UNDER 
 MARCHING ORDERS 
 
 ETHEL DANIELS HUBBARD 
 
Glass"~g>\ / ^4a f / 
 Book. . &$tj r l 
 Copyright^ 
 
 COPVRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
Maky Pouter Game well 
 
FORWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES 
 
 Edited under the Direction of 
 The Young People's Missionary Movement 
 
 Under Marching Orders 
 
 A Story of Mary Porter Gamewell 
 
 ETHEL DANIELS HUBBARD 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 
 
 OF THE UNITeB OTATES^AND CANADA 
 
 1909 
 
&3 
 
 fc1 
 
 Copyright, 1909, by 
 
 Young People's Missionary Movement 
 
 op the United States and Canada 
 
 '''aug¥ W 3 
 
TO THE CHINESE GIRLS 
 
 STUDENTS IN 
 
 THE MARY PORTER GAMEWELL SCHOOL 
 
 IN PEKING 
 
 WHO LEARN THERE THE IDEAL OF 
 
 CHRISTIAN WOMANHOOD 
 
 AND WHO PURPOSE TO WORK IT OUT 
 
 IN DAILY LIVING 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
 
 in 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter page 
 
 Preface ix 
 
 I Into a Walled City 1 
 
 II A Girl in the Making 17 
 
 III Bound or Unbound? 31 
 
 IV In a Peking Cart 49 
 
 V The Turning of the Road 67 
 
 VI A Chinese Mob 81 
 
 VII A Chinese Sunday School and a Chinese 
 
 Church 99 
 
 VIII The Center of the Chinese Puzzle Ill 
 
 IX Boxers and Barricades 131 
 
 X Besieged by Frenzied Chinese 153 
 
 XI The Coming of the Allies 173 
 
 XII A New World 193 
 
 Index 213 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Mary Porter Game well Frontispiece 
 
 J Typical Chinese Donkey with Driver Page 5 
 
 Mary Porter's Journey from San Francisco 
 
 to Peking " 7 
 
 Map Showing Location of Tientsin and Peking. " 9 
 
 Outer Wall of Peking " 13 
 
 Hata Gate " 13 
 
 \ Mary Porter at Twelve Years of Age " 21 
 
 The House in the Square, Davenport, Iowa. . " 29 
 
 Old Prison Hospital, Arsenal Island " • . 29 
 
 Mrs. Wang on Wheelbarrow " 41 
 
 ' Peking Carts on Rough Roads " 53 
 
 River Ferry " 53 
 
 Journey from Peking to An-chia-chuang " 61 
 
 4 Frank D. Gamewell and Mary Porter at the 
 
 Time of Marriage " 73 
 
 Trackers on the Yang-tzu " 77 
 
 Sedan-chair " 93 
 
 Mrs. Gamewell and Chinese Bible Women " 103 
 
 \Asbury Church, Peking, before the Boxer 
 
 Uprising " 109 
 
 Peking, a City within a City " 115 
 
 Empress Dowager " 123 
 
 A Boxer " 127 
 
 Boxer Placard used to Incite Feeling against 
 
 Foreigners " 127 
 
 Scenes in the Methodist Compound " 135 
 
 Barbed Wire in Front of Asbury Church — Captain Hall 
 and the Key — The Auditorium as a Storehouse — On 
 Guard 
 
 Diagram, Line of March from the Methodist 
 
 Compound to the British Legation " 149 
 
 Turning into Legation Street from Hata Men 
 
 reet « 151 
 
Vlll 
 
 Illustrations 
 
 j 
 
 , 
 
 k British Legation, Peking 
 
 I Gate to British Legation, Showing Fortifica- 
 tion and Dry Canal 
 
 I Dr. Game well and Fortification Staff 
 
 • Sand-bag Fortification 
 
 Ruins of the Hanlin Library 
 
 Chinese Watching a Fire in the British Le- 
 gation 
 
 International Gun, "Betsey" 
 
 'House in British Legation, Showing Bombard- 
 ment by Chinese 
 
 Last Message from Dr. Gamewell before the 
 
 Siege 
 
 First News of the Relief 
 
 Joy at the Coming of the Allies 
 
 The Mary Porter Gamewell School for Girls, 
 
 Peking 
 
 Girls of the Mary Porter Gamewell School 
 
 Page 157 
 
 157 
 169 
 169 
 177 
 
 177 
 
 181 
 
 181 
 
 185 
 185 
 189 
 
 207 
 207 
 
PREFACE 
 
 To Girls and Boys Who Honor Their Flag 
 
 This morning there was a patriotic service 
 in the town where I live, at which hundreds 
 of children sang and waved their flags. As 
 they were singing a flag song, I wished that 
 they would cheer the old dragon flag of China, 
 and more than all the flags of all the nations, 
 would I have them cheer the Church flag, 
 which bears the sign of the cross. 
 
 If, as a good citizen, you would follow your 
 country's flag to the ends of the earth, if 
 honor called you, would you not just as 
 promptly follow the Christian flag anywhere 
 it might lead? If you follow a flag, you put 
 yourself " under marching orders," and 
 where the commander says go, the soldier 
 directs his steps. 
 
 There is in this book the story of a girl 
 who loved the stars and stripes and loved 
 them as long as she lived, even though she 
 spent more than half her days under the 
 national standard of China, and came to re- 
 
x Preface 
 
 spect the coils of the dragon on its yellow 
 field. But the flag of the cross was hoisted 
 above the stars and stripes on the battleship 
 of her life. Do you care to know how she 
 followed the flag, and what adventures she 
 met on the way? If so, you may like to read 
 this narrative and become acquainted with a 
 fellow soldier. Because she was an honorable 
 soldier, who came through the fight with 
 her colors flying, I have written her life for 
 you to read. 
 
 But before you pass beyond this page, will 
 you help me pay respects to some of the men 
 and women without whom I could not have 
 written this book? By and by, as you read 
 the last chapters, you yourselves will feel like 
 saluting the man who, as much as any other, 
 helped to save the lives of hundreds of 
 foreigners and thousands of Chinese in the 
 siege of Peking. He was the husband of 
 Mary Porter Gamewell, and it is because he 
 was willing to answer questions and lend 
 diaries and scrap-books, that the material for 
 this story could be gathered. A sister of 
 Mary Porter Gamewell, Mrs. Charles D. 
 Glass, told me stories for a whole day, and 
 some of these stories you will find as you 
 
Preface xi 
 
 read. Then there were three people, two of 
 whom were in China with Mary Porter Game- 
 well, and they drew from their memories and 
 gave me incidents which are woven into the 
 text of the book. The names of these are: 
 Miss Clara M. Cushman, Mrs. Miranda 
 Croucher Packard, and Miss Elizabeth 
 Northrup. I am also grateful to a former 
 teacher of mine in Wellesley College, Miss 
 Sophie Jewett, who kindly gave some sugges- 
 tions relating to the language of my manu- 
 script. And there is yet another, Mr. Ealph 
 E. Diffendorfer, whom I am especially glad 
 to have you know, because it was he who 
 helped me to realize the interest that boys 
 and girls have in tales of adventure and 
 heroism. 
 
 There are two books which were nearly al- 
 ways on my desk as I wrote. Later on, if 
 you should care to read again about Mary 
 Porter Gamewell, or to learn all about the 
 siege of Peking, I advise you to hunt up Dr. 
 Tuttle's Life of Mary Porter Gamewell 
 and two bulky red volumes called China 
 in Convulsion, written by Dr. Arthur H. 
 Smith. 
 
 And now turn the leaves and read, if you 
 
xii Preface 
 
 will, the story of a girl who lived under three 
 flags, and did honor to them all, because 
 above her own life waved triumphantly the 
 red and blue flag of the Christian Cross. 
 
 Ethel Daniels Hubbard. 
 Wellesley, Mass., May 31, 1909. 
 
INTO A WALLED CITY 
 
I 
 
 INTO A WALLED CITY 
 
 "Too low they build 
 Who build beneath the stars." 
 
 It was a twelve-mile ride and the donkeys ' 
 moods and legs were uncertain. In the mind 
 of the donkey there is no room for sympathy, 
 but rather the grim humor which loves the 
 practical joke for its own sake without mercy 
 for the victim. The perverse animal stands 
 by in mocking silence when his pranks have 
 tortured his rider into despair. There is no 
 sense of responsibility in his mental make-up. 
 
 Thus at the outset of the ride, knowing the 
 distance and the donkey, one knew not 
 whether to laugh or cry. Then again there 
 were memories that haunted, brought out by 
 the contrast between the United States of 
 America and China of the Far East. Con- 
 sequently the five riders looked into one an- 
 other's eyes, whenever there was equilibrium 
 sufficient to look into anything, and ques- 
 tioned. 
 
 Meanwhile, the donkeys boldly demanded 
 
4 Under Marching Orders 
 
 an undue share of attention, and their de- 
 mand was met without hesitation. Riding 
 astride one cantankerous little beast was an 
 American girl. She was slender and wiry, 
 and her blue eyes fairly shone with deter- 
 mination to stick to the back of her donkey at 
 all hazards. She had ridden frisky horses 
 before this, and had never known fear. 
 Should a humble Chinese donkey bring her 
 to terms ! But despite her intention and her 
 skill in horsemanship, the donkey had his 
 way, as he always will, and many times she 
 was compelled to alight hastily and inglo- 
 riously on the ground. 
 
 Her saddle was anything but American, 
 Mexican, or comfortable. It was simply a 
 stuffed pack of uncertain shape, with stir- 
 rups which were hung on ropes across the 
 pack, and which usually dangled just out of 
 reach at the sides. It was a task worthy a 
 professional acrobat to keep one 's balance on 
 a Chinese saddle while riding over Chinese 
 roads. These roads were paved with huge 
 stones worn into ruts nearly a foot deep by 
 the heavy wheelbarrows which had bumped 
 and thumped over them for years — yes, for 
 centuries. 
 

 Q 
 W 
 
 o 
 Q 
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 125 
 
 l-l 
 
Into a Walled City 5 
 
 The face of the girl was alive with fun in 
 the rare moments when the donkey gave her 
 a chance to appreciate the experiences of her 
 companions. A sudden exclamation from 
 behind called her attention to a moving pic- 
 ture of dramatic interest. The rider was 
 trying to maintain a precarious position on 
 the sloping back of his donkey, which was 
 kicking out vigorously. Just then the driver, 
 who walked by the side, threw himself over 
 the flying heels of the beast and cast both 
 arms about his body in the effort to hold him 
 down to earth. By way of climax, our dig- 
 nified escort was presently seen sailing out 
 over the head of his donkey, umbrella in hand 
 and opened wide, the donkey for the instant 
 standing head down and heels in the air. 
 
 Throughout, it was a close struggle between 
 will of beast and will of man, and the girl had 
 her full share of battle. In the end, the little 
 gray beasts of China bore their unwonted 
 burdens from the West, all, or nearly all, the 
 twelve miles from T'ung-chou to Peking. At 
 last, in the dusty shadows of the dusty wall 
 of dusty Peking, the travelers dismounted the 
 donkeys and mounted — the Peking carts ! 
 
 The girl with the undaunted look in her 
 
6 Under Marching Orders 
 
 eyes had traveled many a Chinese li, 1 many 
 an ocean league, and many a good American 
 mile since she left her home in Iowa six 
 months before. In the country, in childhood, 
 haven't yon often climbed the near-by hill 
 eager to see what is just beyond? And 
 haven't you found that there is always an- 
 other "just beyond"? You would fain press 
 on and on until you come to the very end of 
 the earth, to that mysterious "jumping-off 
 place" which, like the North Pole, is never 
 found and perpetually sought. So it was 
 with the girl. There was a voice in her ears 
 which said, "Come," and there was some- 
 thing deep down in her soul which said, 
 "Go." The soul of man must be made for 
 movement, for exploration, because it is sure 
 to answer that summons to climb yet another 
 hill and get the broader view. Thus the girl 
 was lured out from the home town and out 
 from the homeland across the sea to China. 
 All told, it had been a wonderful journey. 
 The girl's bright eyes and quick sense of fun 
 had helped her to see and enjoy, as well as 
 to make the best of trying situations. She 
 was alive with interest when the ship an- 
 
 i A li is about three eighths of a mile. 
 
^^gS9fBSSI9Sf^ 
 
 
 
 <p 
 
 
 
 
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 'smi^ 
 
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 From Yokohama ^ ^ 
 Honolulu ano & '' 
 *%h^ s a n fr a n c i s co 
 
 \ N ® '• 
 
 J 
 
 w^Mk 
 
 
 Mary Porter's Journey from San Francisco to Peking 
 
 7 
 
8 Under Marching Orders 
 
 chored in Yokohama Bay. She had read the 
 papers and kept pace with the times, and she 
 knew that little Japan was making history 
 fast. When they sailed through the lovely 
 Inland Sea, she realized that Japan had 
 beauty of nature on her side to help her men 
 and women become true and strong and loyal 
 to the empire. Eleven days later she landed 
 in China, after the six solid weeks on ship- 
 board. Even in those days Shanghai, the 
 port, was a bustling city threatening to be- 
 come a rival on the other side of the world to 
 New York. The girl, however, could not and 
 cared not to linger in Shanghai, for she was 
 bound for the capital city of the empire — 
 mighty, mysterious Peking. With character- 
 istic eagerness she longed to be off and away 
 on the journey north. 
 
 In 1871 America did not know as much 
 about China as she knows to-day, and there 
 had been no one in the home country to tell 
 the girl traveler that the last vessel sailed 
 north from Shanghai before the cold of 
 winter began. Peking is a good one hundred 
 miles from the coast, and Tientsin is its port. 
 But Tientsin lies on the west bank of the 
 muddy Pei Ho (North River), some twenty- 
 
Map Showing Location of Tientsin and Peking 
 
 Distance, Taku to Tientsin, 27 Miles 
 Distance, Tientsin to Peking, 79 Miles 
 
Into a Walled City 9 
 
 five miles from the sea, and the river freezes 
 in cold weather. So, in the days before the 
 railroad reached China, Peking was a goal 
 not easily reached from the coast during the 
 winter season. The girl learned cheerfully 
 to accept the unexpected, and sailed away in 
 the coast steamer to another city, Foochow, 
 where she remained until the spring thaw 
 opened navigation. 
 
 There are some rough, tumbling waters 
 between Shanghai and Tientsin, and the 
 stoutest of travelers is usually brought low. 
 Even nature in China has its streaks of per- 
 versity. The ship anchors on the ocean side 
 of the sandbar which blocks the entrance to 
 the crooked Pei Ho. The wind is then likely 
 to blow the water off the bar, until there is 
 scarcely enough left to float an Indian canoe. 
 The poor people at the mercy of the short, 
 choppy waves think appreciatively of the 
 "man who was so seasick that he feared he 
 would die, and afterward was only afraid he 
 would not die. ' } By and by, the captain, who 
 is a man of action, can brook delay no longer, 
 and over the bar the steamer goes, scraping 
 and grinding through the sands like a plow 
 through the stubborn soil of New England, 
 
10 Under Marching Orders 
 
 In all these ways the girl was gathering ex- 
 perience for her storehouse of wisdom. 
 
 From Tientsin up to T'ung-chou, the end 
 of navigation, the girl had her first expe- 
 rience in a Chinese house-boat. She had 
 often wondered what these strange craft 
 were like, but she had never dreamed that 
 there could be anywhere in one spot such 
 a jam of boats and such a swarm of people. 
 What yelling and pushing and shouting 
 there was before they escaped from the 
 wedge of boats! At last the wind filled 
 the sails and they were off. At night they 
 tied to the bank, and sailed away in the gray 
 light of morning. 
 
 The river bed is in some places higher 
 than the surrounding country, and when the 
 floods come of course the water breaks 
 through the banks, which are not firm and 
 strong and high like the Holland dikes. It 
 gives the house-boats a fine chance to keep 
 to a straight course instead of following the 
 twisting curves of the river. Any sensible 
 captain would choose to send his ship in a 
 straight line when possible. Sometimes they 
 were carried over whole fields of kaoliang, 
 or broom-corn, which stood at least ten feet 
 
Into a Walled City 11 
 
 high. Little villages built on slightly higher 
 land were veritable islands. It was a mirage 
 experience, and the girl could hardly credit 
 her senses. Chinese facts are often stranger 
 than fairy tales, and nature seems to do her 
 full part. 
 
 Another Chinese puzzle was the famous 
 pontoon bridge, or Bridge of Boats. How 
 should they find a way through? It was 
 easy, however, for a clumsy barge dropped 
 out of its place in the line, and the waiting 
 boats filed through this opening. The girl 
 watched with interest the workings of this 
 strange type of drawbridge and compared 
 it with the government bridge which con- 
 nected her own home town with the opposite 
 shore of the broad Mississippi. The two 
 bridges were another instance of the differ- 
 ence between slow-moving, bulky China and 
 wide-awake, alert America. 
 
 She was just beginning to learn another 
 lesson — a lesson taught by painful degrees 
 in the days and years to come in China. To 
 be willing to become a source of unfailing 
 amusement to her fellow men was not such 
 an easy task as one might think. Along the 
 edges of the break in the bridge hovered a 
 
12 Under Marching Orders 
 
 motley throng of foot-passengers. They ob- 
 jected not at all to the delay in their journey, 
 for what a rare chance to stare at the queer- 
 looking foreigners in the house-boat! The 
 girl decided that they looked upon the group 
 of Americans in much the same mood as they 
 would view a monkey show or an exhibition 
 of performing bears. 
 
 So, through experiences, some as new as 
 the daylight, and others as old as the human 
 race, the girl came toward the end of her 
 journey. Out on the plains, on the back of 
 the donkey, she had her first view of the wall 
 of Peking. It seemed literally to reach to 
 the sky, and to shut out everything — every- 
 thing except the dust. She had read of the 
 walled cities of the ancient world, but only 
 seeing is believing and understanding. There 
 it stood, fifty feet above the plains, grim and 
 forbidding as only a wall can be. The sun 
 was already hidden by the wall, and the 
 world was left in gloom before its time. 
 
 It was just that funny donkey ride which 
 saved the girl from an awful attack of home- 
 sickness. i i The long, long thoughts ' ' of home 
 were vigorously pushed out by the perform- 
 ances of the donkey, which compelled atten- 
 
Outer Wall of Pekixg 
 
 Hata Gate 
 
Into a Walled City 13 
 
 tion. Thus for once the contrary little beast 
 served as a benefactor, though of course he 
 knew it not. Had he known, he would have 
 changed his tactics. 
 
 Everywhere and always "discretion is the 
 better part of valor," and on this principle 
 it is wise for the foreigner to enter a Chinese 
 city as quietly as possible. Thus, outside 
 the east gate of Peking the travelers ex- 
 changed the donkeys for the Peking carts. 
 It seemed to the girl as if she were climbing 
 into a dog kennel on wheels as she mounted 
 for the first time one of these carts. Pres- 
 ently they were off, each cart swaying from 
 side to side like a plunging boat in the surf. 
 First one wheel, then the other made a sharp 
 descent into the ruts worn in the stones, so 
 that it took some mental equilibrium to keep 
 one's head from violent contact with the sides 
 of the cart. 
 
 It was almost dusk, and the great iron- 
 bound gate was soon to close. Along the 
 street the Chinese rushed and scrambled to 
 escape from the city while yet there was time. 
 Others lined up on either side to watch the 
 exciting dash for the gate. It was like run- 
 ning for the last train home. Like the safe 
 
14 Under Marching Orders 
 
 with the time-lock, the gate is not opened 
 until sunrise when once it is closed and 
 locked. Those who are out can in no wise get 
 in, and those who are in cannot by hook or 
 crook get out. The traveler who approaches 
 the city on horseback, leaving his baggage 
 and bedding to follow in the tardy cart, 
 passes through the gate himself, but the 
 chances are the cart is left outside. In this 
 case there is no remedy for a sleepless night, 
 since in China the traveler usually supplies 
 his own bedding or does without. 
 
 Meanwhile the carts turned from the stone 
 road into a narrow, unpaved street. The 
 thumping and bumping ceased for a time and 
 the girl looked out of the opening at the 
 stretch of street ahead. As far as she could 
 see were dusty, gray brick walls on either 
 side, with not a tree growing anywhere in 
 sight. The street was probably not much 
 wider than her own room at home. Here 
 and there in the walls were heavy doors, all 
 tightly closed. Evidently there were houses 
 behind the walls, though not even a scrap 
 of roof was visible from the street. "Walls, 
 walls everywhere, and walls within walls! 
 A walled empire, walled cities, and walled 
 
Into a Walled City 15 
 
 houses! Perhaps a walled people? the girl 
 questioned. Just then the carts came to a 
 sudden, jerky stop. A door swung open, and 
 the girl's journey was at an end. This was 
 home. 
 
 There had been a star in her heavens, 
 which, like the guiding star of old, had lured 
 her from her home in the West to the walled 
 house in Peking. Why had she come? The 
 Chinese wondered — some of her friends at 
 home wondered — but she herself never won- 
 dered. She knew. 
 
A GIRL IN THE MAKING 
 
 17 
 
II 
 
 A GIEL IN THE MAKING 
 
 "What man has dreamed, that man must do." 
 
 In the woods which bordered upon the 
 clearing, two fearless children roamed at 
 will. The younger of the two was a slight, 
 wiry little figure with a mass of golden curls 
 and big blue eyes. They had read in their 
 fairy books that sometimes real babies lived 
 in the hollow trunks of great forest trees. 
 So every day they searched in every hollow 
 trunk, peering deep down to find the hidden 
 treasure. Their mother had often to leave 
 the house in the clearing and hunt anxiously 
 for the little girls, who, before she had time 
 to miss them, were off on their tour of dis- 
 covery. There were wild beasts not far 
 away, and dangerous snakes, but of these the 
 children took no heed. Their fearlessness 
 was their protection, and they played in 
 safety under the shiny hemlock trees on the 
 slopes of the Alleghanies. 
 
 But the years hastened on, and the happy 
 hunting-ground of the children was changed. 
 
 19 
 
 \ 
 
20 Under Marching Orders 
 
 It was no longer the mysterious forest, but 
 a big, gray house in the center of a busy, 
 western town. The good times continued 
 just the same, for the house was large and 
 roomy, and the family large-hearted and hos- 
 pitable. The house faced directly upon an 
 open common, and not far away was the 
 Court-house Square. Tall trees marked their 
 shadows upon the green grass of the com- 
 mon opposite. There was life and stir in the 
 streets of the town, and on the great river 
 sturdy steamboats towed the heavy barges, 
 which carried flour, grain, and other freight. 
 As to a magnet were drawn to this town on 
 the Mississippi grain from the fields, ores 
 from the mines, and timber from the forests, 
 while from it manufactured products of 
 many kinds were sent to all parts of the 
 nation. 
 
 Across the broad river to its eastern shore, 
 the Chicago and Eock Island Railroad had 
 built a huge drawbridge, the first bridge 
 across the Mississippi. By and by, as war 
 became inevitable, Davenport, because it was 
 in the center of things north and south and 
 east and west, was chosen as a mustering-in 
 place for Iowa soldiers. North and east of 
 
Mary Porter at Twelve Years of Age 
 
A Girl in the Making 21 
 
 the town there sprang up as in a night the 
 tents and barracks of "Camp McClellan, ' ' 
 "Camp Boberts," "Cainp Hendershott, ' ' 
 and others. On Kock Island, where the gov- 
 ernment arsenal now stands, were built the 
 large wooden buildings in which at one 
 time twelve or fifteen thousand Confederate 
 soldiers were imprisoned. Exciting tales 
 drifted through the town, tales of how the 
 prisoners plotted to escape, planning to 
 walk across the river on the ice to the main- 
 land and thus away to freedom, or perchance 
 back again to battle. 
 
 So it came to pass that things happened in 
 the gray house in the square ; things funny, 
 sad, and eventful, and the heart of them all 
 was the same merry dreamer of a girl who 
 followed fearlessly into the woods, the girl 
 who always followed fearlessly wherever 
 there was the call to go. Her hair was 
 still curly and golden, though in the sunlight 
 it had a tinge of red. Sometimes her eyes 
 positively danced with mischief, and some- 
 times they had a quiet, far-away look, as if 
 she were seeing into the future. She was 
 known as the girl who could always find a 
 way out of every difficulty, believing with all 
 
22 Under Marching Orders 
 
 her might the old proverb, " Where there is 
 a will, there is a way." 
 
 From the day when the Southern guns 
 fired upon Fort Sumter until the day when 
 the flags hung at half-mast because Abraham 
 Lincoln was dead, Mary Porter lived in the 
 great deeds of the war. With her mother and 
 the other children she drove out to camp and 
 watched the military drill, listening eagerly 
 to the beat of the drum, and learning the 
 bugle calls by heart. There she heard those 
 songs which made the Southern soldiers say, 
 after the war was over, that it was the songs 
 of the men in blue that won the war. She 
 knew how " Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys 
 are marching" and "Bally round the flag" 
 could fire the soul so that one would dare 
 anything and fear nothing. Later on, when 
 the broken ranks of the regiments came 
 marching back to Davenport, her clear, 
 soprano voice sang the brave, sad songs, 
 "Tenting to-night on the old camp ground," 
 1 i The vacant chair, ? ' and other like these born 
 out of the experience of war. 
 
 Oftentimes the gray house opened its doors 
 to the womenfolk who came from a distance 
 to be near their husbands, sons, and brothers 
 
A Girl in the Making 23 
 
 who were soon to be ordered out of camp to 
 the front. Then again the busy mother of 
 the family welcomed other active women of 
 the town, and together they planned diet 
 kitchens and hospital supplies for the sol- 
 diers. A vast deal of wisdom was stored in 
 those heads which wore the big scoop bon- 
 nets, and bright were the eyes which looked 
 out from under the broad brims. As the war 
 drew near its close, these same women 
 planned a home for orphaned children of the 
 soldiers who had died for their country, 
 and located this home in Davenport. 
 
 But there were yet other doings in the 
 house in the square. Many a night a bevy of 
 schoolgirls sought refuge there when their 
 pranks had kept them so late after school that 
 it was too dark for them to go to their own 
 homes. Mary Porter, Mattie Scott, Cora 
 Parkhurst, and Mary Sully were boon com- 
 panions, sharing alike in glory and disgrace. 
 They had entered into a solemn compact 
 whereby if one missed all would miss, and if 
 one had to stay after school all would stay. 
 So well known was their confederacy, that 
 whenever there was sign of disturbance in 
 the schoolroom, without looking up, the 
 
24 Under Marching Orders 
 
 teacher would call the names of the four 
 girls. 
 
 It was one night around the fire in the 
 Porter house that the famous high school 
 escapade was recounted in glowing terms. 
 The high school had outgrown its quarters 
 in the building with the graded schools, and 
 the town had purchased for its use a large, 
 half-built church. The rooms down-stairs 
 were used for the school, while overhead, 
 the unfinished auditorium served as gym- 
 nasium, recess-hall, and general rallying- 
 place of the boys and girls between sessions. 
 Eopes with rings attached hung from the 
 ceiling, a suggestion of gymnastic apparatus. 
 On the wall, a makeshift ladder, made of 
 strips of board nailed across between the 
 studding, had been left by the workmen. It 
 was the particular joy of the upper-class 
 girls to climb this ladder and perch on the 
 beams above to eat their luncheons. 
 
 One day a brilliant idea entered the heads 
 of the younger girls and was acted upon at 
 once. Beginning, of course, at the top, they 
 pulled off the thin strips of board until not a 
 splinter of the ladder was left. Then they 
 returned to the schoolroom with as much un- 
 
A Girl in the Making 25 
 
 concern as they could assume. Naturally 
 the teacher inquired for the missing girls. 
 1 ' They were up there when we came down, ' ' 
 replied one of the four. The adventure ended 
 merrily as it began. The helpless girls on 
 the beams did not want the principal to know 
 of their ignominious plight, and the teacher 
 must put her wits to work to devise a way of 
 getting them down. By dint of repeated 
 effort she threw the gymnastic ropes within 
 their reach. Grasping these, and swinging 
 out into the air, one by one they reached the 
 floor. 
 
 Mary Porter finished her sophomore year 
 in high school when the armies of the North 
 and South had disbanded and the tired men 
 had scattered to their homes. The nation's 
 war was over, but the fighting days of her 
 life had just begun. The bugle-call sounded 
 in her ears, and like a soldier she fell in line. 
 In the deserted barracks of Camp Eoberts the 
 orphan children had been assembled in 
 school. Teachers were urgently in demand, 
 and there was a girl in Davenport ready to 
 go wherever she was sure she was needed. 
 This girl found out something during the 
 year with the children, something which she 
 
26 Under Marching Orders 
 
 had hitherto suspected, that you really have 
 the best kind of a time when you are doing 
 things for other people. The notes of the 
 bugle were growing clearer, and by and by 
 she would know exactly their meaning. 
 
