A Flight for Life and an Inside View of Mongolia

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Contents

The Boxers

How THE Delusion Spread The Calm before the Storm .

T'UNGCHO AND KaLGAN IN Danger

Chapter I The Boxers

"I Ho Ch'iian tao T'ien Chii^;, Sha chin kuei-tzfi, pao Ta Ch'ing. Shang yu T'ai Hou, hsia yu Jung, Yu Yii tu shih tsa chJa ping.

San ytieh ch'u i ch'i hsia shou; Sha wan T'ien Ching, shang Pei Ching. Ta bsiao kuan yuan shih chieh ying; Shui hai p'a, k'uai t'ao ming.

"The Boxers have come to Tientsin, to kill all the foreign devils, and protect the Manchu dynasty. Above, there is the Empress Dowager on our side, and below, there is Jung Lu. The soldiers of Yii Lu and Yii Hsien are all our own men.

"On the first day of the third month we shall all begin together. When we have finished killing in Tientsin, we shall go to Peking. All the high and low officials will welcome us cordially. Whoever is afraid, let him quickly escape for his life."

The above placard was widely published and learned by the Chinese, the most illiterate being able to memorize the jingling rhyme. A copy of 7 it was thrown into the London Mission Chapel by some friendly person, who knew the plans of the Boxers. The day set for the uprising was March 30, 1900.

The seizing of several ports by the Powers in the spring of 1898, and especially the taking of Kiao Chou by the Germans, greatly increased the hostility to foreigners, which had long existed. Two Jesuit missionaries, who had been expelled from Germany for some misdeeds, went, perhaps with sincere intentions, to the district of Ts'ao Chou Fu, in the southwest corner of the province of Shantung. That region long had been noted for the fierceness of its people, and these missionaries lost their lives. The German government might have ignored the case, but chose instead to make it the pretext for taking a valuable port. Since then it has asserted that even Shansi is a part of its "hinterland."

The Boxer society has existed from the year 1808, and has made an insurrection once in each generation. The name, I Ho Ch'iian, means "The Righteous and Harmonious Fist," or "The Fist of Public Harmony." This society and its work are the answer of China to the "mailed fist" of Emperor William.

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The Boxers 9

The Japanese war, and the seizure of the ports, awakened the emperor to the need of reforming the government, but the couf> d'etat of the empress dowager not only reversed his decrees, but also gave boldness to the enemies of foreigners. As long ago as the autumn of 1S98, a day was set for killing the Swedish missionaries at Hsiian Hua Fu. In the following winter, the Boxers persecuted the native Christians in the western part of Shantung. At the remonstrances of the missionaries, the officials of several cities dealt severely with the Boxers, after which these officials were fined and punished by the governcw of Shantung, the notorious Yii Hsien. He would hardly have ventured upon such a course of glaring injustice without express permission from the throne. In the summer of 1899, the Boxers were comparatively quiet, for the farming population was busy with the work in the fields, and could hardly take time to engage iti acts of lawlessness, as they could ia the cold weather. In the winter of 1899-1900, many homes of Christians were looted and burned, and not a few chapels were destroyed.

The missionaries in western Shantung and southern Chihii wrote full accounts of these troubles to the British and American consuls in Tientsin, and to the ministers in Peking. At times, the high Chinese officials would deny that there were any Boxers, and even require affidavits to that effect to be sent up by thb magistrates of the disturbed districts. At other times the government, acknowledging that there were Boxers, issued edicts apparently designed to suppress them, guaranteeing protection to missionaries, native Christians and foreign merchants. At the same time, secret edicts were issued, of the opposite purport. The natives readily understood which they were to respect. By this double-dealing, the empress dowager was undermining her own throne. On the strength of the edicts, proclamations were issued, but no sooner were they posted on houses and walls, than they were stripped to pieces by the people, who had learned that the government would not protect fcM'eigners. The Boxers came northward to the region of Paotingfu and Tientsin, and it waa dangerous to travel on the country roads around Tientsin after December 20, 1899,

TTie fourteenth oi February and the thirtieth of March, 1900, were days set by the Boxers for attacking Tientsin. Friendly Chinese having informed the missionaries, they notified the consuls, and an appeal by them to the viceroy led to the

