The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1931-07-16
Mrs. Grace Corpron Sends News
from Their Station in
LuchOwfu, China.


Luchowfu, China.
The following letter written by
Mrs. Grace Chapman Corpron was
read at the meeting of the Foreign
Missionary Society of the Metho-
dist Church, Thursday, July 9. Mrs.
Corpron is the wife of DR.. Douglas
Corpron medical missionary in
Luchowfu, Anhwei, China. Both
are former residents of Redwood
Falls.
Luchowfu, Anhwei, China,
April Is, 1881.
Dear Friends:
1t is spring in Luchowfu. Our big
old wisteries are heavy with purple
blooms and the huge SNOWFALL bush
is covered with hundreds Of BIOS
SONS as big as Ruth's head. We are
now enjoying lettuce and asparagus
from our garden and soon will have
strawberries and new peas.
We have learned to expect an cpl
demic of cerebral meningitis at this
time and this spring it has been
especially severe. We have no way
of knowing how many hundreds of
children have died with it. We only
know that our hospital has had
eight to ten cases day and we have
saved the ones that come early
enough with serum injections. For
over month now the epidemic has
been raging. The wife of one of our
students died with it. Their home
is out in the country and he had not
known she was sick until she was too
far advanced. She came in uncon-
scious and nothing we could do
helped her.
We have all been much discour-
aged in the loss of DR.. Chen, our
superintendent. However, filial OBJ
legations come first in China and his
aged father and mother have called
him to come and and live in Nam
king and find work there. We have
succeeded in getting new woman
doctor named WI who will tighten
the load by helping out with OBJ
stetrics ad teaching in the nurses
training school. She has been doing
public health work in Marking and
will be big help.
Our twin baby girls which the hos
pital adopted as a practice problem
are now about three months old.
They had the bad luck to contract
whooping cough and the youngest
one has been pretty miserable.
cb 70
little and we are hoping the warm
weather will help. We have moved
them into the nurses home and they
are out doors most of the time. We
hope to keep them and have them
grow up to be nurses too.
Most of the wounded soldiers have
now recovered and been dismissed
from the hospital. One young cap
tain who was shot through the chest
stayed for about three months. He
had a couple of bad hemorrhages in
the night and DIR. Corpon got up and
stopped them. Later he did an OPP
Grafton and removed bone splinters
which were causing the trouble.
One day the captain said, "Why are
you so diligent in caring for US
Chinese?" He seemed much i'm
pressed at the spirit of service in
our hospital. He made close friends
of several of our senior student
nurses and liked our institution so
much that he stayed on quite
while after he was well enough to
leave. He was interested in Chris
tianity and asked many questions.
We still hear many stories of
bandits and as usual have several
gunshot cases in the hospital. Two
young girls in our Coe Memorial
Girls School have thrilling story.
Their home is some hundred miles
north in a region infested by bandits.
When the home was robbed the rest
of the family fled but these two
girls and small nephew were car
ried far away in the night and held
many months for ransom. Finally
they resolved to try to escape. So
that night they poured the water
from their wash basin in the door
socket so it would not squeak and
then pretended to go to sleep. When
the old woman who had charge of
them went away for while, they
sneaked out into the darkness, TAX
ing turns. carrying the little nephew
on their backs. Not knowing where
they were, they just stumbled along