 Something else had taken place in her life, 
 even before that merry freshman year in 
 high school. It was a real thing, though she 
 did not talk much about it at the time or 
 afterwards. Those were great days for boys 
 and girls to be alive ; days when heroes were 
 on every side, even where one did not dream 
 of finding them. Deeds of daring and sacri- 
 fice in war were told daily by the fireside. 
 Men like Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, 
 Ulysses S. Grant, and William T. Sherman 
 stirred the blood and put iron in the will. 
 And yet the girl knew that there was a Hero 
 greater than these, even he whose courage 
 was back of the war generals, and whose love 
 was in her very own soul. He should be her 
 Commander General, and his marching or- 
 ders she would gladly and instantly obey. 
 During that same year, when she was fifteen 
 years of age, she joined the church in her 
 town, a willing recruit for service in a world- 
 wide army. 
 
A Girl, in the Making 27 
 
 After teaching one year, Mary Porter went 
 back to high school, and doing two years' 
 work in one, graduated with her own class. 
 It was a hard, forced march, and the girl- 
 soldier almost fell by the way. Then she 
 learned what it meant to pray to God, and 
 to depend upon his help. Long years after, 
 her letters told of the battle fought in this 
 senior year. "I used to ask God to help me 
 with geometry, Latin, chemistry, and every- 
 thing in which I was likely to stagger from 
 overwork. I have sat down at my desk so 
 weary and discouraged with everything that 
 I could have almost cried ! But in my need I 
 would remember God, and I felt his help! 
 And so the puzzles disappeared, and I won- 
 dered where I had found them. ' ' 
 
 The principal of the high school was proud 
 of his star pupil, and asked her to go as 
 teacher to Grandview Academy, where he had 
 accepted a position. So it came to pass that 
 the girl of twenty taught classes of young 
 men and women, and many of them were 
 older than herself. Brain and hand were 
 taxed to the utmost in those busy days at 
 Grandview. There were singing-lessons to 
 be practised daily, besides her regular sched- 
 
28 Under Marching Orders 
 
 ule of teaching. Furthermore, the people in 
 the little church in the town had chosen the 
 resourceful girl as superintendent of the 
 Sunday-school. Finally, in every odd mo- 
 ment she was studying persistently in order 
 to enter college with advanced standing. 
 
 But a dream of another sort came all un- 
 bidden and came to stay, and by and by this 
 new dream absorbed the ambition for college. 
 There was a huge, old-world country, with 
 five times as many people as the Eepublic and 
 nearly sixty times as many as the Dominion 
 of Canada, where teachers were very scarce, 
 and where pupils were as the sand of the sea 
 for number. Might not she be needed there ? 
 From what she had heard, she was sure those 
 pupils were in need of lessons. They did not 
 know the simplest things about geography or 
 history or science, and the girls among them 
 didn't even know how to read. At that time 
 girls weren't considered worth teaching in 
 that ancient land. Moreover, the people did 
 not know about God, and heaven, and Jesus 
 Christ. Should she not go and teach them? 
 She was now under marching orders, and 
 when an army regiment is ordered to the 
 ends of the earth where is the soldier who 
 
The House in the Square, Davenport, Iowa 
 
 Old Prison Hospital, Arsenal Island 
 
A Girl in the Making 29 
 
 hesitates ? The bugle-call had sounded again, 
 and this time there was no mistaking its 
 meaning. So it came about that* Mary 
 Porter, to the surprise of her friends, and 
 somewhat to the surprise of herself, decided 
 to spend her life in China. 
 
 A strange coincidence was discovered 
 while she was making ready to go to China. 
 A person by the name of Mary Porter was 
 already living in Peking, the city to which 
 she was to be sent. Mail matter would cer- 
 tainly be confused, so she must put a middle 
 letter in her name to identify herself. 
 "What shall it be? Query?" she asked of 
 her sister one day. "Q stands for query, let 
 it be Q," and Mary Q. Porter it was until 
 that day in China when she changed her name 
 for that of another. 
 
 The gray house in the square was left 
 behind for five years at least when the train 
 pulled out of Davenport for the west and the 
 girl of the house began her long journey. It 
 had been arranged by her friends that a 
 gentleman whom they knew should meet Miss 
 Porter at San Francisco and take her to the 
 steamer. He walked through the train 
 closely scanning each passenger, but did not 
 
30 Under Marching Orders 
 
 find any one he thought could be the new mis- 
 sionary. As he came back through the car, 
 lie stopped nearly opposite her seat and said, 
 "I am looking for Miss Porter who is going 
 to China. Do any of yon know her?" "I 
 am Miss Porter," came a demure voice from 
 the depths of the seat. The gentleman turned 
 and looked at the slip of a girl with her 
 golden curls loose in her neck, and her blue 
 eyes shining with amusement. "You!" he 
 exclaimed with some emphasis; "I was look- 
 ing for an old maid ! " It was no wonder the 
 good man was surprised, for this girl of 
 twenty-three was one of the youngest mis- 
 sionaries ever sent out of the country. In 
 San Francisco she found Miss Maria Brown, 
 a young woman from New England, who was 
 also on her way to China. Together they 
 went on board the steamer and sailed out 
 through the Golden Gate, sailing west in 
 order to go most directly to the Far East. 
 
 And now you know, do you not, why you 
 found the American girl riding her donkey 
 toward the great wall of Peking that April 
 afternoon in 1872? 
 
BOUND OR UNBOUND? 
 
 si 
 
m 
 
 BOUND OR UNBOUND? 
 
 "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, 
 Or what's a heaven for? " 
 
 One December evening in the sitting-room 
 of the "Long Home" in Peking, Mary Porter 
 and Maria Brown sat on the floor in front of 
 the stove in which a coal fire was brightly 
 burning. The chill of a northern winter had 
 settled upon Peking, and the clanging bells of 
 the camel trains which brought the supply of 
 coal from the western hills to the city were 
 a very welcome sound in the ears of the 
 foreigners. 
 
 Here, within the walled court of a Chinese 
 compound, and beneath the tiled roof of a 
 Chinese house, was a room distinctively 
 American. A sofa of familiar pattern stood 
 against the wall. In the center of the room 
 was a large table covered with books, and by 
 its side a big, friendly arm-chair. An open 
 desk was in one corner, and a medicine-chest 
 with its rows of labeled bottles waited in 
 trim readiness for use. There were pictures 
 
 33 
 
34 Under Marching Orders 
 
 on the walls, and a straw matting covered the 
 boards which had replaced the brick-paved 
 floor. The soft light of a shaded lamp shone 
 through the long, narrow room, and the two 
 glowing eyes of the stove added further 
 gleams of brightness. 
 
 This was home to the two young women 
 from America, and here, in the quiet of Sun- 
 day evening, they faced and settled a momen- 
 tous question. From the beginning, girls had 
 been admitted to their school only on condi- 
 tion that the bound feet should be released 
 from the tight bandages and allowed to grow 
 naturally. No other girls' school in China 
 insisted upon this rule. Should they continue 
 to do so? Moreover it had to be acknowl- 
 edged that some of the small band of pupils 
 already gathered in school had been taken 
 away solely because their feet had been un- 
 bound. Teachers who had been in the country 
 years instead of months said that it would 
 not do to break down such an old Chinese 
 custom all at once, that parents would never 
 allow their girl-children to go to the Chris- 
 tian school if so cherished a tradition must 
 be sacrificed. 
 
 Here then was the question, and the two 
 
Bound or Unbound? 35 
 
 young women, as they sat before the fire that 
 Sunday evening, knew that only one answer 
 was possible. The yards and yards of cotton 
 bandage must be removed, and the poor, 
 cramped toes and overgrown insteps restored 
 to normal size and use. The hollow-eyed, 
 sad little girls of China, hobbling about on 
 their doll-like feet, should become, in the 
 Christian school, rosy, healthy children, run- 
 ning and playing like the other small folk of 
 God's world. The human body is God's 
 own creation and gift, and to distort it is 
 more than a cruel national custom ; it is a sin. 
 Thus Miss Porter and her companion rea- 
 soned together, and thus the question was 
 settled. 
 
 That night's decision reached far into the 
 future and touched hands with a certain 
 edict from the throne of China proclaiming 
 in the year 1907, that the girls of the empire 
 should henceforth escape the torture of foot- 
 binding. And when the girls' school of 
 Peking became the largest school for girls 
 in all China, there were those who remem- 
 bered the Sunday night in the sitting-room of 
 the i i Long Home, ' ' and who readily believed 
 that the mighty Master himself was present 
 
36 Under Marching Orders 
 
 at that conference and prompted the daring 
 decision. 
 
 The "Long Home" had been so christened 
 because of its peculiar dimensions. When 
 Mary Porter stepped into the weed-grown 
 court on her first morning in Peking, she 
 turned to look at the little house which she 
 had entered in the darkness of evening. 
 There it was, peering out at her from under 
 its overhanging eaves and heavy, tiled roof. 
 There were three rooms in a row with a 
 veranda across the length of the house, 
 which, like most Peking houses, was only 
 one story high. It was still a typical 
 Chinese house, although the Americans who 
 lived in the compound had exchanged the 
 paper windows for glass, and had laid boards 
 over the damp, brick floors. 
 
 As Miss Porter walked down the path, a 
 great dog of western breed bounded for- 
 ward and greeted his fellow American by 
 placing both paws upon her shoulders, mark- 
 ing, in his descent, to the ground, the front 
 of her gown with streaks of Peking mud. She 
 said afterwards "that the act made an im- 
 pression upon her mind as well as upon her 
 gown, whereby she remembered that it rained 
 
Bound ok Unbound? 37 
 
 that April morning in Peking." In the 
 months and years to come in China, she grew 
 to welcome those days of dripping rain as an 
 oasis in an endless desert of dust. 
 
 The path straggled through the weeds to a 
 hole in the wall of the compound. This hole 
 was a perfect circle six feet in diameter, and 
 was the Chinese moon-gate. Near the gate 
 was a small building which served as chapel. 
 In the court were two other houses, three 
 fourths Chinese and one fourth American in 
 appearance. These were occupied by the two 
 families from America who had already made 
 Peking their home. A brick-paved court led 
 from the inside court to the great, double gate 
 which opened on Filial Piety Lane. 
 
 Here, then, was Mary Porter's new world, 
 the world of her dream. A gray brick wall 
 frowned like the wall of a prison. The long- 
 drawn, oriental houses were picturesque, but 
 musty and cheerless compared with the open, 
 sunny house in Davenport. There were 
 about ten other Americans to share her work 
 and play. And here within this stuffy com- 
 pound was the girl who once was lured by 
 the attractions of college, and of large activ- 
 ity in the homeland. Had she come to China 
 
38 Under Marching Orders 
 
 in vain? Listen! From the other side of the 
 wall came a singsong of boyish voices shout- 
 ing unintelligible sounds. The boys of the 
 mission school were studying their lessons 
 aloud in good old Chinese fashion. But out 
 beyond those gray walls were hundreds of 
 little girls, unloved and untaught. No school 
 for girls had ever been provided by Chinese 
 educators until the coming of the mission- 
 aries. Was there not work for the American 
 girl to do ? 
 
 The new school for girls grew slowly in 
 its pioneer days. The first small pupil who 
 came ran away as fast as her bound feet 
 could carry her when she saw the queer look- 
 ing foreigners. During that first year per- 
 haps fifty girls came and went away again, 
 while only seven came and remained. The 
 Chinese told hideous tales one to another, 
 tales of how the foreigners removed the eyes 
 of Chinese children and used them for med- 
 icine. Mothers would hastily cover the eyes 
 of their children when they met the so-called 
 "foreign devils " in the streets of Peking, 
 lest somehow they cast an evil spell upon 
 them. Parents who allowed their children to 
 go to the Christian school were mostly so 
 
Bound or Unbound? 39 
 
 poor that they would accept any means to 
 relieve themselves of feeding and clothing 
 one more little body. Sometimes the girls 
 were left in school only long enough to receive 
 new, warm clothing, when they were taken 
 home and their clothes sold or pawned. 
 
 Among the seven bewildered little girls 
 who dared to stay in the school was a strange 
 child called Hui An. She had an unusually 
 bright mind and understood the Christian 
 teaching more quickly than the other girls, 
 but her faculty for memorizing was meager. 
 Consequently she was in perpetual disgrace 
 with the old Chinese teacher to whom the aim 
 and end of education was to learn by heart 
 lengthy passages, and even entire books. 
 
 In those days when the school was small, 
 it was the habit of the girls to go each even- 
 ing, one by one, into a quiet room where they 
 knelt with Miss Porter and learned to pray 
 to the God whom they had so recently come 
 to know. One afternoon as soon as school 
 was dismissed, Hui An knocked at Miss 
 Porter's door and asked, "Please may I say 
 my prayers now?" Miss Porter replied that 
 she would better wait until the usual hour. 
 But the girl was too much in earnest to be 
 
40 Under Marching Orders 
 
 refused, and her prayer was heard by Miss 
 Porter, and the Father to whom she spoke. 
 She arose from her knees with a contented 
 face. Miss Porter again asked why she had 
 come at that early hour. "By this time the 
 child had gained a little more courage, and, 
 standing upon one foot, toying nervously 
 with her big sleeves, her face downcast, she 
 said: 'I love so much to play that every day 
 I just play as hard as I can from the time 
 school is out until supper time, and after 
 supper to prayer time, so when I come in to 
 pray I just can think of nothing but the play, 
 and all out of breath I want to rush through 
 the prayer and be off to play again. And 
 now, ' she said, i since I know that God knows 
 about this kind of business and doesn't like 
 it, I am afraid to do so any more. ' ' ' It was 
 the same Hui An who, years after, was 
 burned to death because she would not desert 
 her post of duty. ' ' There are others depend- 
 ent upon me," she said, when asked to escape 
 to a place of safety. The hardy spirit of the 
 Peking school had mastered the Chinese girl 
 and braced her to meet danger and death. 
 
 Sarah "Wang was another of Miss Porter's 
 pupils in those early, formative days of the 
 
Bound or Unbound? 41 
 
 school. She it was who made the famous 
 journey from her home in Shan-tung to 
 Peking — on a wheelbarrow! It was a dis- 
 tance of four hundred miles, taking sixteen 
 days for the jerky ride over the uneven 
 roads. Sarah's mother and sister Clara 
 traveled with her, and the two girls were to 
 be left in the Christian school. Mrs. Wang 
 belonged to an old, respected family. There 
 was by nature a certain queenly element in 
 her which made her an undaunted Christian. 
 She had become convinced that foot-binding 
 was wrong, and thus she fully expected to 
 have her daughters' feet freed from the 
 bandages as soon as they entered school. 
 When the new shoes and stockings were pro- 
 duced and the unbinding process began, the 
 mother at first smiled approvingly saying, 
 " God's will be done, let the feet be unbound." 
 Then her fine face quivered with emotion and 
 the slow tears came. She wrung her hands 
 and walked restlessly up and down the room. 
 "Unbind only the feet of one, and let the 
 other child's remain bound," she begged 
 piteously. And then she reproached herself 
 for her weakness. It was the conflict between 
 the old life and the new, and it cost to give up 
 
42 Under Marching Orders 
 
 the old ways. The tiny foot was a sign of 
 gentility, of high social standing, and family 
 pride put in its claim. But the new faith tri- 
 umphed over the old custom and Mrs. Wang's 
 face became quiet and earnest. "Go on," 
 she said, i i it shall be done. ' ' Thus the victory 
 was won in the life of that stately woman of 
 an ancient race. 
 
 Some months later, Sarah went home to 
 Shan-tung for her first vacation. As she 
 rode in her cart through the country, her 
 large feet provoked many comments. Beg- 
 gars, taking her for a man, followed the cart 
 crying out: "Venerable uncle, pity me, pity 
 me ! ' ' If she spoke or laughed, thus betray- 
 ing her sex, they said, "Venerable maiden." 
 If she walked along the road, children would 
 come running from the fields to see this 
 strange freak of a human being. She over- 
 heard some one say, "This, finally, is what 
 kind of a person? The head is that of a 
 maiden, but the feet are like those of a man, 
 and it has bound on ankle ties. What can it 
 be?" Thus it cost Sarah as well as her 
 mother to give up the old customs and dare 
 the scorn of her tormentors. 
 
 She was eleven years old when she returned 
 
Bound or Unbound? 43 
 
 to school at the end of vacation. In her 
 native village they had ridiculed and even 
 insulted the girl who had come home with 
 unbound feet, the first girl ever seen in that 
 region with feet of natural size. Sarah went 
 to Miss Porter crying as if her heart would 
 break, and declared that never again did she 
 want to go home. Then it was that the young 
 American teacher who had herself faced crit- 
 icism in the home country, and open hostility 
 here in China, put nerve and courage in the 
 shrinking Chinese girl. "It always means 
 suffering to be a pioneer in any work and in 
 any land. But for the sake of those who are 
 to follow in the way you have trod, can you 
 not bear it?" And then she appealed to the 
 girl Christian in the name of her Christ. 
 "Can you not do this for his sake? Will you 
 not help his cause by bearing this hardship? 
 Go home every vacation and tell your villa- 
 gers that it is for love of a new-found God 
 that you remove the bandages which deform 
 the body he claims for his temple. Keep on 
 telling, and after a while they will under- 
 stand, and you will have served your Savior 
 and made things easier for all other girls who 
 shall unbind their feet." The girl responded 
 
44 Under Marching Orders 
 
 to this challenge in the same soldier-like 
 spirit in which Mary Porter had herself an- 
 swered the bugle-call to action. Never again 
 did Sarah complain or falter as she went her 
 way on the unbound feet. 
 
 During these early years, experiences such 
 as fall to the lot of the pioneer beset Mary 
 Porter's life in China. She was more than 
 an explorer in a new world. She had come as 
 a settler, and therefore "what could not be 
 cured must somehow be endured." Inva- 
 riably she took the hard things in the spirit of 
 an interesting adventure, and was true to 
 her reputation as the girl who was bound to 
 find a way out of every emergency. One day 
 Chinese workmen were building the walls 
 of the new schoolhouse in the compound. 
 The Chinese method of construction was to 
 lay double walls of brick quite close together, 
 with single bricks placed across between the 
 walls at frequent intervals to serve as sup- 
 ports. These connecting bricks were abso- 
 lutely necessary for the stability of the wall. 
 Mary Porter had kept strict watch of the wily 
 Chinese, who were waiting for the chance to 
 omit the third row of bricks if they could do 
 so undetected. Every day, as the wall rose 
 
Bound or Unbound? 45 
 
 higher and higher, she climbed up and peered 
 into the space between. One morning she 
 heard a workman say, ' ' The wall is too high 
 now for the girl to climb." Thereupon she 
 determined that they should see whether or 
 not the girl could climb. She mounted the 
 scaffolding, and with one push sent the shaky 
 wall crumbling to the ground. After that 
 the builders learned to respect the American 
 girl whose blue eyes missed little of what was 
 going on about her, and whose ears were 
 quick to understand even the strange words 
 of Chinese speech. 
 
 As the months went on, novelty of life in 
 the compound was worn threadbare. Every 
 nook and corner, crack and crevice of the 
 dusty old Chinese houses became familiar. 
 Each and every object in the rooms could be 
 located with one's eyes closed. At home in 
 the United States, when monotony threatens, 
 there is always the chance to go down-town 
 and look in the shopwindows, perhaps to go 
 to a concert of beautiful music, or better yet, 
 walk for long distances in the open country. 
 If Mary Porter ventured outside the double 
 gate of the compound into the streets of 
 Peking, the very children would cover their 
 
46 Under Marching Orders 
 
 eyes and run in the opposite direction. When 
 at a safe distance they would join with others 
 in the cry, "Foreign devil!" Then there 
 were scenes in the streets which haunted her 
 memory day and night. Dead cats and dogs 
 were left unburied. Little dingy bundles 
 wrapped in coarse matting were cast outside 
 the gates of the houses to await the coming 
 of the ox-cart which passed daily through the 
 streets to bear the bodies of dead babies to 
 burial. If a man were in mortal danger no 
 Chinese would venture to his relief, lest he 
 be dragged to court on charge of having 
 caused the man's misfortune. An American 
 bishop once said that he had discovered sixty- 
 nine different unpleasant odors in unwhole- 
 some Peking, besides a combination of sev- 
 eral others which he could not distinguish. 
 In the market-places and near the city gates 
 the dust was unspeakable. Peking dust is 
 unique among all dusts of the earth for its 
 blackness, its stickiness, and its actual filth. 
 No wonder then that Miss Porter chose to 
 walk on the great wall of the city above the 
 sights and sounds and odors of the street. 
 Tall grasses sprang up unchecked between 
 the stones. Myriads of birds flew high and 
 
Bound or Unbound? 47 
 
 low. Even the birds of China were different 
 from their brothers of America. The pet 
 pigeons had whistles tied to their tails, and 
 as they flew their buzzing shriek could be 
 heard in all directions. 
 
 In the summer-time Miss Porter looked 
 down from the wall into dense, green foliage 
 through which the yellow tiles of the palace 
 buildings gleamed like leaves of gold. There 
 were once two travelers in Peking, one of 
 whom said the city was treeless, and the 
 other that it was a veritable forest ; the dif- 
 ference being, that one traversed the city 
 streets, and the other the city wall. The trees 
 were all enclosed within the walls by which 
 Chinese dwellings were surrounded, and be- 
 cause the walls were high and the streets 
 narrow, not a sign of a tree was visible from 
 the street. 
 
 There was always a sense of home-coming 
 when Miss Porter returned from her walk on 
 the wall to Filial Piety Lane and into the 
 compound behind the double gate. Unques- 
 tionably there was work to do in her new 
 world, and work that was worth doing. One 
 day she wrote a letter which traveled across 
 the sea to that other home in America : ' ' No, 
 
48 Under Marching Orders 
 
 I have had no regular — wonder if you did not 
 mean irregular — fits of homesickness. I have 
 longed to see you all, thought of you until the 
 tears come — not common with me — but there 
 is no despondency in it. I fully believe God 
 has kept me from such feelings, and in an- 
 swer to prayer. . . . An Influence has sup- 
 ported me all the way that I did not feel in 
 past days." 
 
 In the ' i Long Home ' ' each noon- time, Mary 
 Porter and Maria Brown knelt together to 
 ask God's blessing upon the new work which 
 had come into being through their own lov- 
 ing efforts. In some way one of their fellow 
 laborers heard of the daily habit, and at his 
 suggestion the noon hour was made a time 
 of prayer for the entire mission. 
 
 There in the musty compound, in a corner 
 of the huge, alien city, nearly nine thousand 
 miles from home, Mary Porter spent the 
 years of her young womanhood. And those 
 days of prolonged anxiety, even of fierce 
 excitement and bitter peril which were yet to 
 come, cast no foreboding shadow. It was with 
 a great, glad hope that she marched into that 
 unknown future within which, near or far, 
 she would find her dream come true. 
 
IN A PEKING CART 
 
 49 
 
IV 
 IN A PEKING CAST 
 
 "Made like our own strange selves, with memory, mind, and 
 will; 
 Made with a heart to love, and a soul to live forever! " 
 
 Early one October morning, two carts 
 drawn by mules passed through the Hata 
 gate of the city. They were just ordinary 
 Peking carts, having none of the insignia of 
 official rank, such as the broad band of red 
 cloth around the wooden sides, or the pomp- 
 ous outriders on mules bedecked with tasseled. 
 trappings. Faded cloth of Chinese blue cov- 
 ered the tops of the carts. By their side rode 
 two escorts on horseback, one a Chinese boy, 
 and the other a foreigner. It was the pres- 
 ence of the Western stranger which excited 
 the curiosity of the throng on the road out- 
 side the gate. Eager eyes gazed into the 
 openings at the front of the carts. Sure 
 enough there were other ridiculous foreigners 
 inside. Moreover they were women, Amer- 
 ican women, and one had curly, light hair and 
 blue eyes. What a laughable contrast to the 
 
 51 
 
52 Under Marching Orders 
 
 dark-eyed women of China, with their coils 
 of glossy, black hair! "Who but a Western 
 barbarian would have curly hair! 
 
 If the inquisitive Chinese could have peered 
 still farther into one of the carts, they would 
 have discovered satchels and books, and 
 the usual supply of bedding without which no 
 traveler, native or foreign, fares forth in 
 China. On the back of the cart were strapped 
 a large box containing dishes, cooking uten- 
 sils, the small charcoal stove, and a generous 
 provision of food. This was the portable 
 kitchen and pantry combined, so necessary to 
 the comfort of him who seeks the uncertain 
 hospitality of Chinese inns. Two mules drew 
 the cart. One was harnessed between the 
 shafts and attended strictly to duty. The 
 other was attached by a long rope fastened 
 near the axle. He described a circle through 
 the surrounding country, unless recalled by 
 the long whip of the carter. On the side of 
 the shaft sat the little man who wielded the 
 reins and brandished the whip. Only to the 
 foreigners was the Peking cart a doubtful 
 convenience. To the Chinese, the springless 
 box on wheels was a simple necessity, whose 
 possible improvement was not to be consid- 
 
Peking Carts on Rough Roads 
 
 River Ferry 
 
In a Peking Cart 53 
 
 ered. Even the long nails which fastened the 
 rims on the wheels, and which dug their bris- 
 tling heads into the ground, stirred no crit- 
 icism. It was only the nervous Westerner 
 who objected. 
 
 Meanwhile the two carts and the two 
 riders traveled steadily away from the cap- 
 ital city out toward the borders of the royal 
 province of Chih-li, southeast in the direction 
 of Shan-tung. It was a long journey these 
 wayfarers had planned, and stout must be 
 the nerves and courage of him who endures 
 to the end. It was like Mary Porter, like the 
 venturesome girl of old, to start unhesita- 
 tingly upon a trip never before attempted by 
 a woman. Once, in the Peking compound, she 
 wrote a letter home in which were these 
 words: "I refuse to acknowledge that there 
 is anything I ought to do which I cannot do." 
 Nine hundred miles of travel in a Peking 
 cart was a formidable prospect even to the 
 strongest man, but with the call of duty in 
 her ears, it could and should be done. Her 
 fellow travelers were the gentleman on horse- 
 back and his wife who rode with her in the 
 cart. In the other cart sat Mrs. Wang, the 
 mother of Sarah, who was now a Bible 
 
54 Under Marching Orders 
 
 woman, and often Miss Porter's companion 
 on the country trips. Another of the mis- 
 sionaries was to join them at Tientsin. Thus 
 with the Chinese servant and the two carters, 
 there were eight people to share the expe- 
 riences of travel. 
 
 Each day the carts covered the allotted 
 distance for a day's journey, thirty miles. 
 Tientsin had been left behind, and they were 
 now in a country new and strange to the 
 women from the Western world. About dusk 
 the mules and horses drew up in Hsing-chi. 
 It was one of those excitable Chinese towns 
 where it was easy to stir up a mob. The carts 
 bumped through the long village from one 
 end to the other, but every inn was stubbornly 
 closed against the foreigners. A crowd was 
 rapidly gathering and following close upon 
 them. There was nothing to do but start at 
 once for the next village. On the outskirts 
 of Hsing-chi they found a dirty little inn 
 huddled down by the roadside. It was too 
 forlorn even to raise a protest against the 
 foreigners, so a refuge for the night was 
 found at last. Miss Porter and her compan- 
 ion slept in a room which had apparently 
 been used as a stable. There was scarcely 
 
In a Peking Cart 55 
 
 any furniture save the usual brick kang 
 (bed) under which the fire may be built. 
 The walls were of grimy clay, and the floor 
 of bare, brown earth. 
 
 In the morning, in the midst of prepara- 
 tions for an early start, a horse broke loose 
 and ran down the road. One of the men of 
 the party went in pursuit, and upon his return 
 passed and repassed the little crouching inn 
 before recognizing his habitation of the night. 
 Afterward he remarked that he didn't think 
 it possible for Christian people to have stayed 
 in "such a hole." 
 