The Boxers li

posting of a good proclamation. In this it was stated, that "Christians and heathen are alike the little children of the government; that to collect crowds, carry weapons, burn or destroy houses, steal goods, steal or injure people, or expose official troops, are like acts of highway robbery; that to found private societies, and practice with fists and clubs are infractions of the law, not to be tolerated ; that heathen and Christians should acknowledge their community of interests ; and that officials, in deciding lawsuits, must not distinguish between the people and the Church, but only between the crooked and the straight." It adds, as a conciliation to the Boxers, that "church members must not stir up quarrels, deride the heathen, nor blindly follow the missionaries, so as to win victories through their protection." It ended with a good exhortation to both parties to obey the law and lay aside their enmities, so that there might he peace.

This proclamation was posted outside the wall of the American Board Mission in Tientsin, was read by many, and copied by a teacher in our employ, and sotMi afterward was torn in pieces. TTie time hfld come when the Chinese despised treaties, edicts, proclamations and passports, if issued to la A Flight For Life

protect foreigners. They regarded the treaties as having been forced on them by. outside barbarians, signed under compulsion, and not binding on their consciences. All foreigners were believed to be enemies, and therefore, according to Asiatic ideals, to have no rights. A craze for killing them had taken possession of the people.

This, however, was not without cause. Let us imagine ourselves in their places ; — our ports taken by foreign nations ; our manufactures, trade and public finances almost wrecked by foreign trade and by a low tariff imposed by foreigners, with a view to their own advantage; and our country threatened with dismemberment ; — we would have been angry, as they were, and ready to fight the world. Only we would have regarded the rights of women, children and non-combatants, and would not have tortured nor massacred innocent people.

One night in the spring of 1900, the building of the Tientsin Trading Company, a large department store, was burned. The fire was a glorious sight, but the wind and falling sparks endangered many neighboring houses. The cause never was ascertained. The building and goods had been insured for more than their full value, as was the case two or three years before, when the same company's

The Boxers 13

store was btimed. Some spoke of the fire as a grand clearance sale. Others feared that the Boxers had begun an incendiary work. The strained rdations between foreigners and Chinese compelled the former to be on their guard. Many carried firearms, and prepared for emergencies. The Tientsin Volunteer Corps patrolled the streets at night. It was planned that, in case of an attack, the foreigners should take refuge in the consulates. To those living nearest the Chinese city, the French consulate would be most accessible ; but the Americans, if time should permit, were to gather in the British consulate ; for the American consulate was too far out of the settlement to be defensible. In worse contingencies, the ladies and children were to be protected in Gordon Hall, as a safer place than the British consulate.

Chapter II How The Delusion Spread

"Let all the Protestant Chapels know, that we limit you to one week's time, in which you must all change your signs (or names) to Giapels of the Great Genii, or else vacate your places. If any should not obey, we shall pull them down, or bum them widi fire, so as to leave nothins but their empty places, — lest any one regret it The Boxers of all under heaven together write this.

"Second month, nineteendi day."

This placard displayed increasing audacity. The Boxers were steadily preparing to carry out their threats.

There were said to be nineteen words, which, when learned, gave the Boxers great power. Two Cff three cA these words were learned by the boys on the streets ; eight of them would enable one Chinese to overcome ten foreigners; and any one who could pronounce seventeen words, could pull down a foreigner's house as easily as he could overturn a box of tea. In the looting of Tientsin, each valiant Boxer would be rewarded with all the contents of a foreigner's house. This would be a great prize for a poor Chinaman.

How ihe Delusion Spread 15

The claim of the Boxers to be invulnerable was sometimes put to the test. One man, who said that weapons could not harm him, was ordered to lay his ann on the table. Then the magistrate told a man to chop it with a hatchet. He did so, and sent the edge in to the bone. The Boxer looked up to the mandarin, and said : "I had not enough faith." Another agreed with a governor that he would allow himself to be shot at forty times, on condition that, if not wounded, he might have the governor's rank and office. The third shot killed Jiim. As many Boxers were shot in their backs, the theory was propounded that they were invulnerable in their breasts but not in their backs.

