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 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER 
 
 BWB351 
 
APR i 1959 
 
 "^^OGKAl S' 
 
 ON THE WAY 
 HWAI YUEN: 
 
 OR THE STORY OF 
 
 A MULE RIDE IN CHINA 
 
 Visiting the Presbyterian Mission in the An-Hui Province 
 
 carried on under the direction of the Foreign Board, 
 
 by the Central Presbyterian Church of 
 
 New Yorit City 
 
 With a Foreword by the 
 
 REV. WILTON MERLE SMITH, D. D., 
 
 the Pastor of the Central Church 
 
 BY y^ 
 
 JOHN Bancroft Devins 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 "AN OBSERVER IN THE PHILIPPINES" 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK OBSERVER 
 19 5 
 
 A 
 
To be obtained from 
 
 The New York Observer, 
 
 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, 
 
 Price, single copies, twenty-five cents; 
 
 Five copies one dollar; 
 
 One hundred copies seventeen dollars. 
 
 Postage prepaid. 
 
 Copyright, 1905, hy 
 John Bancroft Devins 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Rev. Wilton Merle Smith, D. D. 
 Pastor of the Central Church 
 
 HEROISM AND CONSECRATION 
 
 ^ I ^HE movement in the Central Presbyterian 
 Church to support its own missionaries be- 
 gan in 1894, when a young missionary was sent by 
 the Church to Hyden, Kentucky, a place in the 
 mountains sixty miles from a railroad ; in a country 
 which did not at that time have a single church with 
 a settled pastor. The work there has increased so 
 much in ten years that the Church is now supporting 
 seven missionaries there. There is a church and 
 academy building, a parsonage, and a girls' dor- 
 mitory — property now valued at $10,000. There are 
 five out stations where the pastor and his assistant 
 preach. It is not too much to say that this church 
 and school have had great influence in lifting this 
 
entire community. Most of the district schools 
 through the country, some fifty in number, have as 
 teachers students educated and Christianized in the 
 Academy of Hyden. 
 
 In 1895 the Church sent the Rev. C. O. Gill and his 
 wife to Peking. After a year they were compelled 
 to return on account of illness. Then in 1898 the 
 Church resolved to support a mission station in Cen- 
 tral China. Rev. E. C. Lobenstine, Rev. Du Bois S. 
 Morris and Miss Rose Lobenstine sailed for China in 
 September. The next year Dr. Samuel Cochran and 
 the Rev. James B. Cochran and their wives joined 
 them in Nanking, where they were learning the lan- 
 guage and preparing for their work. In October, 
 1901, Hwai Yuen was chosen as our station. Miss 
 Holtman, a trained nurse, joined our band in 1902. 
 She has since married Mr. Lobenstine. Hence there 
 are at present eight missionaries in our station. 
 Property has been bought for a residence to be built 
 at once. Other property is soon to be acquired. A 
 hospital has been promised. The missionaries are 
 now living in rented Chinese houses. 
 
 The results are already beginning to appear. En- 
 quirers are numerous and through the great skill of 
 Dr. Cochran the medical side of the work has made 
 many friends among people of high and low station 
 alike. 
 
 The following is the list of the Central Church 
 missionaries : 
 
 Hyden, Kentucky — 
 
 Rev. and Mrs. T. Judson Miles (1901). 
 Rev. George Moore (1905). 
 Miss Blanche M. Shaw (1904). 
 Miss Mary E. Wiley (1904). 
 Miss Fannie C. Penland (1904). 
 Miss D. Bradshaw (1905). 
 4 
 
Hwai Yuen, An Hui Proiince, China — 
 
 Rev. and Mrs. Edwin C. Lobenstine (1898 and 1902). 
 
 Rev. Du Bois S. Morris (1898). 
 
 Rev. and Mrs. James B. Cochran (1899). 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Cochran (1899). 
 
 Miss Rose Lobenstine (1898). 
 
 Haiti art, Cliina — 
 
 Miss Henrietta Montgomery. 
 
 (Maintained by Women's Missionary Society.) 
 
 Constant letters from the missionaries, with kodak 
 pictures of their homes and the scenes about them, 
 which are often thrown upon the screen, keep the 
 interest always alive in the Central Church. Al- 
 though this work of supporting two mission stations, 
 one in the Home and one in the Foreign Field, is ex- 
 pensive, running far into the thousands every year, 
 yet it ought to be stated that the Church still gives 
 its annual offering each year to the general work of 
 the Home and Foreign Boards, and this year the of- 
 ferings were a large increase over those in former 
 years. The Central Church believes thoroughly in 
 this plan of a church supporting its own mission- 
 aries. A great wealth of prayer and sympathy goes 
 out toward them from the Church at home, and the 
 reflex influence is most marked, leading the Chris- 
 tians here to put their lives on the basis of foreign 
 missionary heroism and consecration. 
 
 Wilton INIerle Smith. 
 
 Central Church Study, 
 
 Nezv York, May i, ipo^. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 Why the Journey Was Taken 
 
 44AT7HEN I reach China," said the writer to Dr. 
 ^^^ Wilton Merie Smith, of the Central 
 Church of New York, as he began his trip to the mis- 
 sion fields of Asia, "I hope to visit your workers in 
 Hwai Yuen." 
 
 Rev. and ^[rs. James B. Cochran 
 
 Rev. E. C. Lobenstine, Miss Lobenstine, 
 
 Rev. Du Bois S. Morris 
 
 Dr. and Mr.s. Samuel Cochran 
 
 ''Brother John, if you do that you will do those 
 brave, consecrated people a world of good. But it is 
 a long way back from the coast, and the people have 
 to travel in houseboats, and it takes a long time, and 
 
few travelers get so far off the beaten tracks. If you 
 ever get there give them my love ; they are the best 
 company of people on this earth." 
 
 ''I will tell them that you said so." 
 
 On the General Assembly train across the con- 
 tinent, in conversation with an elder from the Boon- 
 ton, N. J., Church, I said, "Mr. Jenkins, I hope to 
 'Visit Hwai Yuen when I go to China." 
 
 "If you ever get to that far-away place, give my 
 love to Mrs. James Cochran, for she is my daughter." 
 
 "No distance is too great, and no journey too hard 
 for one who is the bearer of such a message." 
 
 "Where is your field ?" was the innocent question 
 asked of a young woman from China, who was met 
 in Japan. 
 
 "Our mission is the oldest of our Board in China." 
 
 "And may I ask how you reach it from Shanghai ?" 
 The directions were given in a courteous manner, but 
 not with that warmth of feeling that had been char- 
 acteristic of the speaker a few^ moments earlier. At 
 the annual meeting of the Central China Mission the 
 coolness was explained : 
 
 "There is an editor from New York traveling 
 around the world, and what do you think ! He act- 
 ually didn't know how to reach the oldest Presby- 
 terian station in China. But he knew all about Hwai 
 Yuen. He knows just how to get there, and who the 
 missionaries are and all about them. Now what do 
 you think of that! You will probably see him, but 
 we in Ningpo will be passed by !" When the visit to 
 Ningpo was made a month later, all was forgiven, 
 even the dense — almost crass — ignorance, which had 
 been confessed by the writer at one time. 
 
 Hwai Yuen, pronounced as if composed of the 
 three letters Y. U. N., would be a hundred and fifty 
 
 8 
 
miles northwest of Nanking, on a direct road, but di- 
 rectness is not a virtue that characterizes the makers 
 of streets and roads and trails and paths in China. 
 The distance b} land, therefore, is somewhat prob- 
 lematical. 
 
 The length of the water trip from Nanking which 
 had always been taken by the ladies of the Mission, 
 and usually by the gentlemen, is wholly problem- 
 atical ; the question of distance is eliminated — ''How 
 long will it take ?" is the only query. The answer is 
 never made with any degree of confidence : 
 
 "Two weeks, four weeks, or six weeks — it all de- 
 pends upon the load the boat carries, the condition 
 of the canal at the time — whether or no there is a 
 block — the depth of water in the lake and the force 
 and direction of the wind." 
 
 If I went by water from one to two months would 
 be taken out of the year, not in visiting mission fields, 
 but in a houseboat going and returning ; if I went 
 overland — there were the Chinese inns with their 
 native food, the native animals to ride by day and 
 others to elude by night, and other perils, but bearing 
 the love of a devoted father and one of the best pas- 
 tors in the world, the journey must be undertaken 
 and would be taken in safety ; of that the bearer had 
 no doubt — an angel might have been more fearful. 
 
 Leaving Mrs. Devins in Peking, I went to Shang- 
 hai, and taking passage on a Yangtse River boat, I 
 reached Nanking early one morning-. I had not told 
 any one in that city I was coming, for knowing some- 
 thing of the unselfish nature of missionaries, I was 
 sure that one of them w^ould be at the steamer to meet 
 me, using strength that was needed for the work for 
 which the missionaries have left home and loved ones. 
 
 At the same time it is a bit drearv ( shall I confess 
 
it?) to be dropped off a river steamer in a Chinese 
 town at I A. .M., without knowing a word of the lan- 
 guage of the people among whom you drop, espe- 
 cially when they have' words and to spare. But just 
 ahead is Nanking and its earnest workers, and be- 
 yond that city is Hwai Yuen and its band of eight 
 devoted workers whom no American traveler has 
 ever visited in their far-away station, and beyond 
 them still is Dr. Smith's query, sure to come : 
 
 "Brother John, did you see the bravest and best 
 lot of missionaries in China?" I could never return 
 to New York and say "No" to that question. 
 
 Thoughts like these helped to make the landing at 
 Nanking less dreary, and the walk to the Chinese 
 hotel less monotonous. At the hotel — that term is 
 used by courtesy — I untied my bundle of bedding, 
 spread it on the bedstead and prepared to lie down 
 for two or three hours. Just then a Chinaman, 
 whom I had not seen before, came into my room to 
 talk to me. He knew a few words of English and 
 his sleep had been disturbed because of that fact. A 
 brief conversation followed and then three hours of 
 sleep. After a fairly good breakfast, I started out for 
 the Presbyterian compound, seven or eight miles 
 away. It took the combined efforts of the Chinaman, 
 who could be understood somewhat, and a half dozen 
 of his countrymen who could not be understood at all, 
 to get me oft' ; but I blamed no one. It was the fault 
 of my early education ; I should have studied Chinese 
 instead of Hebrew, or rather have learned both. 
 
 All of the missionaries in Nanking — the Leamans, 
 the Drummonds, the Williamses, Mrs. Abbey and 
 Miss Dresser of the Presbyterian Board, as well as 
 Methodists and Disciples — w^ere deeply interested in 
 the proposed trip to Hwai Yuen. A good Methodist 
 
 10 
 
brother furnished his saddle and bridle; another 
 tried to get animals — horses, mules or donkeys ; 
 while Mr. Leaman secured a "boy" to accompany me ; 
 and, not least, another dear soul, ^Irs. Drummond, 
 filled a large proyision basket full of good things. 
 Without that basket of food and other necessary 
 comforts in a wonderful itinerating box which she 
 provided, I fear that a widow would have come back 
 from China and a new editor would have been 
 needed in New York. 
 
 It was planned that I should start early Monday 
 morning in order to reach Hwai Yuen by Friday 
 night. But it was three o'clock that afternoon be- 
 fore I was ofif and then I had no animals. The wily 
 horse dealers knew that I wanted to go very badly, 
 and they raised the price and talked of my weight, 
 and criticised the size of my bundles. 
 
 At last I started with my boy, whom I called Li, 
 because that was easier to remember than the heathen 
 name which his mother gave him, and a servant of 
 Mr. Drummond's, who was to pilot me over the river 
 that I might secure animals at Pu Ko. I had hoped 
 to get an English-speaking Chinaman to accompany 
 me during the fortnight, but none being available, I 
 set out with one who knew as little English as I did 
 Chinese. Two or three of the Nanking missionaries 
 wanted to go with me, feeling that it was unwise, if 
 not unsafe, for me to take the trip alone. But, while 
 very grateful, their kind offer was declined; mis- 
 sionaries should not be used as guides or interpreters 
 on shopping excursions by travelers. It is bad 
 enough when one uses them as much as the writer 
 did, and as much as he was obliged to do in order to 
 start for Hwai Yuen. 
 
 Mr. Drummond accompanied me a part of the way 
 
to the river in order to change ^Mexican dollars for 
 other silver dollars which would be taken in the in- 
 terior of the country. As I had then two other kinds 
 of silver dollars with me, one current in Shanghai, 
 and the other which I had received in change bearing 
 the Singapore stamp, and had also many strings of 
 copper cash, I realized the need of a reform in 
 Chinese currency. 
 