 Beyond Meng-ts'un, the carts turned aside 
 from their course to search out the site of 
 old Ts'ang-chou. New Ts'ang-chou is four- 
 teen miles distant on the bank of the river. 
 Legend has it that the inhabitants moved the 
 town by passing one brick after another along 
 two parallel lines of people which stretched 
 from the old town to the new. True it was 
 that only low mounds covered with stiff 
 grass, and the famous lion wrought of cast 
 iron, remained to tell the story of a once 
 populous city. That peculiar silence which 
 haunts deserted things, hung low over the 
 uneven grass and the fallen lion. The head 
 
56 Under Marching Orders 
 
 had been broken from the body of the beast 
 and lay on the ground a few feet distant. 
 Still farther on lay the nose, which was of 
 such great weight that no man could lift it. 
 The entire party sat down together inside the 
 head, and the horses stood inside the body. 
 The broken lion was another token of the 
 age of that land which, though so old in years, 
 was yet a child in wisdom. Hundreds of 
 years ago, the lion, with a companion lion, 
 guarded the entrance of a palace in the 
 ancient town long since vanished. 
 
 In the little chapel at Shang-chia-chai, the 
 next stopping place, the Chinese Christians 
 gathered for evening prayer and the singing 
 of hymns. They had heard of the clear, 
 soprano voice which led the singing in the 
 compound at Peking, and Miss Porter's com- 
 ing was hailed with joy. With childlike sat- 
 isfaction they sang the old hymns of the 
 Church, begging Miss Porter to correct their 
 mistakes, as they had learned most of the 
 songs from Chinese teachers. Frequently 
 they stopped singing to tell her how eagerly 
 they had hoped for good singers to come and 
 teach them. The old tune of Greenville was 
 their particular favorite, and they sang it 
 
In a Peking Cart 
 
 57 
 
 again and again with whole-hearted enthusi- 
 asm. Miss Porter listened appreciatively to 
 their original variation in the last measure, 
 which was sung with keenest enjoyment. 
 The hymn closes in this way : 
 
 They sang it thus: 
 
 (^jj^lV^ 
 
 At best, Chinese voices are not melodious 
 in song, yet music of angels could scarcely 
 have been more thrilling than were those 
 Christian hymns sung straight from the heart 
 of men and women who had so recently 
 learned that the love of Jesus Christ can 
 create a perpetual song in the life of man. 
 
 During one of her vacations spent in the 
 United States Miss Porter studied at a con- 
 servatory in New York, trying to repair the 
 
58 Under Marching Orders 
 
 injury done her voice by dusty China and 
 the husky Chinese. There it was that the 
 vocal teacher said to her: "If you had come 
 to us ten years earlier, we would have made 
 a first-class soprano, and spoiled a first-class 
 missionary." 
 
 Late in October the little band of travelers 
 came to the river which goes by the name 
 of "China's Sorrow." Richly does it de- 
 serve its name. In its descent from the 
 snow-covered mountains of Tibet it collects 
 the yellow clay deposit from the loess country 
 of northwestern China. Down in the region 
 of the Great Plain this clay chokes the chan- 
 nel, until the river bed is almost as high as 
 the surrounding country. Then in time of 
 freshet the water bursts through the fragile 
 dikes, overwhelming crops, adobe houses, and 
 sometimes hundreds of thousands of people. 
 
 Crossing the Yellow River is a novel ex- 
 perience for the foreigner, to say the least. 
 A crude fiatboat propelled by a scull answers 
 the purpose of a ferry. To stem the swift 
 current the scull is kept in vigorous motion, 
 but even so the boat is carried inevitably 
 down stream and makes a diagonal landing 
 on the other shore. On the return trip, the 
 
In a Peking Cart 59 
 
 boat crosses and makes its way up stream by 
 hugging the bank out of reach of the central 
 current. To transport carts, mules, horses, 
 and people, was as much of a problem as the 
 old conundrum about the fox, the goose, and 
 the bag of corn. First, the mules had to be un- 
 hitched, then the carts were drawn over heavy 
 planks and placed side by side on the boat. 
 Shouts and lashings compelled the animals 
 to walk across the rude gangway, and last 
 of all the eight passengers went on board and 
 the boat started. Meanwhile a great crowd 
 had time to assemble on both banks of the 
 river to see the "foreign devils " and more 
 especially the "devil women." Miss Porter 
 won the distinguished title of "little devil" 
 because she was not so tall as her three com- 
 panions. 
 
 In the villages and on the river banks these 
 Chinese throngs were not disrespectful to the 
 foreigners ; they were only highly amused and 
 took no pains to disguise the fact. Miss 
 Porter often thought of the old chorus : 
 
 "The elephan t now goes round, 
 The band begins to play." 
 
 If she talked earnestly to the women gathered 
 in a Chines^ home, they watched her move- 
 
60 Under Marching Orders 
 
 ments as they would watch the antics of a 
 monkey. One day a Chinese pastor was 
 preaching to the people of a village, but his 
 audience were so fully absorbed in gazing at 
 Miss Porter they had no ears for his words. 
 Without warning he said, "I know she's 
 queer looking, with her pink hair and green 
 eyes, but I want you to listen to me. ' ' There- 
 upon he resumed his discourse. Experiences 
 of this kind had their funny side, but never- 
 theless Miss Porter came to the end of many 
 a day tired and disheartened. It was a slow 
 task to find a way into the minds of these 
 strange people for the life-story she had come 
 to tell. She could only pray and wait. 
 
 Down in the province of Shan-tung the 
 carts bounced over the plowed ground in 
 search of the road they had lost. Darkness 
 had dropped gradually upon the land, and 
 Mrs. Wang's village was yet unreached. A 
 faint light flickered in the distance. The 
 carts drove in that direction only to find a 
 grave in the midst of a field, and a fire burn- 
 ing near by. Paper food and other supposed 
 necessities were being burned for the spirits 
 of those who had gone from the land of the 
 living into that mysterious darkness which 
 
In a Peking Cart 
 
 61 
 
 Chinese religion knows not how to interpret. 
 At length the carts recovered the road which 
 led into An-chia-chuang, the ancestral home 
 of the Wang family. In the rooms adjoining 
 Mrs. "Wang's court, the travelers settled them- 
 selves for the night, and for the week or more 
 they were to spend in that neighborhood. 
 
 On this long country journey they usually 
 stayed in some village where a pioneer 
 
 ^^^^illH^S^ 
 
 »"■■.■■'. 
 
 KOREA BAY 
 
 \- f.^ u GULF OF 
 
 
 
 
 ||ll||rtiil|- 
 
 YELLOW SEA 
 
 Journey from Peking to An-chia-chuang 
 
62 Under Marching Orders 
 
 worker had gone before and founded a little 
 mission station. Here they unpacked the 
 cotton mattresses and kitchen from the cart, 
 and made themselves as comfortable as they 
 could in the midst of Chinese surroundings. 
 From this town as headquarters they rode 
 each day into the outlying villages to visit 
 and teach the women. A song was in their 
 hearts as they went, because of the high joy 
 of making the great Christ known to those 
 who never before dreamed such love was 
 possible. 
 
 It was from An-chia-chuang that Sarah 
 Wang had set forth on her wheelbarrow. To 
 the remote little town she returned on her 
 unbound feet. And now her villagers were 
 to see for themselves the foreign teacher who 
 had given Sarah the strangely beautiful 
 truths which had changed her life. 
 
 One day Mrs. Wang took Miss Porter into 
 the court occupied by the family of her hus- 
 band's brother. This branch of the family 
 still clung to the beliefs and superstitions of 
 Confucianism. Opening upon the court was 
 a large room, grimy with smoke, whose walls 
 were hung with seed-corn, dried herbs, and 
 all manner of implements. In a dingy cor- 
 
In a Peking Cart 63 
 
 ner of the room stood a long table on which 
 were arranged the tablets of family ancestors, 
 beginning hundreds of years back. Chinese 
 characters were carved on the face of each 
 tablet, giving the date of birth and death, as 
 well as the two names of the person ; the one 
 borne in life, and the new name bestowed 
 upon the dead spirit. In the hollow down the 
 center, deftly covered by a thin strip of wood, 
 the soul was supposed to abide. According to 
 Chinese belief man has three souls. One 
 abides in the tablet, another is buried with the 
 body, and the third proceeds on his lonely 
 way to the spirit world. Before the tablet in 
 which dwells the imprisoned spirit, the loyal 
 Chinese must burn incense, and bow low in 
 homage and promised obedience. When a 
 member of the household becomes a Chris- 
 tian, he refuses to participate in this heathen 
 ceremony, and is usually disinherited in con- 
 sequence. The sturdy little man who drove 
 Miss Porter's cart, told her that his name and 
 the names of his brothers had been erased 
 from the family records because for years 
 they had declined to join the family in an- 
 cestral worship, 
 j Mrs. "Wang's village was not far from 
 
64 Under Marching Orders 
 
 a historic region. About a hundred and 
 thirty miles to the southwest was Ch'iu-fu, 
 the home and burial-place of Confucius. In 
 the "Most Holy Grove' ' beyond the "Spirit 
 Boad" lay the body of the one who has 
 directly influenced one fourth of all the people 
 of the world. Confucius taught some noble 
 principles of living, but the deepest ques- 
 tions of life he could not and did not try to 
 answer. He pointed his disciples to the misty 
 days of antiquity as the ideal for all Chinese 
 living. Thus for more than two thousand 
 years, thousands of millions of people have 
 stood with "their faces toward the dead past, 
 the future a darkness out of which no voice 
 comes. " And yet, five hundred years after 
 Confucius died, there came to another city 
 in Asia the Teacher whose voice has lifted 
 the heads of his disciples to behold the glories 
 above and beyond, and has drawn their hearts 
 to him in love. How strange that throughout 
 all these centuries, and on the very same con- 
 tinent where he lived, the Chinese should 
 scarcely know his name ! Has not that love 
 reached also unto them? 
 
 Late in the nineteenth century the little 
 group of the followers of Christ labored in 
 
In a Peking Cart 65 
 
 his name in the ancient province of Shan- 
 tung. However much the holy city of the 
 province may have interested that dauntless 
 young traveler, Mary Porter did not go from 
 An-chia-chuang to visit Ch'iu-fu. Women 
 came from the surrounding villages to learn 
 of the foreign teacher, and her hands were 
 full of work. Moreover the day was soon 
 to come when she must leave Mrs. Wang and 
 the new Christians, and enter her cart for the 
 return journey. 
 
 As the heads of the mules were turned 
 toward the north, Yang Ssu, the carter, re- 
 marked with satisfaction: "Now we leave the 
 mountains of the south. When we see the 
 mountains in the north there will be hope, 
 for they are the mountains about Peking.' ' 
 There were snow-storms to encounter on the 
 homeward way, for the lovely autumn days 
 had long since gone. Ice blocked the river 
 near the bridge of boats ; the chill of winter 
 was in the air. All the more was the joy of 
 home-coming in her heart, as Mary Porter 
 drew near the great wall of Peking, and after 
 fifty days of travel passed again behind the 
 walls of the compound on Filial Piety Lane, 
 where a great experience lay just ahead. 
 
THE TURNING OF THE ROAD 
 
THE TURNING OF THE EOAD 
 
 "A turn, and we stand in the heart of things." 
 
 One day in the fall of 1881, there was a 
 stir of excitement in the compound in Peking. 
 A young man had come from New York to 
 join the mission, and the arrival of a new 
 worker was always a great event. 
 
 Everywhere in the world a halo of inter- 
 est rests for a time upon the newcomer. He 
 is also more or less on trial until he has 
 proved his mettle. In double measure were 
 these things true in the little settlement in 
 Peking. Twelve or fifteen Americans were 
 living within a walled court in the midst of an 
 Oriental city. To be sure, there were other 
 Americans and Europeans in Peking, but 
 each group lived within its own walled en- 
 closure, and attended to its own work. For 
 the most part, the people in the mission com- 
 pound depended upon one another for com- 
 panionship and sympathy. They were like 
 one large family occupying one family plan- 
 tation. The children of the mission had the 
 
 69 
 
70 Under Marching Orders 
 
 habit of calling all the grown-ups " uncle" 
 and "aunt." One small lad was taken to 
 America in his early years, and seeing the 
 throngs of white people on the streets of New 
 York exclaimed: "So many uncles and 
 aunts ! ' ' 
 
 It was no wonder that a new member of the 
 group was the center of attention until he 
 settled into his place in the community life. 
 Those who were the first to greet the young 
 man, brought back the verdict that he looked 
 like "the captain of a prize rowing crew." 
 Every one seemed to be happily confident 
 that he was a great addition to the mission, 
 and that he would do a large work in the 
 newly awakening world of China. That their 
 predictions were fulfilled we shall see. 
 
 Mr. Frank D. Gamewell was the son of 
 John N. Gamewell, the inventor of the Game- 
 well Fire Alarm and Police Telegraph. Evi- 
 dently he inherited his father's scientific 
 bent, for he chose the career of civil engineer, 
 and for his training went to the Polytechnic 
 Institute in Troy, New York, and also to 
 Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Be- 
 yond most young men, he had large dreams of 
 activity and success along his line of work. It 
 
The Turning of the Road 71 
 
 was a great, busy world in which he lived, and 
 he meant to take his place among its strong 
 workers. Suddenly, in the senior year at 
 college came the unexpected decision to go 
 to China. October of the same year found 
 him in the mission station in Peking. 
 
 The new dream had come to him very much 
 as it had come to Mary Porter. Both the 
 young man and the young woma'n had high 
 ambitions for an active life at home. Then 
 came to each one that clear, unmistakable 
 summons which no true soldier dares dis- 
 obey. And so the two found themselves in the 
 walled compound in Peking. The woman had 
 come a few years before and had entered 
 upon her work. The man stood at the thresh- 
 old of his immense opportunity, alert and 
 purposeful. 
 
 It was not strange that they became great 
 friends, for in some ways they were much 
 alike. They preferred a busy life, full to the 
 brim of work and enjoyment. They reveled 
 in out-of-doors, in long horseback rides, and 
 in the beauty of land and sky. They loved 
 books and music, and everything that sug- 
 gested the poetry and the wonder of life. In 
 the moments which could be snatched from 
 
72 Under Marching Orders 
 
 the busy work-days of winter, they talked 
 together before the coal fire in the sitting- 
 room. In the spring they walked on the city 
 wall and marveled at the strange life about 
 them. Sometimes there were long country 
 tours, when those who journeyed in company 
 came into a closer knowledge of one another. 
 There is verily no end to the interesting sub- 
 jects congenial people can discuss together. 
 Each mind brings out the best in the other, 
 and keen is the joy of such comradeship. It 
 was but a natural conclusion to a natural 
 friendship that Mary Q. Porter should be- 
 come the wife of Frank D. Gamewell. The 
 "Q" which stood for the question was an- 
 swered in the new name which became her 
 own. They were married on a June evening 
 in 1882, in the church which had been built 
 in the compound. The Eev. George E. Davis, 
 who had married Miss Maria Brown a few 
 years previously, performed the wedding 
 ceremony. 
 
 In 1884, the Mission Board in New York 
 sent word to Mr. Gamewell that he had been 
 appointed superintendent of the mission in 
 Chung-ch' ing, sixteen hundred miles from 
 the seacoast, out toward the borderland of 
 
Fbank D. Gamewell Mary Portee 
 
 At the Time of Marriage 
 
The Turning of the Road 73 
 
 Tibet. This was an unexpected marching- 
 order, but once again like soldiers under com- 
 mand, the man and woman arose and obeyed. 
 Only three years old was this mission in 
 the frontier city in the midst of a restless, 
 untamed people. For the second time in her 
 life Mrs. Game well would become the pioneer 
 in a work newly started. For the second 
 time also would she have to leave home and 
 venture into the unknown surroundings. To 
 go out from the compound in Filial Piety 
 Lane was almost as heroic a move as it had 
 been to leave the gray house in Davenport. 
 Since her marriage she had had her own 
 home in one of the houses which had been 
 built inside the enlarged court. It was an 
 original and artistic home in its arrange- 
 ments, like the woman who always had her 
 own individual way of doing things. Then 
 again there was the girls' school which she 
 had mothered from its birth. The Bible 
 women, too, she had sought herself in the 
 villages and brought to Peking to study. It 
 was her own work, a part of her very self, and 
 it rent her heart to give it up. Yet out in 
 West China was the little struggling mission 
 calling for her ready resource and for Mr. 
 
74 Under Marching Orders 
 
 Gamewell 's energy to plan and do. Evidently 
 their hour of opportunity had come. 
 
 Down in the vast, swarming city of Shang- 
 hai they paused to prepare for the long in- 
 land journey up the Yang-tzu Eiver to 
 Chung-ch'ing. The first one thousand miles 
 could be traveled in a comfortable river 
 steamer, but for the last six hundred miles 
 they would have to depend upon native boats, 
 upon which the passenger provides his own 
 food and bedding. To meet this emergency 
 they purchased fruit, meat, fish, vegetables, 
 butter and milk in sealed tins, and the other 
 necessities of Oriental travel, all of which the 
 foreign stores in Shanghai abundantly sup- 
 plied. 
 
 The river, which is called "China's 
 Girdle/ ' is to China what the Mississippi is 
 to the United States, the St. Lawrence to 
 Canada, and the Amazon to South America. 
 For years beyond count the Yang-tzu Eiver 
 has been a highway of traffic for half the 
 empire of China. From the mountains of 
 Tibet it winds its way three thousand miles 
 to the ocean. Even thirty miles out to sea its 
 yellow waters conquer the blue of the Pacific. 
 .Time was when only native junks plied their 
 
The Turning of the Road 75 
 
 busy way over this mighty river. Then came 
 the bold mariner from the Western world, 
 who pushed his ocean vessel two hundred 
 miles up the Yang-tzu to Nanking, China's 
 famous city of learning. Eiver steamers soon 
 connected Nanking with Hankow, four hun- 
 dred miles beyond, and finally, small steam- 
 boats sailed triumphantly up stream to 
 I-ch'ang. Beyond I-ch'ang were the fierce 
 rapids of the upper Yang-tzu, where foreign 
 enterprise gave way before simple Chinese 
 ingenuity. It was not wholly strange that 
 the Chinese should look with suspicion upon 
 the intruder from across the seas. Native ves- 
 sels had been thrust out of business and lay 
 useless on the river banks. Their owners 
 thought they had good reason for throwing 
 missiles at steamboats, and joining the ranks 
 which shouted death to the foreigner. 
 
 At I-ch'ang Mr. Gamewell chartered a 
 native boat for the trip to Chung-ch'ing. It 
 was eighty feet long, and boasted four pas- 
 senger cabins, and a crew of forty-two men. 
 At the stern of the boat a huge oar forty feet 
 long, served as a rudder. Nearby were the 
 drum, the pilot's signal, and the coils of bam- 
 boo rope for the mysterious " trackers/ ' 
 
76 Under Marching Orders 
 
 There was a great hubbub when the junk 
 pulled away from its moorings. Loud orders 
 were shouted by the captain; angry voices 
 of sailors contested right of passage with the 
 crews of other junks. Emerging at last from 
 the jam of boats, the men at the oars fell into 
 a rhythmic tread to the tune of a native boat- 
 song. 
 
 They were a picturesque lot of men, these 
 boatmen of the upper Yang-tzu. Mrs. Game- 
 well called them the only picturesque Chinese 
 she had ever seen. The detested cue had 
 been wound around the head and covered by 
 a turban. The cue is a symbol of the sub- 
 jection of the Chinese, forced upon them by 
 the haughty Manchus when they took posses- 
 sion of the Chinese government nearly three 
 hundred years ago. The bold men of the 
 western provinces scorned this sign of their 
 humiliation, and since they dared not cut it 
 off, took this means of concealing it. Long 
 bandages bound their legs from ankle to knee 
 to protect from the strain of climbing. Their 
 trousers ended at the top of the bandages, 
 and a short jacket belted with a sash com- 
 pleted the costume. 
 
 The first day beyond I-ch'ang brought Mr. 
 
Photo lay Elliott 
 
 Trackers on the Yang-tzu 
 
The Turning of the Road 77 
 
 and Mrs. Gamewell into the solemn presence 
 of the great gorges of the Yang-tzii. Per- 
 pendicular walls rose a thousand feet above 
 the dark stream, shutting out the sky and 
 daylight. The wind shrieked like a demon 
 through the narrow passageway. The trav- 
 elers looked with interest for the little tow- 
 paths which twisted along the ragged edge of 
 rocky cliffs hundreds of feet above their 
 heads. Mrs. Gamewell thought there was 
 scarcely foothold for a mountain goat. 
 Near each rapid dwelt a band of trackers 
 whose task it was to aid the crews. Some- 
 times the water rushed so swiftly that one 
 hundred extra men were needed for each 
 boat. It was a breathless moment when the 
 tow-lines were thrown to the "trackers," 
 the drum signaled, and the boat dashed into 
 the current. The men bent almost to the 
 ground as they tugged at the long ropes, and 
 the boat began slowly, inch by inch, to mount 
 the rushing torrent. For a full half hour the 
 trackers pulled, the waters roared, the drum 
 beat and the pilot shouted, until at last the 
 boat plunged in safety through the three 
 hundred yards of rapids and passed into 
 calmer water. Mrs. Gamewell had traveled 
 
78 Under Marching Orders 
 
 in an assortment of conveyances, but for 
 sheer excitement there was nothing to com- 
 pare with the Chinese boat on the upper 
 Yang-tzu. 
 
 For two weeks the boat clung to its wind- 
 ing course through narrow gorges, under 
 tall, black cliffs and rugged mountains. The 
 majesty and the loneliness of it all was al- 
 most too much to endure. At last the river 
 widened, the mountains ceased to press so 
 close, and a gentle hill country gave heart to 
 the strangers in a strange land. One day, 
 a month after leaving I-ch'ang, following a 
 bend in the river they came all at once in sight 
 of the "city built on a hill." It was Chung- 
 ch'ing, the goal of their journey. "The vast 
 and solemn solitudes out of which we had 
 come left us with an impression of having 
 arrived at the end of the world, with the 
 habitations of men left far behind. The great 
 city with its frowning wall encircling the 
 rocky spur on which the city lay, seemed an 
 unreal thing — a vision." 
 
 Thus Mrs. Gamewell wrote in a home letter 
 describing her sensations at the end of the 
 wonderful journey. The phantom city be- 
 came abruptly real as they climbed the long 
 
The Turning of the Road 79 
 
 flight of stone steps from the river edge three 
 hundred feet to the city wall, and proceeded 
 through the gate to their new home. 
 
 Inside four plastered mud walls were the 
 Chinese buildings belonging to the new mis- 
 sion. Unlike Peking houses they were two 
 stories in height. They were built a few feet 
 from the wall, facing upon a small inside 
 court dismally darkened by the overhanging 
 roofs of the houses. Ceaselessly did the cling- 
 ing mists drip, drip upon the stones below. 
 It was late in the morning before the sun's 
 rays cast a gleam upon the pavement, and 
 sometimes at three o'clock in the afternoon 
 the evening lamps must be lighted. Mrs. 
 Gamewell said it was like living in a well. 
 
 Furthermore the houses were so close to- 
 gether they almost formed one continuous 
 structure. For a sensitive nature the lack of 
 privacy was a constant irritation. Mrs. 
 Gamewell once shut herself into a small closet 
 for two hours in the desperate need to be 
 alone. 
 
 Before experience taught its weary lesson 
 she used sometimes to go to the northern 
 gate in the vain hope of a breath of fresh air 
 from the hills. Occasionally, as she opened 
 
80 Under Marching Orders 
 
 the door, a baby tumbled in. Usually it was a 
 girl, sickly or deformed, cast off by her par- 
 ents. Sometimes it was a dead child whose 
 burial would thus be avoided by the wretched 
 parents, for Chinese law requires that those 
 on whose premises a dead body is found shall 
 give it burial. 
 
 Verily a sublime faith in God and in each 
 other was demanded of the man and woman 
 who had come to work among these deluded 
 people. At times a thought of the awful dis- 
 tance from home swept in and caught them 
 unawares. Down through the tremendous 
 gorges of the Yang-tzu, two months to Shang- 
 hai, across the long, blue waters of the Pacific, 
 another month of travel before they could 
 reach the friends at home ! But for the man 
 and his wife there was never a doubt or 
 regret. Mrs. Gamewell reveals the secret. 
 "I truly rejoiced to believe that the Master 
 controls each event as it comes. I am so glad 
 that he is in it all, that nothing seems severe 
 so far as I am concerned/' 
 
A CHINESE MOB 
 
 81 
 
VI 
 
 A CHINESE MOB 
 
 "By faith he went out, not knowing whither he went." 
 
 More than three miles outside the city on 
 the great road leading to the capital of the 
 province, and high on the bank of the river, 
 lay the property recently purchased by the 
 Chung-ch'ing mission. The Chinese tenants 
 had vacated, and two of the mission families 
 had taken possession. It was like freedom 
 from prison to escape from the damp, dole- 
 ful quarters of the old compound into the 
 sunlight of the open country. Often in the 
 morning Mrs. Gamewell walked into the city, 
 returning in the evening when the day's work 
 was done. 
 
 New vigor and hope quickened body and 
 mind. The girls' school seemed to be gaining 
 favor among the suspicious Chinese. The hos- 
 pital was winning the gratitude of a people 
 for much of whose pain there had been no 
 remedy until the coming of the "Western phy- 
 sician. On every side was encouragement. 
 Out on the highway which passed the new 
 
 83 
 
84 Under Marching Orders 
 
 home of the mission, multitudes of Chinese 
 surged to and fro, and with characteristic 
 curiosity and disregard of time, lingered at 
 the premises of the foreigner to see and hear. 
 Meanwhile, Chinese workmen slowly raised 
 the walls of the hospital and school buildings 
 which were to meet the demands of the en- 
 larging work. Mrs. Gamewell's letters were 
 full of enthusiasm. Whenever there was 
 work to do and she was needed to do it, this 
 little woman of indomitable spirit made good 
 her opportunity. 
 
 Gradually into her hopefulness crept a 
 dreary foreboding. For some reason the 
 Chinese became more openly hostile to the 
 foreigners. There had always been a smoth- 
 ered resentment against the stranger from 
 the Western world, a misunderstanding of 
 his motive and his doings, but now the smol- 
 dering fire seemed likely to burst into flame. 
 The walls of the mission were splashed with 
 mud. Proclamations issued by the officials 
 in approval of the missionaries were ruth- 
 lessly torn down. "Foreign dog" and "for- 
 eign devil" were shouted with stinging em- 
 phasis. One day three men tried to assault 
 Mr. Gamewell as he walked alone in the city. 
 
A Chinese Mob 85 
 
 One of them deliberately flung himself in his 
 way meaning to throw him down, but the 
 trap failed, and the three joined in a jeering 
 pursuit along the street. 
 
 The 6th of June was a feast-day in China, 
 the 5th of the Fifth Moon, when the 
 Chinese Dragon Festival was celebrated. It 
 was Sunday, according to Christian reckon- 
 ing, but for the Chinese it was a day of rev- 
 elry. In holiday mood they thronged the 
 highways of the city. Yet out on the great 
 road there was comparative orderliness and 
 quiet, and a long line of pedestrians moved 
 steadily toward the city gate. Mrs. Game- 
 well had been left at home this June Sunday, 
 while her colaborers, Mr. G-amewell included, 
 went into the city to conduct Church services. 
 She was tired and in need of rest, and more- 
 over it was not safe on a feast-day to leave 
 the compound in sole charge of the Chinese 
 servants. The people were especially med- 
 dlesome those days and it would be necessary 
 to keep the gate rigorously closed. 
 
 The morning passed uneventfully, but soon 
 after the noon hour a babel of loud voices was 
 heard on the road outside. Presently there 
 was a vigorous pounding on the gate, and a 
 
86 Under Marching Orders 
 
 rain of stones fell upon the tiled roof of a 
 building near the wall. Mrs. Gamewell took 
 a stout oak stick in her hand, and went to 
 the gate which a servant opened at her bid- 
 ding. There they were, a close-pressing, 
 seething mob of Chinese! Standing calmly 
 by the gate-post she looked into the dark, 
 shifting faces and began to speak. She told 
 them it was contrary to all their li (customs) 
 to seek to visit a house when the men were 
 absent. This is a sensitive point of Chinese 
 etiquette recognized alike by all classes, so 
 at first her appeal had its effect. A few of 
 the more respectable sort moved shame- 
 facedly away, but a rough, noisy group took 
 their places until some two hundred people 
 clamored loudly for admission into the new 
 compound. "Wait until the place is finished 
 and we will invite you in," said one of the 
 servants. "We are working people," was 
 the reply; "we cannot come any other day. 
 We intend to come in to-day." 
 