(While these things were in the minds of all, a grand funeral occurred, — that of the mother ot Chang Yen Mao. This maii had been in the employ of the Seventh Prince, the father of the emperor, and having acquired wealth, made the death of his mother an occasion for' great display. In providing for the funeral, he spent thirty-five thousand dollars of his own, and seventy thousand dollars amtributed by his friends. There were ftiany gorgeous banners and large umbrellas oT colored silk, to be carried 'in the prdcession ; there were horses, carriages, houses, men and '

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all made of paper, to be carried and burned at the grave, — so that these, having been burned, might become horses, carriages, houses and servants in the spirit world, for the benefit of the departed mother. Many tables of fruit, apparently real, but made erf paper; large jewels of paper, as costly as the real articles; numerous paper bouquets; umbrellas made of sticks of incense; and other curious and expensive objects, all to be burned, were carried in the processicm. Among them were elaborate provisions of real food for tlie deceased, and a plentiful supi^y of paper money to be thrown out on the road, so that the devils, instead of following the funeral, would stop to pick up the money, and so be left behind. Many people visited the house to see the preparations. When the procession moved toward the native city, on its way to the family graveyard near Tungcho, the array of valuable offerings was about two miles in length ; and in the midst of it, strange to say, there were half a score of foreign gentlemen, going on foot, to show their friendship for Mr. Chang. The streets were crowded full of the Chinese, while foreigners looked on from mndows and roofs along the road. Considering the excited state of the public mind, a riot was much to be apprehended. As the after-

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How the Delusion Spread 17

noon wore away; aixl there was no disturbance, the hearts of the foreign ctMnmunity were much relieved.

On all sides of the city, the Boxers were practicing with swords and spears. Boxer teachers, receiving high wages, would hypnotize a company of boys and men, who would repeat certain cabalistic words, tall on their backs in a trance, spring up and brandish their weapons fiercely, and then fall again, and lie as though dead. On coming out of tlie trance, they felt extremely tired, and told what, ancient heroes they had seen, and what the latter said. Their behef that a spirit entered into them, and made them invulnerable, was due to hypnotism, which made them unconscious of pain.

Some of the missionaries employed spies to ascertain the localities in which the Boxers were drilling, and gave full information to the consuls. One missionary tried to arrest some of the Boxers with his own hands, but they refused to be arrested. In the district of Hsiao Chang, one hundred and fifty miles southwest of Tientsin, the London Mission, before the outbreak, succeeded in collecting from the officials three thousand dollars, as indemnity for the native Christians. Near Paotingfu the Boxers were numerous and active. At one place the Roman CjithoMcs were attacked, and seventy were slaH§;htered. An officer went with troops to quell the disturbance ; his horse stumbled, and the Boxers, taking advantage of his fall, killed him. At Cho Chou, between Peking and Paotingfu, seventeen spies on horses were caught and strangled by the Boxers. One Roman Catholic convert was beaten to the backbone, and would not recant. A Presbyterian brother, being ordered to recant, said that he had followed Jesus twenty years, and could not deny him. At a village southwest of Peking, where there was a flourishing church, a baby having been bom in the home of the native preacher, the heathen declared that it had wings, and that, as soon as they were fully grown, the village would be destroyed. In such ways evil-minded people tried to stir up strife. The storm was drawing nearer to Peking and Tientsin, but had not yet burst.

Chapter III The ' Calm Before The Storm

Early in May, Tientsin was visited by two distinguished men, Rev. G. Frederick Wright, d.d., and Rev. F. E. Clark, d.d. Dr. Wright lectured on Glaciers at the Viceroy's University, which was founded by Li Hung Chang; after which he went to Kalgan, traveled north with Rev. Mark Williams, and explored the mountains on the border of Mongolia. Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Clark held a Christian Endeavor Convention in Wesley Chapel, May fourth to sixth. Delegates from other cities were present, among whom were Rev. Dr. Ament of Peking and Rev. J. W. Lowrie of Paotingfu. The exercises of the convention were stimulating and instructive, and formed an object-lesson of Christian union, several denominations meeting together with perfect fraternity. Similar meetings were held in Peking, Paotingfu and Tungcho. Both parties of guests left Tientsin only a few days before the massacres began, and returned to America by the Siberian route.

