Madison County Democrat. (London, Ohio) 19??-1958, 1952-07-08
Christian ksartyrs-1s52

N1se0hhe RANo>ttt a SOtANAi =
talk to people: but could pray
for them. So never ceased to
pray for my Chinese friends. l
have no hatred or bitterness in my
heart toward anyone"
These Christlike sentiments were
recently expressed by one who had
just passed through five months of
slow starvation and neglect at the
hands of the Chinese Communist.
Before relating the tragic events
which lead to her martyrdom we
wish to take you back to Ohio
Wesleyan University in Delaware,
Ohio-the time, September, 1929.
From the moment when l first
heard her name until that time
several years later when / bade
her goodbye shortly before she
left for the Orient, the most out
standing thing about Gertrude
Mildred Cone was her devotion to
a dream-a dream of life to be
lived in China, where she would
teach music and help people to un-
derstand the love of God through
song. She was a lively girl, strong,
open-hearted, fun-loving, kindly
good student; but she lived always
in the future as well as in the
present. When she played on the
hockey team or sang in the choral
club, she thought of those activi-
ties not as the way to make ones
mark in college or even as chan
nels for self-expression, but rather
she thought about how she could
use sports and music for the well
fare and the pleasure of her
Chinese students, someday".
l did not know when / told her
goodbye after graduation at Ohio
Wesleyan University in 1926 that
/ would never see her again, but
on looking backward it is clear
that nothing else might have been
expected, for China and her job to
be done there had become her very
life.
From China Gertrude wrote with
great zest, telling how she enjoyed
learning the language and, better
still, getting to know the people.
After the apprenticeship days were
over, she was assigned to the
Baldwin Girls School as teacher
of music, but her teaching was
only part of the innumerable
duties of one who had come to
live among people who would be
the better, she thought, not only
for education from books, but for
the cleanliness of body and spirit
and the sense of brotherhood
which she exemplified for them.
Waiting In Dread
Shortly after noon on February
Is, 1852, two women alighted from
a train which had brought them
from Hongkong to the border at
which people are sometimes per-
mitted to cross over from the
Communist guards to the Hong
kong police. They went immedi-
ately to the bridge which is the
dividing line between tyranny and
freedom, and stood for a few
moments, waiting with anticipa-
ton and yet with dread the arrival
OF the train from Canton. The two
women, Mrs. Ralph Ward, wife of
Bishop Ward and Miss Myrtle
Smith, were there in response to a
telegram received two days before.
The message, which had come only
after months of anxious waiting on
the part of many people who knew
that the sender was being "de-
tained' behind an impenetrable
barrier of terror and violence, was
as follows:
Leaving Nanchang morning
sixteenth by express for Hong
kong Stop Please meet me at
border Stop Prepare hospital
accommodation Stop Wire six
million Immediately for repay
ing Hau Sze Chi of Methodist
Church SttR
Gertrude Cone
The two women had inquired of
travel agent before they left
Hongkong and had been told that
Miss Cone was indeed on the train
and very sick, but that informa-
tion did not prepare them for what
they were to experience. What
happened, and what lay behind the
telegram that had summoned them
to the border, is graphically told
in letter Mrs. Ward wrote the
next day:
We stood there when
suddenly Myrtle and l both
saw stretcher case being car
ried across the bridge. Myrtle
got to Gertrude first, / soon
reached her side. Gertrude be-
gan talking to me in Chinese,
first expressed relieved sur
prise that I was there tsome-
one she had known), then ask
ed for hot water, in Chinese.
My heart was torn when
saw her, for I wondered if
anyone SO like a skeleton, who