 Just then the cook slipped away unob- 
 served, and called the chief of police to the 
 scene. But the people paid no attention to 
 him; they even laughed at him. So boister- 
 ous did they become that the gate-keeper was 
 
A Chinese Mob 87 
 
 alarmed for Mrs. Gamewell's safety and 
 begged her to go inside. As she turned, a 
 stone was thrown at her and the crowd 
 shouted approval. By combined efforts the 
 official and the cook held the mob back until 
 she had escaped beyond their reach. 
 
 To Mrs. Gamewell's surprise she found a 
 little girl by her side as she crossed the court. 
 The child had been drawn to the woman who 
 dared face the angry crowd, and followed her 
 as she returned to the house. In an eager, 
 quivering voice she asked if she might stay 
 in the mission, and if sometime she might 
 learn to read. The childish tones were a 
 soothing contrast to the harsh, shrieking 
 voices outside, and her cheery little presence 
 was like "a sunbeam shining through a dark 
 cloud.' ' 
 
 Scarcely had the door closed upon Mrs. 
 Gamewell and the child when the pounding 
 at the gate was renewed with added energy. 
 What should she do ? At all hazards the place 
 must be held until the men returned from the 
 city. As her mind sought here and there for 
 means of resistance, she thought of the new 
 gun recently sent as a gift to her husband. 
 There was no ammunition, to be sure, but a 
 
88 Under Marching Orders 
 
 Chinese mob is cowardly at heart and the 
 mere sight of a gun might frighten them 
 away. i ' They are in, they are coming, ' ' cried 
 the little girl who was watching at the door. 
 They had battered down the heavy gate, and 
 were pushing roughly within. Mrs. Game- 
 well seized her gun and went forth. As soon 
 as they saw it there was a general rush for 
 the street. Mrs. Gamewell followed as far 
 as the gate and stood on guard there while 
 one half of the great door was closed and bar- 
 ricaded with heavy stones. But the crowd 
 quickly perceived that the gun was not loaded, 
 and collecting again about Mrs. Gamewell, 
 protested against the closing of the other half 
 of the gate. 
 
 Again the cook set forth for help, this time 
 going for the magistrate. As the mob swayed 
 back and forth, moved by varying impulses, 
 a man came forward leading a child by 
 the hand. Under pretense of being a friend 
 whom she failed to recognize, he skilfully 
 diverted Mrs. GamewelPs attention. In a 
 flash, some one glided from the crowd and 
 seized the barrel of the gun, but Mrs. Game- 
 well's steady grip was not relaxed. The 
 two servants sprang to her aid and with 
 
A Chinese Mob 89 
 
 all their might pulled on the butt end, while 
 as many as could get hold of the barrel tugged 
 in the opposite direction. They pounded her 
 hands and arms, while the onlookers pelted 
 her with mud. Of course there could be but 
 one end to the unequal struggle, and the gun 
 was borne away in dastardly triumph by the 
 mob. 
 
 After the stampede was over Mrs. Game- 
 well turned to find the servants looking at her 
 in real anxiety. The old gatekeeper had some 
 fine tobacco in his hand which he offered to 
 tie about her finger. Then for the first time the 
 courageous little sentinel became conscious 
 of the blood that was flowing from her right 
 hand, and which had already stained the 
 pavement a dull red. Her forefinger had 
 been cut almost to the bone. Mud plastered 
 her face and neck, and just below her temple 
 a big lump was rising. As soon as the crowd 
 saw the blood on her hands and face they fled 
 in terror, for to draw blood is a crime. 
 
 Just then the cook returned and said the 
 official (P'u-kuan) refused to concern him- 
 self with the matter. This was the last straw. 
 Mrs. Gamewell sat down alone in the gate and 
 for a minute the hot tears came, though in 
 
90 Under Marching Orders 
 
 truth her grief was more for the lost gun 
 than for her own condition. 
 
 After she had bandaged her finger and 
 washed off the mud, the magistrate unex- 
 pectedly walked in. The disturbance proved 
 to be large enough to warrant his attention; 
 indeed he might even " lose face" unless some 
 action were taken. "Face" is that expressive 
 word constantly heard in China, easy to un- 
 derstand but hard to define. The Chinese are 
 a very ceremonious people, desiring above all 
 things to be regarded as "proper," thus so 
 long as the outward appearance is correct it 
 makes no difference whether the heart of the 
 man be true or false. For a Chinese to "lose 
 face" is worse than death itself. One way to 
 avoid this calamity is to show two faces at 
 once, at which difficult art he is an adept. The 
 official had the manner of one ridiculing the 
 foreigners, as at the same time he dispersed 
 the crowd which was entering the court. 
 
 Soon after the magistrate had departed in 
 complacent importance, Mr. Gamewell en- 
 tered the house. A man had gone to town to 
 summon him, and he hastened home in intense 
 anxiety. In silence he looked at his wife ; his 
 admiration for her pluck and daring exceeded 
 
A Chinese Mob 91 
 
 only by his keen relief at finding that she was 
 not seriously hurt. By and by the doctor 
 returned from church and dressed the 
 wounded hand. One and all united in doing 
 honor to the brave little woman whose nerve 
 had saved the premises from being looted. 
 Once again she had played the soldier and in 
 a very real battle. 
 
 With the help of the British consul in 
 Chung-ch'ing, Mr. Gamewell gained access 
 to the district magistrate and reported the 
 disturbance at the mission compound. The 
 official received him courteously, and agreed 
 to station a guard temporarily at the gate. 
 He would not promise, however, to have the 
 ringleaders of the mob punished, and such a 
 course was necessary to prevent a second out- 
 break. 
 
 Late in the month of June a large number 
 of military students from the western prov- 
 inces assembled at Chung-ch'ing for exam- 
 inations. They were wild, reckless men, 
 ready for anything which promised excite- 
 ment. At the same time thousands of people 
 in the neighborhood were suffering hunger 
 on account of the high price of rice, and were 
 easily stirred to riot, impelled by the hope 
 
92 Under Marching Orders 
 
 of plunder. From the western states of 
 America came reports which stung like a 
 nettle and goaded to revenge. Chinese im- 
 migrants were being maltreated and even 
 killed in the United States. Treaty rights 
 were recklessly violated. Why, in the name 
 of the Confucian religion, which at least de- 
 mands justice, should Americans be tolerated 
 on Chinese soil! Thus in the remote inland 
 province of China the little group of Amer- 
 icans paid dear for the injustice of their 
 fellow countrymen on the other side of the 
 world. 
 
 Like a tidal wave of destruction the mob 
 bore down upon the foreigners in Chung- 
 ch'ing. Nearer and nearer it came, laying 
 waste the property of the British consul and 
 the Eoman Catholic cathedral, in its resistless 
 approach toward the compound in the city, 
 where the missionaries had now assembled. 
 As a last extremity Mr. Gamewell tried to 
 plan an escape by way of the river which 
 flowed far below, preferring its precarious 
 current to the merciless freaks of the mob. 
 But this chance of flight was cut off, for 
 already the crowd was at the gate pounding 
 and shrieking with a determination far ex- 
 
to 
 < 
 
A Chinese Mob 93 
 
 ceeding the Sunday of the Dragon Festival. 
 Yet the little company of men and women 
 within the walls were calm and trustful. Mrs. 
 Gamewell said they felt the iron strength of 
 the promise: "Lo, I am with you always, 
 even unto the end of the world. ■ ' 
 
 At the very instant when the frenzied 
 Chinese broke through the barricades at the 
 front, an excited messenger came to the rear 
 gate bidding the missionaries make haste and 
 escape while yet there was time. The magis- 
 trate had sent sedan-chairs to bear them to 
 his yamen, but they must speed away into the 
 darkness before their flight was detected. 
 Even as the mob was entering the court they 
 slipped out at the rear, and were swiftly 
 borne along the precipice overhanging the 
 river. 
 
 The weird, silent journey came to a sudden 
 pause as the bearers made a quick turn 
 through a gate and dropped the chairs before 
 a house close by the wall. Into the small, 
 stuffy room which the fugitives were com- 
 manded to enter, crowded a rabble of Chinese 
 who remained to scoff. Trying beyond 
 measure was the situation of the foreigners, 
 until their guide reappeared and helped them 
 
94 Under Marching Orders 
 
 force their way through the struggling crowd 
 to their chairs at the door. As Mrs. Game- 
 welFs turn came, and she took her seat, it 
 was discovered that there were no more 
 chairs, so Mr. Gamewell must be left behind 
 while she was spirited away into the city 
 streets. Her last look revealed him in the 
 midst of an excited throng which shouted 
 boisterously for him to wait, that he could not 
 in safety walk across the city to the yamen. 
 
 For Mrs. Gamewell and her companions 
 there was another rapid rush along dark 
 edges of the street, and a stealthy turn into 
 a court where lights were forbidden. They 
 were taken into a house and told to ascend a 
 ladder which they found led to a windowless 
 garret, totally dark and breathlessly hot. 
 Silence was charged upon them, and there on 
 the floor they sat for two or three hours. It 
 seemed endless to Mrs. Gamewell, tortured 
 as she was by fears for her husband. But 
 she prayed to the God of her strength, and 
 seemed to feel the assurance of Mr. Game- 
 well's safety. 
 
 At last the door was cautiously opened and 
 a messenger brought the official summons of 
 the magistrate to his yamen. There was an- 
 
A Chinese Mob 95 
 
 other hasty ride and the chairs came to a 
 halt in a court where Mrs. Gamewell found 
 her husband watching anxiously for her com- 
 ing. He had been carried directly to the ya- 
 men, and was alarmed at not finding her 
 there. They met only to be separated at once, 
 for Chinese custom demanded that the men 
 occupy one court and the women another. 
 
 Mrs. Gamewell and her companions were 
 conducted through a series of dimly lighted 
 apartments into the room which was to be 
 their shelter for the night. Here they spent 
 several uneasy hours, sleeping but little and 
 not daring to remove their clothes. The 
 morning light brought the haunting thought 
 that they were homeless, and well-nigh 
 friendless, in a city sixteen hundred miles 
 from the coast. The mob had demolished 
 every foreign house in Chung-ch'ing, having 
 first seized as booty the cherished posses- 
 sions of those who were strangers among 
 them and who would so gladly have been their 
 friends. 
 
 During two weeks of suspense, not know- 
 ing what an hour might bring forth, the for- 
 eigners were kept in the yamen of the chief 
 magistrate. From one day to the next they 
 
96 Under Marching Orders 
 
 knew not whether they would be dispatched 
 on the swift currents of the Yang-tzu to the 
 coast, or detained as prisoners to await an 
 uncertain fate. The magistrate insulted and 
 threatened, and with paradoxical insistence 
 declared that he was taking care of them. 
 "In America they kill Chinese," was his con- 
 stant taunt. They were at the mercy of a 
 fickle government, but they were also in the 
 care of a steadfast God. 
 
 In the night of this racking anxiety Mrs. 
 Gamewell's faith shone forth like a star. In 
 her diary of July 13th she wrote: "I have 
 been reading the book of Daniel. God is 
 good. He has drawn us very close to himself 
 during these days of trial. Can we wander 
 far again? I shall know how his love went 
 before us each day and wonder that my eyes 
 ever turned away!" 
 
 Two days later, passports for the Amer- 
 icans to leave the city were received. The 
 magistrate bade his wife supply them with 
 black cloth to cover their heads, and Chinese 
 clothes to complete their disguise. They 
 were to leave the city in the third watch of 
 the night. On July 16, these entries were 
 made in Mrs. GamewelPs diary: "5.45 a. m. 
 
A Chinese Mob 07 
 
 Up all night. Feast at 1.00. To boats about 
 2.00. Weighed anchor about 5.45. Left in 
 darkness. Lanterns swinging in the fog. 
 Soldiers seen in the dim streets guarding our 
 way down to the boat, soldiers and yamen 
 runners guarding and pointing the way. 
 Magistrate came down and sat in his chair 
 and exhorted the boat captains. So in the 
 darkness we steal out of the city whose people 
 have torn up every vestige of our home, and 
 left us with none of the treasures we brought 
 with us two years ago. ' ' 
 
 In exactly four days the two boats rushed 
 down the mad currents of the river to 
 I-ch'ang, whereas the trip up stream had 
 taken four weeks. The difference in time 
 tells a story of wild mountain torrents, high 
 winds, and daring skill of valiant oarsmen. 
 
 Upon reaching Shanghai Mrs. Gamewell 
 went on board the ocean steamer to return 
 to the United States. Life in China had 
 made heavy inroads upon her splendid health, 
 and a rest in the air and freedom of home was 
 a necessity. Mr. Gamewell turned his face 
 toward Peking, to arrange a settlement with 
 the imperial government to pay for the loss 
 of property in the Chung-cli' ing riot. 
 
A CHINESE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND 
 A CHINESE CHURCH 
 
vn 
 
 A CHINESE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND A 
 CHINESE CHHECH 
 
 "Faith is nothing else but the soul's venture." 
 
 One year and then another slipped back 
 into history until some twenty years had 
 passed since Mary Porter had her first vision 
 of the gray walls of Peking. Inside those 
 walls and ont on the plains beyond, she had 
 wrought with all her soul and strength for 
 the victory which, though yet invisible, was 
 surely to be made real. The joy of master- 
 ing the difficult and seemingly impossible 
 task had possessed her with its charm. There 
 in the heart of dusty, crowded Peking she 
 had found the one who joined her in her quest 
 of the ideal. Far away inland, in high-built 
 Chung-ch'ing, the two la borers in the name 
 of their great Chief had laid firm strokes of 
 honest effort which survived in triumph the 
 wreck and disaster of a day's defeat. Beyond 
 the ocean in wide-awake America they 
 spent months of enthusiastic interest, profit- 
 
 101 
 
102 Under Marching Orders 
 
 ing in full measur e by the stir of life, and 
 rejoicing in the reunion with old friends. 
 Yet persistently their thoughts had turned to 
 that other unforgotten home across the seas 
 in ancient China. The old call to service in 
 the place where the need is greatest, the call 
 which had dominated these two since child- 
 hood, had again sounded its irresistible note. 
 To the utter joy of the man and woman, 
 their mission board sent them back to their 
 original post of duty in the compound in 
 Peking. Mr. Gamewell was assigned his task 
 in the university which had grown out of the 
 boys' school of pioneer days. Around Mrs. 
 Gamewell gathered the women from the 
 scattered communities outside Peking, to be 
 taught the Bible lessons which she could make 
 so vivid and throbbing with life. Her com- 
 mand of the Chinese language was so com- 
 plete that they often said, "She talks just 
 like one of us." From the spell of her per- 
 sonality, women of the type of Mrs. Wang 
 went forth into the country districts to carry 
 light and joy into hundreds of hopeless 
 Chinese homes. Thus the influence of one 
 shining character reached far and wide in 
 northeastern China. 
 
o 
 
 PQ 
 
 Q 
 < 
 
 a 
 
A Chinese Sunday School 10S 
 
 As the years went on, another work, new 
 and promising, was laid in her willing hands. 
 It was the wonderful Peking Sunday-school. 
 In the beginning the Christian students and 
 the servants of the compound were the only 
 pupils, but in course of time a few children 
 from the neighborhood strayed in. They 
 were familiar with the tale that "foreign 
 devils" used children's hearts and eyes to 
 make medicine ; so, naturally, their approach 
 was cautious. About this time a young 
 woman from New England joined the mis- 
 sion, bringing with her a love for children 
 and a quantity of picture cards. To the chil- 
 dren from the streets of Peking these cards 
 were like leaves from a fairy book. 
 
 Each Sunday groups of small folk 
 assembled, until the class became too large 
 to meet with the main Sunday-school. It was 
 given a room of its own, and speedily that 
 room was filled to overflowing. Children 
 sat on seats and on the backs of seats ; they 
 sat on each other's laps ; they sat on the floor ; 
 they sat on the table and under the table. 
 The teacher was obliged to take her place 
 before the children came in, and when all 
 had pressed inside she had just standing- 
 
104 Under Marching Orders 
 
 room and no more. If visitors called she 
 could not move an inch to receive them, nor 
 could they go beyond the half-open door. 
 They exclaimed, i i Wonderful ! Wonderful ! ' ' 
 
 It was not long before a whole Sunday- 
 school was formed of this one class. In the 
 morning the Christians of the mission met 
 in classes taught by the missionaries. In the 
 afternoon the children of the city and any 
 adults who cared to come formed a second 
 Sunday-school, the pupils of the forenoon 
 becoming the teachers of the afternoon. Just 
 here a catastrophe loomed up before them. 
 The supply of cards would soon be exhausted ! 
 An urgent letter was sent to America asking 
 that small packages of cards be dispatched 
 at once by mail, and boxes sent by freight 
 later. 
 
 From Maine to Maryland, and from the 
 Atlantic to the Mississippi this letter was 
 read and answered. Packages of all shapes 
 and sizes were received by the missionary in 
 Tientsin whose duty it was to forward the 
 mail to Peking. Usually he employed a 
 courier and one donkey for the purpose, but 
 when the cards began to crowd the bags, he 
 had to hire three donkeys for the enlarged 
 
A Chinese Sunday School 105 
 
 postal service. In the spring the boxes 
 arrived, and before summer there was a room 
 in the mission solidly packed with boxes, bags 
 and barrels of cards. 
 
 The new Sunday-school grew as the class 
 had grown. The mission chapel seated four 
 hundred, but often five hundred children 
 were present. A group sat on the altar steps, 
 others were held on the knees of their com- 
 panions, and still there were those who had 
 to stand throughout the session. Many of 
 them came shivering in grimy rags of cloth- 
 ing. Among them were some " pinched-f aced 
 little f oiks " who sometimes bartered the cher- 
 ished cards for food. One cold day Mrs. 
 Gamewell saw a child not more than six years 
 of age give a card to a pedler while he put in 
 her hands a cup of hot soup. Most of the chil- 
 dren came from homes in comparison with 
 which the chapel was ' ' a paradise of warmth 
 and cheer. " For them the Sunday-school 
 hour was the one bit of color in seven gloomy 
 days. At noon on Sunday groups of children 
 began to gather in Filial Piety Lane, until at 
 three o 'clock, when the bell rang, a small mul- 
 titude pressed through the gate. And these 
 were the same children who had once scam- 
 
106 Under Marching Orders 
 
 pered away in fright whenever the queer for- 
 eigner came toward them. 
 
 A second trouble threatened, and at the 
 same time a great hope dawned in Mrs. 
 GamewelPs boundless horizon of purpose. 
 The mission chapel was unmistakably on the 
 verge of collapse. The walls had already 
 cracked, and now they were bulging as if 
 ready to crumble. The heavy tiled roof 
 leaned dangerously. Stays were put against 
 the walls and extra supports under the roof. 
 The days of the old chapel were numbered 
 with fatal certainty. Thereupon Mrs. Game- 
 well dreamed a dream and set herself to work 
 out its achievement. Her first move was to 
 send a letter to the mission board in New 
 York. This is what she wrote : 
 
 "We are in trouble. Let me tell you our 
 trouble, and please help us. The mission 
 chapel is giving way. We began to prop and 
 mend it a year ago, but now the walls lean 
 worse, the cracks are wider, and the timbers 
 bend more threateningly. If you could stand 
 by the old weather-beaten chapel and hear its 
 history, so interwoven with all the mission's 
 joys and sorrows, and its hopes past and 
 future, and realize how much depends upon 
 
A Chinese Sunday School 107 
 
 our mission chapel, your voice would ring out 
 with energy of speech and song that would 
 win for us the help we need. It is no shame 
 for the chapel to fall. It has stood nearly 
 twenty years and cost only two thousand 
 dollars when it was built. We knew it could 
 not be long-lived because there was not money 
 enough to build substantially. It is now the 
 oldest building in the mission/ ' 
 
 The letter further told of the Sunday- 
 school, unique in all China for its size and 
 character. If the church should fall in ruins, 
 what would become of the hundreds of chil- 
 dren who gathered within its tottering walls 
 each Sabbath afternoon? 
 
 "Do you understand what it would mean 
 to shut our gates for weeks and months with 
 no promise as to the near future? Suspicion 
 would follow disappointment, and the Chinese 
 would think we had ceased to want them in 
 our chapel, reasoning in the same way as 
 when, believing all missionaries to be doctors, 
 they think we do not cure their diseases be- 
 cause we do not want to. Work so slowly 
 built up would fall to pieces before our eyes 
 and we would be powerless to help. 
 
 "Besides the Sunday-school, every other 
 
108 Under Marching Orders 
 
 department of our Peking work depends in a 
 measure upon the chapel. The university 
 students meet there for morning prayers. 
 Preaching services and prayer-meetings 
 depend upon it. The chapel is the only 
 assembly-room for funerals and weddings. 
 Christmas is celebrated there. There is no 
 place for commencement exercises but in the 
 chapel. What will become of these interests 
 if the chapel falls? When it was built its 
 size seemed so out of proportion to the num- 
 bers assembled, and the work then under way, 
 that our friends remarked: 'You must have 
 great faith to build so large a house with any 
 hope of filling it.' The faith has been 
 rewarded. The work has so outgrown the 
 chapel accommodations that for several years 
 we have felt the need of a large church, but 
 schools and country work have been in such 
 urgent straits, and we need such a big church 
 next time one is built, that we have delayed 
 asking for an appropriation, hoping that the 
 time might come when we could ask, with a 
 hope of receiving it, about ten thousand dol- 
 lars to build a church that would answer mis- 
 sion purposes for the next twenty years. If 
 you find it in your power to help us to a new 
 
A Chinese Sunday School 109 
 
 church, you will be sending a broad beam of 
 cheer into the shadows, that will lift us up and 
 strengthen us to a degree that perhaps you 
 little imagine.' ' 
 
 Mrs. Gamewell 's letter was a challenge 
 which some large-hearted people in America 
 could not refuse to accept. By return mail 
 the first instalment of a large sum of money 
 was forwarded to Peking, and later, while on 
 a furlough in America, Mr. Gamewell secured 
 the help of a competent architect to prepare 
 plans for the new church. They were build- 
 ing, as they thought, for twenty years at 
 least, and the workmanship must be substan- 
 tial. A structure made of brick and wood, 
 with seating capacity for fifteen hundred, was 
 designed, and Mr. Gamewell returned to 
 Peking to superintend its erection. 
 
 In course of time the wonderful new build- 
 ing was completed and christened Asbury 
 Church. It was the architectural pride of 
 the compound, and also the largest Protes- 
 tant church in the whole empire. Almost, 
 immediately the Sunday-school sent its regi- 
 ments of children down the aisles and into the 
 seats of the auditorium. By this time the 
 .school had become so famous that travelers 
 
110 Under Marching Orders 
 
 visited it as one of the sights of Peking, In- 
 variably their comment was : l ' There is noth- 
 ing like it in China. ' ' 
 
 In place of the old mocking cry, "foreign 
 devil," which Mrs. Gamewell had learned to 
 expect every time she ventured beyond the 
 gate of the compound, children on every side 
 wistfully inquired: "Teacher, teacher, how 
 many days to next Sunday?" From the 
 walled courts of Chinese houses could be 
 heard on the streets childish voices singing 
 "Jesus loves me," "There's a land that is 
 fairer than day," and other songs which Mrs. 
 Gamewell had taught them. Do you wonder 
 that her hands and brain and heart were full 
 of eager work and abundant joy in these 
 golden years in the mission in Peking? 
 
THE CENTER OF THE CHINESE 
 PUZZLE 
 
 m 
 
vm 
 
 • THE CENTEE OF THE CHINESE 
 PUZZLE 
 
 "O, East is East and West is West, and never the twain 
 
 shall meet, 
 Till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgment 
 
 seat; 
 But there is neither East nor West, border nor breed nor 
 
 birth, 
 When two strong men stand face to face, though they come 
 
 from the ends of the earth." 
 
 It is likely that you have seen one of those 
 stolid, wooden Dutch dolls, and that yon have 
 taken it apart only to find another within, and 
 so on down to the last doll of the series. Or 
 surely you have handled those soft, pliable 
 baskets, each one of which in succession fits 
 like magic into the next larger in size. If you 
 have experimented with any of these objects 
 within objects, you will understand the con- 
 struction of the northern city of Peking. It 
 is a city within a city, within a third city; 
 each enclosed by its own wall; the outside 
 wall being sixteen miles in circumference. 
 Within the Tartar city is the Imperial City 
 and within the Imperial is the Forbidden 
 
 113 
 
114 Under Marching Orders 
 
 City. These three cities were built in the 
 thirteenth century by that famous Mongol 
 invader, who lives anew in the imagination 
 of him who reads the poem of Coleridge which 
 bears the hero's name, "Kublai Khan." 
 Just south of the Tartar city is the Chinese 
 city, the original Peking, which came into 
 being some three thousand years ago. Like 
 a pedestal to a statue, it serves as a base to 
 the more imposing structure of the Tartar 
 city. 
 
 Thus Peking entire consists of four cities 
 in one. About twenty-five miles of grim, 
 gray wall surround the whole. At intervals 
 of two or three miles are the massive iron- 
 bound gates, each gate surmounted by a three- 
 storied tower, rectangular in shape. Around 
 and through the city runs an ancient canal 
 with water-gates. Trains of camels from the 
 deserts of the north carry their Mongol riders 
 through the streets. Mule litters, slung be- 
 tween poles, the red sedan-chair of the bride 
 and the white chair in the procession of the 
 dead, the approach of each heralded by music, 
 carts and wheelbarrows, horses ridden by 
 foreigners, and "darting, dodging pedes- 
 trians' ' vie with one another for passage 
 
The Center of the Chinese Puzzle 115 
 
 through the crowded thoroughfares. Green- 
 tiled temples, with their gray-gowned priests, 
 
 TARTAR 
 
 I MPERIAL 
 CI TY 
 
 7 
 
 n 
 
 Forbid- 
 den 
 
 City 
 
 i 
 
 c I 
 
 T Y 
 
 C H I 
 C 
 
 N E 5 E 
 I T Y 
 
 Peking, a City Within a City 
 
 stand at ease and in musty splendor. And in 
 the center of all this strange life rise the pink 
 walls of the Forbidden City, shielding from 
 
116 Under Marching Orders 
 
 ruthless eyes the royal palace buildings. For 
 its myriad forms of life, its aneient magnifi- 
 cence, its brooding mystery, Peking becomes 
 indeed the "goal which beckons to every 
 one. ' ' 
 
 In 1644, when the early settlers were break- 
 ing soil in America, the long line of Chinese 
 monarchs gave way before the oldtime foe 
 from the north, and the Manchu Tartars 
 claimed the Dragon throne. Unto this day 
 they have been the royal family of China, 
 calling their reign the Ch'in or Great Pure 
 Dynasty. 
 
 During the years when Mr. and Mrs. Game- 
 well lived in the southeastern corner of the 
 Tartar city, where most of the foreigners had 
 their dwellings, the greatest of the Manchu 
 rulers was secluded behind the vermilion 
 pillars and underneath the green and gold 
 ceilings of the royal palace. It was the em- 
 press dowager, or as she might be called, the 
 Chinese sphinx. A perplexing puzzle has 
 she been to the thousands of Westerners who 
 have lived in her realm, and to those who, 
 across the seas, have read of her strange 
 deeds. It is a question if the Chinese them- 
 selves have understood her perverse freaks 
 
The Center of the Chinese Puzzle 117 
 
 or have been prepared for her sudden, mad 
 whims. People have held the most curiously 
 diverse opinions regarding her. Some have 
 called her the " grand old woman" of China, 
 while others have likened her to heartless, 
 brutal Catherine of Kussia. She might have 
 been a composite of Queen Jezebel and 'Queen 
 Elizabeth, this capricious and yet far-sighted 
 woman, who held sway over one fourth of the 
 human race. 
 
 The empress dowager was the daughter of 
 a Manchu soldier of high rank, though not of 
 royal descent. Since she was a Tartar 
 maiden, her feet were not bound. Her hair 
 and eyes were black, and her skin a rich 
 olive. A kind of fiery intelligence shone in 
 her face. 
 
 As she grew into womanhood, the emperor, 
 Hsien Feng, chose her for one of his wives. 
 When a son was born in the West Palace 
 where Tzu Hsi lived, the emperor, contrary 
 to all custom, advanced the mother to the 
 position of empress, by the side of the reign- 
 ing empress. At the death of the emperor, 
 the boy T'ung Chih succeeded his father, and 
 the two empresses were appointed joint re- 
 gents. In 1875 T'ung Chih died, and his 
 
118 Under Marching Orders 
 
 cousin Kuang Hsu was selected by the council 
 of princes as the new ruler of China. When 
 four years old he climbed with true imperial 
 dignity into the "chair of state." His sub- 
 jects bowed low before him, knocking their 
 heads on the ground in token of loyalty. In 
 1881 the empress of the East Palace died, 
 and empress dowager Tzu Hsi became sole 
 regent. 
 