 "All the world round, you may find wells whose water you 
 could not say was different from zvhat you daily use; at any 
 rate it quenches your thirst as zvcll. You could not tell what 
 country you were in, nor what age, by the taste of the water 
 from a living zvell. And so, zvhat God has provided for our 
 spiritual life bears in it no peculiarities of time or place; 
 it addresses itself zvith equal pozver to the European of to- 
 day, as it did to the Asiatic during our Lord's own lifetime. 
 Men have settled dozvn by hundreds and by -fifties, they are 
 grouped according to various natures and tastes, but to all 
 alike is this one food presented. And this, because the want 
 it supplies is not fictitious, but as natural and veritable a 
 want, as is indicated by hunger or thirst." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 On the Yangtse River at Night 
 
 T X7HEN Li, my ''boy," Mr. Drummond's servant, 
 ^^ and I reached the landing station at Nan- 
 king, we were met by the Rev. John E. Williams, 
 the representative of the West End Presbyterian 
 Church of New York, who kindly helped to get the 
 
 Missionaries Stopped on Grand Canal 
 
 party started across the Yangtse River. Simple as 
 one would think such an undertaking should be, it 
 was by no means as easy as it would be in a Western 
 town. The price asked did not seem extravagant to 
 me, but there is always the danger of a precedent 
 beins: established, which mav embarrass the foreig^n 
 residents later. 
 
 Finallv :\Ir. Williams was obliged to start for home 
 
and my last link with civilization was severed. He 
 was anxious to go to Hwai Yuen with me, but that 
 was not to be t1iouo,ht of. I sat calmly — as calmly as I 
 could — while the servant and the boatmen came to 
 an understanding' ; perhaps it was easier to be silent 
 since I had nothing- to ofifer in the way of an explana- 
 tion — a shake of the head, a shrug of the shoulder, an 
 elevation of the eyebrow, an extension of the hand, 
 palm up, even a frown or a smile has its proper use 
 when unknown tongues are in active service, but 
 usually one would better employ only the last aid 
 mentioned and smile, but not too expansively, lest the 
 motive be misunderstood. 
 
 The sun has gone down before the boat has been 
 made ready, and soon we were on the Yangtse in a 
 boat that may have been in use in China in the first 
 Christian century. To say that I was wholly at ease 
 would be to stretch the truth a little. Crossing a 
 river two miles wide, a hundred fathoms deep, and 
 flowing four miles an hour, is not calculated to in- 
 spire courage ; especially when the trip is made after 
 dark in a rickety boat manned by men with whom 
 you cannot exchange a word. I had understood that 
 we were to cross the river in a half hour, and then 
 a walk of four miles lay ahead of us before we 
 reached Pu Ko, where the animals were to be se- 
 cured, and where we were to spend the night. This 
 trip should have been taken in less time, helped as 
 we were by the current and sails, but by and by the 
 sails were taken down, and the men began to row. 
 After a while we entered an inlet, and one of the 
 rowers jumped ashore and with a rope began to pull 
 the boat. It was about two hours before we disem- 
 barked — after having enjoyed a bit of quiet, if not 
 simple, life. 
 
 14 
 
Following my associates who bought a penny lan- 
 tern and candle, I trudged on for half a mile to the 
 hong, or inn, where we were to spend the night. A 
 room was secured and I passed through the curious 
 as well as curious-looking crowd that thronged the 
 hong. Cold, damp, and cheerless was the room. 
 Bare earth formed the floor ; a vile smelling oil lamp 
 furnished sufficient light to make the darkness visi- 
 ble. A brick bed over which straw had been thrown, 
 was to be my resting place. 
 
 Li soon had the table ready. The thoughtfulness 
 of Mrs. Drummond was soon apparent. A table 
 cloth was spread, and dishes as well as a quantity of 
 food, substantial and tempting, were placed upon it. 
 The kindness of the Nanking missionaries was much 
 appreciated at the time, and the sense of obligation 
 deepens as distance and time increase. When Li 
 announced, ''Dinner is served," he did not use those 
 words, but what he did say was entirely satisfactory. 
 While I had not invited any guests to my first meal, 
 the doorway and the part of the room near the door 
 were filled with a score of quiet, respectful China- 
 men, who looked on as interestedly as a party of 
 Presbyterians in San Francisco had watched a 
 Celestial dinner party in Chinatown a few months 
 before. But somehow it does seem different to watch 
 than to be watched — perhaps it does to a Chinaman, 
 too. If Americans are amused by what they, see in 
 Chinatown in New York or San Francisco, their 
 representatives that night apparently furnished an 
 equal amount of pleasure to the Pu Koites. 
 
 Before the simple meal was ended, the business in 
 hand was taken up ; I know now what Paul meant 
 about five words of known and several thousand 
 words of unknown tongues — I have always had great 
 
faith in Paul, — that faith has l)cen streng^thened by 
 m\' trip to Hwai Yuen. Mr. Druniinond's servant 
 and the boy and the hon^^-keeper, and every China- 
 man in the inn, and apparently every resident in 
 Pu Ko, were as deeply interested in the proposed 
 journey as the traveler; certainly they expressed a 
 deeper interest in it than he did. It was amusing 
 to watch the fencing between the servant and the 
 muleteer who had been asked his price for the trip. 
 He had two mules and a donkey, as I learned later 
 through a young Chinaman who had been in a mis- 
 sion school in Nanking where he had learned a little 
 English ; he was now the schoolmaster in Pu Ko. - 
 
 Unable to settle matters himself, the hong-keeper 
 had sent for this young teacher. The price and the 
 number of animals were not satisfactory, but no 
 other muleteer would even discuss the possibility of 
 making a bargain with another man. 
 
 "It is his job," w^as all they would say. I have 
 never seen labor union principles more vigorously 
 applied. I must take Lao, who had been first ap- 
 proached, and at his price, or walk to Hwai Yuen. 
 At last the capitalist yielded ; he yielded with a smile 
 and solemnly promised to pay $23 (Mexican), about 
 $11 in American money, for the muleteer and his 
 two mules and a donkey for ten days — the owner to 
 pay all hotel bills for himself and his animals ; if Lao 
 had said $23 gold, he would have received it, for the 
 journey had to be taken. This momentous question 
 settled, "Nature's sweet restorer" was sought and 
 found, and this without the sprinkling of powder 
 over the bed and around the room, the first process 
 in many a Chinese inn ; apparently T had been taken 
 to a first-class hotel. The bedding supplied by the 
 Aments in Peking, another family of blessed mem- 
 
ory, was rolled out over the straw, and the cheerless- 
 ness and the dampness of the room were soon for- 
 gotten ; I was putting- myself in the position of an 
 itinerating missionary, and unpleasant surroundings 
 and reflections upon them must be borne as the mis- 
 sionaries bear them — as a part of the daily task which 
 the Master gives as they go forth with Him as their 
 Guide and Teacher and Friend. 
 
 " 'Hozv fair is the feet!' From the vieivpoint of Heaven 
 there is nothing on the earth more lovely than the bearing 
 of the name of Jesus Christ into the needing world, zvhen 
 the bearer is one 'ivho loves and knows.' It is tJte continua- 
 tion of what the King Himself 'began to do' when He was 
 His own first Missionary to a world which needed Him im- 
 nieasurablv, vet did not know Him zvhen He came." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Off For Hwai Yuen 
 
 TV /TORNING comes to the traveler in China 
 -^^-■- about two hours eadier than it does at home. 
 Long before dawn the yard of the inn at Pu Ko was 
 astir, and sleep for that day was out of the question. 
 Li and Lao, my boy and my muleteer, were awake 
 
 Edwin C. Lobenstine and Du Bois S. Morris 
 Two of the Hwai Yuen Missionaries 
 
 and up and no one else could be asleep. The bedding 
 was not aired as it should have been, but then there 
 was no window to open for the fresh morning air 
 to enter with health-giving breezes ; when the door 
 leading into the yard was opened, I saw the wisdom 
 of letting the bedding air in the bundle on the mule's 
 back as we journeyed. In the homeland a young 
 
 19 
 
^^lANC- HS 
 
 The An-Hui Province in China 
 
 [From Nanking to Ilwai Yuen, the water route is west on thelYangtse to Chin-Kiang, where the Grand 
 Canal starts north towards Tientsin; then through the Canal to Lake Hung-tseh, then East through the 
 Lake and the Ko River to its junction with the Hwal River at Hwai Yuen. The author crossed the 
 Yangtse at Nanking and traveled in a northwesterly direction for four days, covering the hundred and 
 fifty miles in that time. 
 
 20 
 
man won his mother-in-law before he did his wife 
 bv airing his sleeping room ; he must have acted 
 under a sudden impulse. 
 
 It is one of the many regrets of my life that I was 
 not able to follow Colonel Roosevelt up San Juan 
 Hill ; when I reach home I am going to apply for 
 membership in his famous organization — I, too, am a 
 rough rider ; I had to be. Every one has to be who 
 rides a Chinese mule. The pressure of the hind hoof 
 of a mule on different parts of one's body is more 
 warm than welcome, until the rider gets fully accus- 
 tomed to this form of salutation, and then he begins 
 to miss something usual if the caress is not given. 
 
 "Off for Hwai Yuen. Six animals, three human." 
 
 This was the parting message sent back by the 
 messenger to be forwarded to the wife in Peking, 
 for we were to travel where no railway or telegraph 
 line had ever been stretched. No letter could be writ- 
 ten which would reach her before I returned and no 
 other telegram could be sent for three days. 
 
 It was a modest company that started from Pu Ko 
 early on a Tuesday morning. The pack mule led the 
 procession ; Lao, the muleteer, on foot followed ; then 
 came the American on his mule, and bringing up the 
 rear Li on his donkey. There should have been a 
 mule or a donkey for Lao. but I had secured all the 
 animals which he had. 
 
 The pack mule bore the burdens without a com- 
 plaint. I called him Central, because when I wanted 
 to say something, not that any one could understand 
 me, but because I must speak or scream — the silence 
 was so oppressive — I would call out ''Hello !" In a 
 moment or two a reply would often come from Cen- 
 tral that a not too vivid imagination could construe 
 into: 
 
"Biis-y, bus-y, bus-y !" 
 
 The remark may not have been a response to my 
 salutation, but simply an exchange of greetings with 
 another mule in a passing caravan. Central did not 
 always reply promptly to my call ; that was one rea- 
 son also why the name seemed appropriate. Our 
 direction from Tuesday morning till Friday night 
 was to be almost due northwest, but we made many 
 detours every hour, turning right angles, climbing 
 mountains, fording streams, picking our way through 
 countless villages, with Central ahead, followed 
 by the foreigner on his mule — I had a name for him, 
 too, based upon his kicking propensities, but I do not 
 wish to obtrude politics into a missionary tale. 
 
 The first day at noon our troubles began. There 
 had been a slight misunderstanding between mem- 
 bers of the party earlier in the day, but I had yielded 
 then and did at noon also. Lao insisted that I 
 should ride behind Central. Once I rode ahead and 
 let my mule trot for about three rods. Lao ran up, 
 jabbered in Chinese, grabbed the bridle and led my 
 mule for an hour. I let that pass and he saw that I 
 was "easy." At noon I wanted to go on to Si Goh, 
 where I had been told by the missionaries to get my 
 midday meal. Lao decided that he would not go so 
 far; he said nothing, but he drove the animals into 
 an inn before we reached Si Goh ; again I yielded, 
 and he saw that I was "very easy." 
 
 Si Goh was passed an hour after starting in the 
 afternoon. I said to myself, I could not say it to 
 any one else : "We shall have to ride faster to make 
 up that hour or Hwai Yuen cannot be reached by 
 Friday night. About 4 o'clock we reached U-We 
 and to my great surprise Central, Li and the donkey 
 turned into the vard of an inn. 
 
Then I saw why we had not dined at Si Goh. Lao 
 had planned a shorter day's journey than the con- 
 
 Lao and Li -Muleteer and Boy 
 
 tract called for. Chu Cho was the place agreed upon 
 as the place where we were to spend the first night. 
 For a few niinutes the American had his hands fulL 
 
 23 
 
Lao arg-ued — it was really a one-sided argument; 
 my mule tried to throw me and join Central in the 
 yard ; Li took sides with Lao — that was my impres- 
 sion, though I could not swear to it ; the inn-keeper 
 came out and his servants with him. They evi- 
 dently did not wish to have six animals, three of 
 them human, go on to the rival inn at Chu Cho. Lao 
 reviled nie ; he seemed to use fearful language, my 
 mule revolved several times, the men began to unload 
 Central. 
 
