Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-10
d. Girl Trapped in China
Sister Helen Lucas Escapes Bandits, With
Reward on Her Head, in
Cooie Clothing.

Letters from Sister Helen Lucas, ITO
| Thirty-seventh street, to her family tell
how the gratitude of pagan Chinese
| natives for the services which she and
| three Catholic sister missionaries and
| two priests have rendered them has
| saved the lives of the little band, re-
| Gently trapped in a village overrun by
bandits. Sister Helen, member OF
| family prominent in service circles
! here, is now among the handful OF
| American missionaries in the beSieged
| city of Kanchow, and her friends are
anxiously awaiting word from the State
Department as to her safety. She LETT
| Washington for Kanchow six years ago.
During the last year Sister Helen,
young medical missionary, has been
working with three other sisters ana
two priests to establish a branch mis-
sion and hospital at the town Of Ia Ho
Lii, about SO miles from Kanchow. Her
medical skill and unstinted devotion to
| the needs of the villagers won her the
| love of the native Chinese, both Chris
tan and pagan, and the story spread
/ that the white sister had the gift OF
miracles"
Recently bandits invaded the town
and threatened the mission. Although
desiring to stay with her Chinese
friends. whom she had learned to love
and whom she knew to be dependent
upon her, Sister Helen and her three
companions, together with two priests
at the mission, finally were forced to
plan an escape to Kanchow. But the
decision to go came almost too late
the town was practically surrounded.
Farmers Stood Guard.
It was at this juncture that the
gratitude of her humble friends re-
Vealed itself. For several days, when
the attack seemed imminent, peasant
farmers took their turn at standing
guard along the roads leading into the
village, always with the safety OF their
American benefactreSSes In mind
Every night the women were urged to
retire for their rest with the whispered
assurance that "all would be well" with
them.
When the attack materialized and it
became evident that the village was
about to fall into the hands OF the
brieands, coolie clothes were quickly
provided for the missionaries and they
were spirited into the country, there
to hide out until such time as OPP
portunity might be found to smuggle
them into Kanchow, where the little
group of foreigners whose fate is
constant source of anxiety to the State
Dep9TIIII6IlG IlhS 1OOAlO az ACoSO VCAAA
porary safety behind the protecting
walls of the city.
During the agonizing days that fol-
lowed the flight from the mission, SIS
ter Helen and her friends knew the
fear of the hunted. According to her
own account of the experience, re-
ceived by her mother, they were rudely
awakened repeatedly in the early hours
before dawn to be half dragged, half
1-fa 6o1d To
| hiding places as the enemy scouts roved
| close to their place OF concealment.
Meanwhile, as she learned afterward,
| crowds of villagers milled about the
doorway of the besieged mission, beg
ging the soldiers TO spare the mis-
| Sionaries.
Please let them gol They are good
people! They give us good medicine.
Make us well!'
Rewards Offered for Fugitives.
But the bandits were unrelenting and
rewards of $500 each were offered for
the capture of the fugitives. Such
sum in famine-starved China is sore
| temptation, but human loyalties were
equal to the occasion. The sisters were
hidden in peasant homes, not one of
which disclosed their presence. until,
at last, they were struggled safely into
Kanchow.
In her last letter home, which was
dated June 80, Sister Helen expressed
her increasing love for the common
people of China and her desire to re-
| turn to Tia Ho Ii and continue the
work she had begun there. But her re-
| turn thus far has been prevented by
| the State Department. Recent de-
velopmenJs in the neighboring province
| of Fukien, where an English woman Is
L Il e.. ,sSrI- a
| has been mutilated by the deSperadoeS
| into whose hands she has fallen, will
remove even farther the possibility of
| Sister Helen's early return TO her lit
! tie village mission.
| Sister Helen's companions were Sis
| tiers Clara, SuperioresS of the little
band. ard Sisters Vincent and Eugenia,
who are from Emmitsburg, Md, where
! st. Joseph's College, motherhouSe of
the Sisters of Charity in the Eastern
province of the United States, is To-
| Gated.
| At the time of the crisis, 5000 BAN
| dts had beSieged Kanchow well
equipped with rifles and modern ma
| chine guns 1t was through this cor
| don that the four women had TO be
smuggled to safety. Only one bat
talon of soldiers, exhausted from the
| long fighting and wavering on the
| point of deserving to the enemy for
| food and for pay, which they had not
received from their own side, held the
city.
Warned by Merchant.
The little party first were warned to
fee Ia Ho Ii by merchant whA had
Just returned from Kanchow and had
learned of the bandit depredations
and their proximity to the village. The
DISCUSSES they wore in making their
escape were procured for them by a
loyal boy.
Notwithstanding the precariousness
of their plight and their narrow escape,
the young women, made unafraid of
danger by their experiences in a land
of turmoil, found time to have a quiet
chuckle lat the comic figures we CUT
in the mems clothing.
Prayers were said during the trip, In
the homes of the peasants who lodged
them, many of whom risked their own
safety to serve their American friends
At one time, the boy who had gotten
! the clothing returned to the mission
and obtained for them several blankets
table service and all the bread he could