Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1920-08-04

N WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 4, I
IA Striking Piece of Mission
Work.
Rev. j. F. Love, D. D. Cor. Secretary
Foreign Mission Board.
d Ten years ago Rev. John Lake, a
beloved missionary of the Foreign
Mission Board in South Carolina,
Isaid to Mr.. Chan, president of the
tSunning Railroad, that the people of
la certain leper village had begged
him TO raise enough money to trans
|Eort them to another leper village
tton the river where they could make
Ia little money fishing. Mr.. Chan said,
GeDon't do it; they will contaminate
lahe river and endanger the lives of
1.-The people in the river towns: get
1.-The government to give you an is
iland in the China Sea near the ter
minus of my railroad, and will lend
you box car to transport the lepers
there"
When the writer was in South
tChina early in 1919, DR.. Wu-Ting
Fang, the head of the Chinese gov
I;ernment, which has for some years
maintained headquarters at Canton
land great friend of Brother Lake,
showed his appreciation of the work
which this faithful missionary and
Ibis wife are doing by placing at their
disposal a government cruiser with
Ia. staff of soldiers, officers, etc., tell
ing him to keep the boat as long as
he needed it. On this ship our party
went from Canton to Macao to visit
Brother and Sister Sundstrom and
their work. From Macao we sailed
down the coast to find and inspect
an island which Brother Lake had To-
Gated as probably suitable one for
the leper settlement. There are sew
eral of these islands in the sea off
the Chinese coast, which are unset
tiled except as they are occupied by
Frobbers who infest this coast coun-
TRY. We landed and examined one
Iof these islands, later landing near
[Tonshan, where the president of the
lSunning Railroad had a private train
iwaiting for us in rec cognition Of his
Sesn of and Mrs: AXE and the
iwork they are DOING for his Chinese
people. Brother Lake was given au-
thority to stop the train at any point
on the line and start it when it suit
ed his convenience. Our first stop
was at one of these leper colonies,
in whom Brother Lake has been in
terested for ten years, and for whose
better comfort he has striven. We
carried rice, which was received with
tokens of gratitude. We will not har-
row the readers feelings by any de-
scription of what we saw. 1t was a
typical leper settlement and pre-
sented a scene of human affiictlon
which is not found anywhere except
among lepers. Men. women and chill
dren, showing in their bodies this
awful disease at all stages of its de-
velopment, made an. inll .ession on
nv mind which time will no. remove.
Brother Lake has continued his
agitation of leper relief among Chi
nese in China and Chinese who are
scattered abroad in other countries
At last he has found in the vicinity
which we visited another and better
island, and arrangements are made
for it's preparation to receive the
lepers. Shortly we hope to have in
formation that these unfortunate
people have been carried to this spot
in the sea where without endanger-
ing others they will have comfort
able abode and find some relief in
gardening, to which the island is
adapted, and in fishing. The location
is ideal and nothing in the way OF
humanitarian work could commend
itself more strongly to compassion
ate men and women than this effort
to furnish a bit of comfort to those
who are doomed by dreadful dis
ease.
The old Manchu gov ernment gave
Brother Lake no encouragement
but his heart has been too firmly SET
upon this beautiful service to be dis,
couraged. There are still difficultie:
in China and in South China, but this