 I forbade that, and requested them to desist. This 
 time I did not yield. The "foreign devil" sat his 
 mule and smilingly said : 
 
 "Chu Cho." 
 
 The native saints were truly Celestial. They 
 smiled also and continued to unload Central. 
 
 "Chu Cho." 
 
 Lao pointed to the sun — there was not time to 
 reach Chu Cho before dark. 
 
 "Chu Cho," was my only answer. What more 
 could I say? 
 
 Lao pointed to the mule — he was too tired to go 
 further. The places for noon and night refreshment 
 had been selected by Mr. Drummond in Nanking, 
 who had been over this trail on foot many times. 
 
 "Chu Cho." 
 
 Lao pointed to his feet — he could walk no further ; 
 the places had been named when the contract was 
 made. They were the only good ones — no, that 
 statement needs qualifying; no others were so good 
 as these. 
 
 "Chu Cho." 
 
 Lao fell prostrate and bumped his forehead on the 
 ground — he would move me by prayer. I nearly 
 
 24 
 
yielded, but stories of the inns at places not scheduled 
 came to my mind. 
 
 ''Chu Cho." 
 
 In a flash Lao had ceased to pray. He was on his 
 feet, and like a madman rushed towards me, his 
 heavy whip in hand. The time had come to stop 
 smiling. Perhaps a frown chased it away ; Lao says 
 I made a fist — he is in error; I was trying to hold 
 my mule and keep my seat in the saddle that fitted 
 neither mule nor rider, and watch Lao and prevent 
 Central from being unloaded, and get Li on my side. 
 This time I dropped my Chinese and spoke in Eng- 
 lish, slowly, but in a manner that was not misunder- 
 stood : 
 
 "Li, come out of that yard. Bring that pack mule 
 here and we will start for Chu Cho." 
 
 I slapped my hands together. The effect was 
 electrical. Lao is sure that I made a fist. Li came 
 out of the yard. The inn-keeper and his servants 
 assisted in getting Central out of the yard, having 
 restored his burden. Lao, defiant but silent, with his 
 hand on my bridle, started on for Chu Cho, Li in a 
 meditative mood behind. Thinking to beguile the 
 way, I ran over the names of the towns where we 
 were to sleep on succeeding nights. 
 
 ''Chu Cho, Chih Ho, Feng Yang, Hwai Yuen." 
 
 Two or three times I repeated these mellifluous 
 monosyllables. Finally the tension proved too great. 
 In the most delicious sarcasm, in tones wholly 
 American, the muleteer mimicked me perfectly : 
 
 ''Chu Cho, Chih Ho, Feng Yang, Hw^ai Yuen." 
 
 Possibly he prolonged the sounds a trifle longer 
 than I had done, but it had the desired efi^ect. It re- 
 lieved Lao's temper. He turned to see what I would 
 do next. He met a smile and he gave one in return. 
 
 25 
 
Lao and I were friends, and only once after that was 
 there an estrangement, and that was only mo- 
 mentary; he had forgotten the incident at U-We, 
 hut it soon came to his mind and we remained 
 friends. 
 
 "The essence of disciplesliip is love. The best of love is 
 not emotion but obedience. And the school of obedience is 
 sacrifice, even suffering. Thus Jesus learned obedience of 
 the things that He suffered.' 'It is the way the Master zvent. 
 Shall not the servant tread it still?' " 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 A Lonely Night on the Way 
 
 TT was four o'clock when we left U-We, two 
 hours later than it should have been. Had Lao 
 intended to reach Chu Clio that night we should have 
 been at U-We by two o'clock and at Chu Cho at six. 
 Since Lao will probably not read this letter, I do not 
 mind saying that I had not ridden an hour beyond 
 U-We before I would have been glad if I had re- 
 mained there ; on reflection, I am willing that Lao 
 should know it. 
 
 It was a November afternoon. The day was short 
 and the air was chill. As the sun went down and the 
 temperature fell, I sufl^ered from the cold. The moon 
 did not rise till ten o'clock. We secured three two- 
 cent paper lanterns and rode on and on and ever on 
 toward Chu Cho. Once or twice I dismounted, but 
 after walking for a time over the treacherous trail, 
 I concluded that I was safer on the mule's back than 
 on my own feet. It was my first day in the saddle 
 for several months, and counting out the time spent 
 in the inn at noon we traveled more than ten hours 
 that day before the walls of Chu Cho appeared, but 
 only by reaching that town Tuesday night could we 
 reach Hwai Yuen Friday night, and keep my con- 
 tract with Lao and Li whose pictures I took as the 
 muleteer was beginning his midday meal. 
 
 But now we are in Chu Cho at last. A tired set 
 are the animals, especially the three human ones ;' I 
 can vouch for one of them. The mules and donkevs 
 
are taken to the stable which I pass through on the 
 way to the room in the inn to which I am assigned. 
 And this is one of the better inns ! What should I 
 have found in one not first-class? The room last 
 night was bad enough. It was dirty and close and 
 ill-smelling with its smoking oil lamp, but that room 
 was palatial compared to this one in which I must 
 eat and sleep. And yet this room is one of the best 
 on the route over which the missionaries travel. I 
 studied for eight years intending to be a foreign 
 missionary, and this is what I should have had to en- 
 dure if I had been sent to this part of China. 
 
 While I sit on the kang, the raised brick platform 
 in one corner of the room which serves as chair and 
 bed, Li sets the table. The window is out and the 
 raw breeze pours in. I am unable to close the door. 
 I am chilled through and I fear that I shall add to the 
 cold that I have. The room fills up with men, wo- 
 men and children, staring at the traveler as if he were 
 the wild man from Borneo ; they do not often have a 
 chance to see an American traveler. Li brings in the 
 dinner, a cup of poor tea and a bit of bread and jam. 
 I manage to eat a little, but it is a great effort even 
 to do this. I am not sick, exactly, but if the visitors 
 would withdraw for a moment and let me induls^e 
 in a quiet wiping of moisture that unbidden dims 
 my sight, I would esteem it a kindness. But they 
 manifest no signs of leaving me, and rousing myself 
 I say inwardly : 
 
 "Missionaries are not run by water power nor will 
 I be." 
 
 But not even this assertion rests my body nor 
 promises a night free from danger to my health. I 
 have in my pocket a letter to a missionary who lives 
 in Chu Cho on whom I intend to call in the morning. 
 
I would send it to him now, were it not so late, and 
 if I knew that his wife had not been ill. For a time 
 I try to be brave — as brave as a missionary would be, 
 as brave as he is — but at last I weaken, and in a hand 
 showing both fatigue and cold, I send a modest line : 
 
 "If your wife's health will permit a stranger com- 
 ing to your home at this hour, and if you have a 
 spare bed or lounge which I can occupy for the night, 
 I shall be most grateful." 
 
 In a few minutes a messenger came with a cordial 
 invitation to come at once, and the resolution which 
 I had made to sleep in the inns as the missionaries 
 did was shattered ; they are made of sterner stuff 
 than the writer. Were the destination the scene of a 
 battle, the tomb of a great man or the site of a temple, 
 I should return to Nanking the next morning. But 
 better than temples or tombs or battlefields is the 
 destination that awaits the traveler who presses on to 
 Hwai Yuen. 
 
 A night in a Christian bed, following the hearty 
 welcome which I received when reaching the home 
 of W. R. Hunt, and a good breakfast the next morn- 
 ing, quite restored the weary traveler, and tears did 
 not trouble him again ; other nights were lonely and 
 other inns were forbidding, and other crowds of in- 
 quisitive people stared at him, but he never weakened 
 again ; he was gaining something of the spirit of the 
 missionaries whom he was going to meet at the end 
 of the week. 
 
 The Church of the Disciples has a large and suc- 
 cessful mission work at Nanking ; a school at Pu Ko, 
 a station with two families at Chu Cho, and its mis- 
 sionaries are planning to run a chain of stations, 
 three or four hundred miles northwest of Nanking. 
 They are doing excellent work in this part of China, 
 
and are meeting with good results. One of their 
 men in Chu Cho is Dr. Osgood, and he insisted on 
 accompanying me during the morning ride. Rut first 
 he had a plain talk with Li and Lao. He told Li that 
 he must do what I said, not what Lao said ; that he 
 should have helped me at U-We, instead of going 
 in the yard as Lao requested him to do. Li said that 
 he was afraid of Lao, or that he was until he saw 
 that the traveler was not, and he promised not to 
 take sides with him again. Lao heard some plain 
 facts about his duty in keeping contracts ; he is 
 told that Chih Ho is the next place to stay over 
 night. Lao demurred at this, naming a town this 
 side, a few hours less of travel for this day he planned 
 also. 
 
 Dr. Osgood settles on a plan for circumventing 
 the muleteer. He tells him also that he must let me 
 ride ahead and save time if I choose to do so, letting 
 the pack mule come on as he may. He will go with 
 me to a village a half day's ride from Chu Cho, and 
 after dinner there at the home of a Christian 
 preacher, a Chinaman, he will turn me over to the 
 preacher, who will ride with us past the town where 
 Lao planned to stop for the night and see us safely 
 started on the last part of the trail to Chih Ho. 
 
 "Suppose Lao objects to this arrangement; I can- 
 not talk to your preacher any better than I can to the 
 driver." 
 
 ''You will not need to talk to either. Wdien you 
 see the preacher, you will understand." 
 
 Nothing is said to Lao of our plans ; he will find 
 out what his duty is by a living illustration rather 
 than by precept ; when he finds our party enlarged by 
 the addition of another member of his own na- 
 
tionalit}', words will not be necessary, Dr. Osgood 
 says. 
 
 One of the prized half days of my months, in 
 China was the time s]:)ent with Dr. Osgood as we 
 trotted together over the plain, losing sight entirely 
 of Li and Lao and the pack animals, or toiled up the 
 mountain sides together, talking of the homeland 
 and mutual friends there or of the hopes and trials 
 and successes of the missionaries in the land in which 
 we are traveling. Scarcely a word about hardships, 
 but much about joys and opportunities; every cloud 
 seems to have been turned wrong side out by these 
 devoted men and women and only the silver Hning 
 appears. It was restful to be in the company of one 
 wdio can understand you ; I did not know^ Cjuite wdiat 
 a hardship T was undergoing in starting out as I cHd, 
 but the prize was w'orth the effort. Again and again 
 the prayer came to my thoughts and often to my 
 lips : 
 
 ''God bless these faithful missionaries, and give me 
 somethino- of their fidelity and heroism." 
 
 "Evidences multiply (hat the long-anticipated azvakening 
 of China has come. Pray that the missionaries may be given 
 special grace in this supreme hour, and that the Church may 
 realise its solemn responsibility. This is the time to send 
 generous reinforcements." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 In A Chinese AIob 
 
 'T^ HE native preacher, who was to aid the traveler 
 
 in defeating his muleteer's intentions to 
 
 shorten the second day's journey as he had tried to 
 
 do the first day, comprehended Dr. Osgood's thought 
 
 The Traveler's Mules and Pack 
 
 in a moment. When I saw him I had no fear that 
 Lao would sulk in his presence. Xor did I fear that 
 he would threaten either the preacher or me while 
 the former was in sight. "A story teller by profes- 
 sion." 
 
 accustomed to gather crowds and entertain 
 
 33 
 
them by the hour by the recital of wonderful tales, 
 playing upon their imagination, upon their knowl- 
 edge of the history of their native land and upon 
 their love of the dramatic, after his conversion the 
 stalwart Chinaman threw all his powers into the 
 service of Christ, to become a consecrated teller of 
 the story of Calvary. As large nearly as Lao and 
 Li together, his presence alone was greatly in his 
 favor. The Chinese reverence size as well as intel- 
 lect — the lowest cultured class think more of bulk 
 than of worth. 
 
 The dinner served at this preacher's house was 
 purely Chinese, for which I was grateful ; and it 
 was supplemented by the contents of Mrs. Drum- 
 mond's basket, for which I was still more grateful. 
 This basket constantly brought to mind the famous 
 cruse of oil — the supply seemed inexhaustible. I 
 wished to pay for the entertainment ; Dr. Osgood 
 assured me that nothing would cause the preacher 
 more sorrow, but it was possible to assuage sorrow 
 thus produced — "like cures like" in China, as else- 
 where. 
 
 After dinner the American physician started back 
 to his home. The procession of animals, four hu- 
 man now, moved on toward the northwest. Central 
 ahead as usual, and the preacher astride his little 
 donkey acting as rearguard. About three o'clock 
 we passed the uninviting resting place to which Lao 
 had referred, but the muleteer was as insensible to 
 inns as to the sun or moon, both of which were visi- 
 ble at the time. He said nothing about weariness, 
 his own or his animals ; he neither prayed nor 
 threatened as he had done at LT-^^^e ; he simply 
 plodded on and ever on, the patient, faithful, tireless 
 Lao ! How much of this devotion to duty was due 
 
 34 
 
to a new resolve of purpose, and how much was due 
 to the fact that the story teller was still in sight, 
 need not be questioned too closely. 
 
