Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1912-10-09
ssCHINA'S NEW DAY."
An Interesting Resume of Pres
ent Conditions in China as
Published in The Exam
iner Of Sept. 5.
By Mrs. John Lake.

uteS TO tell you sOmeIHlliS aoouI
how things seem to us in China
just now.
1t must, of course, be taken into
consideration that we love China
and the Chinese with all our hearts,
and for that reason may be inclined
to be prejudiced in their favor; but
we believe there is a glorious future
Just opening up before China. Be-
cause of our intimate friendship
with many of the Chinese we have
been in close touch with the prog
ress of the revolution almost from
the first; and while we and they
knew that as citizens of another
country. it was none of our fight, :"
yet they instinctively felt they had
our sympathy in their desire to
throw off a hateful foreign yoke
and establish republican form of
government, and for that reason
they confded in US more than they
would otherwise have done. AS long
ago as The summer of l9l0,more than
a year before the oonsummation of
the revolution, at the time Portugal
became rel ublic and the new re-
publican flags were floating every
where over public buildings in Ma
Gao, one of our Chinese Baptist
preachers said to Mr.. Lake, in the
presence of several Christians, with
an air of mystery, las we'll he might.
for at that time the imperialists
were seemingly intrenched in power
and any who dared lift hand or
voice against the Manchu dynasty
were in extreme danger of losing
their heads, as many scores had
done few months before right
there in Canton), this preacher said:
Selma has new flag, too! Only
the time hasn't come to get it out
and hoist it yet"
Since that time the changes have
come thick and fast. Though
things had been brewing SO long,
and were nearly at the boiling over
point in South China, the real start
of the open revolutionary fgb,.ng
in a formal way was in Central
China. in the neighborhood of Han
kow. Several successful battles
there emboldened our Cantonese
and revealed the fact that they were
almost to a man anti-Manchu and
pro-republic! The officials, seeing
that the odds were Overwhelmingly
against them, retired or came over
to the revolutionists without sin
gle blow, the Viceroy (the highest
official in Kwongtung, or Canton,
Province under the Manchus) flee,
ing to Hong Kong under cover of
darkness one night, taking thous-
ands of taels of the public money
along with MN as souvenir of his
official relations, and leaving his
official headquarters in Canton at
the mercy of plunderers. The next
day, Nov. 10, 1911, witnessed one
of the most dramatic scenes that the
sun of old Canton ever shone upon:
exactly at the noon hour, in the
presence of the hushed, waiting
thousands, the old dragon flag, that
had so long been the symbol of an
old despotic power, was lowered
from the Admiralty building, tie
most imposing of the new official
buildings on Canton's new bund
(water 'front.', and the new republi-
can, or rather revolutionary, flag
for since then they have adopted a
new national flag, with its white
star on a blue ground in a field of
red-was impressively raised in its
stead. simultaneously with this
maneuvering over the Admiralty
building dragon flags were being
lowered and the new flags hoisted
over hundreds of warships, gun
boats and other craft for miles in
front of the Admiralty building and
along Canton's water front. My
husband was present (alas! it wasn't
thought, safe for ladies to go, SO l
did not witness this momentous
scene}, and he says that the excite
ment of that moment was SO intense
and thrilling that, though not a
sound was heard as these flags were
being taken down and replaced, it
gave you the feeling of being in the
midst of a powder magazine into
which a lighted match might be-
dropped at any moment. And why
shouldn't it have been thrilling!
Did it not mean that one-fourth OF
the human race, who had for long
centuries been kept down and held