 When Kuang Hsii reached the age of nine- 
 teen, according to the Chinese reckoning 
 which counts a child a year old at birth, a 
 decree was issued to the effect that her 
 majesty the empress dowager considered him 
 fit to rule. Upon this not wholly flattering 
 declaration, he said (or was made to say) 
 that "the announcement caused him to 
 tremble as if in mid-ocean, with no knowl- 
 edge of the land." After uttering these 
 sentiments befitting a modest young emperor, 
 Kuang Hsii mounted the throne, and the 
 empress dowager withdrew behind the scenes, 
 to await the cue for her reappearance on the 
 stage of action. 
 
 Now it afterwards appeared that Kuang 
 Hsii had a mind of his own, and for some 
 years he had his way in the ancient em- 
 
The Center of the Chinese Puzzle 119 
 
 pire, in spite of his contriving aunt. It was 
 due to the presence of the wide-awake West- 
 erner in the sleepy Eastern world, that he be- 
 came the youthful and hot-headed reformer, 
 who for a brief time was a striking figure in 
 Chinese affairs. When he was a small boy, 
 humored and indulged by the palace attend- 
 ants, a store was opened on Legation Street 
 in the foreign quarter of Peking, which ac- 
 tually had something to do with the life story 
 of the emperor and his empire. The royal 
 boy loved toys, and the more complex they 
 were the more delighted was he, particularly 
 if he could take them to pieces to see what 
 made "the wheels go wound." His rooms 
 were filled with watches which could strike 
 the hour, eccentric clocks which would strike 
 to music, or from which a bird would emerge 
 and announce the time in his own character- 
 istic call. 
 
 As the boy grew older, tales of unending 
 wonder reached his ever-open ears; tales of 
 the telegraph and telephone, the electric and 
 steam cars of the Western world. Naught 
 would content the imperious lad until a small 
 railroad was built along the shore of the 
 beautiful Lotus Lake in the palace grounds. 
 
120 Under Marching Orders 
 
 Official messengers were sent to Peking Uni- 
 versity, refusing to return to the palace with- 
 out the coveted " talk-box' ' (phonograph) of 
 which the emperor had heard. Grapho- 
 phones, X-ray apparatus, and everything 
 known to modern inventive genius were 
 sought by the curious young ruler. 
 
 Soon he began to grant permission to for- 
 eign companies to build railroads, to estab- 
 lish telephone and telegraph systems, and 
 to operate steamship lines. Slow-going 
 officials in distant parts of the empire were 
 shocked beyond recovery to receive imperial 
 edicts in the form of telegrams. Formerly, 
 stately documents written with the vermilion 
 pencil on yellow paper were delivered by 
 courtly couriers who spent a month on the 
 journey. Ignorant peasants believed that 
 the rusty rain-water dripping from the wires 
 was the blood of outraged spirits who would 
 take speedy revenge. In the province of Hu- 
 nan they sawed down the poles and cut the 
 wires. The "fire-wheel cart" (steam engine) 
 was rudely disturbing the earth dragon and 
 would bring sure disaster upon the land. 
 When the railway from Tientsin to Peking 
 was built in 1897, peasants and coolies firmly 
 
The Center of the Chinese Puzzle 121 
 
 believed that the piers of the bridge over the 
 Pei Ho, as well as the sleepers for the entire 
 eighty miles of track, were laid on the bodies 
 of Chinese infants. Verily the enterprising 
 Kuang Hsii was upsetting the peace of mind 
 of his subjects, and his day of reckoning was 
 drawing nigh. 
 
 When the empress dowager reached her 
 sixtieth year of age, the Christian women of 
 China, about eleven thousand in number, sent 
 an edition of the New Testament, printed in 
 large type, and bound in silver and gold, as 
 a birthday gift to her majesty. Soon after 
 the casket containing the present had been 
 delivered at the palace, Kuang Hsii sent 
 messengers to the American Bible Society to 
 procure copies of the Bible for himself. In 
 the compound in Filial Piety Lane the wel- 
 come news was heard that yonder in the For- 
 bidden City the emperor was studying the 
 Bible daily, that he was learning to pray, and 
 that he was willing to have Christianity 
 taught in his wide domains. The mission- 
 aries hoped that the openmindedness of the 
 young ruler would infuse new sap and life 
 into the old, withered empire of China. 
 
 Kuang Hsu's next move was to reach out 
 
122 Under Marching Orders 
 
 for all the foreign books which had been 
 translated into the Chinese language. He 
 collected every book on education, science, 
 and religion, published in the land. For three 
 years he pored over his books, and as a result, 
 issued his edicts of reform — those edicts 
 which made the people sit up and rub their 
 eyes and finally start forth in vigorous 
 protest. 
 
 The first decree established a great, central 
 university in Peking, of which one of the mis- 
 sionaries was invited to become president. 
 In all the colleges and universities founded 
 by Kuang Hsu, the presidents were men who 
 went to China as missionaries. They were 
 the keenest scholars among the foreigners, 
 and also knew China and her people most 
 closely. Throughout the spring and summer 
 of 1898, edict after edict proceeded in sharp 
 succession from the throne. One proclaimed 
 that schools should be founded in every im- 
 portant city, another, that Buddhist temples 
 should be turned into schoolhouses. 
 
 Kuang Hsu became impatient if his com- 
 mands were not carried out at once. In his 
 enthusiasm he forgot that great reforms do 
 not come in a day, even in a lifetime, no 
 
TZU 
 
 HSI 
 
 TUAN 
 
 YU 
 
 KANG 
 
 I 
 
 CHAO 
 
 YU 
 
 CHUAMG 
 
 CHENG 
 
 SHOU 
 
 KUNG 
 
 CHIN 
 
 HSIEN 
 
 CHUNG 
 
 SHIH 
 
 Empress Dowager 
 (From a Painting) 
 
The Center of the Chinese Puzzle 123 
 
 matter if the heart of the reformer breaks in 
 the delay. If only he could have possessed 
 that sure vision of the future, together with 
 a mighty patience such as dominated Mrs. 
 Gamewell and her associates, he might have 
 been the prophet soul who led his people out 
 of darkness into light. But that type of 
 leadership belongs to the Christian faith, and 
 Kuang Hsu was just emerging out of hea- 
 thenism. In a tumultuous time he stood for 
 what he believed, and that is the beginning 
 of heroism. The trouble was he had 
 attempted to do what Mr. Kipling calls 
 "hustling the East." It was as if he had 
 sought to make the slow-moving camels of the 
 desert travel with the speed of a Western 
 mail train. 
 
 At this dramatic moment the empress dow- 
 ager appeared again on the scene of action. 
 In sullen resentment at being set aside, she 
 had been amusing herself with her flowers 
 and boats in I Ho park. But now she would 
 once more play her part in the exciting events 
 of her country's history. A number of dis- 
 satisfied officials and imperial clansmen 
 rallied round her, and plotted the over- 
 throw of Kuang Hsu. Hearing of the con- 
 
124 Under Marching Orders 
 
 spiracy, he tried to outwit them, but a trusted 
 official betrayed him into the hands of his 
 enemies, and the new day for China came to 
 a sudden, stormy close. Kuang Hsu was 
 dethroned and practically made a prisoner in 
 an island palace. The empress dowager be- 
 came the ruler of the nation. Upon the down- 
 fall of Kuang Hsu trouble for the foreigners 
 began. 
 
 With the spitefulness of the old Greek 
 Furies, the empress Tzu Hsi set herself to 
 undo all that Kuang Hsu had done. The 
 official newspaper, Peking Gazette, fairly 
 "bristled* ' with her angry edicts. She 
 crushed every reform measure which had 
 come into existence. The young man who 
 was the chief adviser of Kuang Hsu barely 
 escaped to Tientsin and then by steamer 
 south. For more than a year the empress 
 offered large rewards for his capture, alive 
 or dead. Because her wrath failed to reach 
 this leading offender, she seized his younger 
 brother and ordered his execution. On Sep- 
 tember 28, 1898, he, with five other young 
 men, was beheaded; six martyrs who gave 
 their lives for the future liberty of their 
 country. As they went to their death, they 
 
The Center of the Chinese Puzzle 125 
 
 declared that multitudes of others would 
 some day arise to take their places. 
 
 It was not long before the eagle eye of the 
 empress dowager was turned toward the for- 
 eigners, the cause of all this upheaval in 
 the old, placid empire. Who had ever desired 
 their presence in the celestial kingdom? 
 They had come to trade, and the Chinese, 
 though born traders, scorned the practise as 
 far below their scholarly dignity. They had 
 also come to entice China into that bond which 
 exists between all civilized countries, the 
 "sisterhood of nations. " But China, like a 
 blind, foolish child, preferred to be let alone. 
 She hated the very word "treaty/' for it 
 meant that she had been forced into relations 
 with people whose manner of life she spurned. 
 "When a thing is as good as it can be, you 
 cannot make it any better. ' ' This was exactly 
 what nearly all the people of China thought 
 concerning their country. 
 
 Moreover the foreigner was responsible 
 for these detested reforms. And worse yet, 
 some of the European nations, particularly 
 Germany, were trying to seize Chinese ter- 
 ritory and call it their own. From a Chinese 
 point of view, the foreigners were bent on 
 
126 Under Marching Orders 
 
 devouring China piecemeal. What could the 
 Dragon do but turn upon his enemies ? 
 
 Thus the dowager empress let her wild 
 fury run away with her reason. Down deep 
 in her heart she knew that her country owed 
 a vast deal to outside nations, but her intelli- 
 gence went down before her childish peevish- 
 ness and her lust for power. The only way 
 to keep the Manchus on the throne was to side 
 with the conservatives against the foreigner. 
 And so the explosion, which this woman by a 
 single stroke of the vermilion pencil could 
 have prevented, burst in a whirl of frenzy 
 about the foreigners and Chinese Christians. 
 
 In the neighboring province of Shan-tung, 
 a famous secret society, of which there are 
 many in China, was drilling its troops, thus 
 making ready to rout all foreigners out of 
 China, perhaps even the Manchu rulers them- 
 selves. Buddhist temples were turned into 
 camps, and excited men were practising 
 strange rites in every village. The organ- 
 ization was known as the I Ho Ch'iian (Fists 
 of Eighteous Harmony), or the Great Sword 
 Society. As the Chinese word for "fists" 
 signifies wrestling or boxing, they became 
 known as Boxers. 
 
08 
 H 
 
 o 
 
 08 
 O 
 fa 
 
 H 
 X 
 
 
 fa 
 
 u 
 
 < 
 
 fa 
 
 o 
 PQ 
 
 o 
 PQ 
 
The Center of the Chinese Puzzle 127 
 
 They claimed that supernatural power was 
 granted them and that neither swords nor 
 bullets could inflict injury. In the temples 
 of the gods they went into spasms and 
 trances, in order to become possessed with 
 the spirit of some hero long since dead. 
 Sundry charms were repeated to protect them 
 against gun, cannon, and sword. "Face to 
 the southeast, with left hand perform the 
 Three Mountain charm, with the right per- 
 form the Twisted Dragon, mark on ground 
 two crosses, tread with two feet — read the 
 charm once, follow with one knocking of head 
 — at least read seven times, at most ten times. 
 The gods will then take possession of your 
 body. ' f This and similar exercises were sup- 
 posed to make the charm take effect. Then 
 it was that "the gods and the 8,000,000 spir- 
 its" would come to their aid "to sweep the 
 empire clean of all foreigners." 
 
 " Until the foreigner is exterminated, the rain oan never 
 visit us." 
 
 "Within three years all will be accomplished." 
 
 "The Volunteer Associated Fists will burn down the foreign 
 buildings. Foreign goods of every variety they will de- 
 stroy. They will extirpate the evil demons, and establish 
 right teaching, — the honor of the spirits and the sages." 
 
 "Scholars and gentlemen must by no means esteem this a 
 light and idle curse, and so disregard its warning." 
 
128 Under Marching Orders 
 
 These were phrases on some of the Boxer 
 posters, circulated freely in northeastern 
 China. The Boxer flag contained four dread 
 characters: "Pao Ch'ing Mieh Yang" 
 ("Protect the empire: exterminate foreign- 
 ers"). Eed cloth was at a premium, since it 
 was the sign of revolt, and was in great 
 demand as a Boxer emblem. 
 
 Close upon the capital city the Boxer hosts 
 pressed. The whole region between Pao-ting 
 fu and Peking was covered with Boxer 
 camps. About the city of Cho-chou, thirty 
 thousand Boxers were assembled, practising 
 their magic rites by day, and by night eating 
 the farmers of the neighborhood out of house 
 and home. They burned railroad stations 
 and tore up the tracks, burned and looted 
 property, and even killed Chinese Christians. 
 And at last Boxer troops were drilling 
 within the walls of Peking, even on the 
 official drill-grounds, and in the palaces of 
 the nobles. In a few short weeks, the Boxers 
 had become the "men of the hour." 
 
 Were the foreigners sleeping, that they 
 did not realize danger was so close? Or did 
 they lean upon the word of that two-faced 
 empress who assured them that the Boxer 
 
The Center of the Chinese Puzzle 129 
 
 movement was naught but the work of boys 
 and peasants? Count no more upon that 
 fickle ruler who promises but does not fulfil ! 
 Her mind was now made up, and the die was 
 cast for the doom of the foreigner. Was it 
 that the Boxer uprising was a dangerous 
 force to be reckoned with, and unless it was 
 directed against the foreigner it might turn 
 against the Manchu dynasty, and the dowager 
 empress would lose both "face" and power? 
 Between these alternatives it did not take 
 long to choose, and she hesitated not a 
 moment. 
 
 Meanwhile, what has become of Mrs. Game- 
 well in the midst of all this furor and excite- 
 ment? Let us brave the taunts of "foreign 
 devil" which will bear down upon us like a 
 chorus of curses, and walk boldly through 
 the streets of Peking to the compound in 
 Filial Piety Lane. 
 
BOXERS AND BARRICADES 
 
 131 
 
IX 
 BOXEES AND BAKRICADES 
 
 "A glorious company, the flower of men, 
 To serve as model for the mighty world, 
 And be the fair beginning of a time." 
 
 On the peak of the dome of Asbury Church, 
 in the compound of the Methodist mission, a 
 solitary figure was outlined against the sky. 
 The Boxers in the streets below gazed warily 
 up at the unwonted presence. In their camps 
 the story was told and believed, that a strange 
 being had come from America and alighted 
 upon the tower of the church. Further drill 
 in magic would be necessary to give them 
 power to cope with this mysterious guardian 
 of the foreigners. 
 
 "What they saw was in reality the sentinel, 
 who, in the heat of day and the dew of night, 
 kept unbroken watch of the enemies' move- 
 ments. In the space of a few days, the beauti- 
 ful church in which Mrs. Game well worked 
 had been converted into a citadel of war. 
 Bricks had been piled upon the iron roof to 
 be hurled upon the foe in case of direct 
 
 133 
 
134 Under Marching Orders 
 
 attack. The doors had been strengthened 
 by galvanized iron plates. Panes of glass 
 had been removed from the windows, and 
 the space barricaded with bricks, and loop- 
 holed. Since it was possible that the dwell- 
 ing-houses might be burned, trunks were 
 borne to the church for safe-keeping. Some 
 one said that the " grand trunk" line ran 
 everywhere, from the vestibule through 
 every aisle even to the platform itself. On 
 the floor in front of the pulpit stood a 
 row of jars large as barrels, and filled to 
 the brim with water. The water had been 
 purified by boiling in huge caldrons on fur- 
 naces built in the court. On two memorable 
 Sundays, the preacher was surrounded by 
 cans of butter, hundreds of boiled eggs, 
 stacks of Chinese biscuits, cases of condensed 
 milk, as well as baby cradles and mattresses 
 innumerable. All these preparations had 
 been made against the day when the people 
 should have to take refuge within the church, 
 and there join in one last desperate fight for 
 their lives. 
 
 Across the streets in front and at the rear 
 of the church, barricades had been con- 
 structed. Bricks for all these hasty fortifica- 
 
Scenes in the Methodist Compound 
 Barbed Wire in Front of Asbury Church 
 Captain Hall and the Key 
 
 The Auditorium as a Storehouse 
 On Guard 
 
Boxers and Barricades 135 
 
 tions had been taken from walls and parti- 
 tions, and sometimes had to be transported 
 from one end of the mission area to the other. 
 Boys and women carried piles of bricks on 
 their clasped hands, or in baskets swung on 
 poles over their shoulders. Wee children 
 toddled along, each carrying one, two, three 
 bricks according to his size. All the flag tiles 
 from the court pavements had been uprooted 
 and used for cross barricades. Deep ditches 
 had been dug, and first and second lines of 
 defense marked out. Barbed-wire fences 
 bristled behind walls likely to be scaled. The 
 gates, except the one needed for entrance and 
 exit, had been solidly covered with brickwork. 
 These means of protection had been 
 planned and directed by Mr. Gamewell, who 
 was a general by instinct as well as a civil 
 engineer by training. Twenty marines, under 
 command of Captain Hall, had been sent by 
 Mr. Conger, the United States minister in 
 Peking, as a military guard for the com- 
 pound, which had become a refuge for scores 
 of missionaries and native Christians. Mrs. 
 Gamewell said that " their hearts beat high 
 with patriotic pride when they saw the boys 
 in blue march through the gates.' ' 
 
136 Under Marching Orders 
 
 At dusk of the day previous to the arrival 
 of the marines, the 8th of June, the other 
 mission compounds in Peking had been 
 abandoned, and the missionaries with their 
 Chinese adherents had sought the shelter of 
 the Methodist compound. In the darkness of 
 night, a long line of carts bore the fugitives 
 from the Congregational mission at T'ung- 
 chou to Peking. Within three days their 
 deserted buildings were looted and burned 
 by the very soldiers sent to protect them. 
 Hundreds of Christians and servants of 
 foreigners were massacred within two miles 
 of the palace buildings. Heartbreaking 
 stories were told by the refugees who stag- 
 gered each day into the courts of the Metho- 
 dist mission. Homes had been burned, 
 families separated in the desperate flight for 
 life, and a cruel death had overtaken multi- 
 tudes. In all, seventy British and American 
 missionaries, and nearly seven hundred 
 Chinese Christians, filled every inch of 
 space in the compound in Filial Piety 
 Lane. Boxer mobs blew their horns and 
 uttered their demoniacal howls outside the 
 gates, while within, twenty American marines 
 constituted the entire military protection. 
 
Boxers and Barricades 137 
 
 One great hope colored all these unquiet 
 days. On the 10th of June, in response to a 
 telegram from Peking asking for more troops, 
 several hundred foreign soldiers, led by Cap- 
 tain McCalla, had fought their way to the 
 railway train, and had left Tientsin for 
 Peking. The arrival of this relief army was 
 daily, hourly expected. In the center of the 
 compound, a large tree, the play-house of the 
 children in days of peace, was used as a bul- 
 letin board. Every scrap of news from the 
 outside world was posted on the trunk of the 
 1 ' giant tree. ? ' But the ' ' outside world ? ' was 
 rapidly drifting beyond reach. Telegraph 
 lines had been cut in all directions, save the 
 single wire to Kalgan on the Great Wall. 
 When that last thread of connection was 
 broken, Peking was isolated indeed. 
 
 On the 13th of June, the following letter 
 from the United States minister, Mr. Conger, 
 was read from the tree bulletin : ' ' My dear 
 Mr. Gamewell: A note just received from 
 Captain McCalla, written at four p. m., yes- 
 terday, reports him with sixteen hundred 
 men of all nationalities at Lang-fang [thirty 
 miles from Peking], pushing on as fast as 
 they can repair the road. " That was the last 
 
138 Under Marching Orders 
 
 message received from the advancing army 
 for many a weary day. 
 
 On the afternoon of the same day, the 
 Methodist street chapel, a few hundred 
 yards away, outside the compound, was 
 demolished by the mob. The usual Boxer 
 method was to tear down a part of the frame- 
 work, pour thereon quart after quart of 
 kerosene, and then apply the torch. Through- 
 out the night, Mrs. Gamewell, with a group 
 of anxious watchers, looked out upon the 
 flaming, fearful sky. It was red with the 
 reflection of burning buildings. Two old his- 
 toric cathedrals belonging to the Eoman Cath- 
 olic Church were utterly destroyed, many 
 Christians dying in the fire. All the property 
 in Peking which belonged to the foreigners, 
 except that defended by foreign troops, was 
 burned to ashes, either during that night of 
 destruction, or within the next few days. A 
 veritable fire demon seemed to possess the 
 Boxers, and to spur them to madness. 
 
 On the 16th, the climax of the great burn- 
 ing was reached. Wild flames leaped up 
 from the other side of the southern wall, near 
 the Ch'ien, the gate through which, twice 
 each year, the emperor rides forth in his 
 
Boxers and Barricades 139 
 
 elephant cart on his way to worship in the 
 temple of Heaven in the southern city. In 
 this locality were the huge banking estab- 
 lishments, fur stores, and the wealthiest 
 business houses in Peking. The Boxer mob 
 had set fire to a mill in the neighborhood, and 
 the high wind drove the flames beyond their 
 control. In terror they cried to the fire god 
 to intercede and spare the great tower on 
 the wall above the city gate. The tower rose 
 more than one hundred feet above the ground, 
 and was speedily a tall pillar of fire, piercing 
 the sky with its shaft of flame. The loss from 
 this one fire was computed to be at least 
 $5,000,000. 
 
 Close to the wall in the southern city, wild 
 hordes of Boxers made the night hideous 
 with their fiendish noise: "Kill the foreign 
 devil! Kill! Kill! Kill!" Only a handful 
 of unreliable Manchu guards and the iron 
 gate intervened between the murderous mob 
 and the foreigners a few rods away in the 
 northern city. Bealizing this, the committee 
 in charge of the compound went at nightfall 
 to the gate, interviewed the official, and won 
 his promise to close the gate early, and refuse 
 to open it to the mob. To make doubly sure, 
 
140 Under Marching Orders 
 
 this daring committee actually requested that 
 after the gate was locked the key should be 
 brought to the mission compound and left 
 there until morning. The gate-keeper con- 
 sented to the amazing proposition, and the 
 bar of iron two feet long was in Captain 
 Hall's keeping each night as long as the mis- 
 sion premises were occupied! 
 
 During these first feverish nights, sleep 
 wandered far from Mrs. GamewelPs eyes. 
 Every instant of the daylight was tense with 
 hard work, and the darkness should naturally 
 have brought exhaustion and rest. Instead, 
 an excitement which she said was like calm- 
 ness, drove weariness and sleep to the winds. 
 In the depths of the night and in the heart of 
 the moonlight, she watched the stars and 
 stripes float in easy grace from the roof of 
 the church. She walked with the sentinel on 
 his beat and led him on to talk of home, or of 
 his life in the Philippines. In these wakeful 
 hours began that staunch comradeship with 
 the soldiers which made her their friend and 
 heroine through all the dark days to come. 
 
 After two or three nights of such vigil, 
 sleep claimed its own, and Mrs. Game well 
 was led by a friend into a quiet corner for 
 
Boxers and Barricades 141 
 
 her sorely needed rest. The deep sleep of 
 utter exhaustion conquered, and it was some 
 hours before she awoke in the midst of an 
 ominous stillness. She hastened to a window 
 and accosted a soldier who was passing that 
 way. He told her that the alarm had been 
 given, and all the people except the guards 
 were shut inside the church. A stout barri- 
 cade with a closed gate was between her and 
 the church. There she was, alone with the 
 fighting men in the exposed front of battle, 
 if battle there should be. But the threatening 
 mob drifted gradually away from the gates 
 of the compound, and that danger was past. 
 After this forlorn experience of Mrs. 
 GamewelPs, a more thorough organization 
 was completed in the mission camp. Origi- 
 nally the bell in the tower had rung out the 
 alarms. Soon it was found expedient to have 
 a quieter signal, such as would give no inkling 
 to the foe outside of the preparations within. 
 Consequently, women sentinels were sta- 
 tioned on the verandas, each for a watch of 
 two hours' duration. If an attack seemed 
 imminent, a soldier was to warn one of these 
 sentinels, who would spread the word 
 throughout the compound, until each and all 
 
142 Under Marching Orders 
 
 had taken their places in the silent, swiftly 
 moving line to the church. This was the plan 
 in operation on the night when Mrs. Game- 
 well was sleeping her first long sleep since 
 the siege began. When it was discovered 
 that a person could be overlooked in the or- 
 derly confusion, a new kind of guard was 
 appointed. In each house some one was des- 
 ignated, whose duty it was to make sure that 
 no one was left behind in the general exodus 
 to the church. 
 
 As the heat of those summer days grew 
 more stifling, Mrs. Gamewell looked sym- 
 pathetically at the marines clad in their 
 heavy winter uniforms. The order for shore 
 duty had come suddenly one day while they 
 were at dinner on board the war-ships. 
 There was not a moment for change of cloth- 
 ing, as the call to Peking was imperative. In 
 this emergency Mrs. Gamewell 's ready brain 
 conceived a scheme whereby the sweltering 
 soldiers should be relieved. With money 
 solicited from the missionaries, an armed 
 group of Chinese and foreigners was dis- 
 patched into the nearby street to purchase 
 light-weight material from the stores which 
 had not vet been abandoned. Yards and 
 
Boxers and Barricades 143 
 
 yards of navy blue drilling, and dozens and 
 dozens of brass buttons were procured, and 
 the women set busily to work. A suit of Mr. 
 Game well's was ripped to pieces for a pat- 
 tern. Two women did the cutting, while 
 several basted. Mrs. Gamewell acted as 
 fitter, taking the garments to the soldiers' 
 headquarters, and pinning and fitting until 
 each suit was adjusted to its prospective 
 owner. For Mrs. Gamewell, as she said, 
 1 ' there was patriotic fervor in the pinning of 
 every pin that pinned the seams of those gar- 
 ments of blue, fervor born of the fires kindled 
 during the war that raged in girlhood days, 
 when our town on the Mississippi was always 
 a-flutter with flags, and full of arriving and 
 departing troops.'' 
 
 At first the soldiers were so eager to don 
 their new uniforms, that suits delivered at 
 headquarters were instantly appropriated, 
 regardless of fit. Such genuine appreciation 
 was gratifying to be sure, but the results 
 were not wholly to the credit of the fitter. 
 Thereafter a piece of white cloth was sewed 
 upon each suit, indicating the man for whom 
 it was intended. The finished suit was of 
 regulation type; a close fitting jacket with 
 
144 Under Marching Orders 
 
 four pockets, a row of brass buttons and a 
 standing collar. When the cartridge belt was 
 added, the effect was quite the same as if a 
 tailor had done the work. 
 
 On the 19th of June a startling letter was 
 delivered to Mr. Gamewell by a swift runner 
 from the United States Legation. The letter 
 read as follows: 
 
 u 'My dear Mr. Gamewell: 
 
 The Chinese Government has notified us 
 that the admirals at Taku have notified the 
 viceroy that they will take possession of all 
 the Taku forts to-morrow. This they con- 
 sider a declaration of war by all the powers, 
 and hence tender the ministers their pass- 
 ports, and ask us to leave Peking in twenty- 
 four hours. We have replied that we know 
 nothing of this, but if the Chinese desire to 
 act upon such information, and declare war 
 themselves, that of course, we will go as soon 
 as they will furnish us the necessary trans- 
 portation, and send reliable escorts to take us 
 all to Tientsin. Sincerely yours, 
 
 E. H. Conger." 
 
 For weeks an impressive fleet of foreign 
 warships had been anchored at the mouth of 
 
Boxers and Barricades 145 
 
 the Pei Ho, or North Biver, where the Taku 
 forts commanded entrance to the river. 
 It had been impossible for the admirals to 
 decide what the next move should be, since it 
 could not be determined whether the Chinese 
 government meant war or not. At last, when 
 word came that Peking was utterly cut off, 
 that Boxers and the imperial troops were 
 uniting, that an unknown Chinese army was 
 contending the advance of Captain McCalla 
 and the relief column, and that the Pei Ho 
 was being mined with torpedoes, then it was 
 that the Allied Forces swung into action. 
 Early in the morning of June 17th they 
 stormed the Taku forts, and after six hours 
 of hard fighting the last gun was silenced, 
 and flags of Europe, the United States, and 
 Japan, waved over the forts. Long weeks 
 afterward it was found that the attack had 
 been made not an hour too soon. The deed 
 had been done before the letter of June 19th 
 was sent to the foreign ambassadors, and 
 thence to the Methodist compound. Chinese 
 government officials thought best to keep the 
 real truth to themselves, as well as the fact 
 that Captain McCalla 's army had been met 
 by Chinese troops and repulsed. The assault 
 
146 Under Marching Orders 
 
 upon the forts had something the same effect 
 upon the Chinese people as the firing upon 
 Fort Sumter had upon the Northerners at 
 the outbreak of the Civil War. At any rate 
 it gave that wily empress dowager a chance 
 to throw off her mask, and enter freely upon 
 her desperate attempt to drive all foreigners 
 out of China. 
 
