Evening star., 1900-10-06


sorts of lies written to stir up the common
people against the missionaries.
| In some such books are descriptions Of
how the foreigners scoop out the eyes Of
Chinese for medicine and Photographic ma
| terials. The Chinse think that their eyes
| have different qualities from ours, and that
| the missionaries are here as eye collectors.
| In one of the antf-miSSfonary cartoons dis
| tributed some time ago two bleodthirsty
villains in foreign clothes are pictured in
| the act of cutting out the eyes of dead
| Chinaman, while another missionary stands
by and gloats over saucerful Of eyes he
| has just captured.
| How One Chinese Saved His Eyes.
| 1 have before me this print. l have also
translation of a tract which was cricu-
! lated all over China, entitled THE Death
Blow to Corrupt Doctrines"
| The latter shows how and why the eyes
are stolen, stating that the foreigners are
| enabled to extract silver from lead by
| means of them, and also that when spread
| over glass they will record the magic pic
| lures photography which the Christians
| prize. In this work there is an extract
| from the public records showing how one
| Chinese scholar cheated a missionary and
saved his eyes. 1t is as follows:
| In the reign of the Emperor Wan Lie a
| foreigner. named Pa-ta-Li came into Che
kiang and began to persuade men to join
the Christian sect, and great numbers were
| ensnared by him. Now. there was GER
| tain military undergraduate named Wang
| Wen-Mu, an athlete, who, hearing that
| when any one who Joined this sect died they
secretly took out his eyes, had a desire to
| test the matter. So for some days he ate
| nothing, and word was sent to the priest
| that he was about to die. The priest came,
and, sure enough he had little knife in
his hand. Coming forward, he was about
| to cut out Wang's eyes, when he. springing
| up suddenly, beat him and drove him out of
| his house, and cut off his head and de-
stroyed his image Of Jesus When this af
a ir fn ha ~, thn ;t,l tI,o
emperor rewarded him literally"
Some Boxer Superstitions.
Another story the Boxers spreading is
that the foreigners have magic medicine
which, if rubbed on the palm of the hand
and held up before the face of Chinese,
will hypnotic him and make him the slave
of the foreigner. They say that this medi-
cine is made out of the eyes of infants and
young children. and that the missionaries
| steal them for that purpose. / have often
seen when going through interior Chi
nese town a Chinese mother put her hand
| over the eyes of her child or hide its head
| in shawl until had passed out of sight.
| The massacre at Tien TSin in 1870. in which
| more than a score of the French Sisters of
| Charity were treated almost as badly as
our missionary girls are being treated now,
was caused by rumor that these nuns
were kidnapping children for their eyes.
| Ii is the cruShed-eyed theory that the
| Chinaman does rot like to be photographed.
| When mis- face is recorded on the photo
graphic plate he believes the mysterious
| eye mixture with which 1t Is covered
| catches hold of his soul, and that the owner
! of the plate cause him all sorts of evil
thereafter. 1 have had Chinese try to
| break my camera after l had photographed
| them and have several times had narrow
| escapes in using 1t.
| Accused of Spreading the Plague.
| Another queer story comes probably from
| I1 iaI, ho t,hn ,ir MIA
| 1t is stated in some of the interior prov
inces that the foreigners are now buying
lice at two or three cash each and giving
| them poison After this it is said they
scatter the lice abroad among the people.
| They believe that a louise thus poisoned
| has fatal bite and that II also communi-
Gates the disease to its descendants. Any
one who has Travelled in China knows that
/ the masses are infested with insects, and
this story has had a powerful effect.
| In of the cities man was found
| buying lice. and on being asked what he
was doing. replied that he had been paid
| to get them for the hospital Such stories
will seem ridiculous TO Americans, but
| among the Chinese they are accepted as
| truth, with terror and dread.
| Stories of this kind sometimes Illus
! trated with cuts. For instance / saw In
Chinese magazine an illustrated descrip-
| ton of how the foreigners make medicine.
| In one cut men in American clothes were
| bending over great cauldrons in which the
| heads and legs of men were boiling. Be
side the kettles were baskets and tubs hli-
| ed with Chinese humans cut in pieces In
| another cut foreigners We're grinding up
| the bones and flesh, and in a third sup
| posed missionary was shOveling the CHASTITY
stuff upon the scales for weighing. In an
! other room the medicine was being packed
up by straight-eyed white women in for
| eign dress.
| The Hog Cartoons.
| Some of the worst cartoons which have
been distributed are those representing the
missionaries goats and pigs. The Chi
nese character which represents the word
Jesus and that which represents hog are
substantially the same, and one OF the
nicknames for the Christian religion in the
provinces of the upper Yangtse Is the re-
| ligion of the crucified hog. few years
ago millions of copies of colOred cartoons,
! picturing a hog fastened to a cross with
| Chinese bowmen shooting arrows into 1t,
! were distributed all over China. For a sim
| liar reason they call US pig -goat-deVllS, the
| characters for foreigner and for pig and
| goat being much the same. l have before
| me a cartoon in which Chinese execu-
| toner is cutting off the goat heads of for
| eignerS. The bodies are like those or or
! dinary men, but the heads are goat heads.
| Other cartoons represent pictures OF hell,
| in which the Buddhist devils are saving
| the pigs and goats into pieces ana torturlns
| them in other ways.
| These cartoons are printed in red, purple
| and green Each is about half the size of
| an ordinary newspaper page. They have
| been made by the millions and have been
! carried in boats and canoes all over China.
| Each bears Chinese characters about Its
| edges denouncing the foreigners, and tell
| ing lies about them, many of which are
| too vile for publication.
Boxer Tracts.
| II is impossible TO conceive the extent or
the present circulation of Boxer tracts. 1t
| is considered a merit to distribute them,
! and 100000 of one issue were recently sent
on. by club of eight men.
| These tracts incendiary in the ex-
! treme They incite the Chinese to rise and
| sweep the foreigners from the face of the
earth. One tract has an illustration or new
sw ord which has been especially made
| for the massacre of ProtestantS and Ro-
| manists Every family. rich and poor. Is
| commanded to join in the butchery and to
| divide the flesh of the Christians among
| themselves-a catty, or two and a hair
! pounds to each man. They are Instructed
| to boil the flesh and offer it in sacrifice to
| their gods their ancestors and their parents.
One of Their War Songs.
| / have copies of number of the incen-
| Snppc but 7 give a translation of only