The Washington herald., 1910-06-26

I WINGED Ihdt he is the associate OF the
| soldier and Of the politician; in one
word at those who aim at the conquest
OF their territory, and at the destruction
OF their independence. II is the exist
ence of belief Of this kind In the native
mind that not only obstructs missionary
| enterprise, but likewise renders it so
| perilous in Asia, as well as In Africa.
|
AS far as the subject of suicide to es-
cape torture is concerned, II is one that
must appeal to any American of the older
/ generation who happens to recall the
stories Of the Indian massacres Of white
settlers in the Western States and Terri
tories, even as late as twenty or thirty
years ago.
Men who remember The tales told-they
could not be printed-of the atrocities
perpetrated on these pioneers. upon their
women folk and children. by the red
skins. are able TO sympathize with the
idea that led the male inmates of the
| foreign legations at Pekin, during the
Siege by the Boxer insurgents in 1900, TO
keep the womenfolk supplied with quick
and sure poison. 20 be used for them
selves and for the children, sooner than
permit either TO fall alive into the hands
Of the rebels
They are able to feel too, for the re-
solve of the beleaguered ENJOYS TO use
their revolvers, first of all upon their
loved ones, should the poison fail to do
its work and then upon themselves.
rather than that any one of them should
be captured alive by so cruel foe. To
every man who has wife. a sister, or a
child this would seem the only thing
| to be done under the circumstances. and
| 1t is freely asserted. and has never been
denied. that in the memorable retreat to
/ Tien-tsin. at the close OF the unsuceess-
full attempt 10 relieve the legations, when
il was found impossible to carry along
the mOTtaIly wounded. they were shot by
their comrades, in difference to their en-
treaties. rather than be abandoned. still
living, TO the tender mercies OF the Chi
nese insurgents. who were In hot pur-
suit
These means. devised by brave men to
save those near and dear 10 them. or old
friends and valued comrades, from sp-
pailing torments far worse than death.
do not meet with the approval of many
people at home.
The idea IS roundIy condemned by most
religious papers on both sides OF the Al
lantic. some even going so far as 20 de-
nounee death inflicted under such circum-
stances as "a betrayal of christendom."
They take the ground that Christians
have no right 10 commute in this fash
ion zone single one OF the torments that
are the appointed measure Of the mar
tyr" In one word. they deny the Chris
tian's right TO ease the passage TO eter-
nifty for those loved ones whom one can
not bear TO see suffer
or course under ordinary conditions of
life, such as those that prevail in the
great cities of the United States. and in
the Central and Western countries of
Europe, neither suicide. nor yet the in
fiction of death upon others, for purpose
Of putting 10 a quick and merciful end
sufferings certain to result IN fatal but
lingering issue, could for one moment be
excused or condoned, without the up
hesvai OF our entire social system, and
code OF ethics
But the conditions are so wholly differ
ent In semi or wholly berbarous Countries
such as China. that il is difficult 10 Judge
white men there by the same standard
as those at home. Il is all very well
70 discuss martyrdom in an abstract
sense. and at a safe distance, and for
those who have always had a city po-
liceman within hail to protect them from
bodily harm, it is easy to lay down the
law as 10 what a man has a right to
do when face TO face with such alterna-
tives as those by which the foreisn en-
voys at Pekin were confronted in 1900
and which missionaries and white men
throughout the Orient and in Africa, may
at any moment be called upon TO face
again.
But no one who has not lived in those
countries OF the yellow and the black
races. and who. has no personal ex-
perience OF the conditions OF life there
is in a position 10 judge as 20 what is
right or not right, and when he takes
upon himself 10 condemn the precautions
adopted BY the besieged in the legations
at Pekin. he merely shows that he is
lacking in that particular virtue which
the founder of Christianity declared to
be indispensable 10 salvation, namely,
charity
4 man may hesitate about taking his
own life TO save himself from torture