 The next morning after the order to leave 
 the city had been received in the Methodist 
 mission, the women gathered about their 
 open trunks in the church. Instructions had 
 come from the legations that all within the 
 compound should be ready to leave at a 
 moment's notice, and that they could take 
 with them only what could be borne in their 
 hands. Mrs. Gamewell, tired almost beyond 
 the power of thought, questioned with the 
 others: "What shall I take, and what shall 
 I leave? Which of these our possessions is 
 more essential than the others?" "Things" 
 were of small account on that weary, care- 
 laden day. 
 
 The real concern was for the Chinese 
 Christians, all of whom must be left behind. 
 The treachery of the Chinese government had 
 already been proved, and there was little or 
 
Boxers and Barricades 147 
 
 no hope that the foreigners would escape with 
 their lives. In all likelihood they were being 
 beguiled into a trap of death somewhere be- 
 yond the walls of Peking. Safety for the 
 Chinese Christians meant that they must be 
 separated at once from the missionaries. 
 
 In the Girls' High School the pupils came 
 together at the call of their teachers. They 
 were told that each one would be given money 
 sufficient to support her for two or three 
 months, and that they must go forth in search 
 of shelter in some friendly Chinese home. 
 With set, white faces girls and teachers knelt 
 and prayed. "If life be given, then it shall 
 be a life of service; if death, then God's will 
 be done." This was the prayer with which 
 each life was consecrated to God. Then they 
 stood and sang those words of soldierly 
 obedience: "Where he leads me I will fol- 
 low. ' ' Again, in anguish of heart the teacher 
 prayed, and even as she prayed the answer 
 came. "Before they call I will answer, and 
 while they are yet speaking I will hear." 
 Some one lightly touched the kneeling figure, 
 but so absorbed was she that the summons 
 was thrice repeated before she gave heed. 
 Then it was that swift joy took the place of 
 
148 Under Marching Orders 
 
 sorrow. There was to be no separation of 
 pupils and teachers, for all within the mis- 
 sion were to take what belongings they could 
 carry, and hasten to the legations about a 
 mile away where all foreigners were to be as- 
 sembled. 
 
 Out in the streets of China's capital, Baron 
 von Ketteler, the German ambassador, had 
 been killed by an officer of the Chinese im- 
 perial army. The first shot had been fired 
 upon the foreigner, and China stood in battle 
 array against the nations of the world. The 
 German ambassador had actually given his 
 life in sacrifice for the entire foreign settle- 
 ment, for it was his death which revealed be- 
 yond a doubt China's dastardly intention. 
 The foreigners were to have been lured out of 
 Peking only to be massacred by Boxers before 
 they reached Tientsin. Minister Conger sent 
 his last letter to the Methodist compound: 
 "Come at once within the legation lines and 
 bring your Chinese with you." Dr. Mor- 
 rison, the correspondent of the London 
 Times, a true man and valorous, had stood 
 up in the midst of the legation council and 
 boldly declared: "I should be ashamed to 
 call myself a white man if I could not make 
 
149 
 
150 Under Marching Orders 
 
 a place of refuge for these Chinese Chris* 
 tians." 
 
 At eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the long 
 procession passed through the mission gate 
 into Filial Piety Lane, thence across the great 
 thoroughfare which led southward to the 
 Hata gate, and turned westward into Lega- 
 tion Street. First in the ranks marched the 
 twenty marines, led by Captain Hall, and 
 followed by the missionary women and chil- 
 dren. Behind them a detachment of German 
 soldiers bore upon a stretcher the wounded 
 man who had been the interpreter for Baron 
 von Ketteler, and who had almost miracu- 
 lously escaped death in his flight to the Meth- 
 odist compound. Then came the one hundred 
 and twenty-six school girls marching in 
 simple, quiet dignity as if they were on their 
 way to a religious service or a school exercise. 
 Hundreds of Chinese women and little chil- 
 dren, followed by a large company of men 
 and boys, were next in order. The handful 
 of missionary men, armed with rifles or 
 revolvers, closed the line of march. 
 
 It was a brave, sad caravan proceeding on 
 its way from danger into danger, and the 
 longest, hardest test of endurance was yet to 
 
BESIEGED BY FRENZIED CHINESE 
 
 153 
 
BESIEGED BY FRENZIED CHINESE 
 
 "One equal temper of heroic hearts 
 Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
 To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." 
 
 ■'. i •.-. 
 
 Of all the great cities of the world, Peking 
 in the old days was the most inaccessible both 
 ;by land and water. Other cities renowned in 
 history — Carthage, Eome, Athens, Bombay — 
 :have owed their prestige largely to their easy 
 approach from the sea. It was character- 
 istic, however, of the exclusive Chinese to 
 locate their capital away from the coast and 
 the rivers, and to surround it, as well as a 
 portion of the empire itself, with a great wall. 
 Within these city walls the foreigners were 
 caught, as in a trap, in the month of June, 
 1900. Release must come by means of the 
 men on the war vessels at Taku, who would 
 have to pass blockaded Tientsin and march 
 the eighty miles to Peking. The railroad was 
 destroyed: Boxers and imperial troops in 
 combined strength would oppose their ad- 
 vance. All means of communication, postal, 
 
 155 
 
156 Under Marching Orders 
 
 telephone, and telegraph, were cut off, and 
 where was the daring messenger who would 
 run the gauntlet of Boxer fury and carry 
 news of the foreigners' plight to the armies! 
 Such was the forlorn situation that glaring 
 noonday when the homeless folk from the 
 Methodist compound were received within 
 the legation lines of defense. Human help 
 was remote and unlikely; destruction by the 
 Boxers near and threatening. God alone was 
 the real bulwark of protection from the first 
 to the last day of the long strife. 
 
 East of the British Legation, separated by 
 a street and a moat, was the palace of a 
 Chinese nobleman, named Prince Su. His 
 stately residence was known as the Su Wang 
 Fu, briefly called the Fu. Persuaded by the 
 tact of Dr. Morrison and Prof. James, Prince 
 Su had granted permission for the Chinese 
 Christians to be sheltered within his courts. 
 Two thousand Catholic Chinese had already 
 been housed there, and now several hundred 
 Protestants were waiting for a place of 
 refuge. Later in the day the prince fled into 
 the Imperial City, thus making room in his 
 empty house for this new multitude of de- 
 pendent Chinese. Fires were still burning in 
 
iirimSs \ YA "° *?*i I doctors «2>i ft A students hqusI 
 
 tcazhchs noose 
 
 iuBtes^ 
 
 Of MtNlSTtR 
 
 m 
 
 British Legation, Peking 
 
 Gate to British Legation, Showing Fortification and 
 Dry Canal 
 
Besieged by Frenzied Chinese 157 
 
 the ranges within the buildings. Stores of 
 coal and grain, and deep wells, were prom- 
 ises of future provision. It seemed as if God 
 himself had prepared this fold for his 
 Chinese flock. 
 
 Meanwhile the American missionaries 
 halted within the shade of the United States 
 Legation, where Mrs. Squires, wife of the 
 First Secretary, served an informal luncheon 
 for the entire company. After two hours' 
 parley, it was decided that the American 
 Legation was too close to the wall to be a 
 safe place for women and children, and that 
 the British Legation was the least exposed 
 area. Consequently the weary wanderers 
 filed into the courts already crowded with a 
 motley throng of people and their belongings. 
 There were Jesuit priests, French Catholic 
 sisters, Legation students, merchants, tour- 
 ists, and missionaries — as diverse a gather- 
 ing as ever before in history inhabited six 
 acres of earth. Boxes, bundles, trunks, baby 
 carriages, and mattresses had been dropped 
 anywhere and everywhere. Carts and coolies 
 deposited odds and ends of furniture, and 
 raced back for another load while yet there 
 was time. Through all this chaos the mis- 
 
158 Under Marching Orders 
 
 sionaries pressed their way to the Legation 
 Chapel which was reserved for their use. On 
 the seats and in the corners bundles of all 
 shapes and sizes were hastily thrown, while 
 aisles and vestibule became literally choked 
 with mattresses and bedding. 
 
 Within the legation quadrangle there were 
 now assembled nearly four thousand people, 
 representing seventeen different nations. 
 Nearly one thousand were foreigners, four 
 hundred and fifty of whom were the soldiers 
 who constituted the entire military guard. 
 All but one of the eleven legations were to be 
 garrisoned and held until their resources 
 failed, when a last united stand was to be 
 made at the British Legation. Each national 
 detachment of soldiers guarded its own lega- 
 tion, except the Japanese and Italians. The 
 legation of the latter was destroyed early in 
 the siege, and that of the former was wholly 
 within the firing lines, and needed no further 
 protection. Therefore these two bands of 
 soldiers were stationed in the park which sur- 
 rounded the Su Wang Fu to shield the 
 Chinese Christians from attack. All other 
 foreigners were harbored within the British 
 Legation, although the ministers of the dif- 
 
Besieged by Frenzied Chinese 159 
 
 ferent countries abode with the soldiers at 
 their respective headquarters. 
 
 While the women missionaries tried to 
 bring order out of chaos in the British 
 Chapel, a number of the men, accompanied 
 by a squad of Chinese, went back to the Meth- 
 odist compound to rescue some of the provi- 
 sions stored in Asbury Church. It was a sad 
 experience, this return to the deserted com- 
 pound. The homes, the schools, and the 
 church were still standing, but at any moment 
 they might be reduced to a heap of broken 
 bricks. A foreboding told the missionaries 
 that they were looking for the last time upon 
 these buildings which their toil had made 
 possible, and which they loved as a sculptor 
 loves the figure he carves out of the rough 
 marble. But upon these thoughts there was 
 no time to brood, for their work must be done 
 with utmost speed, if they would return 
 before the attack began. Food supplies in 
 large quantities were gathered into sheets and 
 quilts, and borne by the Chinese to the church 
 within the legation lines. A few carts were 
 found which transported bedding, clothing, 
 and other property. Yet when all was done, 
 possessions worth thousands of dollars had 
 
160 Under Marching Orders 
 
 to be left behind for the ruthless hands of the 
 looters, who were even then at work. 
 
 Precisely at four o'clock in the afternoon, 
 twenty-four hours after the command to leave 
 Peking had been received, Chinese imperial 
 troops opened fire upon the legations. Mr. 
 Gamewell with Mrs. Jewell, one of the 
 teachers, started forth from the Fu just as 
 the first bullets whizzed through the street. 
 Voices from across the way cried, "Go 
 back! Go back!" After waiting a few min- 
 utes, they crouched low and ran across the 
 perilous street to be received within the lega- 
 tion gate. Thereafter all women were for- 
 bidden to cross this dangerous thoroughfare 
 which lay between them and their Chinese 
 Christians in Prince Su's palace. 
 
 While rifle shots were hissing through the 
 air, the evening meal was being served in 
 Legation Chapel. Men, women, and children 
 sat on benches and bundles, on the altar 
 steps, and on the floor, while odd bits of food 
 were distributed to them. Porcelain-lined 
 plates had been secured that afternoon from 
 the stores on Legation Street, and stood the 
 test of constant use through the many days to 
 come. After the meal was over, the dishes 
 
Besieged by Frenzied Chinese 161 
 
 were handed through a window to Chinese 
 servants outside, who washed and returned 
 them, after which they were stacked on the 
 altar close by the tall candlesticks, and in 
 front of a beautiful painting. The pulpit, 
 too, soon became a cupboard for cups and 
 saucers, knives and forks and spoons. 
 
 The darkness of the first night settled 
 gradually upon the tired camp, and strange 
 preparations for sleeping were everywhere 
 in order. Mattresses were laid on the chapel 
 floor, and families and other groups of people 
 divided the floor space into as small fractions 
 as possible. Others utilized the church 
 benches, placing them face to face, and 
 spreading thereon such fragments of bedding 
 as they chanced to possess. Many of the 
 people had no pillows, sheets, mattresses, or 
 blankets, but in siege days he who has two 
 of anything, promptly shares with him who 
 has none. Dr. Arthur H. Smith, the historian 
 of the siege, said that the sleeping arrange- 
 ments in the chapel resembled the "ground 
 plan of a box of sardines. ' ' Yet there was not 
 room for all the seventy. Several of the men 
 sought the uncertain shelter of pavilions, 
 verandas, and benches under trees — any place 
 
162 Under Marching Orders 
 
 where a faint measure of safety might be 
 found. A message was brought to the chapel 
 from Lady MacDonald, wife of the British 
 ambassador, to the effect that four or five 
 women could find refuge in a room in the stu- 
 dents ' quarter. Mrs. Gamewell and others 
 responded at once to this summons. Through 
 a labyrinth of Peking carts and boxes, they 
 found their way to the long, two-story build- 
 ing which Mrs. Gamewell said seemed to be 
 an "eruption of people and things." The 
 first floor was solidly packed with people, 
 but to their surprise they found unoccupied 
 rooms on the floor above, in which they spread 
 their bedding and lay down without removing 
 their clothes. The veranda outside was 
 congested with people who preferred the 
 protection of the front wall to the room in- 
 doors. At the rear of the building a volley 
 of rifle-shot poured over the north wall of the 
 legation. Mrs. Gamewell lay quietly on the 
 floor of the unfamiliar room, conscious of 
 the wakefulness of the people all about her, 
 her mind asking questions to which the dark- 
 ness gave no answer. "What would the night 
 bring forth ? Was death really near ? Would 
 the relief column come with the morning? If 
 
Besieged by Frenzied Chinese 163 
 
 not, how near and what the end?" Even yet 
 the thoughts of the people turned wistfully 
 to Captain McCalla and his troops, not know- 
 ing, as did the Chinese, that they had been 
 defeated and driven back to Tientsin. 
 
 As the night deepened, the rifle-fire intensi- 
 fied. A fierce attack was in progress at the 
 north, and the Chinese soldiers had the range 
 of the rear windows of the building. Mrs. 
 Gamewell and her companions were almost 
 on the firing line of battle. By and by she 
 heard the guard come in, and realized that 
 Mr. Gamewell had been stationed at a window 
 at the end of the hall. Presently there was a 
 hurrying to and fro. Armed men hastened 
 through the room, stepping over the women 
 as they lay on the floor on the direct route of 
 the soldiers from post to post. 
 
 Finally, out of the horror of the night 
 another day dawned, bringing its blasting 
 heat and its pressing work. In the morning 
 an invitation came to the little group of 
 women to spend the next night in Lady Mac- 
 Donald 's ballroom. Other women had al- 
 ready gathered there, but on its broad floor 
 there was sleeping space for all. There Mrs. 
 Gamewell spent the remaining nights of the 
 
164 Under Marching Orders 
 
 siege. Some one gave her a piece of a mat- 
 tress, while a laundry bag, enclosing shoes 
 and sundry personal possessions, served as 
 a pillow. 
 
 It was on the second day of the siege that 
 Sir Claude MacDonald rallied about him the 
 missionaries who had already proved their 
 ingenuity and perseverance in the work ac- 
 complished in the Methodist compound. Mr. 
 Gamewell was immediately appointed Chief 
 of the Fortification Staff, and was given 
 entire charge of the work of fortifying the 
 British Legation. It was a delicate matter 
 for a civilian to have authority beyond the 
 military officers, but later events showed that 
 in nothing did Sir Claude MacDonald mani- 
 fest his wisdom so clearly as in giving Mr. 
 Gamewell full liberty to build the fortifica- 
 tions according to his own ideas and his 
 alone. Other committees were created at the 
 same time. There was a General Committee, 
 of Public Comfort; a committee on San- 
 itation, made up of missionary physicians 
 and others; a Food Supply committee; a 
 committee to enlist the labor of the Chinese, 
 as well as committees to watch against fires, 
 and to provide fuel for fires of another sort. 
 
Besieged by Frenzied Chinese 165 
 
 Promptly after its appointment, the Food 
 Supply Committee started on a foraging tour 
 in Legation Street. In this street were lo- 
 cated a number of native and foreign stores, 
 whose proprietors had either fled outside the 
 area occupied by the foreigners, or had 
 sought the protection of the British Legation. 
 An incredible amount of foodstuffs had been 
 left in these shops. If the provisions were 
 not given voluntarily by the owners, a care- 
 ful record was kept by the committee of all 
 goods appropriated, in order that future pay- 
 ment might be made. In one store several 
 tons of rice were discovered, most of it being 
 the musty, yellow variety which is hard eat- 
 ing for the foreigner. A native shop close 
 by the canal was stacked high with cylindrical 
 baskets containing fresh, new wheat just 
 brought in from Hu-nan. There were found 
 to be at least eight thousand bushels of this 
 wheat. Eleven stone mills were a part of the 
 outfit of the grain-shop. In the days to come, 
 early and late, in sunshine and rain, and 
 under the incessant fire of rifles, these mills 
 were made to grind meal and flour for for- 
 eigners and Chinese. In other shops was an 
 abundance of white and yellow Indian corn 
 
166 Under Marching Orders 
 
 and pulse, as well as bags of coffee, sugar, 
 beans, and an assortment of canned goods. 
 There were many horses and mules in and 
 about the legations, and the time came when 
 they also were a welcome addition to the 
 daily diet. Within the British compound 
 were eight wells, which furnished an inex- 
 haustible supply of clear, cold water. A 
 wonderful blessing in the city of Peking. 
 
 When more than three thousand people 
 gathered at noon on the 20th of June, within 
 the legation lines, there was not food enough 
 at hand for one meal. Within a day, sufficient 
 provision had been found to sustain life for 
 two months. To some, it seemed a miracle as 
 great as any recorded in the Book itself. 
 This indication of God's loving care gave 
 heart to the hard-pressed people during 
 every day of the long struggle. 
 
 From the moment when Mr. Gamewell was 
 given charge of the fortifications until the end 
 of the siege, he worked day and night to 
 make the British Legation as nearly like an 
 impregnable fortress as was possible under 
 the conditions. Often four hours out of the 
 twenty-four were his allowance for sleep. 
 By means of a much-used bicycle he seemed 
 
Besieged by Frenzied Chinese 167 
 
 to be everywhere at once, superintending the 
 building of barricades, seeking reinforce- 
 ments of Chinese laborers, and always watch- 
 ing for weak points in the defenses which 
 were immediately to be strengthened. One 
 day when Mrs. Gamewell was inquiring for 
 her husband, some one replied : "If you stand 
 right where you are for five minutes, he will 
 be likely to go past." And the prediction 
 proved true. Often after the furious attacks 
 which came in the midnight hours, he would 
 go to the threshold of the ballroom where the 
 group of women were trying in vain to sleep, 
 and would give them an account of what had 
 happened, telling them that it was never as 
 bad as it had seemed to be from the sounds. 
 His reassuring words comforted them so that 
 they could relax for a few hours ' sleep before 
 the morning sun summoned to the tasks of a 
 new day. 
 
 "When the refugees entered the legations, 
 there were no fortifications except a barri- 
 cade at each end of Legation Street, and the 
 natural protection afforded by the walls. 
 One of Mr. Gamewell's first moves was to 
 fortify the great gate. The stable gate was 
 also most important. A wall eight feet thick 
 
168 Under Marching Orders 
 
 was built inside this heavy, double gate. The 
 enemy set fire to the posts of the gate, and 
 posts and gate were totally consumed. If 
 this gate had not been strengthened Chinese 
 rifles would have had clean sweep of the 
 legation court, and Chinese troops could have 
 rushed inside the lines. 
 
 In the region of the Mongol Market, in the 
 southwestern corner of the legation, solid 
 barricades five feet in thickness were con- 
 structed. In exactly five hours after these 
 defenses were finished, the Chinese had loop- 
 holed every house opposite, thus showing how 
 necessary it was to have this remote corner 
 protected. 
 
 The director of the fortifications gave end- 
 less time and thought to the eastern side of 
 the compound, which was the strategic sec- 
 tion. The Su Wang Fu was separated only 
 by the narrow canal road. If the Fu should 
 have to be abandoned, as had already seemed 
 likely, the enemy could mount their guns on 
 the mounds of the flower garden, only fifty 
 yards away from the residence of Sir Claude 
 MacDonald. To prepare for such an emer- 
 gency, thick, high walls were built of earth 
 and braced by heavy timbers. Countermines 
 
Dr. Gamewell and Fortification Staff 
 
 Sand-bag Fortification 
 
Besieged by Frenzied Chinese 169 
 
 were dug in order to stop mines projected 
 by the enemy. This elaborate barricading 
 was a herculean task, and literally could not 
 have been accomplished without the patient, 
 uncomplaining labor of the Chinese Chris- 
 tians, whose presence was at first deemed by 
 some to be a menace and a nuisance. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Gamewell began to plan the 
 fortifications, he foresaw the need of sand- 
 bags, an endless succession of them, to repair 
 breaches, to surround the sentinel at his post 
 on the outer wall, to barricade the hospital 
 and other buildings, and to shield the men as 
 they worked on the defenses. The chapel 
 became the headquarters of the bag-making 
 industry and the women the incessant labor- 
 ers. There was never a day when some one 
 was not making bags. A number of sewing- 
 machines appeared as suddenly as if a magic 
 wand had called them into being, and spools 
 of thread multiplied in the same enchanted 
 fashion. Deserted shops and Chinese houses 
 were ransacked, revealing untold lengths of 
 Bilks, satins, and brocades, priceless stuffs, 
 which were speedily turned into bags. Lady 
 MacDonald sent exquisite portieres, while 
 soldiers contributed their army blankets. 
 
170 Under Marching Orders 
 
 Fabrics worth tens of thousands of dollars 
 were cut and stitched into shape, to be packed 
 with earth taken from holes dug in the yard. 
 
 In the chapel, the whirr of sewing-machines 
 added to the general confusion. In this one 
 room, forty-three feet long by twenty-five 
 feet wide, nine meals were served daily, 
 breakfast, dinner, and supper being provided 
 in relays. Flies, in sticky, black swarms cov- 
 ered ceiling, walls, people, and food. In this 
 room babies and children slept and played. 
 Here it was that the choking heat was in- 
 creased by piles of sand-bags on the window- 
 ledges, which kept out light and air as well as 
 shot and shell. In this little English chapel, 
 men and women, with worn, haggard faces 
 sang and prayed together each day. And 
 here the women, Mrs. Gamewell in the midst, 
 worked every minute of the daylight. The 
 food must be cooked and served, the chapel 
 floor must be mopped, bedding for the hos- 
 pital must be supplied, and always and ever 
 there was a cry for "bags, bags, bags!" 
 
 So expert did the bag-makers become, that 
 they could produce an average of one bag in 
 four minutes, several hundred in two hours, 
 and two thousand in a day. Between forty 
 
Besieged by Frenzied Chinese 171 
 
 and fifty thousand were made in all. If the 
 demand for bags was urgent, the women 
 would leave their sewing and resort to the 
 ditches where they held the bags and men 
 shoveled in earth. One day Mrs. Conger was 
 seen standing in a deep, dusty hole, holding 
 bags open while a long-robed priest of the 
 Greek Church filled them; a little Chinese 
 boy tied the strings, and the English chaplain 
 bore away the finished products. Some- 
 times Chinese and foreign children trotted 
 jinrikishas full of bags to the gate or wall 
 where eager men received them. A large 
 part of the history of the siege is the story 
 of these bags of many colors, made and filled 
 by many hands, and saving from cannon- 
 shot and bullets, many hundreds of people. 
 
 In the stifling chapel, through the courts 
 where bullets dropped unceasingly, in the 
 ballroom during nights of terror, Mrs. 
 Gamewell lived her cheery, buoyant life as of 
 old. Her ready smile and quick appreciation 
 gave courage to the dispirited soldiers. The 
 unfailing twinkle shone in her eyes when the 
 funny things happened, and funny things 
 there were in the very heart of the sad. And 
 the look of triumphant vision crowned it all 
 
172 Under Marching Orders 
 
 as if she "endured as seeing him who is in- 
 visible. ' ' For all this fiery trial she had been 
 preparing in the old war days in Davenport, 
 m the pioneer years in the Peking compound, 
 in the disturbed months at Chung-ch'ing, and 
 throughout her varied, eventful life. In it 
 all she had been tried and had not been found 
 wanting. But the great struggle was telling 
 with fatal certainty upon mind and body. 
 That glad energy which had always been 
 given without stint to those who had need was 
 spending itself to the utmost, those summer 
 days in the siege of Peking. 
 
THE COMING OF THE ALLIES 
 
 173 
 
XI 
 
 THE COMING OF THE ALLIES 
 
 "Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope." 
 
 From the palace courts within the Forbid- 
 den City, tall rockets sent lines of fire into 
 the air and dropped in tiny balls of brightly 
 colored flame. The empress dowager was 
 flinging aloft her daily signal to imperial 
 troops and " loyal Boxers" for a fresh, 
 furious attack upon the foreigners. A deluge 
 of shot and shell regularly obeyed the royal 
 command. By fire, shot, explosion, or star- 
 vation she would annihilate the official repre- 
 sentatives of the great nations of the world 
 and their people who had rallied around them 
 for defense. What consternation would 
 ensue if the President of the United States 
 should order the national army to shoot 
 bullets and cannon-balls into the legations 
 where the foreign ambassadors live in Wash- 
 ington! Yet this was exactly the treatment 
 Americans, Europeans, and Japanese were 
 receiving in China at the hands of the gov- 
 ernment pledged by treaty to protect them. 
 
 175 
 
176 Under Marching Orders 
 
 For national treachery, the act was beyond 
 parallel. 
 
 On the second and third days of the siege, 
 Chinese troops made the most fiendish at- 
 tempts to destroy the British Legation by 
 fire. They ponred kerosene upon their own 
 buildings which were close to the legation 
 walls, and burned them in the mad hope that 
 the quick, fierce flames would consume the 
 foreigners. At the same time they kept up 
 a perpetual fusillade of rifle-shots, thinking 
 thus to damage the defenses. 
 
 Eeckless beyond belief, they set fire to the 
 Hanlin Yuan, their library of rare old books 
 and ancient records. So sacred had this na- 
 tional museum been considered that none but 
 Chinese had ever passed beyond its doors. 
 But now, in the frantic desire to expel the 
 foreigner, they would willingly sacrifice the 
 empire's treasures. The library was located 
 at the north of the British Legation, not far 
 from the dwelling of Sir Claude MacDonald. 
 A gale of wind was blowing from the north 
 and would vastly aid their efforts to bear the 
 flames to the ambassador's house. Over in the 
 legation courts, men of all ages and races 
 carried water-buckets, manipulated the small 
 
Ruins of the Hanlix Library 
 
 Chinese Watching a Fire in the British Legation 
 
The Coming of the Allies 177 
 
 fire-engines, and cut down trees to prevent 
 their dry branches from spreading the fire. 
 It was a tragic scene ; men fighting for their 
 lives and for the lives of women and children 
 against fire and wind and hosts of frenzied 
 Chinese. No power on earth could possibly 
 save them, and it was no human power which 
 made the wind suddenly shift to the north- 
 west and quickly die away just when the 
 danger was keenest, carrying smoke and flame 
 away from the imperiled legation. For the 
 remainder of the day and throughout the 
 night, soldiers and civilians worked inces- 
 santly, checking every vestige of fire, and re- 
 moving all inflammable material. In the 
 early morning they came in, spent, dirty, 
 hungry, but triumphant. 
 
 A week or more after these first savage 
 onslaughts of the Chinese, a handful of Amer- 
 ican soldiers made the most remarkable 
 charge of the whole siege, which for sheer 
 daring was almost unparalleled in military 
 history. The United States Legation lay in 
 the shadow of the city wall which separated 
 the Tartar and Chinese cities. From the 
 Ch'ien gate Chinese soldiers crept warily 
 along the top of the wall and sent an ava- 
 
178 Under Marching Orders 
 
 lanche of shot into the legation below. It was 
 evident that the wall must be captured and 
 held, else Chinese sharpshooters would soon 
 have the range of the entire legation area. 
 The next day, under constant fire from the 
 enemy, Captain Myers led his band of hardy 
 American soldiers up the ramp (inclined 
 ascent) to the summit of the wall, where by 
 painful degrees they built two barricades 
 somewhat resembling a rough fort. Day by 
 day these marines guarded their post. Some 
 of them had already learned the meaning of 
 war in Cuba and the Philippines. There, 
 after the battle was over they could return to 
 camp for a snatch of rest, but on the Peking 
 wall was no respite in sun or rain, darkness 
 or light. Captain Myers stayed on the wall 
 seven days in continuous succession. 
 
