The age-herald., 1900-07-28
MY EXPERIENCE
 WITH THE BOXERS

can.
 I suppose the home papers have had much
 to say of late of the Boxers of China, their
 depredations and threats. Perhaps many
 have pictured company of athletes with
 tense muscles and scanty clothes, marching
 up and down the earth, seeking whom
 they could engage in the manly art of self
 defense-a company of Chinese Sulllvans
 and Corbets and Sharkeys, whose pugflstic
 feats would take up much space in the
 Chinese newspapers as their compeers do in the Journalism that represents our high
 toned civilization and sneers at MT. Shell
 dons efforts and all similar experiments.
 But if they have thus pictured to them-
 selves the Boxers their imaginations have
 a sneaking, cowardly lot of cut-throats, who hate foreigners and foreign innovations ! and consequently hate Christianity and
 Christians as the embodiment of foreign
 ideas. They are a secret society which
 seems to have it's notifications in all parts
 of Northern China, and whose watch-word
 seems to be Death to the foreigner and all things Occidental"
 During the last ten days we have been in the very center of the Boxer country, and fights and rumors of fights, footing and terrorizing of the native Christians, the
 drilling and maneuvering and hypnotizing
 of the Boxers have been going on all around us
 I use the word "hypnotizing" advisedly, for part of the making of a Boxer seems to be the ability to pass into trance at the command of his leader. This leader makes certain passes strokes the would-be Boxers face from top to bottom, and then the raw recruit falls into a trance, his eyes are set, his limbs grow rigid and he falls to the ground stiff as a corpse until his leader sees fit to reawaken him. Thus he Is sup posed to be rendered invulnerable to for eign bullets and all the modern inventions of the foreign devils"
 Right up to the very doors of the mission compounds do the Boxers practice their black art. In no less than four places with in a stones throw of the American board compound in Pelin where we spent the | night before last were they engaged in their entrancing occupation
 | Within few miles of Pao-Ting- Flu, where we spent a delightful day, considerable battle has recently been fought between the Boxers and the Catholic Christians, in which scores of the former were slain by the repeating rifles with which the priests had armed their converts, while only one Christian was killed by the clumsy swords | and spears with which alone the Boxers are armed
 After the Boxers had been repulsed, with great loss, a Buddhist priest who always accompanies them, 1t is said, extracted the
 bullets by merely passing his hand over r the wounds, the bullets accommodatingly following the motions that he made com ing out of the poor fellows bodies with ce-
 lerity and dispatch. Then after three days the dead Boxers all came to life again.
 none the worse for their little fray with the Christians-at least this is commonly reported in Boxer circles.
 There is only one difficulty about the
 story, which is almost too much for the
 credulty even of the Boxers, and that is that the slain are never seen again by their friends
 This fight had wonderfully salutary ef- feet upon the rest of the Righteous Har-
 monious Fisters,' and since then the third degree literary men, not daring to approach
 the Catholic compound themselves, have
 even besought the Protestant missionaries to interfere in behalf of the very people who are banded together to kill all Christ ians and foreigners.
 About Tung-Cho, in whose hospitable mis- sion compound 1 am now writing, the Box CTS have been very active during the last week. They have accused the Christians of poisoning the wells, and have threaten dire vengeance upon the missionaries. But in the midst of all this turmoil the mis- sionaries go on their way undismayed. One of the noblest examples of Christian heroism and trust that have ever seen is now displayed by these valiant mlssion- aries of Northern China. They come And go, conduct their services and carry on their schools, and hold their evangelistic meetings as If there were no Boxers within ten thousand miles thirsting for their lives and restrained only by their own timidity and fear of Western inventions Some of the missionaries even manage
 to extract little grim humor from this condition of affairs.
 Dr. Ingram, who, with his devoted wife lives in the native city of TungCho, two
 miles from the other foreigners, told me last night that he had rigged an arrange ment that Ire thought would carry dismay to the hearts of the Boxers when they should attack his compound.
 He had ready a big jug of strong am- monia and a force pump with which he in- tended to dose the whole crowd. The Box CTS would then suppose that the foreign devils. had opened up the bottomless pit itself, and would flee in wild dismay If that should fail, he had tub of whitewash ready at hand, and his native helpers were
 instructed to sprinkle their enemies liber- ally with this harmless but effective West ern medicine, which he believed would effectually quell their martial ardor. If any of you wish to inscribe some new names on your list of heroes write down
 the roster of missionaries in Northern China. Pray God that they may not be inscribed on the roll of martyrs as we'll as that of heroes in these coming days. In none of the places that I have visited have the missionaries or the Christians been too busy or too terrified to hold inter- esting Christian Endeavor meetings There are not as yet many societies in Northern China, but in all these centers of mission ary effort there are one or more, and the native pastors and Christians are eager to hear more of this method of Christian nur- ture which God has blessed so largely in
 other parts of China, as well as all the world around.
 At Pao Ting Flu both the Congrega tional- ists and Presbyterians have a strong work, and my thanks are due to Rev. Walter Lowrie, the 'St. John of North China" as have heard him called by his fellow-mis- sionaries, for most admirable translation of several missionary addresses. Rev. Mr. and Mrs. SimcoX, of the same mission are supported by the Endeavorers of Clearfied, Pa, society which surely deserves a front