The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-04-10
100000 BIBLES.
That Number Destroyed During
Boxer Uprising.
Annual Report of the American
Bible Society.
DEEP : LAID PLOT
Under Imperial Sanction to Ex-
tirpate Foreigners.
Protestant Missionaries Mas
sacred Numbered 1873.

New York, April 1o.-The annual re-
port of the American Bible society rela-
tive to the situation in China will con-
tain the following interesting statements
from its agent in China, the Rev. John
r. Hykes, d. D.:
There was a deep and cunningly laid
plot, under imperial sanction, to extir-
pate Christianity, expel all foreigners
and destroy all foreign interests. No one
OWNED the full extent of the iniquity
which was deliberately contemplated.
In all 1S3 protestant missionaries, IN
Guiding so men, IS women and 48 child
rem have been nassacred.
with the exception of the massacres
at Ku Choo in which II persons were
killed and at Heng Choo in Human, all
Of the deaths occurred in the northern
provinces.
THE question has been raised at home
as to whether boxer uprising was anti
foreign or anti-missionary in its charae-
ter. No doubt exists in the mind of any
informed person in China. The move
ment was undoubtedly against foreign
ers as such and the crusade was directed
against everything foreign Christianity,
of course, included. Hsu Ching ChenS
and Yuen Chang, two ministers of the
foreign Office would not transmit the aw-
Tul edict which reiterated the order TO
painfully extirpate all foreigners but
changed it so as to read protect all for
GlSuelS ana LnGn sent It Ily1nS over lt6
wires to the remotest provinces. They
We're sentenced to be cut in two. Mis-
sionaries were the class that benefited
by this act of herOism. The fact that ev
cry missionary escaped from IA out Of
the Is provinces would indicate that the
crusade was not specially anti-missioIs-
ary
In the provinces of Chfh Lii and Shan
81 every school, hospital, chapel and
dwelling was LOOTED and burned by the
=
cepti0n the property in the foreign set
tlement at Tien Tsin. So complete was
the demolition of property by these mad
fanatics that not a VeStige was left to
mark the site; even the foundations were
dug up and carried away. There was al
SO destruction of mission property in the
provinces of Shensi, Hotan, Human. Hu
Peh, Khan 81, Che Kiang and Kwan
Tung. The native Christians have been
the worst sufferers Those who escaped
the general slaughter in the northera
provinces lost absolutely everything and
many Of them are perishing from cold
and starvation.
THE Scriptures destroyed will aggre-
gate not less than one hundred thousand
volumes and the actual loss to the So
cie-y will not be less than eight or ten
thousand dollars. including the necessary
expense of getting workers 10 places of
safety and back again to their stations
All of our foreign superintece,1e Tents were
many noble and devoted native workers
They were warned of the risk they were
running. but not a man OF the noble
band Of eighteen t1inched. Their reply
was We go on a. colpOrtage tour. Gods
viii be done Only four Of the eighteen
returned from that journey. The homes
of these martyrs were looted and burned
and their families exterminated. Those
who survived ESCAPED to the mountains
where they suffered terrible privatiOnS
and managed to get back to Pel<in after
it was captured by the allied armies Of
the colpOrteurs under missionary super
vision, / have not heard of one who eS-
capped. In some ether parts of China
endured terrible persecution
and some of them are only now ventur-
ing out of hiding.
More than forty thousand converts
(fncIuding Roman Catho1ics) met death
with q heroism worthy of the best age
of the church.
while the total number of volumes
Of Scriptures published is 81, 700 less than
the previous year, the number of pages
is slightly in excess The number of
pages printed in 1899, was 1882 200: this
year it was n SAG, 700. or about three
quarters of a million more This is the
largest number of pages ever printed in
one year by the China agency and will
give some idea of the proportions to
which the work had grown when, IN
common with all other forms of Chris
tian work, it was suddenly interrupted
by the events of the pest year
saThe number of Mandarin Bibles man
ufactured is worthy of special notice.
There were received frOnl the printers
no less than $500 complete Bibles and
>. 600 copies were in press on December
81 Ten years ago an edition of 1000
copies was thought sufficient to meet
the demand for several years InlS
fairly indicates the growth of the native
native Christians that the demand for
these Bibles comes.