 In the hours of the night the Chinese sol- 
 diers wrought a twisting line of barricade 
 from the gate toward the American position, 
 ending with a tower only a few feet distant, 
 from which they threw bricks and stones at 
 Captain Myers and the marines. A return 
 charge must be made at once if the wall 
 would be held, and the Chinese repulsed. 
 Captain Myers rallied his men with a few 
 
The Coming of the Allies 179 
 
 direct words of challenge, telling them that 
 the obstacles were great but that the lives 
 of women and children depended upon their 
 valor. He then leaped boldly over the bar- 
 ricades followed by the Americans aided by 
 a group of British and Eussians. In the 
 dark, desperate struggle about seventy-five 
 foreign soldiers fought unknown thousands 
 of Chinese and drove them back in confusion. 
 Their barricades were captured, and were 
 held for seven heroic weeks, although Captain 
 Myers was so seriously wounded in that 
 night's sortie that he could not resume his 
 post on the wall throughout the siege. He 
 and his dauntless marines were likened to the 
 band of three hundred Spartans who fought 
 against the entire Persian host at Thermo- 
 pylae more than two thousand years before. 
 
 Not only in the hearts of American marines 
 must bravery dominate, but all alike must 
 learn a new code of courage for these days 
 of sharp peril. In the legation courts rifle- 
 shots fell like hail upon the trees, severing 
 leaves and branches and scattering them upon 
 the ground as if a hurricane had passed that 
 way. Children filled hats with bullets which 
 they picked up under the trees. Forty can- 
 
180 Under Marching Orders 
 
 non-balls of different size were stacked in 
 front of Sir Claude MacDonald's dwelling. 
 The firing of hundreds of shells and rifle- 
 shots at the rate of one hundred and twenty 
 a minute proved that the Chinese possessed 
 modern equipment and plenty of it. Minister 
 Conger said that nothing in the Civil War 
 could compare with the fury of these onsets. 
 Chinese sharpshooters hid like birds in the 
 branches of trees outside the legation walls, 
 and chose their deadly aim, their smokeless 
 rifles giving little clue to their whereabouts. 
 One day Mrs. Gamewell was hastening across 
 the court, when a bullet whizzed so close that 
 she thought it must have passed through her 
 dress. She turned and saw a soldier fall. 
 He had received the shot which she had es- 
 caped only by a fraction of a second. One 
 hot evening she was going with another 
 woman to the well, and as they stepped into 
 a patch of light cast by a lantern, a bullet 
 bored into the ground at their heels. Every 
 day told its tale of startling, hairbreadth 
 escapes. Bullets passed through the open 
 fingers of a hand, through a fan held in the 
 hand, through the hair of a man who leaned 
 incautiously out of a window, through the 
 
House in British Legation, Peking, Showing Bombardment 
 
 by Chinese 
 
 International Gun, "Betsey" 
 
The Coming of the Allies 181 
 
 cuff of a sleeve, and one smashed a bottle 
 which Dr. Ament carried, leaving him un- 
 scathed. 
 
 To return what Dr. Smith called these "in- 
 cessant attentions," large guns were sorely 
 needed. There was only one cannon within 
 the legation lines, an Italian one-pounder, 
 which was frequently moved from one post 
 to another, to give the impression of five or 
 six guns. It was at this juncture that a 
 Chinese carpenter, foraging for tools in a 
 blacksmith shop, unearthed a battered 
 Chinese cannon, which was borne in triumph 
 to the British Legation. The Italians hunted 
 up an old gun-carriage, the Russians con- 
 tributed the shells, which belonged to their 
 machine gun left at Tientsin, and Mitchell, 
 the fearless American gunner, applied a 
 Japanese fuse to Chinese powder, and the 
 first shot was fired ! No wonder the gun was 
 christened the "International," though the 
 soldiers found this name too bulky for prac- 
 tical use, and called it "Betsey." It did val- 
 iant work for such a rusty, ancient weapon, 
 on one occasion sending a shell through three 
 walls into the Imperial City. 
 
 Hardest of all the trials of these desolating 
 
182 Under Marching Orders 
 
 days, was the sight of wounded soldiers as 
 they were borne from the outer barricades to 
 the hospital. Within three weeks, fifty of the 
 four hundred and fifty marines had been 
 killed, and sixty injured; the gritty little 
 Japanese having lost the largest number of 
 men, as well as having won the most con- 
 stant praise. With the diminishing garrison, 
 the murderous efforts of untold thousands of 
 Chinese, the total silence of the outside world, 
 there was large need of faith in God. Each 
 morning in the Legation Chapel men and 
 women prayed together for strength to out- 
 last the day. There were countless distrac- 
 tions, children crying, sewing-machines buzz- 
 ing, people coming and going incessantly, 
 and yet withal a reverent worship which was 
 a comfort and support. Bibles opened almost 
 of their own accord to the Psalms which 
 seemed exactly to describe the daily distress 
 and peril, and the utter dependence upon 
 God for deliverance. "If it had not been 
 Jehovah who was on our side, when men rose 
 up against us; then they had swallowed us 
 up alive, when their wrath was kindled 
 against us." "The angel of Jehovah en- 
 campeth round about them that fear him, 
 
The Coming of the Allies 183 
 
 and delivereth them." The two hymns most 
 frequently sung at these morning services 
 were, "The Son of God goes forth to war," 
 and "Peace, perfect peace." 
 
 Late in the afternoon of July 17 Minister 
 Conger came to the door of the chapel, hold- 
 ing in his hand a slip of paper. Intense in- 
 terest answered his appearance. Could it be 
 that a message from the relief column had 
 been received at last? Eager people rallied 
 about him to hear the coveted news. It was 
 a cablegram from the Chinese minister at 
 Washington and read thus: "Conger, send 
 tidings bearer." Hardly did it seem possible 
 that the communication could be genuine, so 
 mysterious had been its coming. Major 
 Conger wrote the following reply in cypher, 
 to be forwarded to the government in Wash- 
 ington: "Surrounded and fired upon by 
 Chinese troops for a month. If not relieved 
 soon, massacre will follow." Thus it was 
 that the first word from the besieged people 
 in Peking reached the waiting world and was 
 scarcely credited, so bewildering was its 
 meaning. The Chinese ambassador in Wash- 
 ington had steadily declared that Boxers 
 alone were responsible for the excitement. 
 
184 Under Marching Orders 
 
 and that the legations were safe. The State 
 Department of the government demanded 
 proof of his statement, and the cablegrams 
 received and sent by Minister Conger were 
 the result. The dispatch which said Chinese 
 troops were attacking the legations was a 
 puzzle they could not solve. 
 
 On the next day, a Chinese Christian who 
 had been sent by the Japanese from Peking 
 to Tientsin, June 30, stumbled into the lega- 
 tion lines, worn from hardship and danger, 
 but triumphantly bearing a letter from the 
 Japanese consul at Tientsin to the Japanese 
 minister in Peking. Excitement ran high as 
 the people gathered about the bulletin-board 
 in the pavilion of the bell-tower, and read this 
 thrilling message from those who were plan- 
 ning their relief: "A mixed division consist- 
 ing of 2,400 Japanese, 4,000 Eussians, 1,200 
 British, 1,500 Americans, 1,500 French, and 
 300 Germans leaves Tientsin on or about the 
 20th of July, for the relief of Peking." No- 
 body knew how many days would yet have to 
 be lived through before the troops could 
 fight their way to Peking, but they were com- 
 ing, coming, and that assurance was enough 
 to give new zest to life. 
 
— CABHrIES MESSAGE. 
 
 THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY. 
 
 - INCORPORATED - 
 
 THOS. T. ECfeEkT, President and. Genera] taafiager. 
 
 TWO AMERICAN CABLES FROM NEW YORK TO GREAT BRITAIN. 
 CONNECTS »tso with FIVE ANCLO-AMERICAN and ONE DIRECT U. S. ATLANTIC CABLES. 
 
 DIRECT CABLE COMMUNICATION WITH GERMANY AND FRANCE. 
 
 CABLE CONNECTION with CUBA, WEST INDIES, MEXICO and CENTRAL and SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 MESSACES SENT TO, AND RECEIVED FROM. ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 OFFICES X*J AMBRIOAl 
 
 All Offices (21,000) of the Western Union Telegraph Company and its Connection!; 
 
 C BRITAINi 
 LIVERPOOL: No. 8 Rumford Street. 
 CLASCOW: No. 29 Gordon St. and No. 4 Waterloo St. 
 BRISTOL: Backhall Chambers. 
 
 
 
 Last Message from Dr. Gamewell before the Siege 
 
 Trans-Atlantiq^S 
 
 Cablegram. 
 
 European offices: 
 
 i.ii*6.N VrUt-ly.i'OOWl. ES Kor.1 t.-xtkuce. 
 
 ,, c«rlta»«t, »»M 
 
 KB, 8 r.r.lJK..irc 
 
 FMta! T*lerT«"pb B..U 
 
 cifpiFr. lMl.n. flrccl "Cor)'. t«».," HilcKwU i 
 
 SpiSIBlBC;m84rr<.d^k««r«i. *\ V) » .* *" 
 
 >" V > Xft v r\# ;fe?>!!£ NNt 2^**'^ *A4, POSTAL TU.M.HAPH GFFHfcV 
 
 vV v. J u »* ^^gg? ,. OTa ilBOU , 
 
 TiaiAtt Words, ;.,-, ^i A» , -**—i- — 
 
 Iltf following Cablegram revived, VIA uUMmERClAL CABLES) af__„-VX-w£\^ A*£ 
 ,sii3tjert to the terms and eoinlitloti* prtiitt-tl on the bach hereof, which are ratified and ilreftl 1»* 
 
 *4 HD (J 0HEF0O 11 
 
 MISSIOIS Hf« 
 PEjCnTG RELIEVED ALL MEMBERS MISSION SA?E WELL DAVtS OAUSYEU. 
 
 First News of the Relief 
 
The Coming of the Allies 185 
 
 It was more than a week before a second 
 communication from Tientsin was posted on 
 the bulletin. On the 4th of July a Chinese 
 boy, disguised as a beggar, and carrying a 
 bowl of porridge in which was hidden a letter 
 wrapped in oil paper, had slipped stealthily 
 through the Boxer lines and started forth on 
 his hazardous journey to Tientsin. He had 
 now returned, bringing a letter from the 
 British consul at Tientsin to Sir Claude Mac- 
 Donald. < < Tientsin, July 22 : There are 24,000 
 troops landed, and 19,000 here. There are 
 plenty of troops on the way if you can keep 
 yourself in food." The vagueness of this 
 message was disheartening to those who had 
 longed so desperately for definite tidings, but 
 at last there was proof that the outside world 
 had not totally forgotten, and that the armies 
 of the nations were sometime coming to their 
 relief. This very contact with the " great, 
 living, throbbing world was felt by the be- 
 leaguered garrison, and it braced itself for 
 the days of holding on that must elapse before 
 the allies should arrive at the gates of 
 Peking. ' ' 
 
 As the sun went down, and the work of the 
 day slackened, a group of people gathered 
 
186 Under Marching Orders 
 
 about the bell-tower, and almost unconscious- 
 ly broke forth into singing. Mrs. Gamewell 
 drew near, her thoughts traveling far beyond 
 the walls of Peking to the country across the 
 sea. "As the strains of America floated out 
 upon the night air, in what solemn radiance 
 dawned visions of the homeland! Facing 
 death every moment of the day, the heart had 
 so certainly turned to the home beyond, that 
 the home of this life had faded, until it was 
 as unreal as the future life usually is. Now, 
 with a bound the sweet possibilities of home 
 and friends were brought near." Her rich 
 voice sang with them the "Star Spangled 
 Banner," "The Battle Hymn of the Re- 
 public," "Marching through Georgia," and 
 ? ■ Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are march- 
 ing," — those vibrant old war-songs which she 
 had sung in the gray house in Davenport. 
 The singers then tried "The Marseillaise," 
 and the French from their pavilion across 
 the way applauded gratefully. With the 
 British soldiers they sang "God Save the 
 Queen," with the Germans, "Die Wacht am 
 Rhein," and finally the Russians sang their 
 sadly beautiful national hymn. The music of 
 that night would long haunt the memory of 
 
The Coming of the Allies 187 
 
 those who realized that a common danger 
 united all hearts, erasing the national enmi- 
 ties of the past. 
 
 A new song of hope gladdened each man 
 and woman in the besieged legation. Every 
 morning brought expectancy, and every night 
 the disappointment of the day was lost in 
 the thought that even while they slept, the 
 troops might be drawing near the city walls. 
 Ears were strained to catch the first boom of 
 guns which might herald their approach. 
 1 ' Will they come to-day ? Under cover of this 
 night's darkness will they enter the city?" 
 
 Knowing too well that foreign armies 
 were on the march, Chinese soldiers made the 
 most of these last days of opportunity. At- 
 tacks were made with a sharpness and persist- 
 ency such as belong to the final extremity of 
 warfare. New Mannlicher bullets, shot with 
 a low aim, cut through the air in hot succes- 
 sion, and because of their penetrating quality 
 riddled barricades as never before in the 
 siege. Mr. Gamewell was kept on the alert 
 every instant, repairing breaches in the de- 
 fenses, digging countermine ditches, and 
 everywhere inspecting and strengthening the 
 fortifications. In the chapel, the daily labor 
 
188 Under Marching Orders 
 
 of preparing food, making hospital supplies, 
 and stitching bags innumerable, continued 
 without respite. 
 
 On one never-to-be-forgotten night, Au- 
 gust 13, excitement ran riot. Sleep was far 
 removed from the people, and there were 
 many who did not even seek their beds 
 throughout the night. Shells crashed through 
 walls with a resounding explosion. Bullets 
 dislodged bricks and tiles from roofs, send- 
 ing them with a deadly thud into the courts 
 below. But hearken ! What is that strange, 
 new sound away in the distance ? The ' ' rat- 
 tat-tat " of a machine-gun somewhere beyond 
 the east wall of Peking ! The foreign troops ! 
 Must it not be true, or have the Chinese ar- 
 mies added this modern gun to their equip- 
 ment f The courts were thronged with people, 
 listening and questioning. At three o 'clock in 
 the morning, Mr. Gamewell went to the ball- 
 room door to tell his wife and her companions 
 the news which hardly seemed real, so long 
 had the waiting been. The troops were surely 
 coming! Immediately Mrs. Gamewell arose 
 and went outside to join the rejoicing people. 
 
 As daylight broke over Peking, the boom 
 of cannon was heard to the east. Nearer and 
 
Joy at the Coming of the Allies 
 
The Coming of the Allies 189 
 
 nearer sounded the roar of heavy guns. 
 Soon after two o'clock in the afternoon, an 
 American marine on the wall sighted the ap- 
 proaching troops, and word was swiftly borne 
 to Sir Claude MacDonald. With a little 
 group of Europeans, he went in haste to the 
 bank of the canal, where already a throng of 
 Chinese Christians had gathered to greet the 
 foreign armies. There they come, British 
 troops, almost running in their eagerness! 
 Through the Watergate which leads into the 
 Tartar City under the American barricade 
 on the wall, they press their way, until they 
 are inside the legation walls. Sir Claude 
 MacDonald and the handful of Europeans 
 try their best to raise a cheer, but in vain. 
 Their voices are not equal to the strain of 
 such great joy. 
 
 Under the British flag, Sikh soldiers from 
 India, wearing their white turbans, led the 
 glad march into the British Legation. Then 
 came the British soldiers, with their helmets, 
 and finally the American Fourteenth In- 
 fantry, "our boys," Mrs. Gamewell called 
 them, "with their slouch hats and pitifully 
 haggard faces." There followed "such a 
 riot of joy as is seldom seen in Asia, and such 
 
190 Under Marching Orders 
 
 as was never seen in the capital of the Chinese 
 empire.' * Mrs. Gamewell stood with the 
 throng of rescued people, waving, cheer- 
 ing, weeping, but there was ' l sl cold clutch on 
 the thrilling gladness" when she was re- 
 minded of those who were absent from this 
 great rejoicing, but whose lives had been 
 given in sacrifice to make it possible. 
 
 The allied forces of seven of the great 
 nations of the world marched into China's 
 capital city, August 14, 1900, and the siege 
 of Peking was ended. Never in history had 
 there been a siege so unique! It was com- 
 puted that nearly two million bullets, and 
 2,900 shells and solid shot had been fired at 
 the legations. Yet within the British Com- 
 pound only one woman received injury, and 
 that on the day of the relief. None of the 
 children suffered harm, although they played 
 freely about the grounds. Cases of measles, 
 typhoid and scarlet fevers, and even small- 
 pox developed here and there in the congested 
 quarters, but there was never a suggestion 
 of an epidemic. Often the temperature was 
 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but none succumbed 
 to the heat. The Chinese Christians, whose 
 presence was not wholly welcome at first, 
 
The Coming of the Allies 191 
 
 proved by their unremitting labor that with- 
 out them the defenses could not have been 
 built, and the legations held for seven long 
 weeks. To Mr. Game well more than to any 
 other man was due the preservation of the 
 lives of the foreigners. This was the feeling 
 expressed in a letter of appreciation sent him 
 by Minister Conger. Some one inquired of 
 General Gaselee, the commander of the allied 
 troops, his opinion of the fortifications, and 
 he replied that they were ' ' beyond praise ! ' ' 
 But back of all the brave, unflinching work 
 •done by men and women, foreign and Chinese, 
 was the God who had responded to their trust, 
 and had led them through tribulation to 
 victory. 
 
 August 22, a caravan of army wagons, each 
 drawn by four army mules, stopped at the 
 legation gate. Mr. and Mrs. Gamewell 
 climbed into one of these wagons, sat upon 
 their trunks, and proceeded thus into the 
 streets of the devastated city, on through the 
 Ch'ien gate, into the southern city, and thence 
 through the east gate out into the great world 
 beyond the walls of Peking. As Mrs. Game- 
 well turned for a last look at the dusty old 
 walled city, she thought with joy of the new 
 
192 Under Marching Orders 
 
 days to come, for with her sure look ahead she 
 knew that out of the darkness of these 
 troubled nights, a daylight, white and glori- 
 ous, would dawn for ancient China. That 
 she had had the chance to help in hastening 
 its coming would be cause for eternal grati- 
 tude. At T'ung-chou the travelers went on 
 board a rice-boat which made its slow way 
 through the shallow water of the river to 
 Tientsin. From Tientsin they went to Na- 
 gasaki, Japan, and thence across the Pacific 
 to the United States. Through the shining 
 waters of the Golden Grate the great steamer 
 brought to her native shores the woman who, 
 twenty-nine years before, had sailed away 
 into the new, untried life in China. Expe- 
 riences so rich and varied had filled those 
 years that she had almost lived two lives in 
 one ; and, as she came again to her girlhood 
 home, there was an undying song of joy in 
 her heart, that to the bugle-call of duty she 
 had risen up right early and obeyed. 
 
A NEW WORLD 
 
 193 
 
XII 
 A NEW WOKLD 
 
 "The work of the world is done by few; 
 God asks that a part be done by you." 
 
 The church was brightly lighted and, ex- 
 cept for a reserved section in the center, filled 
 with people. A sense of expectancy was in 
 the air and a thrill of enthusiasm touched 
 every responsive person. Flags of different 
 nations, with their varied colors and designs, 
 suggested a patriotism of world-wide scope. 
 Elaborately wrought Chinese banners gave 
 richness and tone to the unusual decorations, 
 and at the same time spoke of valued services 
 rendered by Americans to that Far Eastern 
 land. In the midst of flags and banners hung 
 the pennant which had fluttered from the 
 masthead of Admiral Dewey's flagship as it 
 sailed into Manila Bay. The impulse of the 
 place was outgoing, unselfish, broad as the 
 bounds of the earth. In the audience were 
 people who had come from all parts of the 
 United States to counsel together concerning 
 the great "unfinished task" of the Christian 
 
 195 
 
196 Under Marching Orders 
 
 Church. On the platform were assembled 
 those men and women who had gone forth 
 under marching orders to the utmost borders 
 of the world. 
 
 Gradually the organ music seemed to weave 
 all these influences into one, and to express 
 in sound the mighty motive of service. Sing- 
 ing one of the martial hymns of the Church, 
 a long procession of girls, dressed in white, 
 marched down the aisle and filled the central 
 seats. Then, as the audience settled itself, 
 and through the opening hymns and prayers 
 became a unit of attention, a woman, intense, 
 alive in every inch of her being, came to the 
 front of the platform and began to speak. 
 Entering, as was her wont, into the spirit of 
 the gathering, she said with girlish delight: 
 1 ' I am having a good time here to-night, ' ' and 
 then, with no thought of herself, swung into 
 the story she had come to tell. It was the 
 story of an old-world country in which dwell 
 one fourth of all the peoples of the earth; a 
 country torn between the customs of vast 
 ages and the vision of the twentieth century ; 
 but where, out of the fury of the conflict, an 
 enlightenment, calm and sure, is rising into 
 life; a country where the followers of the 
 
A New World 197 
 
 great Christ met death by Boxer torture 
 rather than betray their trust, and whose 
 lives laid down have proved the most wonder- 
 ful testimony to the power of their Leader. 
 
 Step by step she led her hearers until they 
 stood with her in the presence of that ' ' cloud 
 of Chinese witnesses" and of the Lord they 
 had died to honor. It was the glory of the 
 work, the golden opportunity for usefulness 
 among a people ready and waiting, which 
 possessed this slender woman, and conveyed 
 itself to her audience. Her voice carried to 
 the farthest corner of the church, and her 
 vivid words made distant places and people 
 near and real. But beyond all was the im- 
 pression of a life glowing like a white fire with 
 the intense joy of self -forgetting service. 
 
 Since her return to the United States, Mrs. 
 Gamewell had traveled from one city to an- 
 other addressing large assemblages of people. 
 Often a series of gatherings was held at 
 which she was the only woman speaker, tak- 
 ing her place on the platform by the side of 
 bishops, United States Minister Conger, and 
 other well-known men. Eare among women 
 was her gift of swaying an audience by the 
 power of speech. An enthusiasm like that of 
 
198 Under Marching Orders 
 
 a political meeting was usually produced by 
 her message and her own animated self. On 
 one occasion, when she was expected to speak 
 and word was brought to the assembled 
 people that she was sick and unable to be 
 present, they received the announcement with 
 tears of regret. There were those who were 
 willing to go one hundred miles to hear her 
 story, which always possessed variety and 
 freshness of appeal. On one of her trips she 
 was accompanied by her sister, who, at each 
 of nine conventions, listened to incidents she 
 had never heard before. 
 
 Thus, in the United States as in China, Mrs. 
 Gamewell was disclosing a vision of high, 
 noble living to thousands of people. In the 
 home of a man and woman newly married, 
 was fastened on the wall a newspaper print, 
 whose black lines indistinctly portrayed a 
 woman's face. Some one entered the home 
 who recognized the face and inquired of the 
 bride if she too knew Mrs. Gamewell. "No," 
 was the reply, "I have simply heard her 
 speak, but I have felt the power of her per- 
 sonality; and I want her ideals to dominate 
 my home. That I may not forget, I keep her 
 picture before me." 
 
A New World 199 
 
 Still another tribute was paid Mrs. Game- 
 well in the midst of equally unexpected sur- 
 roundings. It was one winter evening in 
 1902, at a wedding where many of the guests 
 were naval officers. Their full-dress uni- 
 forms, lustrous with gold lace, made a strik- 
 ing picture as they moved in and out among 
 the throng. A young officer, having been pre- 
 sented at his own request to a certain lady, 
 began at once an eager conversation to which 
 she responded with interest. "I am delighted 
 to meet you here," he said, "for your hus- 
 band tells me that you are a friend of Mrs. 
 Gamewell, the missionary who was in Peking 
 during the Boxer uprising." As she replied 
 affirmatively he continued: "I was there also 
 in command of the marines who were ordered 
 up from the Asiatic squadron to guard the 
 American Legation until the allies arrived. 
 I have no words at my disposal which can 
 convey to you just what Mrs. Gamewell meant 
 to our boys at that time. From morning until 
 night and from night until morning, con- 
 fronting a fate beside which death itself as- 
 sumed the guise of a friend, that white-faced 
 little heroine never wavered. It seemed as 
 if she were omnipresent, and her bright, ready 
 
200 Under Marching Orders 
 
 smile and cheery words helped us more than 
 she ever knew. I know fourteen of us men 
 in the service who will salute all the mission- 
 aries with respect as long as we live, in mem- 
 ory of that one frail woman with a hero's 
 heart. ' ' It was Captain Hall, now advanced 
 to the rank of Major, who could not miss this 
 opportunity of doing honor to the soldiers' 
 friend. 
 
 Even as he spoke his appreciation of Mrs. 
 Gamewell, she herself was beginning to pay 
 the price exacted by those weeks of hard- 
 ship. It was not alone the siege, but the sum 
 of the years in China, which was gradually 
 conquering her once splendid health. The 
 girl who rode through the gates of Peking 
 in 1872 had possessed abounding vigor, but 
 the dust and general pollution of a wholly 
 insanitary city had poisoned her system 
 through and through. The wonder was that 
 she had endured so long and worked so hard. 
 
 As she felt the grip of physical weakness, 
 the old zest of battle was upon her. With 
 burning energy she set herself to work in all 
 the ways her varied resources made possible. 
 In the home in New Jersey which was ever 
 ready to welcome her and her husband on 
 
A New World 201 
 
 their return from conferences and travel, she 
 spent day after day at her desk, writing. The 
 Chautauqiian and other magazines published 
 her lucid accounts of life in China. Letters 
 by the score went forth to people, near and 
 far, young and old, who had a claim upon her 
 interest, and many were inspired to more 
 earnest living because of the messages which 
 came from that desk and that writer. In one 
 letter was found this characteristic bit of 
 description : ' ' On the whole, a tree is the most 
 sympathetic object in nature, not so awfully 
 set as the mountains, not so fickle and treach- 
 erous as the sea, more substantial than the 
 clouds, not so perishable as the grass and 
 flowers — always there, steadfast and strong, 
 with its shifting lights and shadows, soft sigh- 
 ing or brisk tossing, or drenched brightness, 
 seeming to enter into every mood of its 
 friends. It sighs sympathy, whispers peace, 
 murmurs comfort, waves refreshment, or 
 shouts exhilaratingly, according to whether 
 the breeze be gentle or high, whether the day 
 be bright or dripping. ' ' 
 
 Another letter carried this ringing chal- 
 lenge: "To young people amid careless life, 
 happy life, times of unrest and aspiration, 
 
202 Under Marching Orders 
 
 longings and yearnings unutterable stir with- 
 in. Trust the stirring within. It is the voice 
 of God. You may not interpret into action 
 just as God intends, but trust and go ahead. 
 God will see that you go right. You may 
 hear a voice saying, i Come up higher, higher, 
 to the heights,' and you see looming before 
 you magnificent heights, and it seems to you 
 all glorious. You seek the way up and find 
 that you only go down. A voice says, ' Come 
 up.' Your footsteps seem forced downward. 
 It seems as if the voice were of the imagina- 
 tion, and that God mocks. Trust, if for no 
 other reason than because for you there is 
 no other better than that same voice. Trust, 
 even though the way seem down. Trust, and 
 God will take you over what will prove to be 
 a valley between you and the real upward 
 way — perhaps the valley of humiliation which 
 skirts the mountains of God. Trust, and you 
 shall stand upon heights glorious with the 
 glory of God, so high above your own inter- 
 pretation of God's will and ways that your 
 own interpretation has sunk out of sight in 
 the prospect that spreads below, as the hills 
 are hidden and are lost from the mountain- 
 top." 
 