 Chih Ho was reached an hour after dark, an im- 
 provement over the previous day. The inn was also 
 
 Chinese Mothers and Children 
 
 better than the one at Chu Cho, and there was no 
 other place to which to go ; when bridges are burned 
 it is easier to press forward. It was somewhat 
 easier also to think of the frugal meal which Li was 
 to provide. 
 
 Desiring a piece of chicken for supper, I try to 
 think how I can tell Li what I wish. ]\Ir. Drum- 
 mond had written the Chinese word for egg in my 
 note book, but not the one for chicken ; evidently 
 missionaries do not indulge in luxuries of this kind 
 on their itinerating trips. But how am I to get my 
 
 35 
 
chicken? The language of hens is universal; I do 
 not need to learn Chinese to order a chicken. 
 
 ''Li ! Cock-a-doodle-do !" Then I point to the 
 table. Li smiles and starts for the yard. Soon a 
 noise not peculiar to China is heard, and I know that 
 a pullet will soon be roasting. 
 
 Though the hour was early when the meal was 
 finished, a few verses from the Testament, a few 
 words of gratitude for journeying mercies, a few 
 words seeking protection and rest, and Li in his 
 corner and I in mine, were soon fast asleep. Lao 
 slept with the other caravan drivers, and at four 
 o'clock summoned us to prepare for the next day's 
 journey. Thinking that we would save time if we 
 rode till daylight, and then let the animals rest while 
 breakfast was served, this direction was given. But, 
 alas for the result ! 
 
 Shortly after daylight Lao discovered that the 
 riding mule was ill. My knowledge of Chinese mules 
 was limited, and further it was Lao's mule. I 
 walked for an hour, not wishing to ride a sick mule, 
 or one thought to be suffering. In the meantime Li 
 had gone on with the basket and I saw neither him 
 nor the basket till eleven o'clock. A little Chinese 
 boy munching a sweet potato was induced to get 
 another by the offer of a few cash, and this consti- 
 tuted my entire breakfast. In the meantime Lao 
 had called in a veterinarian from a passing caravan. 
 They decided to bleed the mule, but instead of mak- 
 ing a modest incision in the upper jaw, as is some- 
 times done in America, a large needle was thrust into 
 the inner part of the eyelid. The mule was securely 
 tied, but his agony was intense. 
 
 After receiving this medical treatment we started 
 on again. For a long time I walked, but feeling sure 
 
that the mule was not seriously ill, I started to mount 
 him. Li protested, and secured a horse from a 
 passing caravan for me to ride. The horse was car- 
 rying a load, but with the aid of two or three China- 
 men, I was placed on top of the pack that swayed 
 from the saddle, where my feet hung over the horse's 
 neck. I had no support for either hands or feet, and 
 
 Trying to Make Them Look Pleasant 
 
 the load swayed from side to side. Instead of falling 
 off, I jumped off, and went back to my mule. Li 
 protested, cried, scowled, threatened, and kotowed. 
 Hong Sing was reached at last and Li was found 
 with breakfast prepared. Here, as elsewhere, a 
 crowd of people pressed in the room where I was 
 eating, sometimes at a distance, but usually as near 
 the table as possible, staring and making remarks to 
 one another, apparently criticising or commending 
 
the dishes and the manner of eating- the food pre- 
 pared. A group of Chinese women and children 
 pressed in upon us, and I secured permission to snap 
 them also ; the children could not be appeased even 
 by cash, but the mothers could. 
 
 At eight o'clock, three hours after sundown, we 
 reached Feng Yang, a walled city. The inns were 
 closed, but after much hallooing, Lao found a place 
 for the animals, but there was no room for us there, 
 or anywhere else, as far as we could learn. A 
 Chinese gentleman traveling wath his wife had re- 
 served the entire inn. I wished to telegraph Mrs. 
 Devins, and Li went with me to find a telegraph 
 office, the first one that we had been able to reach 
 since leaving Nanking. Scarcely had we passed 
 through the gates into the city, when a half dozen 
 fellows attracted by the foreigner beg-an to follow us. 
 The half dozen increased to twenty within two or 
 three minutes, and soon a crowd of a hundred or 
 more had surrounded me, part of them running 
 ahead and others behind : some jostling against me 
 and many hooting and shouting. The situation was 
 not a comfortable one. 
 
 Fearing that there might be danger, I stopped 
 and faced the crowd ; it also stopped. Then I said 
 with a wave of my hand : 
 
 ''Go back, please," and the space was cleared for 
 two or three yards. As we could not converse with 
 one another, and the crowd was increasing all the 
 time, Li and I started again for the telegraph office. 
 The situation soon became critical again, and it was 
 with great difficulty that T could make any progress. 
 Again I stopped, and, with a forward luotion of the 
 hand, said, in more forcible tones : 
 
 "Stand back." Instantly the crowd fell back, for 
 
 38 
 
while they could not understand English they had 
 the same respect for size that Lao had for the big 
 story teller. Again we started for the office, and 
 turning quickly at one point I found a man with his 
 hand raised to strike my hat. The "stand back" 
 this time could be heard a block, and the crowd re- 
 ceded half that distance. Before it gathered suffi- 
 ciently to give further annoyance, we had reached 
 the office. Passing through nine courts after enter- 
 ing the yard, I found a native operator who could 
 speak a few words of English. 
 
 ''What does this crowd mean?" I asked. 
 
 "You — no — fear — soldiers — off — duty — " 
 . Having just come from Peking where stories were 
 still told of the work of the Chinese soldiers in the 
 Boxer siege, this statement was not particularly re- 
 assuring. The progress back to the gate was simi- 
 lar to the one to the office. By stopping occasionally 
 and pleasantly or severely, as the case seemed to 
 warrant, urging the crowd to stand back, I reached 
 the gate without violence. Closing it quickly be- 
 hind me the progress of the crowd was stopped, and 
 for a block I could hear the wrangling, into which 
 its members had become involved with the gate- 
 keeper. By this time we were at the inn, or the 
 stable, where Li and I were to sleep. 
 
 When I reached Hwai Yuen the next day I 
 learned that there w^as a chapel at Feng Yang, car- 
 ried on by the American missionaries, and that Mr. 
 Lobenstine not long before had been cut in the head 
 by a stone thrown by a youth in a crowd similar to 
 the one that had followed us. The people in that 
 city are the most unfriendly of all that the mission- 
 aries visit. Later I learned from other Americans 
 that they had been driven from Eeng Yang, the offi- 
 
cials being unable to restrain the citizens who pride 
 themselves upon their hostility to foreigners. 
 
 Supper was served — the remnants of the roasted 
 chicken, the last pieces of bread from Nanking, 
 some native tea and a bit of jam, but there are times 
 when one may be too tired to enjoy even jam; such 
 a time had come in Feng Yang. Unrolling our 
 bedding a few yards from the mules, with the 
 muleteers passing over our feet on the way to get 
 straw for the animals, Li and I lay side by side on 
 our respective rolls. The score of jabbering drivers 
 finally became quiet, but not till after we were fast 
 asleep. 
 
 Never in a religious meeting, not even on Round 
 Top at Northfield, or on Olivet in Jerusalem, have I 
 felt so near the Christ of Bethlehem, as on that night 
 when I retired with the animals in this stable, be- 
 cause there was no room for us in the inn. I 
 know something now about the compensation to 
 which missionaries refer so often, but even this does 
 not make the beds less hard or the discomforts less ; 
 it helps one to bear them without complaint. 
 
 "With the ivorld under his feet, with Heaven in his eye, 
 ivith the Gospel in his hand and Christ in his heart, the mis- 
 sionary pleads as an ambassador of God, knozving nothing 
 but Jesus Christ, and gloryiiig in notJii)ig but in the cross 
 of Jesus Christ." 
 
 40 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 Received as a Brother Beloved 
 
 A FAMILIAR couplet in a family known to 
 the writer runs, 
 
 " When we reach the shore at last 
 Who will count the billows past?" 
 
 The figure is not wholly true to life, but it will 
 
 answer with a proper regard for license. We were 
 
 far from the sea, Lao and Li and I, as we set out on 
 
 our fifth day's journey. Long before daylight we 
 
 had left Feng Yang with its ''soldiers off duty," and 
 
 its stable where we had slept. 
 
 The trail was followed easily, 
 
 however, for we were simply 
 
 ^1^^ a part of an almost endless 
 
 fcl 1^ W caravan that moved on and on, 
 
 ♦^ ^ soniething after the manner of 
 
 W* the one which Bryant saw in 
 
 his "Thanatopsis." In fact 
 
 there were two caravans — one 
 
 going our way and the other 
 
 bound for Nanking. A few 
 
 ponies, many mules and don- 
 
 Miss ROSE HOFFMAN, j^^^^.^^ ^^^^^ whcclbarrows and 
 
 NOW Mrs. Lobenstine ; , . ,. 
 
 a large number of coolies car- 
 rying burdens on their shoulders, were met — no 
 wagons or carts, for we were still following a trail ; 
 roads and railroads will come later in this province. 
 Early as we had started, other parties were ahead 
 
 41 
 
Map orHwAiYuEw 
 
 /<\OUNTAIM 
 
 Outline Map of Hwai Yuen 
 
of us ; before it was light enough to distinguish ob- 
 jects a rod away, the calls of farmers plowing in the 
 fields near at hand were heard. Villages were seen 
 on every hand, with now and then a house better 
 than the average dwelling that we passed. 
 
 When Arthur ?\Iitchelh of sainted memory, the 
 secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, returned 
 from his visit to the mission fields of Asia, one of the 
 chief burdens on his mind was the immensity of the 
 population of China. I can understand that feeling 
 better now. With all that is being done by all the 
 missionary bodies of the world, the dying words of 
 Cecil Rhodes seem applicable : 
 
 "So much to do; so little done." 
 
 Hour after hour we rode, mostly in silence, now 
 and then Lao and I would spell each,, other — he 
 would get relief by riding and I by walking, while 
 Li clung to his donkey, his feet dangling scarcely 
 above the ground. 
 
 Early in the afternoon we came in sight of East 
 Mountain, and the faces of both Chinamen bright- 
 ened. Lao had a hard time in getting- a smile on his 
 morose countenance, but he made a desperate effort, 
 and succeeded fairly well. Soon the Hwai River 
 was seen and then hopes beat high, for just beyond 
 the mountain and the river — Xebo and Jordan — lay 
 the city that we sought. Weariness was forgotten 
 now, and urging on the animals as fast as mercy 
 would allows we headed for the ferry over which 
 we were to cross. Others had headed for the same 
 place earlier, as we found to our dismay, and while a 
 request for precedence would have been granted to 
 the American, we tried to follow the Golden Rule 
 and sat as patiently as we could until our turn came. 
 
 Animals and men and women and produce all tum- 
 
 43 
 
ble into the little boat which seems scarcely strong 
 enoiig-h to hold us, and still less able to battle with 
 the swift current that swirls it around. But trusting 
 Providence and His agents — Him rather more than 
 them — we settle down to enjoy the ride and to study 
 the town on the hillside in the distance. Li is very 
 happy ; he has been here before and he assumes com- 
 mand from this time. Lao is happy; he is near his 
 home and he intends to stay there and let the for- 
 eigner walk back to Nanking, as I learn a few hours 
 later. I am happy because the journey is so near 
 the end ; it will be only half as long going back next 
 week. 
 
 Once across the Hwai, Li goes ahead and after 
 numerous gesticulations on his part, I discover the ap- 
 proximate location of the missionary compound, al- 
 though there is nothing special to distinguish it from 
 the rest of the Chinese houses. At last Li stops, his 
 face radiant, and turns into a little gateway, Lao and I 
 following, and I know that we are in the compound. 
 Unexpected though my arrival was (my letter sent 
 from Peking had not been received), no friend 
 whose coming had been anticipated ever had a more 
 cordial welcome. Although I had seen only one of 
 the eight missionaries in New York, and him for 
 scarcely more than a minute, it seemed as though we 
 had known one another always. 
 
 " No distance lireaks the tie of blood. 
 Brothers are brothers evermore." 
 
