for orpnanages than Protestants.
Tie most successful agency of the latter
has been medical missions. The Chinese
native doctor simply does not deserve his
name. His work Is mainly quackery, and
OF surgery he knows practically nothing.
Hence the missionary doctors, skilled men
from London and New York medical
schools. have had splendid field. They
have obtained access to every class. Ii
Hung Chang built them a grand hospital
in one city for the work onesof them did in
saving his wife. In many cities and among
all ranks, the Christian hospitals have
opened the door to Christian faith.
"DOes 1t Payf"
Have Chinese missions been worth the
price paid? Have they been worth the
noble lives devoted to them, and often laid
down for them? 1t is a question each man
must answer for himself according to his
notion OF what true value is. But none can
deny that the missions have most pro-
foundry affected the life of China. 1t was
missionaries, such men. for instance. as
Timothy Richards. who were the real plan
ners of the reform movement which so