Internet Archive
US Cluster
(navigation image)
Search: Advanced Search
Anonymous User (login or join us) Upload
See other formats
Full text of “The Lien-Chou martyrdom : the cross is still upheld at Lien-Chou”
1906 PRINCETON, N.J.
BV 3425 .L53 B76 1906 c.l
Brown, Arthur Judson, 1856-
1963.
The Lien-Chou martyrdom
* APR 141908
The LIEN-CHOU
MARTYRDOM
RUINS OF THE CnURCII AT LIEN-CHOU.
Bunieil by the Mob, Oct. 28, 1905.
The tower still stiuids.
The Cross is still upheld at Lien-Chou
Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the
United States of America, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City
MR. PEAI.K ON TIIK WHARF AT SAN FRANCISCO
EN ROUTE FOR CHINA.
By THE REV. ARTHUR J. BROWN, D.D.
HE whole Christian world has been^ shocked by the
terrible tragedy at Lien-chou, China. Lien-chou is
a city of about 50,000 inhabitants in the northern part
of the Province of Kwang-tung. It is about 250
miles from Canton, but as the only route is by a
winding and at places rapid river, which is navigable only for
small boats, the journey from Canton ordinarily occupies three
weeks.
There are innumerable villages in the neighborhood so that
the population of this field which the Lien-chou missionaries
were expected to work was about one million. The nearest
foreigners were some Baptist missionaries three and a half days’
journey westward and some English and German missionaries
four days eastward. Northward the nearest missionaries were
our Presbyterian missionaries at Chien-chou of the Hunan Mis-
sion who were five days’ journey away.
Our work at Lien-chou was begun in 1889 by the Rev. Dr.
Henry of Canton, who had previously visited it on his itinerat-
ing tours. A chapel was built in 1897. The first missionaries
regularly stationed there were Dr. and Mrs. Machle, Rev. and
Mrs. Lingle (now in the Hunan Mission) and Miss Louise John-
ston. Dr. Chesnut was added to the force in 1894. Rev. and
Mrs. Rees F. Edwards joined the station in 1898, but were in
this country on furlough during the trouble at Lien-chou. At
the time of the outbreak the work included the care of the
church, two hospitals, one for men and one for women, and
boarding schools for boys and girls, the latter at Sam Kong,
ten miles distant.
Last year Dr. Chesnut treated at the Womans’ Hospital
5,479 patients. Dr. Machle at the Men’s Hospital treated 7,577
patients. Converts multiplied until in the city of Lien-chou
there was a church with an adult membership of over 300;
and the congregation had just completed a handsome new church
edifice seating 700 people. This church was dedicated March
1, 1905, and the dedication services were attended by throngs
which crowded the cliurch to its utmost capacity. There were
then four other organized churches in otlier towns in the station
district, while there were Httle groups of behevers in a con-
siderable number of outlying villages. The Boys’ Boarding
School was filled with pupils and the demands for admission
were so great that some boys had to be turned away for want
of room. The Girls’ School was also prosperous and there were
many day-schools in various parts of the field.
The total value of the property destroyed at Lien-chou in-
cluding personal efifects of the missionaries is $26,400.
When the first intimations of the trouble were received we
could scarcely credit them. Our letters from the missionaries
up to that time had not indicated any disposition on the part of
the people to molest them. Indeed so secure did the missionaries
feel that the two single women of the station, Dr. Eleanor
Chesnut and Miss Elda G. Patterson remained at Lien-chou alone
while their associates went to the Mission Meeting at Canton
two hundred and fifty miles distant. The Board did not know
this at the time, but Miss Patterson has since reported that they
were not molested and that nothing occurred to excite alarm. In
these circumstances we were startled beyond expression Novem-
ber 2d by the Associated Press despatches of November 1st and
by the following cable to the Board the next day :
“Lien-chou Station has been attacked and Mrs. Machle, Amy Machle,
Mr. Peale, Mrs. Peale, Miss Chesnut killed. Dr. Machle, Miss Patterson
safe. Buildings destroyed.”
We at once notified the relatives and special friends, and
also the State Department at Washington. In reply to our mes-
sage of sympathy and inquiry, we received the following mes-
sage, November 3rd :
“Unrest. Heathen festival encroached Mission premises. Fled cave.
