Some of the men whom we met had left lucrative business positions to take up medical or evangelistic work in China where their compensation is pitifully small—not one-third of the salary they were commanding at home. We did not meet any missionaries who were engaging in trade with the natives even though in some places there were excellent business opportunities.
Consider the doctors as examples of the civilizing influences which missionaries bring with them. We saw them in various parts of China doing a magnificent wort Dr. Bradley has established a great leper hospital at Paik-hoi where these human outcasts are receiving the latest and most scientific treatment and beginning to look at life with a new hope. In Yen-ping, at the time of the rebellion, we saw Dr. Trimble working hour after hour over wounded and broken men without a thought of rest. In Yün-nan Fu, Dr. Thompson's hospital was filled with patients suffering from almost every known disease. In Ta-li Fu we saw Mr. Hanna and his wife dispensing medicines and treating the minor ills of patients waiting by the dozen, the fees received being not enough to pay for the cost of the medicines. Why is it that every traveling foreigner in the interior of China is supposed to be able to cure diseases? Certainly an important reason is because of the work done by the medical missionaries who have penetrated to the farthest corners of the most remote provinces.
Aside from their medical work, missionaries are in many instances the real pioneers of western civilization. They bring to the people new standards of living, both morally and physically. They open schools and emancipate the Chinese children in mind and body. They fight the barbarous customs of foot binding and the killing and selling of girl babies. Until recent years it was not unusual to meet the village "baby peddler" with from two to six tiny infants peddling his "goods" from village to village. Not many years ago such a man appeared before the mission compound at Ngu-cheng (Fukien) with four babies in his basket. Three of these had expired from exposure and the kerosene oil which had been poured down their throats to stupefy them and drown their cries. The fourth was purchased by the wife of the native preacher for ten cents in order to save its life. This child was reared and has since graduated from the mission schools with credit. In Foochow a stone tablet bearing the following inscription stands beside a stagnant pool: "Hereafter the throwing of babies into this pool will be punished by law." This was a result of the work of the missionaries.
Their task is by no means easy and, as Mr. Hanna once remarked, "Yün-nan Province has broken the heart of more than one missionary." The Chinese do not understand their point of view, and it is difficult to make them see it. A Chinaman is a rank materialist and pure altruism does not enter into his scheme of life. As a rule he has but two thoughts, his stomach and his cash bag. It is well-nigh impossible to make him realize that the missionary has not come with an ulterior motive—if not to engage in trade, perhaps as a spy for his government. Others believe that it is because China is so vastly superior to the rest of the world that the missionaries wish to live there. Eventually the suspicions of the natives become quieted and they accept the missionary at some part of his true worth.
At the time of the rebellion in Yen-ping we saw Harry Caldwell, Mr. Bankhardt and Dr. Trimble save the lives of hundreds of people and the city from partial destruction because the Chinese officers of the opposing forces would trust the missionaries when they would not trust each other.
An excellent piece of practical missionary work was done in Fukien Province, not long after our visit there. As we have related in Chapter III, several large bands of brigands were established in the hills about Yuchi. Brigandage began there in the following way. During a famine when the people were on the verge of starvation, a wealthy farmer, Su Ek by name, decided to do his share in relieving conditions by offering for sale a quantity of rice which he had accumulated. He approached another man of similar wealth who agreed with him to sell his grain at a reasonable price. Su Ek accordingly disposed of his rice to the suffering people and, when he had remaining only enough to sustain his own family until the following harvest, he sent the peasants to the second man who had also agreed to dispose of his grain.
This farmer refused to sell at the stipulated price, and the people, angered at his treachery, looted his sheds. He immediately went to Foochow and reported to the governor that there was a band of brigands abroad in Yuchi County under the leadership of Su Ek, and that they had robbed and plundered his property.
Without warning a company of soldiers swooped down upon the community and arrested a number of men whose names the informer had given. Su Ek made his escape to the hills but he was pursued as a brigand chief, and was later joined by other farmers who had been similarly persecuted. Unable to return to their homes on pain of death they were forced to rob in order to live.
Su Ek and others were finally decoyed to Foochow upon the promise that their lives would be spared if they would induce their band to surrender. They met the conditions but the government officials broke faith and the men were executed. Similar attempts were made to enter into negotiations with the brigands and in 1915 two hundred were trapped and beheaded after pardons had been promised them. Naturally the robbers refused to trust the government officials again.
The months which elapsed between this act of treachery and the spring of 1916, were filled with innumerable outrages. Many townships were completely devastated, either by the bandits or the Chinese soldiers. Little will ever be known of what actually took place under the guise of settling brigandage, behind the mountains which separate Yuchi from the outer world. It is well that it should not be known.