 While I had traveled nearly four hundred miles 
 from Shanghai to see these missionaries and their 
 work, the experiences on the way, especially the 
 overland trip, seemed more interesting to them at the 
 time than the object for which the journey was 
 
 44 
 
taken, and .^^iss Hoffman expressed her intention 
 forthwith of "writing up" the Editor. The welcome 
 given was simply royal, and it was worth a journey 
 twice as long and three times as hard to spend an 
 hour in either of those happy households. Ques- 
 tions and answers followed one another in quick 
 succession, and many were the personal inquiries 
 
 HwAi Yuen from Across the Ko River 
 
 reeardinsf Dr. Smith and Mr. Amerman and other 
 friends of the Central Church in New York ; of Dr. 
 Alexander and Dr. Parkhurst, former pastors of 
 one and another of the missionaries ; Dr. Ellinwood, 
 Dr. Brown, Mr. Speer, Mr. Hand, Dr. White, and 
 other friends in the Presbyterian Building. 
 
 '*I saw a gentleman on the train going to the 
 General Assembly who said, Tf you go to Hwai 
 Yuen, give my love to .' " 
 
 45 
 
"It was my precious father." said Mrs. James B. 
 Cochran, 'Svas it not?" Slie knew that he had been 
 a commissioner to the Los Angeles Assembly, and 
 she was right. It was he. 
 
 By and by, there will be a railroad start- 
 ing from Nanking and running northwest through 
 Central China, and other travelers will stop at Hwai 
 Yuen on their wa}' to Thil^et or some other country 
 now far away from tlie coast, but no one of them 
 will be the first American, not a missionary, to reach 
 this interesting city ; that claim is staked, and eight 
 American witnesses will l^e summoned if necessary 
 to defend it. 
 
 Ranging from southeast to northwest, directl}' 
 behind the coast provinces of China already occupied 
 to some extent by missionaries, lies the province of 
 An-Hui, about the size of the State of New^ York, 
 and in the latitude of Georgia, with a population 
 computed at twenty-one millions. In the larger por- 
 tion lying north of the great Yangtse River, is the 
 Central Church parish, with the district capital, the 
 walled city of Hwai Yuen, as its center. It occupies 
 a strategic position at the junction of the Hwai and 
 Ko Rivers. At points along the Upper Hwai are 
 scattered three or four of the China Inland mission 
 workers, with an immense untouched field westward, 
 but the territory along the Ko River, northwest to 
 Honan, and far north to the Yellow River, is the 
 occupied field of the w^orkers from New York. 
 Hwai Yuen is the second largest city in northern 
 An-Hui, and not only commands the vast river trade 
 with the interior but is an important distributing 
 center for inland points to which large cart roads 
 extend in every direction. Besides the many cities 
 and towns thus easily accessible by water, the num- 
 
 40 
 
berless farm villages afford a field populous enough 
 to keep a hundred workers busy — and "village work 
 is the work that tells in China." The physical con- 
 ditions are also favorable, as the land is fairly well 
 drained ; a wheat-growing country, far healthier 
 than the partly flooded, rice-raising plains near the 
 coast. 
 
 Earnest prayer for several years had been made 
 that God would open the way for the workers of the 
 Nanking Station to go up and possess this land. 
 Meanwhile God was preparing in China the field for 
 the workers and in schools and colleges the workers 
 for the field, and in Xew York a congregation of 
 consecrated people to bring the two together. How 
 well the combination has worked was the object of 
 this trip, and the conclusions reached will be given 
 in subsequent chapters. Little was done the first 
 night except to talk about home friends. 
 
 The Hwai Yuen party of missionaries consists of 
 the Rev. and Airs. Edwin C. Lobenstine ; Dr. and 
 Mrs. Samuel Cochran and their two children, Rose 
 and Margaret; the Rev. and Mrs. James B. Cochran, 
 and their two children, Nancy and Williams ; the 
 Rev, Du Bois S. Morris, and Miss Rose Lobenstine, 
 a sister of the clergyman. Mrs. Lobenstine was Miss 
 Rose Hoffman, a trained nurse holding an important 
 position in the Presbyterian Hospital of New York. 
 Mrs. Samuel Cochran was Miss Watts of Morris- 
 town, N. J., and Mrs. James B. Cochran, Miss Jen- 
 kins, of Boonton, N. J. The Cochran brothers are 
 sons of the Rev. L W. Cochran of ]\Iendham, N. J., 
 and grandsons of Robert Carter, the well known 
 book publisher of New York. 
 
A 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Hustling ix the East 
 
 BUSY day was planned by the missionaries 
 for the visitor, who was thoroughly re- 
 
 Rest After Weariness 
 
 standing : Samuel Cochran. Mrs. Samuel Cochran. Edwin C. Lobenstine, 
 Du Bois S. Morris, James B. Cochran. 
 
 Sitting : Miss Lobenstine, the traveler, Mrs. James B. Cochran, whose 
 hand is resting on the shoulder of Miss Rose Hotf man. now Mrs. Lobenstme. 
 
freshed after one night of rest in the hospitable 
 home of liis new-niade friends. The hospital and 
 school and church were to be visited, an official call 
 must be made u])on the Fu, or mayor of Hwai 
 Yuen, who would doubtless return it ; a ride was 
 planned throu£2:h the city to call upon some of the 
 members of the Central Presbyterian Church of 
 Hwai Yuen, and the day was to end with a Chinese 
 feast in the evening. The programme outlined was 
 carried out, and several other items added, including 
 the taking of several photographs, some of which 
 are reproduced here. 
 
 If one really wishes to practice the American art 
 of hustling let him place himself in the hands of 
 American missionaries ; the next box of books going 
 to Hwai Yuen or any other mission station, should 
 include Pastor Wagner's ''Simple Life," and the 
 one containing Kipling's advice to those who try to 
 hustle the East. 
 
 Rut while we are moralizing, the chairs have been 
 brought in which the call is to be made upon the Fu. 
 It is necessary to take some court lessons before 
 starting out on this momentous errand. The hat 
 must not be removed in the presence of the official ; 
 the overcoat must be buttoned all the way up and 
 down, and of greatest importance the back must not 
 be turned towards the host, not even when getting 
 into the sedan chair. A school for young ladies in 
 New York has a carriage in the yard which allows 
 the pupils to practice the lessons which they have 
 learned as to the proper way to enter and leave a car- 
 riage. It was necessary for me to take a few les- 
 sons in the yard of the Mission lest I fall over the 
 chair handles or step on my overcoat or bump my 
 head when backing away from the Fu. Having re- 
 
 50 
 
ceived the approval of the instructor, and the plau- 
 dits of the sympathetic spectators, I started with 
 "Mr. James," as the clergyman brother of the 
 Cochran families is affectionately termed. 
 
 
 
 ^9^^H^n^Ki^^H^^ i\^ * « \ i^j 
 
 hj 
 
 ^K^'^-^7 ^^^^Hflv^TaJr 
 
 ^, ^ 
 
 On the Way to the Mayor's Office 
 
 Four coolies carried my sedan chair, which was 
 taken into the official compound with all the pomp 
 and formality which would have been accorded an 
 ambassador. After the formal reception, we were 
 
conducted to the audience room, and in a moment or 
 two the official came in, greeted Mr. Cochran very 
 cordially, and gave the writer a hearty welcome. 
 The conversation was carried on in Chinese, Mr. 
 Cochran speaking the language as fluently as the 
 official. 
 
 "How old are you ?" was one of the first questions 
 asked of the visitor, probably for the reason that a 
 young man proposed to the lady on whom he was 
 calling — it relieved the embarrassment which both 
 felt and opened the way for further conversation. 
 Confused somewhat by the abruptness of the ques- 
 tion, and not wishing to deceive the host, the 
 terminal points of a decade were given, but the in- 
 terpreter said : 
 
 "You would better be exact," and I replied, 
 " — " (but I am not in China now, and no one is 
 asking the question). 
 
 Oriental inconsistency appeared in a moment when 
 s I stated some facts regarding China, and especially 
 the city of Hwai Yuen. The Fu demanded truthful- 
 ness from me and then he prevaricated woefully. 
 China was a poor country; her people were un- 
 learned ; his city was insignificant ; his administration 
 had been a dismal failure, etc. Suppose I had as- 
 sented to his derogatory view of his country and 
 himself! On one point, if not many, I did blunder. 
 I told him that our American President had taught 
 the officials for whom he was responsible two les- 
 sons : If one of them did well, no power on earth 
 could remove him ; if he did ill, no power could save 
 him. This remark evoked no interesting comment 
 as others had done ; later I learned that the poor 
 officer was soon to be removed, because he had re- 
 fused to do ill — those above him demanded certain 
 
things which he considered it wrong to do and he 
 refused to do them. 
 
 After the tea had been served and many kind 
 words had been said by the Fit about the mission- 
 aries, he invited Mr. Cochran and myself to a 
 Chinese feast that evening. No one will ever know 
 how relieved I was to be able to say truthfully that 
 I was engaged for the evening. 
 
 "Come to-morrow evening," added the official. 
 
 "To-morrow is Sunday," replied Mr. Cochran, 
 with a smile, "and we do not accept dinner invita- 
 tions for that day." 
 
 The call ended, the getting away in good form was 
 accomplished, Mr. Cochran said, without a break. 
 Soon after luncheon the call was returned, more tea 
 was served, more praise for China given and more 
 deprecatory remarks made. The Fu was a good 
 friend of the Americans and they were sorry that he 
 was to retire. 
 
 "The more we connect the missionary cause ivith the 
 person of Jesus Christ, rather than zvith effort and or- 
 ganization, the more divine zvill be the inspiration for each 
 detail of the work." 
 
 53 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 In the School and Hospital 
 
 4 4Y\7HAT the Church of Christ needs in China," 
 
 ^^ said an eloquent traveler though not a 
 
 Presbyterian secretary, when addressing a body of 
 
 The Rev. James B. Cochran axd His School 
 
 missionaries in China : "\Miat the Church of Christ 
 needs are more missionary graves in this empire." 
 No applause followed this period, but one of his 
 
hearers from whom all human nature had not yet 
 been extracted, said to the writer : 
 
 ''Of course we expect to fill g-raves in China some 
 day, and if this meets the needs of the Church, we 
 shall be pleased. Some of us in our love for the 
 Church would be perfectly willing to have our 
 rhetorical friend fill another here if it will also help 
 in this direction." 
 
 Another visitor in China, with tears in his eyes and 
 fire in his voice, said in a public address : 
 
 ''What you missionaries should do is to burn out. 
 The zeal of the Lord's work should consume you.'' 
 
 "Perhaps our friend was afraid to come to China 
 as a missionary lest he should not live out half his 
 days," was the smiling comment of one wdio was 
 carrying burdens of which the visitor knew little. 
 
 Of no other body of missionaries in China is it 
 more true than of those in Hwai Yuen, that they are 
 literally wearing themselves out, burning themselves 
 up in their zeal for the Lord's work. Every one of 
 the women is working beyond her strength, impelled 
 by the spirit of Him who sat by the well of Samaria, 
 and gave the water of life to a thirsty soul. They 
 try to be careful, but the guest-room work and the 
 Sunday services and the necessary calls from women 
 and children needing their help and the natural im- 
 pulses which drive them forward, all tend to make 
 them forget their promise to be more careful. The 
 men are not suffering probably beyond their fellow 
 missionaries in other fields, but if any one, friend 
 or critic, wishes to find a "soft snap" in life, he 
 would better remain away from Hwai Yuen or any 
 other mission station. 
 
 After our call on the Fu already described, we 
 visited the Boys' school. One of the men in the 
 
 56 
 
picture of the school is the Rev. J. B. Cochran, al- 
 though at a distance it is somewhat difficult to tell 
 him and his companions from real Chinamen. They 
 wear the Chinese costume and say that they prefer 
 it ; if the queue is fastened to the cap and not to the 
 head, that is a detail not worth mentioning. While 
 they do not deceive the Chinese when near at hand. 
 
 lpl]gp^ 
 
 -mr'-- " 
 
 
 te:v%^«^%«ifSje^'V 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 IV 
 
 One of the Hwai Yuen Mission Houses 
 
 the native dress is doubtless a means of protection to 
 them at times. Opinions differ as to the practical 
 value of this conformity to the customs of the coun- 
 try ; but it is certainly easier to keep up with the 
 styles. 
 
 After inspecting the school which seems to be 
 doing excellent work, we went to the hospital, which 
 has a reputation throughout the province and far 
 beyond its bounds. The testimony of people who 
 know about the hospital work in all parts of the Em- 
 
pire places Dr. Cochran amoi\2: the first half-dozen 
 physicians in Cliina. And this place he has made 
 for himself amid conditions which would discourage 
 many men. He has a fine collection of instruments 
 and he has had many major operations, but he needs 
 rooms for consulting patients, and performing opera- 
 tions and a ward for his patients. The exorbitant 
 prices placed upon the land which it is thought they 
 would like to buy have been practically prohibitive 
 so far. 
 