It is the custom of the North China Mission of the American Board, to call the native helpers together once each year, and give them a course of lectures, to broaden their knowledge, and quicken their devotion in Christian service. Some of the subjects this year were : The Stars, Prayer-meetings, Isaiah, Luther, Revivals and Persecutions. Several churches of our Mission had experienced revivals but a few weeks before, and the lecture telling of Ezra, the Pentecost, Luther, Wesley, Finney and Moody, was most timely. The lecture on Persecutions, showing how nobly the eariy Christians endured suffering for Christ's sake, and how every effort to destroy the Church only caused it to spread more widely, gave courage and hc^e to those who listened, wliose minds were full of anxiety regarding the Boxers.

Afterward a Mission Meeting was held, — the first four days' prc^am including reports, essays and discussions, in the Chinese language; and several succeeding days being occupied by devotional and business meetings in the English language. On Sunday, Pastor Chia, whose home and chapel had been destroyed by the Boxers, was one of the preachers, and his nervous manner showed the effect of the strain he had undergone. In the reports

The Calm Before the Storm 21

given, a case of conscience was cited, concerning a man who, before his conversion, worshiped and fed his father's tooth. His father had had a tooth pulled. When he died, and was buried, by mistake the tooth was not buried with him. The son placed it on a bracket, and offered it food each time before eating his meals, in addition to which he burned incense, and bowed down to the tooth. The question was, if he became a Christian, what should he do? Would not filial piety require him to continue this worship? He was advised not to worship the tooth, but to put it in a safe place until his mother's death, and then bury it with his mother. This was accepted as a proper and happy solution of the problem.

A few years ago, when the railroad from Tientsin to Peking was being built, it was planned to pass near T'ungcho, but the people would not have it. Therefore it followed a different route, and took away all the business of T'ungcho. This city being at the head of navigation on the Pei Ho, or North River, which is virtually part of the Grand Canal, the tribute rice from the south, and goods brought from the coast, were taken from the boats at this place, and sent to Peking' on carts and wheelbarrows. The common method of stealing the government rice was to punch the rice bag with a pointed stick, place a bowl underneath, withdraw the stick, and let the rice fall into the bowl. The road from T'ungcho to Peking is a highway above the level of the surrounding country, paved with large blocks of stone; but the traffic over it was so heavy that the cart-wheels wore ruts between the ends of the stones, half a foot or more in depth. To ride over such a road in a springless cart was almost enough to break one's bones. This road being traversed by tourists, a report went abroad that China had splendid roads. The most of the roads are great only in length, and in the. difficulty of traveling over them. They are never repaired except when impassable, and such mixtures of mud, sand and rock are not worthy to be called roads. T'ungcho is two cities in one. The western part contains a "granary," with scarcely any buildings, and probably not much grain. The square bastion at the southwest corner of the city wall has been taken down, and rebuilt in a rounded shape. It is the custom in China, in case a son kills his father, to change in this way the corner of the city wall, as a threat against the existence of the city. After a second case of patricide, another corner of the wall would be rounded off. After a third patricide,

The Calm Before the Storm 23

the city would be destroyed, and no one ever allowed to live on its site. The iaw being so severe, bribery mVist be frequently employed to prevent such sentences being passed by the Judge.

The Americans in T'ungcho were an educational and literary power. Foremost among them were Rev. Drs. C. Goodrich and D. Z. Sheffield. The former was Dean of the Gordon Memorial Theological Seminary, arid the latter was President of the North China College. Schools of al! grades were maintained, a hospital and dispensary gave help to the poor, and a church supporting its own Chinese pastor showed the success of the evangelistic work. Dr. J, H. Ingram, in 1899, made a run from T'ungcho to Kalgan on his bicycle, — over three ranges of mountains, one hundred and fifty miles of rock and sand, in only forty-six hours, — and saved Mr, Williams' life. Dr. Sheffield invented a Chinese typewriter and electrical machines. The workers at this place succeeded in developing among the Chinese the highest traits of manhood and womanhood, T'ungcho visible was a dirty city on a flat and malarial plain. T'ungcho dynamic, with its college and other institutions, was a mountain height of thought, purity and power. The college campus, southwest of the city, con-

