Washington sentinel., 1901-02-09
ENG
"Reminiscences Of Pekin.
M Monlaon, in Paris lie 1atin.' ~

/
Monseigneur F vier, the eminent
| Bishop of Prkn, whose personality has
been for forty years bound up in the
development of French influence in
| China, and whose name was to be found
in all accounts Of the incidents Of The
last insurrection, is now in Paris He
left his diocese two months ago, sum
moned by the Sovereign PnntiH, who
wished to hear from his own mouth
details of the rising and OF the state of
the surviving Christians in China, and
after fifteen days in Rome is spending a
week in Paris. He proposes to see MN.
Loubet and Delcasse, and also to go to
Dion to embrace his aged mother,
ninety wears old, who for long weeks Of
anguish thought she should never see
her son again.
In spite Of his sixty -four years, his
long white beard and his hard mission
ary life, Monseigneur Favier has all the
charm o manner and happy carelessneSs
OF young man OF twenty. Hardly more
fatigued than after a walk in the BOis de
Boulogne, or more moved than after
some ceremony in his cathedral church,
he scarcely SET med to remember that
he only escaped death by an unforese en-
miracle, and is certainly not aware Of
the fact that he did anything worthy of
admiration, and that, apart from all
feeling Tor his Office, his compatriots
owe him a great ebt Of gratitude for the
splendid example Of heroism he gave.
With a cigarette in his mouth and
laughter in his voice, he recalls Incl
dents of this siege Of nine weeks, IN
which he, with thirty Tartar rifles, kept
al baS the assault OF oco men armed
with Mauser rifles and supported by the
Krupp guns OF the regular army. The
cathedral Pei Tang-alone lett standing
out .. the four churches in PekIn, and
twenty six he has had built IN the whole
extent of his mIssIon-is now only a
she'll; 800 Christian settlements out of
500 have been rszed to the ground, and
5000 converts have been massacred.
But what OF that7 He will begin airesh,
as France has begun afrs sh alter her
disasters. The effort is nothing to this
youthful old man. who only demands
from life the joy Of struggling, and he
starts on this intrepid undertaking, not
after some months in the peace OF his
cioiJter, butat the end OF January
On being asked if the rumor was true
that Leo XIII. had entrusted him with a
special mission to the French Govern
Of Pekiu IS enough for me. The Pope,
in our long interview, only made one
allusion to his letter to the Archbishop
| read il and iounG it very wise and very
beautiful, but am too much accustomed
to living for forty years in fraternal
intercourse with the Frenchmen ofevery
shade Of political and religious opinions
who succeed each other 10 China to
mix myself up for any reason in your
internal quarrels From my long ex-
perience, and my confidence in the men
who control our policy abroad, | cherish
the hope that no hing will be done
likely TO diminish the recruiting OF our
missionaries. A missionary, particularly
in a country like China, where our
commerce and our national industries
are almost nil, is the commercial travel
Ter Of his country, on him exclusively
rests the maintenance of our traditional
prestige, and the Chnaman who brings
his child to us for baptism well knows
we make it both Christian and French.
l am not speaking of the material
services our missionaries render from
the point ofyiew Of civilization so much
as from the point of view Of nationality
When the French army entered Pekir
it was the only one that had hospitals s
established at once; nurses, guides, and
interpreters ready, because we were Il e
only missionaries in the capital who had
formed a nucleus of the native popula.
ton, which almost goes SO far as to
worship France. Not one OF our AZ. 600
Christians would not give his lie impair
italy for the Cross or the Tricolour, and
here the Bishop said, rising, with much
feeling, "sre The tattered fragments
preserved to us by their wonderful
sellsacrIice.
These fragments are a trophy They
are the national flag " hich hoated over
the Pei Tang. The fsg has now
neither form nor color; itIs not flag but
a wound, splendid, notw thstanding,
because even at the worst moments Of
hunger and the cannouade our Christians
never despaired because il still waved
above them"
do not know II the habit makes the
monk, but know the feelings Of this
bishop make him a strong man aUd a
good Frenchman.