 Many patients are troubled with a peculiar form 
 of eye-disease. Through neglect partly the under 
 lashes of one or both eyes turn in and sweeping 
 across the eye ball produce suffering which can be 
 understood in a slight degree by those who have had 
 intense pain when a single hair or speck became 
 lodged under the lid. By a slight operation, scarcely 
 painful, Dr. Cochran is able to give relief and to 
 have the inverted lid resume its normal position. 
 
 While the patients are waiting their turn to see 
 Dr. Cochran, his brother holds a religious service. 
 
 "You talk to them this morning," said the 
 preacher, "and remember that they know nothing of 
 God, as w^e understand Him, nothing of the Bible and 
 nothing therefore of the Saviour of the world." 
 Perhaps the reader of this paragraph has had such 
 an experience ; the writer never had. In many years 
 of city missionary work, he had never seen a man 
 who did not know about God and His Word. In a 
 poor, weak way an attempt was made to follow Paul 
 in Athens, and Mr. Cochran who translated, was 
 careful to put in what the speaker should have added 
 to make his meaning plain. This was meeting 
 heathenism in the rough, and whatever fruit comes 
 from the seed sown that day I am perfectly willing 
 
 . 58 
 
should be counted with the l)askets that the Cochrans 
 are gathering in a difficult, but most hopeful, field. 
 
 In the afternoon, with ]\Tr. Morris, T called on ]\Ir. 
 Liu, the first Christian convert in Hwai Yuen, and 
 then rode for an hour in our chairs about the streets 
 of the city, looking over the field that seemed more 
 promising to the young and enthusiastic missionary 
 than to the traveler ; it was home, "our people," to 
 the former. 
 
 Mr. Liu is the leading native ph}sician in the city. 
 At first he was considered the most hopeful of sev- 
 eral inquirers, but the missionaries hesitated to bap- 
 tize him at once, knowing how serious the conse- 
 cjuences would be for any of those first professing 
 Christ's nanie to prove insincere. The many prayers 
 offered for him have been heard. Xot only do the 
 missionaries report that he is standing nobly, taught 
 
 Mr. Liu, the Christian Physician 
 .59 
 
of God's Spirit at first through no human teacher. 
 Prayers are asked for a score or more other in- 
 quirers whose mixed motives in seeking to identify 
 themselves with the cause of Christ must be tested 
 and purified. 
 
 An interesting proof of the reality of Mr. Liu's 
 conversion was early given in a journey with Mr. 
 Lobenstine, to call on a Taoist priest on the top of 
 East Mountain, on which is the shrine of a god re- 
 sorted to when a family is without a coveted son and 
 heir. In such cases, one of a number of small images 
 which surround the idol, is carried to the home of 
 the suppliant, and, when the prayer has been an- 
 swered, is returned with additional images. All his 
 life Mr. Liu has been afraid to go on this mountain, 
 though living at its foot, for he was a son thus sent 
 by the god, and his parents believed that if he ven- 
 tured there the god would recognize and claim him, 
 and he would die. But he made the trip at his own 
 suggestion and without betraying the slightest fear, 
 showing how complete is his emancipation from the 
 superstition of a lifetime. 
 
 Every evening the missionaries have prayers for 
 the benefit of the Chinese who may come in, Mr. 
 Liu always attending. In winning the confidence 
 of the people of Hwai Yuen, his assistance has been 
 invaluable. Although still believing in the efificacy 
 of his Chinese remedies, dried wasps, powdered 
 bones, etc., and very busy with the work of his drug 
 store, he has freely given much of his time to help 
 the missionaries, consenting to speak on Sabbath 
 days when needed, and doing much personal work 
 among his own acquaintances. When friends call 
 on him the little back room back of his store is often 
 turned into a kind of street chapel, where the con- 
 
versation is on the subject of the new rehgion which 
 the foreigners have brought to the city. 
 
 Mr. Liu's Pharmacy (On .Sunday It Is Closed) 
 
 "Christian Missions started zvith one hundred and tzcoity 
 despised Galileans. No-n' there are 120,000,000 of Protest- 
 ants, who have in tJieir pozcer nearly all the resources of the 
 world." 
 
 61 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 A Chinese Feast 
 
 T?OLLOWING the busy day of sight-seeing and 
 "■■ study of the problems before the Central 
 Church missionaries, already described, came a night 
 of feasting that beggars description. Two other 
 travelers had come to the compound since morning — 
 the Rev. Dr. ]\Iacklin and Rev. ]\Ir. Corv, mission- 
 
 HwAi Yuen from the Hillside 
 
 aries from Nanking, who had been farther north 
 prospecting a new field on which to plant a mission 
 for the Church of the Disciples, or the Christian 
 Church, as it is popularly termed. They had been 
 accompanied by Mr. Lobenstine, whose itinerating 
 field lies in that direction. It had been their inten- 
 tion to push on toward Nanking on Saturday, but 
 
 63 
 
finding- another American at Hwai Yuen, who was 
 to go over tlie road the next week, they tarried two 
 days, as they said for company, but as he knew to 
 make the journey less tedious for him. 
 
 Being members of the mission household for the 
 time, they were naturally included in the party which 
 sat down to the feast in the home of the Rev. James 
 B. Cochran. Imagine the scene : Eleven Americans 
 surrounding a table unadorned with cloth, china or 
 cutlery. It seemed a trifle bare, not to say inhos- 
 pitable, not to have something on the table when one 
 was invited to "sit by." Mrs. Cochran is not inhos- 
 pitable, and the wisdom of her foresight appeared 
 later. Each guest had a little bowl and a pair of chop- 
 sticks, but what can a man do with chopsticks who 
 has never been to a Chinese feast ! The only thing 
 possible was to watch his neighbors. Unfortunate 
 is it for him if he be the guest of honor, and the 
 neighbors all watch him. It was his duty — it became 
 his pleasure — to "open" every dish. As it was 
 placed in the center of the table he reached out at 
 arm's length, and putting his chopsticks into the 
 dish took out whatever he hajbpened to catch. To 
 liken the process to a fish pond in a church fair may 
 not have a missionary sound, but the process resem- 
 bled that more than anything else with wdiich a com- 
 parison can be made. 
 
 The best that can be said of the results of opening 
 the dishes is that the neighbors were very appre- 
 ciative of the maiden eft'orts of the stranger. It 
 would not be quite truthful to say that they did not 
 laugh at his breaks; they simply joined him in 
 laughing at his own, and like a doting parent, or a 
 maiden aunt watching a child's first attempt to walk, 
 whenever they saw a movement that was not posi- 
 
 64 
 
tively bad, they applauded the efforts heartily, and 
 this gave coiirag-e to the visitor. His efforts to get 
 something from the dish to his little bowl without 
 dropping more on the table than he succeeded in 
 landing occupied his attention so much that he does 
 not know what happened to the rest of the people, 
 except that each one of the other ten diners put his 
 or her chopsticks into the same dish where his had 
 gone, and into each succeeding dish for the two 
 hours or more that the servants kept bringing on 
 new dishes. 
 
 An eft"ort was made to get a list of the dishes 
 which the caterer served, but the types could not 
 carry the names. AMiile the chief guest was obliged 
 by custom to eat from every dish, he has a sus- 
 picion that some of the party were not so' conscien- 
 tious. When the chopsticks brought up a piece of 
 fat pork, it was observed that some of the ladies 
 made a feint of follow'ing the example wdiicli he set, 
 but only gravy \vas seen on the chopsticks, and that 
 did not. all remain on 'the journey. 
 
 In fact, after a half an hour or more, one could 
 trace without a map the direction which the food had 
 taken to the several guests by little rivulets of soup, 
 gravy and other articles which had fallen from the 
 chopsticks on the way. As it w^as a real Chinese 
 feast, not a ^lott Street make believe affair, occa- 
 sionally a bone was dropped on the floor, not through 
 accident, but in order not to oft'end the proprieties 
 of the occasion. 
 
 The Chinese are extremely courteous in their 
 feasts, and when they have a choice bit which they 
 are enjoying greatly, they are apt to divide it with 
 their nearest neighbor. One of the missionary trav- 
 elers, wishing to imitate this custom among the na- 
 
 65 
 
tives, shared liis j^ortion with the writer, using his 
 own chopsticks in doing- so. It is not quite fair to 
 say that the dehcacy was enjoyed more than it would 
 have been if it had come in some other way, but 
 when the recipient found tliat his own piece of pork 
 was larger than he had expected to get, it seemed too 
 bad not to let the generous neighbor share his tidbit. 
 The pork was swallowed without a protest, but the 
 look which the friend gave as he received the return 
 favor was not calculated to warrant a second helping 
 from either side. 
 
 A Chinese feast is the one thing that no traveler 
 in China should miss. Old residents say that they 
 enjoy Chinese feasts ; old residents never prevaricate, 
 especially wdien they are sent out from a New York 
 church, but it would be worth a penny to have a 
 definition of the term "enjoyment" when speaking 
 of this method of dining. Feasting in China is some- 
 thing like tobogganing in Canada ; after the first 
 efifort one says that he would not have missed that 
 one for a good deal, nor is he in a hurry to take 
 another. Later wdien one has become accustomed 
 to the sport, nothing ever quite takes its place. This 
 is said in defense of the missionaries who declare that 
 they enjoy Chinese feasts. Certainly this was the 
 treat of my months in China. The memory of this 
 night in Hwai Yuen will be among the most lasting 
 of those spent in the Flowery Kingdom. 
 
 "To Clirisfianify this is prccniiuciifly flic age of oppor- 
 tunity. NcTcr before did the -a'orld offer aiiyflii)ig lilce the 
 same open field as at tliis nioment." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 The Sabrath Services 
 
 npHE word "Hwai" means "to love,'' and "Yuen" 
 
 "far away," so that together they read, "The 
 
 citv which those who are far awav love," and the 
 
 The Central Presbyterian Church of Hwai Yuen 
 
 truth of that sentiment is recognized both by the 
 missionaries in Hwai Yuen and by the noble 
 Church in New York, which stands so loyally behind 
 them. It was a pleasure to worship with the work- 
 er 
 
ers and their people, and as usual the visitor was 
 invited to preach. 
 
 "You do not know how good it is to hear a ser- 
 mon in English again," said one of the ladies. ''I 
 have not heard one before in a long time." A few 
 Chinese women sat apart froni the men, who filled 
 the main room, stood in the doorway and in the 
 vard, pressing as close as possible to the window. 
 Dr. Macklin had been asked to interpret, and from 
 the lenQth of time taken and the number of words 
 used in explaining a sentence or paragraph, left the 
 impression that he gave the people a free translation 
 of my sermon. I was told that if one had translated 
 his translation back into English, it would have 
 made a manuscript twice as large as the original 
 would have been. Chinese stories and proverbs and 
 local incidents were interwoven with a master hand 
 in the simple tale which I carried concerning the 
 Saviour of men. 
 
 After I had been speaking for perhaps twenty 
 minutes one of the Chinamen attracted the attention 
 of Mr. Cochran, who stood near the door, and said, 
 "I believe that fellow" (pointing to the interpreter) 
 "knows what that other fellow" (pointing to the 
 preacher) "is talking about ;" the translation was 
 therefore suggestive at least. 
 
 Two peculiarities struck one in the service. It 
 was so cold that both the preacher and the inter- 
 preter were obliged to wear overcoats, and I was 
 told to keep mine buttoned all the way down, it 
 being considered a breach of etiquette to appear in 
 public with a single button displaced. In summariz- 
 ing my address I used my fingers to emphasize the 
 points, and said, placing the thumb and finger of the 
 left hand on the little finger of the right : 
 
"Jesus is our example in — " 
 
 ''Use your thumb," said the interpreter in an aside. 
 Of course, the command was obeyed without ques- 
 tion, but later I was curious to know why I could 
 not begin the enumeration with the little finger. The 
 answer was conclusive : 
 
 ''The little finger is a sign of indignity, and when- 
 ever you refer to the Deity you should use your 
 thumb." This suggestion is thrown out for the use 
 of theological students who are fitting themselves to 
 become missionaries in China. 
 
 The audience was attentive to Dr. INIacklin's ad- 
 dress for which I had provided the headings, and in 
 the afternoon the missionary gave an address in 
 which he used his own points, and this was indeed 
 a treat for the people, as he was not hanVpered with 
 foreign ideas. 
 
