The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-09-19

cry or Deggar at his gate resounding
In his ears. Yet it is impossible, as
have seen, to give help at the gate;
such an action would bring down a
perpetual mob upon one; mob, too,
in which the less worthy cannot be
distinguished from the absolutely per
ishing. In these times, only the lat
ter can command attention.
"Trlcks That Are Vain.
1t is not for gratitude and loyalty
that these suffering Chinese are being
helped. Three times out of four the
beggar to whom handsome largesse
has been given, instead of knocking
his head on the ground in gratitude,
after the Chinese custom, will only
impOrtune for more. These poor are
like the horse leach's daughters, cry
ing, Give, Give!" and, like Sheol and
Abaddon, they are never satisfied. The
impression that these famine victims
are going about singing the praises
of those who have put bread into
their mouths is a mere fancy, the
Chinaman is an ungrateful customer
and unless he is closely watched he
will, by ways chat are dark, secure a
double portion of relief for himself.
The women missionaries at one sta
ton are giving their time to making
over clothes for the innumerable i'll
clad refugees; as result some per-
sons have presented themselves abso-
lutely naked at the dispensary. 1t
was found that some Chinese were
coming twice for clothes; now every
recipient of aid is marked between
the shoulder ladies' with nitrate of
silver pencil. In a fGrmcr famine the
expedient was adopted by the mission
aries of shaving off portion of one
eyebrow as a means of Identification.
The authorities at some points require
each person who receives government
relief to dip his hand into a bowl of
dye, but the shrewd natives know how
to remove this, and the missionary
doctor has been applied to for some
chemical which cannot be washed off!
This is the sort of thing which
makes all missionary work in China
so discouraging. One day | went with
a missionary to take census of
destitute village. Further investlga.
ton showed that every family had
for this occasion increased the num-
Der of its children two-fold. while no
less than ten families outside of the
village had registered themselves as
residents. II there are any more con-
slant and unblushing liars in the
world than the Chinese, | hope 1t
may never be my lot to have dealings
with them.
Cattle Fodder for Human BEINGS.
An admirable trait of these mis-
ssiOnaries is that they are impelled to
their labors by deeper motives than
the deserving of those whom they
seek to help. They realize that even
If the Chinese are unlovely and dis.
honest, they are none the less fellow
'mortals in need. The very village
that have just mentioned was facing
imminent starvation; not a grain of
rice or wheat could be found In any
OF the homes, and the family cooking
pots contained only sweet potato
leaves. Throughout the famine re-
gion the people are subsisting solely
ON leaves, weeds, fungus, bark and
roots. The supply of these is now
giving out Nobody but the Chinese
could have STAYED off death so long.
The peasants in the famine area
have sold their live stock, as well as
their other possessions. and now they
themselves re glad to eat the fod-