24 A FMgH For Life

tained fifteen acres of land, a dormitory and recitation building called "Williams Hall," — from Dr. S. Wells Williams, one of the chief donors, — and residences for the missionaries and native teachers, A large garden of strawberry plants gave the students an c^portunity to earn part df their support. A windmill, which pumped water for the strawberries, should have taught the people an improved method of irrigation, but may have aroused their superstitious fears. Dr. Ingram had just built a fine brick church in the city. He was naturally anxious lest it should be burned by the Boxers.

After four days of Chinese meetings, the missionaries in the city went out to the college, for the English meetings of the following days. At night two gentlemen would return to the city to watch the property, and Miss Andrews and Miss Cbapin also went there to quiet the fears of the Christian women. All felt the approach of the impending calamity. The quiet was the calm before the storm.

Chapter IV T'ungcho And Kalgan In Danger

The railroad having ruined the business of T'ungcho, the people of this place hated it, and were bitter against foreigners; and it was the Boxers from this city, who, on the twenty-ninth of May, destroyed the railroad junction at Feng T'ai, where the road from Peking to Tientsin joined that to Paotingfu. They burned the railway station, and the storehouses of the foreign merchants, and tore up a part of the" Paotingfu road. That was really the beginning of the outbreak. The next day. Memorial Day in America, feeling our insecurity, we raised the Stars and Stripes above Mr. Tewksbury's house at the college ; but the flag could not defend the buildings, and within ten days they were all destroyed. Beneath the flag was a telescope, which the natives thought to be a gun. They said that with one shot it could blow to pieces half the city. Though we told them it was only a telescope, they repeatedly begged us not to fire it oil.

The Boxers next attacked the civil engineers employed by the railway company, who, with their families, lived at a place fifteen miles southwest of Peking. The French hotel-keeper led a small rescuing party, and brought them all into the city. About the same time, thirty engineers fled by boat from Paotingfu to Tientsin, but, being attacked on the way, lost seven of their number. The next day fifty Cossacks went from Tientsin, and brought in three of those that were lost.

On Thursday, May 31st, one hundred United States marines, and similar troops of the otfter Powers, were at Tientsin. All of the Ministers in Peking spent the night at the Foreign Office until 2 130 A.M., demanding permission that the guards might come, and insisting that, if they should not be allowed to do so, larger numbers would be sent for. Under these circumstances, our anxiety on the first of June may be imagined. That was the fifth day of the fifth moon, a Chinese feastday, when people would be at leteure, dnnk more wine than at other times, and be more ready to engage in riot. Dr. A. H. Smith said in our meeting: "We are sitting on a volcano, which is going to blow us and the church sky-high ; but the Church of Christ will come down all right, and go

T'uHgcho and Kalgan in Danger 27

on even better than before ; but there is no knowing; whether you and I shall come down or not."

The next day was scorching hot. The United States marines marched into Peking with fixed bayonets, followed by those of other nations, each of the four strongest being represented by seventyfive soldiers. Ten thousand Chinese troops were drawn up in two lines between the railway station and the city gate, a distance of four miles, and the populace turned out en masse to see the sight. The captain of the American marines said afterward that he never before had seen so many people in one day, and that, if the Chinese had attacked them, our men would have had no opportunity to defend themselves.

The same day reports came of native Christians being killed in the villages near T'ungcho. Four camps of Boxers were established close to the college. Two English missionaries, Messrs. Robinson and Norman, who lived midway between Peking and Tientsin, were attacked by six hundred Boxers and slain. They belonged to the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel." The name of their chapel was identical with that of the Roman Catholic cathedrals, and we thought that this may have been the reason why they were attacked before other Protestant missionaries.

Late in the evening, a telegram came from Mr. Sprague in Kalgan, saying that the Boxers were threatening that Mission Station, and asking that we demand from the Foreign Office instructions to the Kalgan magistrates, to protect the missionaries ; also requesting us to go and help him as early as possible.