 At the time of this service there was one in the 
 Guest Room for Chinese women and children, in 
 which all of its missionary ladies took part. While 
 these services were in session Mr. Morris and the 
 writer climbed the hill back of the city, and looked 
 down upon the work which lay close at hand, and 
 across the plain where the missionaries have their 
 itinerating tours. With the exception of the high 
 rocky hill, called the \\'est Mountain, and the East 
 Mountain, across the Hwai River, a vast plain 
 stretches out in every direction. The city is in one 
 of the most fertile and densely populated parts of the 
 Province of An-hui. Hundreds of villages and ham- 
 lets are scattered all over the province. To say that 
 there are hundreds in sight may seem extravagant to 
 one who has not been in China, but in the section 
 north and east, between the Ko and Hwai Rivers 
 alone, ]Vlr. Lobenstine counted, on a hazy day, three 
 
Inindred and fifty villages and hamlets. This will 
 give some idea of the village population that can be 
 reached from Hwai Yuen as a center. 
 
 ''Nor is there," he says, "any kind of work in 
 China to-day that has greater promise of success. 
 The country people, though poorer and less well 
 educated even than those in the cities, are simpler 
 and more sincere, and, especially in the North, are 
 good material to work on. And one could scarcely 
 find a better center for one's operations than Hwai 
 Yuen. It is the county seat (the Hsien City), and 
 at some time during the year every farmer for miles 
 around must come in here to sell his produce. The 
 roads all converging toward the city, and there is 
 constant coming and going, so that hundreds of 
 the villages can be reached without going into the 
 country at all. Moreover, the city is large enough to 
 give us plenty to do right here, and besides it there 
 are within a radius of sixty miles no less than eight 
 walled cities in which there is no prospect of any 
 other mission starting work, and which is naturally 
 counted as belonging to our field. Resides all this 
 there is a large boat population that can be reached. 
 'The harvest truly is plenteous, liut the laborers are 
 few.' " 
 
 It was upon such a scene that we looked as the 
 missionary told of some of the work accomplished 
 in the short time that they had been there, and un- 
 folded their plans for the future, which will, doubt- 
 less, be realized if life and health are spared. The 
 hour was too sacred for much of the conversation to 
 be repeated. In a little while, other members of the 
 Mission joined us, and together we talked of the 
 friends in the Homeland, and the joys of the field 
 in which these devoted people are giving their lives. 
 
 70 
 
It was practically impossible for the writer to learn 
 anything about the discouragements, but in a per- 
 sonal statement which one of them has made to his 
 home friends, I find that the only discouragement 
 which ever enters their lives is the fear lest they 
 shall not stand loyal to Him whom they represent. 
 From a letter I quote these sentences : 
 
 "The downpuU of our environment here is tre- 
 mendous, and the danger arises out of the very grad- 
 ual way in which one's ideas and ideals are in dan- 
 ger of lowering and of adapting themselves to those 
 of the Chinese. It is largely, if not entirely, uncon- 
 scious, yet I believe a real danger, and nothing can 
 save a man from it but a constant, daily sense of the 
 nearness of Christ. Faith is our only weapon, or at 
 least is essential to efficient use of any weapon we 
 have, and it needs constantly to be fed, else it grows 
 weaker. We need more faith ; faith in God's love, 
 ■His wisdom, His power to redeem the most de- 
 graded, and to work mightily even through weak, 
 human instrumentalities. And faith is a growth for 
 the missionary as for every other man. Pray for us 
 that we mav all be men of faith." 
 
 "TJicrc is no near and no far. but just one roitnd leorld of 
 lost and perisliing souls to be reseued and saz'ed through the 
 world's Christ." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Hardships and Trials 
 
 "IVyTUCH is said by the missionaries in general and 
 ■^ especially by those at Hwai Yuen, regarding 
 
 the joys of their work, their freedom from suffering 
 and their pleasure in the service to which they have 
 
 THE Missionary Family 
 
 given their lives, but very little is known, except by 
 intimate friends, concerning hardships to which they 
 and other missionaries are subjected. The following 
 touching incident is illustrative of this feature of 
 missionary life of which nothing is heard in public 
 meetings and little in private conversation : 
 
 In October, 1902, the fall before I reached Hwai 
 
Yuen, under Dr. Cochran's escort, the Cochran ladies 
 with their three children, and a quantity of furniture 
 and supplies, emharked at Nanking in two house 
 boats for the slow journey to Hwai Yuen. They had 
 with them a Bible w^oman and also some native ser- 
 vants. Caught in the jam of hundreds of boats on 
 the Grand Canal, until their drinking water became 
 infected, despite every precaution, little Henry 
 Cochran was stricken with dysentery. A haven of 
 refuge was found in the city of Ching Kiang Pu with 
 noble missionaries of the Presbyterian Church South,, 
 the Woods brothers, the Grahams and the Rices, 
 The resources of Dr. Wood's hospital and of all the 
 missionary homes were proffered with the most gen- 
 erous courtesy, and the father, the Rev. James B. 
 Cochran, was summoned from Plwai Yuen, arriving 
 in ten days. P^or twenty-four da}s the splendid con- 
 stitution of the little sufferer resisted the disease. 
 But all that Dr. Cochran and the others could do was 
 vain, and on November 19, the struggle ended, and 
 the spirit of the little boy went home to God who 
 gave it. 
 
 Outside of the city, in a small bamboo-fenced plot, 
 hallowed by the previous burial of a little daughter 
 of the Rev. Mr. Graham, the grief-stricken parents 
 laid away the body of their firstborn ; sorrowing not 
 as those without hope, but glorifying God in the fires 
 through which they passed accompanied by a form 
 like unto the Son of God. 
 
 It seems almost profane to add a remark of one of 
 the grief-stricken ])arents as the form of their dear 
 child, unusually bright and promising, was laid away 
 to await the coming dawn, but it is typical of the 
 spirit of these consecrated workers : 
 
 "We have taucrht our little Harrv that he should 
 
accept our will as his for the present at least, and he 
 has done so. Shall we not in the same childlike 
 spirit accept our Father's will without question now, 
 waiting until He shall make clear the mystery of this 
 dark hour?" 
 
 The next morning the tedious journey was re- 
 sumed, and after many delays Hwai Yuen was finally 
 reached on December 11, nearly two months after 
 leaving Nanking. "From the broken home circle 
 there we may well imagine a summons and appeal 
 echoing out like the message which the bereaved 
 Krapf sent from East Africa ; that since the home 
 friends now possess on foreign soil a lonely mission- 
 ary grave, it shall be deemed a sign that territory is 
 preempted from which there can be no retreat, and 
 that the struggle is indeed begun which can have but 
 one end," writes one who is aiding in making that 
 struggle a victorious one. 
 
 Regarding the matter of providing permanent 
 homes for the missionaries which shall be comforta- 
 
 HiLLSiDE Temple Near Hwai Yuen 
 75 
 
ble and hyi^-icnic, within a ])r()])cr]y walled enclosure, 
 the followino- statement from a well known business 
 man is illustrative of the spirit of the people in the 
 Central Church in Xew York : 
 
 ''Then as for the workers in China ; I am for 
 properly housing- these noble men and women — not 
 only our ])rivileg"e but our duty ; there is a responsi- 
 bility here wdiich we must not dodge. Call on me to 
 help when you are ready." 
 
 From the first the Hwai Yuen officials have 
 showed great friendliness, calling upon them early 
 and inviting them to a feast, and the people of the 
 city were not slow to follow their example. The 
 missionaries early decided to supply guest room op- 
 portunities, and all classes of men visited the guest 
 room, many coming purely from curiosity and some 
 so suspicious as to refuse to taste the proffered tea 
 lest it be poisoned. 
 
 Occasionally, however, it was a surprise to receive 
 guests well-informed about foreign countries, who 
 seemed to understand the motive of the missionaries 
 in going to China. One well-to-do farmer, who 
 lived quite a distance out in the country, but who has 
 spent his life in study, opened the conversation by 
 remarking that he was a great admirer of Abraham 
 Lincoln ! He talked at some length upon American 
 history, and also showed a surprising knowledge of 
 France and other countries. Such nien are rare, but 
 once won for Christ they have great influence in win- 
 ning others. ''On any day," says a worker, "the man 
 may step into our little reception room who shall 
 prove, under God, the agent for turning great num- 
 bers of his countrymen to righteousness. If China 
 is to be saved by the Chinese, as w^e believe, how 
 such possibilities as this summon the Central Church 
 
 76 
 
to prayer.'' During tlic "fifth moon" feast, one 
 June, the occasion of the greatest idol procession in 
 the province, from three hundred and fifty to five 
 hundred visitors came daily, and on one day no less 
 than one thousand five hundred, to whom the mis- 
 sionaries preached the (iospel literally ''from the 
 rising of the morning till the stars appeared." 
 
 Three Barbarians from the Regions Beyond (New York) 
 
 Hwai Yuen contains an unusually large propor- 
 tion of scholars ; men who have taken at least the 
 first degree, corresponding, roughly speaking, to our 
 B. A. In former days this was the class with whom 
 it was most difficult for the missionaries to gain a 
 hearing. But owing, no doubt, to the imperial edicts 
 requiring examinations in certain branches of West- 
 ern learning, as for instance arithmetic, these in- 
 fluential citizens were foremost in cultivating the 
 new comers, and the missionaries found themselves 
 greatly in need of Divine guidance that they might 
 discern the real motives of applicants for baptism, 
 
lest this popularit}' slioiild prove a hindrance instead 
 of a help to the g-cnuine progress of their work. 
 
 Notwithstanding this friendly attitude of the more 
 progressive, great care has heen necessary to avoid 
 arousing the prejudices of the community. For 
 example, the missionaries very early found it ex- 
 pedient to give up their twilight strolls on the moun- 
 tain side, on account of the rumor that their purpose 
 was to find gold and jewels, which they were able to 
 find helow the surface and compel by their spells to 
 come forth and follow them to their homes. 
 
 While the officials have been friendly, it must not 
 be understood that all the people have learned to 
 understand the object of the missionaries' presence 
 in the province, and a short time before my visit an 
 incendiary fire was started, which burned down the 
 cow house and endangered the residences of the 
 missionaries themselves. This was followed by 
 placards written by the incendiaries, urging the peo- 
 ple to drive out the missionaries and attacking the 
 friendly officials. The populace, however, failed to 
 respond, but continued to treat the Americans with 
 customary toleration, while the officials took inime- 
 diate steps to protect them, removing the placards, 
 posting counter notices and agreeing by way of com- 
 pensation to erect a wall around the unprotected part 
 of the property. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 pAREWErX TO THE MlSSIOXAUIES 
 
 CjUNDAY evening- was spent in Mr. Morris's 
 
 rooms. All of the missionaries, except Miss 
 
 Hoffman, the three travelers and several native 
 
 Gateway to Street where Missionaries Lived 
 
 Christians, gathered for a song service. It was a 
 precious hour, and one that will long be treasured in 
 memory. After aw^hile Mr. Lobenstine excused 
 himself. The following day the Nanking mission- 
 aries commented upon the absence of one of the 
 party and the disappearance of the other, and one of 
 them expressed his v.onder whether there was ''any- 
 thing up." The others thought it improbable but 
 not impossible. 
 
 As I had been entrusterl on Sundav afternoon with 
 
a secret so profound that no one in China was to 
 know it for ten da}-s, I was in doul)t what to do. To 
 smile would hetra)- though no words were said ; I 
 could not prevaricate if T were questioned, so I 
 urged my mule ahead and flung back over my shoul- 
 der a general remark to the effect that Miss Hoff- 
 man had told me that she had to write a home letter 
 in order to catch the mail, and that I had heard Mr. 
 Lobenstine say something about having a headache ; 
 I did not think it prudent to prolong the conversa- 
 tion, and the unsuspecting men were easily diverted 
 into a discussion of the doctrinal differences be- 
 tween the Disciples and the Presbyterians — but 
 wasn't I glad when the ten days were passed and I 
 could say : 
 
 ''Have you heard the good news from Hwai 
 Yuen ?" 
 
 "Is Miss Hoft'man going to marr} Mr. Loben- 
 stine?" was the invariable answer. 
 
 Monday morning the pack mules and donkeys 
 were started off before light, and after an early 
 breakfast, the travelers leading their riding animals, 
 gathered at the gate of the little street leading to the 
 compound to say good-by to one of the bravest bands 
 of people that the sun shines on. Dr. Smith was 
 right in commending them as he did. 
 
 An acquaintance of three days had formed a 
 friendship that will endure forever ; a brief visit, so 
 far as time was concerned, had given an insight into 
 mission problems as they are found and met at one 
 station that years of study of books could not equal, 
 and an admiration for the missionary pioneers in this 
 far-away Chinese city had been gained that it will be 
 pleasant always to recall. 
 
