New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-08-12
"MARTYRDOM."
RIGHT OF AvERTING TORTURE BY
MEANS OF VOLUNTARILY INFLICTED
DEATH AND THE QUESTION AS
TO WHETHER MISSIONARIES
SHOULD DEFEND THEIR
LIVES

Accustomed like so many others who make
their home in civilized and law abiding coun-
tries OF the Occident. TO regard martyrdom as
pertaining TO medieval history and as having
no place in the nineteenth century. it was not
until the writer's first trip out to China, about
a quarter OF century ago. that he was brought
for the first time face to face with the fact that
the sufferings of which read as having been
undergone for the sake of Christianity are not
mere fairy tales and picturesque exaggerauons,
destined to fiji the Golfers of the various mis-
sionary societies. but are. the contrary, grim
realities.
Our ship. the old Anadyr, which now lies at
the bottom OF the Red Sea, had on board a
number Of priests, monks and Sisters of Mercy,
bound from Marseilles to China to take the place
Of those who had been put to death in such an
appalling fashion at the time of the frightful
Tien-Tsin massacre in 1870. And when the
party arrived at Saigon, the capital of French
Cochin China there was carried on board in
dying condition a young French priest whose
hair and beard, in spite of his seven and twenty
years were snow white whose eyes were sight
less whose hands and feet were swathed in
bandages, and whose face bore traces OF such
physical agony undergone that even after all
these years it still haunts the memory. His
labors as a missionary had taken him to the
vicinity Of the Chinese border and there he mad
been seized and shut up for the space of two
years in a wooden cage. in which he could
neither lie down nor sit up, and where in ADDITION
TO having his eyes burned out and big wooden
wedges forced between each toe and each finger,
he was subjected to other fortunes of so fright
full a character that while they may be left TO
the imagination they cannot be described. Yet
his tormentors were careful always to stop their
devilish contrivances whenever there seemed
NJ nc sill through their
hands They prolonged his existence with the
idea Of proIonging the torture, and the only
amazing thing about the matter is that ne
should have retained his mind. But he was per-
fectly sane when carried on board at Saigon
after his rescue and liberation, and was able TO
speak during the trip up to Hong Kong. The
writer was by his bedside when he breathed his
last. just the ship was entering the port
THREE QUESTIONS ARISING.
That was the first martyr who came under this
narrator's own observation, and the remem-
brance of him at the present moment.
when there is so much discussion in progress,
first as 10 the responsibility of the missionaries
for the present troubles in China; second. as TO
their right to defend themselves when in dan
ger of death, and last and most important Of
all, about the question to whether Christians
priests or laymen, have the right destroy their
own lives OF those of others in order to escape
Inevitable and certain torture of kind that
only the fends incarnate of the Orient de-
wise.
It is the last of these three problems which is
the one that appeals most strongly to the aver
age man. The latter. especially if he happens to
recall the stories Of the Indian massacres Of
white settlers in the Western States and Terri
tories OF America, even in the last five and TWEEN
ty years. will be able 10 sympathize with the
hat Lad af IN kee
wives supplied with a quick and poison, TO
De used for themselves and for their children
sooner than permit either to fall alive into the
hands Of the Chinese. He will feel, too for the
resolve Of the ENJOYS to use their pistols first OF
all upon their wives and children. should the
poison fail to do its work and then upon them
seives, rather than that any Of them should be
captured alive by cruel foe To every man
who has a wife sister a child this would
seem the only thing 10 be done under the cir
cumstances.
It would seem, however, that these means de-
vised by brave men 10 save those near and dear
10 them from appalling torments far worse than
death do not meet the approval Of certain Chris
tan denominations at home They roundly
condemned by the majority Of the religious
newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic and
one. The London Tablet" representing the
ultramontane element of the Roman Catholic
Church even goes so far as to denounce death
inflicted under such circumstances as a be
trayal Of Christendom,' and takes the views that
Christians have no right to commute" in this
fashion ''one single one Of the torrents that
the appointed measure of the martyr; in one
word. denying the Christians right TO ease the
passage TO eternity for those whom cannot
bear to suffer.
CONDITIONS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT
OF course. under ordinary conditions of life
such those that prevail in the great cities of
the United States and in the Western countries
Of Europe, neither suicide yet the infiction
OF death upon others for the purpose of putting
70 quick and mercifuI end sunerings certain
10 result in a fatal and lingering issue could for
one moment be excused or cOndoned without the
upheaval OF our entire social system and code Of
ethics But the conditions are so entirely differ
ent in semi or wholly barbarous countries such
China. that it is difficult judge white men
there by the same standard as those at home
1t is all very well to discuss martyrdom in an
abstract sense and at a safe distance and for
those who have always had a metropolitan po-
hceman within hail TO protect them from bodily
harm il is easy to lay down the law as to what
a man has the right to do when face to face
with such alternatives those by which our
ENJOYS in China have been confronted But
they are not in a position TO Judge and when
they take it upon themselves to condemn the
precautions adopted by the Macdonalds and
other foreigners in Picking they merely show
that they lacking in that particular virtue
which the Founder Of Christianity declared to
be indispensable 10 salvation-namely charity
man may hesitate about taking his own life
10 himself from torture. But if he has
warm, generous blood in his veins if he is a
manly man, he VIII not hesitate about forcing
his 6lar oraac - ,s,gI