A few days before, Kalgan seemed the only place in our Mission not terrorized by the Boxers. On May 28, Mr. Sprague wrote that Kalgan did not propose to be behind the rest of the world, for Boxers had come there too. Several armed men had been seen near the place, and had used threatening words, but were arrested the next morning by constables from Peking, and proved to be not Boxers, but hOTse-thieves.

June 2nd, when he sent the telegram, Mr. Sprague wrote: "Boxer rumors are exciting many people here. The Boxers are drilling on the street daily. Two families living in our dispensary have left in fear. The Boxers say that they will enter our premises on Monday night, and Sum the houses. I sent teacher Lo to the police office last night for a guard. The chief of police laughed at the matter loudly, but finally promised the men, I shall ask tor an extra guard for a few days. I wish

T'ungcko and Kalgan in Danger 29

you were here, to stand with your gun shoulder to shoulder with me. I hope that you will come as soon as the Mission Meeting is over. There is nothing more to say, except that we propose to 'trust in God, and keep our powder dry'."

Sunday came, but we could not all «njoy rest. Mr. Tewksbury and Dr. Ingram rode to Peking on their bicycles, consulted Minister Conger as to the safety of T'ungcho and Kalgan, and relumed before evening. At five p.m. we sai^ Gospel Hymns, and at eight p.m. received the communion. Dr. Goodrich and Mr, Williams officiating.

Mission Meeting closed oa Monday, the fourth. It is a necessary part of our Annual Meeting, to have an evening of music and recreation, as a reUef for our minds under the strain of many meetings and much business. This year the need was greater, because of the unusual anxiety. On this last evening we held a musicale at the college. The missionary children sang and declaimed, and we had a good deal of sport and music; but underneath it all was the terrible feeling that our lives were in imminent danger. The Misses Wyckoff sang a duet : —

"Oh, for Ihe wings, for the wings of a dove. —

Far, lar away to my home would 1 rove;

In the depth of the wilderness build me a nest," etc.

As these ladies were shortly after cooped up in Peking during the siege, we who were traveling through the desert of Gobi could not help thinking of the song as being both appropriate and omi-

PEKING JUST BEFORE THE SIEGE

At daybreak of June 5, Dr. Ament and I lett T'ungcho, and went to Peking on our wheels. Entering the city, we saw the foreign guards on the streets, and felt that their presence gave security ; but, shortly after, we learned that the Chinese expected an uprising of the whole populace within three days, in an attempt to massacre all the foreigners in the city; and we realized anew that we were standing on a volcano.

Minister Conger received us at the United States Legation. He was care-worn and anxious. • Several tourists, who were his guests, were spending the entire day at the railway station, trying to go to Tientsin, but not succeeding, for they were not allowed to buy tickets. This shows the easy way in which the Chinese can make a railroad become no railroad for foreigners at any time. To go to Tientsin in any other way would have been impossible, for the country was full of Boxers, and we had received official notice that all the ap- 31 preaches to Tientsin were dangerous. Escape to the coast was cut off. To go out of the country to the south, east or west, was impossible, and the only way of escape, — a way full of dangers, — was northward to Kalgan and Siberia. Mr. Williams and I did not think of going so far as to Siberia, but thought first to go and help Mr. Sprague against the Boxers in Kalgan, and, if possible, to continue our missionary work there; for Kalgan is as far from Peking in point of time as Boston is from San Francisco, and frequently heretofore, when there were commotions in Peking, Kalgan had been quiet. We thought that, if it should be impossible to stay at Kalgan, we might withdraw to some place in the prairie of Mongolia, or to Urga at the farthest, until the storm should have passed by. Then we could return to our work. Mr. Conger at first advised us not to go. He said : "You are safe here, and would be safe at any place where foreigners reside, but are not safe traveling anywhere." But when we told him that we had lived many years in Kalgan, were well known along the road, and thought that we ought to go to Mr. Sprague's relief, he said : "You know that region better than I, and may go on your own responsibility, and I wish you good success,"