A New World 203 
 
 Constantly Mrs. GamewelPs thoughts 
 reached out to those whom she had left be- 
 hind in China and she made eager plans to 
 go back as soon as her health would allow. 
 Letters, rich with her unfailing optimism, 
 traveled to the compound in Peking, where 
 at the end of the siege the ' ' giant tree ' ' alone 
 survived the ravage of the Boxers, but where 
 now the work of rebuilding was going on with 
 quickened zeal. In distant villages in the 
 provinces of Chih-li and Shan-tung, Bible 
 women and girl graduates of the Peking 
 school knew that the woman who had spoken 
 to their very souls still remembered and 
 cared. It was for them, these Chinese women 
 and girls, that her life had been poured out 
 in service. 
 
 In the fall of 1906, Mrs. Gamewell came 
 again to the home in New Jersey, and with 
 the same courage with which she had taken 
 up her work years before, she now laid it 
 down. For as many weeks as she had lived 
 behind the walls of the British Legation, she 
 lay helpless in the room where sickness, in- 
 stead of shot and shell, held her captive. And 
 just as she had gone out from Peking into 
 the freedom of the country she called home, 
 
204 Under Marching Orders 
 
 her real self, her shining, unconquerable 
 spirit, passed on to that country of perfect 
 freedom, where new work, new joy, and eter- 
 nal vigor awaited her in the visible presence 
 of her Christ ; into that new world which lies 
 outside the range of our sight but not beyond 
 the reach of our love. 
 
 In a little Chinese village in the province 
 of Shan-tung, within a family courtyard, an 
 outdoor school has already begun its morn- 
 ing session. Adobe houses enclose the court 
 on three sides, but the sunshine streams in 
 unhindered through the opening at the south. 
 Twelve girls, ranging in age from five to ten 
 years, form an irregular semicircle about the 
 teacher, sitting on broad, flat stones, on in- 
 verted tubs and baskets, upon any of the 
 familiar household objects which can be 
 made to serve as a school bench. Twelve 
 little wadded figures sway back and forth, or 
 from side to side, keeping time to the rhythm 
 of the Chinese characters which they are 
 studying aloud, each in a voice keyed to a 
 different pitch. One girl has practised her 
 lesson to her satisfaction, and comes forward 
 to recite. With her back turned upon the 
 
A New World 205 
 
 teacher, she races through the lesson like a 
 swift runner to a goal. Notwithstanding the 
 speed of delivery, the teacher is quick to 
 follow and detect the accuracy, and to com- 
 mend the pupil for her perfect recitation. 
 With beaming face the child returns to her 
 seat, and applies herself to the newly- 
 assigned task. A wee girl, scarcely more than 
 a baby, leans against the teacher's knee, and 
 timidly recites her lesson, while her older 
 sister stands by her side, listening with intent 
 face, as if the small sister's success were of 
 greater moment than her own. By and by 
 two mothers, mere girls in years, but old 
 with care, come to visit school, finding the 
 tidy court a restful change from their 
 crowded, disorderly homes. As they enter, 
 the twelve pupils rise, and one by one give 
 the guests a ctiing-an (courtesy). An older 
 girl strays in from the street, and half- 
 bewildered, half-wistful, watches the exer- 
 cises of the school, which are so entirely 
 strange to her. The shoe upon which she is 
 supposed to work lies forgotten in her hands, 
 as she thinks new, unfamiliar thoughts. She 
 had not heard early enough of the religion 
 which brings enlightenment to the despised 
 
206 Under Marching Orders 
 
 girl, and thus her childhood chance of study 
 had gone. 
 
 But how did this Christian school find its 
 existence in the distant pagan village, and 
 who is the dignified, intelligent-faced teacher ? 
 Its history traces directly back through the 
 years to the little struggling school for girls 
 which Mary Porter opened in the compound 
 in Peking, in 1872. In the life of Clara Wang, 
 one of the first pupils in that school, there 
 was born a great purpose because of contact 
 with the young American teacher. After her 
 marriage she went back to her home in An- 
 chia-chuang, determined to live out her 
 Christian ideals of womanhood at whatever 
 cost. Upon Mrs. Gamewell's suggestion, she 
 taught a girls ' boarding school, and later the 
 day-school on her own door-steps. Already 
 some of her pupils, even her daughter, have 
 become teachers, and many others have mar- 
 ried and are creating real Christian homes in 
 the midst of ignorant heathen villages. Thus 
 scores, hundreds of lives have been made 
 strong and useful, because one woman dared 
 be true to her dream of duty, giving up home 
 and ease to work for these Chinese girls. 
 
 Even in the remote inland city of Chung- 
 
The Mary Porter Gamewell School for Girls, Peking 
 
 Girls of the Mary Porter Gamewell School (Upper Row) 
 
A New World 207 
 
 ch'ing, reached by the long, perilous trail of 
 the Yang-tzu, this one life has left its impress. 
 The work which was shattered and broken 
 that July night in 1886, was reestablished a 
 year or two later and has grown in power 
 and beauty from year to year. The property 
 on the great road, destroyed by the mob, is 
 now replaced by a splendid hospital building, 
 scarcely surpassed in China for size and 
 equipment, by a boys' school, a Bible train- 
 ing school, a church, and the homes in which 
 dwell the seventeen missionaries from Amer- 
 ica. The girls' boarding-school in which 
 Mrs. Game well taught has been removed to 
 Ch'eng-tu, the capital city, because it has 
 larger opportunity there for reaching the 
 girls of the province. There are over one 
 thousand Christians in the district of which 
 Chung-ch'ing is the center, and everywhere 
 the people welcome the foreigner whom once 
 they scorned and derided. 
 
 But what of Peking, the mysterious old 
 walled city, still dusty and dirty, but yet alive, 
 alert, progressive, and just as attractive as 
 ever? It was in the heart of its varied activ- 
 ity, within the compound in Filial Piety Lane, 
 that Mrs. Gamewell spent almost half the 
 
£08 Under Marching Orders 
 
 years of her life. What is the harvest of 
 those years of toil, the ingathering from that 
 life of radiant purpose? On the train from 
 Tientsin a group of Chinese girls are journey- 
 ing toward Peking, laughing and chatting 
 together exactly like boarding-school girls in 
 America returning for the fall term. These 
 are the girls of New China on their way to 
 the Peking Girls ' School, traveling by a west- 
 ern railway instead of the Oriental wheel- 
 barrow of the days of Sarah Wang, and in 
 companies of fifty, sixty, or one hundred, 
 instead of the shy, solitary girl who ventured 
 in from the streets, in 1872. At the Peking 
 station in the Southern City, they leave 
 the train, and step into jinrikishas, or 
 possibly Peking carts, to be borne with 
 careless ease through the Hata gate, along 
 the broad street to the compound of the 
 Methodist mission. Passing through the 
 great gate and hastening along the central 
 highway in sight of the homes of the mission- 
 aries, the new Asbury Church, the hospital 
 and the boys' school, they pause in front of 
 a three-storied brick building — the Mary 
 Porter Gamewell School. Two hundred and 
 forty-four girl students are reassembling for 
 
A New World 209 
 
 the new year of school and they include in 
 their number all classes of society, even the 
 great-great-niece of Li Hung-chang, the most 
 renowned statesman China has yet produced. 
 The school has recently been made a part of 
 the North China Educational Union, which 
 means that it has a recognized academic 
 standing, and its graduates can go straight 
 on to college and medical school. 
 
 The school which Mary Porter Gamewell 
 founded in those pioneer years, has been 
 the forerunner of a great educational move- 
 ment for girls, promoted by the Chinese 
 government itself. After the empress dow- 
 ager returned to the Dragon Throne, in the 
 fall of 1900, and entered upon her career of 
 reform, schools for girls were established 
 in all parts of the royal province, in each of 
 which the unbinding of the feet was the con- 
 dition of entrance. Thus that daring decision 
 of the two young women in the sitting-room 
 of the "Long Home" thirty-seven years ago 
 has led directly to an effort among the 
 Chinese themselves for the freedom of 
 women. Schools, schools, everywhere, pro- 
 claim the new day in China. In a single 
 province the viceroy founded over five thou- 
 
210 Under Marching Orders 
 
 sand schools for boys and girls within the 
 space of a few years ! Teachers ! Who shall 
 say teachers are not needed for this awaken- 
 ing multitude of pupils ? In one year fifteen 
 thousand young men were studying in Japan, 
 and four or five thousand more were students 
 in the universities of Europe and America. 
 
 The dowager empress is no longer the 
 dominant figure in Chinese affairs. In the 
 fall of 1908 there were two sudden and inex- 
 plicable deaths in the palace within the For- 
 bidden City, and the empress dowager and 
 the deposed emperor, Kuang Hsu, lay in 
 royal state, while their nation donned the 
 white garb of mourning. To-day, Prince 
 Chun, the new regent and older brother of 
 Kuang Hsu, leads along the broad road of 
 progress and enlightenment. 
 
 When ten thousand Chinese Christians laid 
 down their lives rather than deny their Lord, 
 the people wonderingly asked: "What is this 
 religion for which men are ready to die?" 
 Thus hosts of Chinese faces are turned in- 
 quiringly and even wistfully toward the faith 
 which has made men ready to die for the 
 sake of the love they bear their Leader. No 
 wonder that those who know China and who 
 
A New World 211 
 
 know the power of Jesus Christ declare that 
 the opportunity to-day is the greatest which 
 has been offered to the Christian Church 
 since the days of Martin Luther, if not since 
 the lifetime of the Apostle Paul. 
 
 The China of this first decade of the twen- 
 tieth century is literally a new world; "old 
 things are passed away : behold, all things are 
 become new." And Mary Porter Gamewell 
 stands in the front rank of those men and 
 women who have helped bring about this 
 resurrection day in the most ancient empire 
 of the world. 
 
INDEX 
 
 213 
 
INDEX 
 
 Alleghany Mountains, 19 
 
 Allied Forces, 145, 184 
 
 Amazon River, 74 
 
 Ament, Dr., 181 
 
 America, 210 
 
 American Bible Society, 121 
 
 American, 
 
 missionaries, 37, 48, 69, 92, 
 
 103, 207; 
 soldiers, see United States, 
 
 military forces during 
 
 siege of Peking 
 Americans, 175 
 Ancestral, tablets, 63; 
 
 worship, 63 
 An-chia-chuang, 61, 62, 65, 
 
 206 
 Arsenal on Rock Island, near 
 
 Davenport, 21 
 Asbury Church, Peking, 109, 
 
 133, 159, 208 
 
 Babies, burial of Chinese, 46; 
 putting in door of mis- 
 sion compound, 79, 80 
 Barricades, 134, 135, 167- 
 
 171, 178, 179 
 "Betsey," international can- 
 non, 181 
 Bible, 
 
 promises of during siege, 
 
 184; 
 training school, 207; 
 women, 53, 73, 102, 203 
 
 Bicycle used by Mr. Game- 
 well, 166 
 Birds, Chinese, 46, 47 
 Boats, Chinese, 10, 58, 59, 75, 
 
 76 
 Boxers, the, 126-133, 136- 
 
 139, 148, 183, 197, 203; 
 united with imperial 
 
 troops, 145, 155 
 Boys' schools, 38, 102, 207, 
 
 208 
 Bridge of Boats, 11, 65 
 British, consuls at Chung- 
 
 ch'ing and Tientsin, 91, 
 
 92, 185; 
 Legation at Peking, place 
 
 of refuge during siege, 
 
 156-190; 
 military forces during siege 
 
 of Peking, 179, 184, 
 
 189 
 Brown, Miss Maria, 30, 33, 
 
 48; 
 married to the Rev. George 
 
 R. Davis, 72 
 Buddhist temples, 122, 126 
 Bullets, shells, and solid shot 
 
 during siege, 179, 180, 
 
 190 
 
 Camel trains, 33, 114 
 Camps of Union soldiers, near 
 
 Davenport, 21 
 Canada, 28, 74 
 215 
 
216 
 
 Index 
 
 Cards, as an attraction to 
 Peking Sunday-school, 
 103-105 
 Carts, Chinese, 13, 51-53, 
 
 114, 157, 159 
 Charms used by Boxers, 127 
 Chautauquan, the, 201 
 Ch'eng-tu, 207 
 Chicago and Rock Island 
 
 Railroad, 20 
 Chih-li, 53, 203 
 Ch'in or Great Pure Dy- 
 nasty, 116 
 China, 3, 74; 
 
 acts with Boxers to de- 
 stroy foreigners, 148; 
 first experiences in, 3-15; 
 relative population of, 28; 
 wonderful changes in, 
 through mission influ- 
 ence, 209-211 
 China in Convulsion, xi 
 "China's Girdle," 74 
 "China's Sorrow," 58 
 Chinese, 
 
 ambassador in Washing- 
 ton, 183; 
 birds, 46, 47; 
 carts, 13, 51-53; 
 Christians, see Christians, 
 
 Chinese; 
 City, in Peking, 177; 
 curiosity concerning Occi- 
 dental people, 11, 12; 
 fear of foreigners harm- 
 ing their children, 38, 45, 
 46; 
 house-boats, 10; 
 
 imperial troops used 
 against foreigners, 148, 
 155, 160-187; 
 rivers, 8-10, 58; 
 roads, 4; 
 schools inspired by mission 
 
 work, 209, 210; 
 students in Japan, Europe, 
 and America, 210 
 Ch'iu-fu, 64, 65 
 Cho-chou, 128 
 Christ, see Jesus Christ 
 Christians, Chinese, 56, 57, 
 63; 
 in siege of Peking, x, 135- 
 138, 146-160, 184, 189, 
 190; 
 martyrs among, 128, 138, 
 197, 210 
 Chun, Prince, 210 
 Chung-ch'ing, 72-75, 78, 83, 
 
 91-97, 207 
 Civil War, 20-23, 146, 180 
 Coleridge, S. T., 114 
 Committees created for siege 
 
 days, 164 
 Compounds, mission, 33, 37, 
 
 45, 65, 69, 71, 133-150 
 Confucianism, 62, 92 
 Confucius, 64 
 
 Conger, E. H., 135, 137, 148, 
 197; 
 letters from, 144, 191 ; 
 Washington cablegram, 
 183, 184 
 Conger, Mrs., 171 
 Congregational mission at 
 T'ung-chou, 136 
 
Index 
 
 217 
 
 Cornell University, 70 
 Cushman, Miss Clara M., xi 
 
 Davenport, Iowa, 20-29 
 Davis, Rev. George R., 72 
 Diffendorfer, Mr. R. E., xi 
 Donkeys, riding of, 3-5 
 Dragon, Festival, 85; 
 
 Throne, 116, 209 
 Dust, evil of in China, 5, 12, 
 14, 37, 46 
 
 Empress dowager, 116-129, 
 209, 210; 
 daughter of a Manchu 
 
 soldier, 117; 
 early becomes empress, 117; 
 later is sole regent, 118; 
 receives gift of New Testa- 
 ment, 121; 
 supplants Kuang Hsu, 124; 
 tries to destroy the for- 
 eigners, 125, 126,129,175; 
 very sudden death, 210 
 Europe, 210 
 Europeans, 175, 189 
 
 "Face," 90 
 
 Filial Piety Lane, 37, 47, 65, 
 
 105, 150 
 Fire, destructive use of by 
 Chinese in siege, 138, 
 139, 176, 177 
 Flags, of China, ix, x; 
 of Europe, 145; 
 of Great Britain, 189; 
 of Japan, 145; 
 of the Church, ix, x, xii; 
 
 of United States, ix, x, 
 
 145, 195 
 Foochow, 9 
 Food and grain found in 
 
 Legation Street, 165, 166 
 Foot-binding, not permitted 
 
 in Peking girls' school, 
 
 34, 35; 
 
 influence of the decision, 
 
 35, 36, 41-44, 209 
 Forbidden City, 114, 115, 175, 
 
 210 
 "Foreign devils," expression 
 
 used by Chinese, 38, 46, 
 
 59, 84, 139 
 Foreigners, danger and de- 
 liverance of, in Peking, 
 
 125-191 
 Fortification work during 
 
 siege, 133-135, 165-171 
 French military forces during 
 
 siege of Peking, 184 
 Fu, the, see Su Wang Fu, the 
 
 Gamewell, Frank D., x, 70, 
 
 84, 85, 109, 137, 144, 
 
 163, 188; 
 education, 70, 71; 
 enters the China field, 71 ; 
 marriage, 72; 
 proceeds to Chung-ch'ing 
 
 and works in West 
 
 China, 72-96; 
 riot compels retirement 
 
 from West China, 97; 
 service in home field and 
 
 Peking University, 101, 
 
 102; 
 
218 
 
 Index 
 
 superintends fortifications 
 during siege of Peking, 
 135, 164-169; 
 
 tributes from Minister Con- 
 ger and General Gaselee, 
 191; 
 
 voyage to the United 
 States, 192 
 Gamewell, John M., 70 
 Gamewell, Mary Porter, x, 
 80, 83, 123, 135, 138, 
 146, 162, 163, 180, 188; 
 
 childhood and education, 
 19-27; 
 
 conversion, 26; 
 
 Grandview Academy, 
 teaching, 27, 28; 
 
 heeds call to mission work, 
 
 28, 29; 
 
 journey to Peking, 3-15, 
 
 29, 30; map, 7; 
 letters, 48, 78, 84, 104, 106- 
 
 109, 201-203; 
 
 main service as a mission- 
 ary teacher, 38; 
 
 makes courageous her pu- 
 pils and Bible women, 
 39-44; 
 
 marriage to Frank D. 
 Gamewell and journey to 
 West China, 72; 
 
 memorial school, see Mary 
 Porter Gamewell School; 
 
 notes and exposes the dis- 
 honesty of the builders, 
 44, 45; 
 
 prefers city wall for her 
 walks, 46, 47; 
 
 record trip to An-chia- 
 chuang, 51-65; map, 61; 
 
 risks life to restrain the 
 mob at Chung-ch'ing, 
 85-91; 
 
 return visit to United 
 States, 97-102; 
 
 secures by letter funds for 
 new Peking church, 106- 
 110; 
 
 Sunday-school work, 28, 
 103-110; 
 
 sympathy and thoughtful 
 service during siege days, 
 140-142, 151, 170-172, 
 186, 189, 190, 199, 200; 
 
 uniforms made for sol- 
 diers, 142-144; 
 
 varied activity in home 
 field, 192-203; 
 
 work finished, promotion, 
 and enduring influence, 
 203-211 
 Gaselee, General, 191 
 Gates, of city, 13, 14, 114, 
 138-140; 
 
 of compound, 37, 47, 135, 
 141, 150; 
 
 of British Legation, 167, 
 168 
 German military forces dur- 
 ing siege of Peking, 184 
 Girls, American, 19-26; 
 
 Chinese, 28, 35-38 
 Girls' schools, in Peking, 34, 
 35,38,39,147,208; 
 
 in Shan-tung, 204-206; 
 
 in West China, 83, 207 
 
Index 
 
 219 
 
 Glass, Mrs. Charles D., x 
 
 God, 28, 43; 
 
 the real protection in the 
 siege, 156, 182, 191 
 
 Golden Gate, the, 30, 192 
 
 Grandview Academy, 27 
 
 Grant, Ulysses S., 26 
 
 Great Wall, 137 
 
 Greek Church, 171 
 
 Greenville, time of, 56 
 
 Gun, taken from Mrs. Game- 
 well at Chung-ch'ing, 87- 
 90 
 
 Gymnastic apparatus, 24 
 
 Hall, Captain, 135, 140, 150, 
 
 200 
 Hankow, 75 
 Hanlin library, 176 
 Hata gate, Peking, 5, 150, 208 
 Homesickness, 12, 48 
 Hospital, mission, 83, 84; 
 temporary, during siege, 
 182 
 House-boats, 10 
 Houses, Chinese, 36, 79 
 Hsien Feng, 117 
 Hsing-chi, 54 
 Hui An, 39, 40 
 Hu-nan, 165 
 
 Hymns sung, by Chinese 
 Christians, 56, 57; 
 by those besieged in Pe- 
 king, 147, 183 
 
 I'chang, 75-78, 97 
 Imperial City, 113, 181 
 Inland Sea, 8 
 
 Italian military forces during 
 siege of Peking, 158, 181 
 
 James, Prof., 156 
 Japan, 8 
 Japanese, 175; 
 
 consul at Tientsin, 184; 
 military forces during 
 siege of Peking, 158, 182, 
 184; 
 minister in Peking, 184 
 Jesus Christ, 26, 28, 35, 43, 
 57, 62, 64, 80, 204, 210, 
 211 
 Jewell, Mrs., 160 
 Jewett, Miss Sophie, xi 
 Jinrikishas, 171, 208 
 
 Kalgan, 137 
 
 Kang or bed, 55 
 
 Ketteler, Baron von, 148, 
 
 149 
 Kipling, Mr., 123 
 Kuang Hsu, 118-124; 
 
 love of new things, 119, 
 
 120; 
 many progressive steps, 
 
 120-122; 
 obtains copy of Bible, 121; 
 sudden death, 210 
 Kublai Khan, 114 
 
 Lang-fang, 137 
 Lee, Robert E., 26 
 Legation, Chapel, 158, 160, 
 
 182; 
 Street, 150, 151, 160, 165, 
 
 167 
 
220 
 
 Index 
 
 Life of Mary Porter Game- 
 well, xi 
 Li Hung-chang, 209 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 22, 26 
 Lion, of cast iron, 55 
 London Times, the, 148 
 "Long Home," the residence 
 of Mary Porter in Pe- 
 king, 33, 35, 36, 48, 209 
 
 MacDonald, Lady, 162, 163, 
 
 168, 169 
 MacDonald, Sir Claude, 164, 
 
 176, 185, 189; 
 gives Mr. Gamewell full 
 
 authority in fortifying 
 
 Legation, 164 
 Machine-gun, sound of, 188 
 Magistrates, Chinese, 88-97 
 Manchu Tartars, the royal 
 
 family of China, 116 
 Mary Porter Gamewell 
 
 School, 208 
 McCalla, Captain, 137, 145, 
 
 163 
 Meng-ts'un, 55 
 Methodist, mission, 136, 146, 
 
 208; 
 street chapel destroyed, 138 
 Meyers, Captain, 178, 179 
 Mills for grinding grain in 
 
 siege, 165 
 Mission work, 
 
 call to, 28, 29, 71, 192; 
 heroism of, 30, 53, 80, 85- 
 
 91, 93, 95-97, 141, 147, 
 
 150, 151, 163, 180, 182, 
 
 199, 200; 
 
 value of, 38-48, 101-110, 
 191-211 
 Mississippi River, 20, 74; 
 
 first bridge across, 20 
 Mitchell, American gunner, 
 
 181 
 Mongolians, 114 
 Mongol Market, 168 
 Moon-gate, the, 37 
 Morrison, Dr., 148, 156 
 Mule litters, 114 
 
 Nagasaki, Japan, 192 
 
 Nanking, 75 
 
 New England, 30, 103 
 
 New Jersey, 200, 203 
 
 New York, 8, 57 
 
 North China Educational 
 
 Union, 209 
 Northrup, Miss Elizabeth, xi 
 
 Odors, unpleasant, in Pe- 
 king, 46 
 
 Packard, Mrs. M. C, xi 
 Palace buildings and courts, 
 
 Peking, 116, 175, 210 
 Pao-ting fu, 128 
 Pei Ho, the, 8, 9, 145 
 Peking, 5, 12-15, 29, 33, 36, 
 46, 51, 65, 71, 97, 102,' 
 113-116; 
 diagram of, 115; 
 girls' school in, 34, 35, 38- 
 
 41,46, 208, 209; 
 remote from water and 
 
 walled, 155; 
 siege of, see Siege of 
 Peking 
 
Index 
 
 221 
 
 Pigeons, whistles attached 
 
 to, 47 
 Polytechnic Institute, Troy, 
 
 New York, 70 
 Porter, Mary, see Gamewell, 
 
 Mary Porter 
 Prayer, 27, 39, 40, 48, 56, 
 
 147, 170 
 
 Railway from Tientsin to 
 Peking, 120, 155 
 
 Rivers, Chinese, features of, 
 9-11, 58, 74 
 
 Roman Catholic, cathedrals 
 destroyed at Chung- 
 ch'ing and Peking, 92, 
 138; 
 Christians in siege of Pe- 
 king, 156, 157 
 
 Russian military forces dur- 
 ing siege of Peking, 179, 
 184 
 
 Sand-bags for fortification 
 
 work, 169-171 
 San Francisco, 29 
 Schools, mission, 34, 35, 38, 
 
 39, see also Girls' schools 
 Sedan-chairs, 93-97, 114 
 Shang-chia-chai, 56 
 Shanghai, 8, 9, 74 
 Shan-tung, 41, 42, 53, 60, 65, 
 
 126, 203, 204 
 Sharpshooters, Chinese, 178, 
 
 180 
 Sherman, William T., 26 
 Siege of Peking, x, xi, 151- 
 
 191 
 
 Smith, Arthur H., xi, 161, 
 181 
 
 Songs, at Davenport, 22; 
 by Chinese children, 110; 
 during siege of Peking, 186 
 
 Souls, Chinese belief concern- 
 ing, 63 
 
 South America, 74 
 
 Squires, Mrs., 157 
 
 St. Lawrence River, 74 
 
 Sunday-school in Peking, 
 103-110 
 
 Su, Prince, 156 
 
 Su Wang Fu, the, 156-160, 
 168 
 
 Taku, 144, 155; 
 
 forts taken, 144, 145 
 Tartar city, 113-116, 177 
 Temples, 115, 139 
 Tibet, 58, 73, 74 
 Tientsin, 8-10, 54, 104, 144, 
 
 148, 155, 184, 185, 192 
 Trackers on the Yang-tzu, 
 
 77 
 Trees not easily seen in 
 
 Chinese cities, 47 
 Ts'ang-chou, 55 
 T'ungChih, 117 
 Tuttle, Dr., xi 
 T'ung-chou, 5, 10, 192 
 Tzu Hsi, 118-124, see also 
 
 Empress dowager 
 
 United States, 3, 28, 57, 74, 
 97, 195; 
 Legation, 144, 157, 177, 
 199; 
 
222 
 
 Index 
 
 military forces during 
 siege of Peking, 135, 136, 
 178, 179, 184, 189; 
 
 minister in Peking, 135, 
 see also Conger , E. H.; 
 
 treatment of Chinese, 92 
 University of Peking, 122 
 
 Walls, of Chinese cities, 12, 
 14, 46, 47, 78, 79, 187; 
 of compounds, 37, 79; 
 of houses, 14, 15, 47; 
 of legations, 162, 167, 176- 
 180, 189 
 Wang, Clara and Sarah, 40- 
 44, 62, 206, 208; 
 Mrs., 41, 42, 53, 61-65, 102 
 War-songs, 22, 186 
 
 Wellesley College, xi 
 
 Wells in British Legation, 166 
 
 West China mission work, 73, 
 83, 84, 206, 207 
 
 Wheelbarrows, Chinese use 
 of, 4, 114; 
 Mrs. Wang's journey, 41 
 
 Women, American, at Daven- 
 port in war times, 22, 23; 
 record trip as missionaries 
 in China, 51-53 
 
 Women, Chinese, 41, 42, 52 
 
 Yamen of magistrate, 93-97 
 Yang Ssu, 65 
 Yang-tzu, the, 74-78 
 Yellow River, 58, 65 
 Yokohama Bay, 8 
 
Forward Mission Study Courses 
 
 " Anywhere, provided it be forward." — David Living- 
 stone" 
 
 Prepared under the direction of the 
 YOUNG PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 
 
 OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 
 
 Editorial Committee: T. H. P. Sailer, Chairman, 
 A. E. Armstrong, T. B. Ray, H. B. Grose, S. Earl Tay- 
 lor, J. E. McAfee, C. R. Watson, John W. Wood, L. B. 
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 The forward mission study courses are an outgrowth of 
 a conference of leaders in young people's mission work, 
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 of Christian Endeavor, and Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman 
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 These courses have been officially adopted by the Young 
 People's Missionary Movement, and are now under the 
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 Movement. The books of the Movement are now being 
 used by more than forty home and foreign mission boards 
 and societies of the United States and Canada. 
 
 The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering 
 the various home and foreign mission fields aud written 
 
by leading authorities. The entire series when completed 
 will comprise perhaps as many as forty text-books. 
 
 The following text-books having a sale of nearly 
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 2. Into All the World. A general survey of missions. 
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 3. Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. (Bio- 
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 5. Heroes of the Cross in America. Home Missions. 
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 7. The Christian Conquest of India. A study of 
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 8. Aliens or Americans? A study of Immigration. 
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 9. The Uplift of China. A study of China. By 
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 11. The Why and How of Foreign Missions. A 
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 12. The Moslem World. A study of the Moham- 
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 3. Under Marching Orders. The Story of Mary Por- 
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