 One Frida>' afternoon the people in the little com- 
 
 80 
 
A Wheelbarrow Family. Father, Mother and Sons 
 Going to Market 
 
 pound on the hillside were simply a company of 
 Americans whom I had traveled two hundred miles 
 by steamer and a hundred and fifty miles on mule- 
 back to visit; the next Alonday morning they were 
 friends whom it seemed to me I had known since 
 childhood. The luncheon basket which ]\Irs. Drum- 
 mond, of Xanking, had packed the week before was 
 repacked by the four ladies at Hwai Yuen, but it 
 
was designed now for three travelers instead of one. 
 Dr. ]\Iacklin and Mr. Cory, as well as the w^riter were 
 to l3e thought of ; it seemed a bit selfish to take away 
 even a meal from that station, so far removed from 
 the ports — four hundred miles by water from stores 
 where English or American goods could be secured, 
 but hunger knows no compassion, and apparently the 
 hospitality of the missionaries knows no bounds. 
 
 The journey back to Nanking occupied four days 
 and was without special incident. It was a relief in- 
 deed to have as traveling companions two Americans 
 who knew the Chinese language and were able to 
 deal wnth Lao as well as the inn-keepers. Dr. 
 Alacklin said that in an experience of twenty years 
 with the Chinese, he had never met one so unpleasant 
 as my muleteer — a mixture of craven and fiend. At 
 Feng- Yang Fu, where I had been in a mob on the 
 journey alone, the Mayor sent a squad of soldiers to 
 guard us, while we were in the city. Here again we 
 had to sleep in the stable because the inns w^ere full, 
 and here again as before the Bethlehem Babe seemed 
 very near as we lay within ten feet of the mules and 
 donkeys, but this is an experience, as I learned, not 
 at all uncommon to the missionaries ; nor are many 
 of the inns a great improvement over this one. Mr. 
 Morris, in relating a typical experience in an inn on 
 one of his itinerating trips, says : 
 
 ''That night it turned suddenly cold, and we had 
 hard work to keep warm. In this inn the pigs, two 
 big black fellows, slept under the bed. We couldn't 
 see them, but we heard them grunting, and when we 
 remonstrated with the landlady, she simply said : 
 
 " 'Oh, that's w^here they always sleep.' 
 
 "Tradition is everything in this land. There were 
 eight or ten other men sleeping in the same room, 
 
 82 
 
and they were all naturally interested in me, the 
 foreigner. We had preached to them and were tired 
 and ready for bed. There was no door and the place 
 was so crowded that I was forced to sleep almost in 
 the doorway. I blew out the lantern T had with me, 
 thinking the curiosity seekers might take, the hint, 
 but there was still a small Chinese lamp burning, and 
 this kept the crowd around. They examined my 
 blanket and watched me blow up my air pillow, and 
 gazed and gazed. I determined to retire quietly, 
 which I proceeded to do, but when it came to my 
 hat I was bound the crowd shouldn't see that I was 
 wearing a false queue, so I jumped into bed with my 
 hat on, much to the amusement of the helpers, who 
 knew my reasons. The wind blew through the door, 
 so that I had to use my pillow as a kind of break- 
 water. This, however, was a small annoyance com- 
 pared to a certain rooster. I didn't object to his 
 being a rooster, nor to his being in the same room 
 with me, but that rooster insisted on crowing all 
 night, at intervals of about twenty minutes ! That 
 place will always have tender associations for me." 
 
 It cost no little wrench to start away from Hwai 
 Yuen and leave the dear friends behind ; how I 
 should like to have remained and worked with them. 
 Xot that other fields in China, and Korea, and Japan 
 and the Philippines, did not appeal with tremendous 
 force to one who had expected to be a foreign mis- 
 sionary, but the hardness of this field, its distance 
 from civilization, its special opportunities, its pioneer 
 character, its remoteness from other missions of 
 every name, the exceptionally beautiful spirit mani- 
 fested by the Cochrans, the Lobenstines, Aliss Hoff- 
 man and ]\rr. ]\ [orris, and the ideal relation between 
 these eip'ht workers, the members of a sing^le church 
 
in the homeland — all this cumbincd to set this apart 
 from most other fields as one in which I would like 
 to cast in my fortune if I were going to remain in 
 Asia. 
 
 Mr. Moody loved to tell of a Boston fireman on a 
 ladder trying to rescue a woman from a burning 
 building. It seemed impossible for him to reach her. 
 The great crowd in the street stood speechless. 
 Finally a man shouted : 
 
 "If we cannot help him, let us at least give him a 
 cheer." 
 
 As the mighty shout rang out the brave fellow re- 
 doubled his efforts and the life was saved. If I can 
 do nothing else for these missionary heroes in China 
 and other countries, I am determined at least to 2:ive 
 them the deserved word of cheer. 
 
 84 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 The Other Side of the Picture 
 
 44 T TPIINK we would better write you up, in- 
 stead of your writing us up," said Miss 
 Hoffman. "Your trip shows more pluck than we 
 
 A Chinese Lady Traveling 
 
display, for we are able to speak the langTiage, while 
 you have come across without eveu an English- 
 speakino- Chinaman.'' 
 
 "Another illustration of the proverb which speaks 
 of the caution displayed by angels," was the meek 
 reply. 
 
 "Well, I think you deserve a letter, and when you 
 reach home you may find one." A few months later 
 a letter found its way through a mutual friend into 
 the traveler's hands, which is too kind by half. And 
 although it was never intended for his eyes much 
 less for publication, it seems a fitting ending to the 
 story of a delightful, though somewhat hard, over- 
 land journey on a Chinese mule. In her letter, Miss 
 Hofifman, now Mrs. Lobenstine, says : 
 
 "The next great excitement at Hwai Yuen was the 
 arrival of the Rev. John Bancroft Devins, D. D.. the 
 Editor of The New York Observer. Dr. Devins is 
 taking a trip around the world, and one of the places 
 which he wanted most to see, he was kind enough 
 to say, was Hwai Yuen. He is going to write us up 
 for The Observer, I believe, but I feel sure that the 
 Home People would far rather hear of his own ex- 
 perience. As the Chinese say : 
 
 " 'He ate considerable bitterness' 
 in the process of getting here. Imagine a foreigner 
 if you can, without any knowldge of these people or 
 their language, attempting an interior trip with no 
 other companionship than that of a Chinese servant 
 who did not even know 'pidgeon' English. With no 
 one to make the rough places smooth, with no one to 
 tell him that the excited voices of the people did not 
 indicate that the people themselves were excited ; 
 they were simply good natured ; traveling on a mule 
 and traveling hard, covering the ground rapidly ; 
 
sleeping in dirt}' inns, his lied a bundle of straw on 
 the dirty floor, makino- his wants known by sign 
 language ! With a muleteer who did not want to 
 go after four o'elock, and had to be made to go ; 
 getting to one place in the night and finding no 
 room in the inn, having to go to the stable and sleep 
 with the mules, which, while not an unusual ex- 
 perience to the missionary, is pretty hard on a man 
 fresh from home and its comforts ! 
 
 "He told us that when he wanted the man to cook 
 a chicken for supper he had to crow like a cock to 
 make him understand. One night he was too tired 
 to eat the food when it was prepared. At Feng Yang 
 Fu, which is very anti-foreign, he was surrounded 
 by a crowd of men, among whom were many sol- 
 diers, and had his hat nearly knocked off by the small 
 mob that collected. It was late, and as no animals 
 are kept at the inns within the city, he slept without 
 the wall in company with his mules. 
 
 "The next afternoon he came to us, tired but 
 cheejfful, and glad to be here, making light, in a 
 measure, of his hardships. It was good to see him 
 and to know that he had seen some of the friends 
 at home, and before he left we were glad to know 
 him, even for so short a time, for his own sake. We 
 admired him for his courage, for his readiness to 
 meet the hard things more than half wa}- and to meet 
 them with a smile ; we loved him for the glimpse 
 we caught of the sweetness and depth of sympathy 
 which was behind his strength. 
 
 "Our work is not the kind that shows off" par- 
 ticularly, but w^hat there was to see we gladly showed 
 him. He went to the hospital and to the school, 
 where he talked to the boys through an interpreter ; 
 he saw something" of the citv and of our beautiful 
 
mountain and the snrroundini^- country, and met 
 some of the Christians. He was much interested 
 in Mr. Liu. I 1)eHeve. That Friday evening we all 
 met for a little social evening- together, and when he 
 went to rest I fancy he never was so grateful before 
 for a good, soft, comfortable bed. Saturday he was 
 busy going about, and also called on the Fu, so that 
 he caught a glimpse of official life and saw the chief 
 magistrate in some of his finery. 
 
 ''Mr. and IMrs. James Cochran gave Dr. Devins 
 the treat of his life, T am sure, for they called in 
 Chinese caterers and gave him a genuine Chinese 
 feast on Saturday night. We do not usually spend 
 Saturday nights in such orgies, but this was an ex- 
 ceptional case, and we know^ it was no\v or never for 
 the doctor to become acquainted with life in the in- 
 terior. It was a good feast, and I know he was im- 
 pressed with it, for I sat next to him and heard him 
 sigh a very full sigh when the feast was but quarter 
 through. You ought to have seen the ease wdth 
 which he handled the chopsticks, and his readiness 
 to venture on anything and everything. He said it 
 was his opportunity and that he must see it through. 
 He said he came to learn all he could and he cer- 
 tainly did. Not only was he able to eat with the 
 chopsticks, but to help others. There was a good 
 deal of jollity to help things along, and a good many 
 good stories were told. When it w^as all over and 
 ever}'body just couldn't eat another thing, some of 
 us having stopped long before the feast was over, 
 we adjourned to Mrs. Cochran's room, and had 
 some bread and jam to take away the taste of the 
 feast. 
 
 "On Sunday, Dr. Devins gave us a good sermon, 
 and Dr. Macklin translated for him, a task which 
 
nobody envied. T am sure no one enjoyed hearing 
 Dr. Devins more than I did, for it was the first time 
 that I had understood a sermon deHvered from that 
 pulpit. In the afternoon Dr. Devins came over to us, 
 and we had a lovely little visit with him. Then he 
 and some of the men had a walk on the mountain, 
 and after supi^er we had a sins^ with the helpers who 
 had been invited up. Monday morning- we had early 
 
 John Bancroft Devins, D. D. 
 
 breakfast, and the whole party left for Nanking. 
 Since his visit we have been going the same old 
 ways. 
 
 "Dr. Cochran had a sad case at the hospital. The 
 sister of ]Mr. Fang, one of our Christians, took 
 opium to escape the abuse of her husband. The 
 night before he had closed his house, and had bra- 
 tally beaten her, and it was not the first time. I 
 suppose the poor woman got to the point where she 
 
 89 
 
could not bear it another minute, and opium is the 
 only method of relief to the Chinese woman. They 
 worked over her all night, and the best part of the 
 next day. but she finally died of heart failure. I 
 think. Her husband brought her to the hospital and 
 then ran away, but Dr. Cochran sent the ti pa (head 
 of police) after him, as he was the responsible party 
 and had to be here in case of her death. He cried 
 and carried on at a disgusting rate, the doctor said, 
 but he let him go ahead because he could not appear 
 to take sides. Mr. Fang has the right to prosecute 
 him and ruin him, but we are hoping that while he 
 takes measures to have the man punished, for that 
 is the only protection to womanhood in China, he 
 will remember that he is a Christian and not go to 
 extremes." 
 
 90 
 
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 Its large Editorial staff with its correspondence from 
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 wide-awake religious people. 
 
 Special Features 
 
 Xettersby the Editor, Rev. John Bancroft Devins, D.D.. 
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 EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK OBSERVER 
 
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 GOD'S WILL 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 be tender, just to be true. 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 be glad the whole day through. 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 be merciful, just to be mild. 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 be trustful as a child. 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 be gentle and kind and sweet, 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 be helpful with willing feet. 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 be cheery when things go wrong 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 drive sadness away with a song. 
 
 Whether the hour is dark or bright, 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 be loyal to God and right. 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 believe that God knows best. 
 
 Just 
 
 in 
 
 His promise ever to rest. — 
 
 Just 
 
 to 
 
 let love be our daily key. 
 
 This 
 
 is 
 
 God's will for you and me. 
 
 —Selected. 
 
 $$»SH4 
 
iAMPHlCT BINDER 
 
 ^^^ Syracuse, N. Y. 
 ^^ Sfockfon, Calif. 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 #>" 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD #3523PI Printed in USA 
 
BW8359 .A5D49 
 
 On the way to Hwai Yuen: 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
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