Discovered. Killed. Bodies recovered.”
The Revs. Andrew Beattie, D.D., and Wm. D. Noyes and
Paul J. Todd of our Canton Station, with an escort of sixty
Chinese soldiers, promptly started for Lien-chou. The fifth day
they met the two survivors, Dr. Machle and Miss Patterson, on
their way down the river. It was considered advisable to return
with them to Canton.
By direction of the State Department, the American Consul-
General at Canton, Mr. Lay, left for Lien-chou Nov. 10th to
make a thorough investigation. He was accompanied by Lieut. –
Com. Evans of the U. S. S. Oregon, Lieut. Dismukes of the
Monadnock, and Dr. Machle and the Revs. A. A. Fulton, D.D.,
Andrew Beattie, Ph.D., and Wm. D. Noyes, members of our
Canton station. The Chinese Government was represented by
high ofificials. Before starting, this Commission took the testi-
mony available in Canton, and on its arrival at Licn-chou, Nov.
19th, began a thorough investigation which occupied many days
and involved the examination of scores of witnesses. The fol-
lowing narrative has been compiled from the report of this Com-
mission with a few additions from the letters of the missionaries:
“Dr. Machlc arrived at Lien-chou with liis family on the evening of the
27th of October, 1905, after an absence of about two months on account of
the annual meeting of the Mission in Canton. He found the Chinese cele-
brating Ta Tsiu, or All Souls’ Day, with the usual idolatrous ceremonies.
The next morning at]Jabout 9 o’clock he went to the Men’s Hospital. As he
was passing the joss temple adjacent to the Woman’s Hospital, he observed
that the Chinese had erected a mat shed on the Mission property for the
musicians connected witli the ceremony. At the celebraticm tlie preceding
year, the same thing had been done. Dr. Machle had then remonstrated
and the village elders had promised not to trespass again, but one Chinese
had exclaimed : ‘We are Roman Catholics, and we are going to kill you
all and burn your property.’ In spite of this former promise, the offense
was now repeated and this same man was engaged in the affair.
“It is a native custom when desiring a conference with any one, to send
him word that you have taken some object belonging to him. In harmony
with this custom. Dr. Machle picked up three of six small joss cannon, that
some small boys were firing, and carried them to the Men’s Hospital, perhaps
80 or 90 yards, and placed them in the dispensary near the entrance. His
object was to cause the head men connected with the celebration to come
to him in order that he might reason with them relative to the erection of
the mat shed on mission property. As he had anticipated, three or four
of the village elders soon came, accompanied by eight or nine younger men
from the temple.
“When Dr. Machle had temperately reminded them of their former
pledge and renewed his protest, one of the old men said: ‘This is our last
day. In the afternoon we have our great feast, and then we will take the
shed down and not put it up again hereafter on mission property.’ Dr.
Machle replied: ‘If that is the case, and you promise not to repeat the
offense, this affair is settled forever.’ Dr. Machle then directed his medical
assistant to hand back the cannon. All seemed satisfied and turned to go
away. Dr. Machle was about to enter the hospital, when a large crowd
came down the road from an opposite direction from the temple armed with
a sw-ord, a revolver and sticks. The foremost man said : ‘You have stolen
our cannon !’ Dr. Machle replied : ‘Friend, I do not do such things,’ and
related to them the facts given above in regard to the return of the cannon.
The old man carrying the cannon, hearing the noise, came back and said:
‘Everything is settled, and there is nothing the matter; go away; see, here
are the cannon which have been given back.’ The old man told Dr. Machle
to go to the hospital, as the affair was settled. This the Doctor was about
to do when he observed Dr. Eleanor Chesnut talking to the men. Dr.
Machle approached her and urged her to return to the Woman’s Hospital,
when a man rushed from the crowd and aimed a revolver at Dr. Machle’s
heart. The old man took Dr. Machle by the arm and led him to the hospital
gate. As he passed through, the Doctor was assaulted and after he had
entered, the hospital was bombarded with missiles.
“Dr. Chesnut, seeing the turn of affairs, appeared determined to report
the matter to the authorities, for, instead of entering the hospital as Dr.
Machle had advised, she hurried down the alley between the two hospitals,
pursued by some of the mob, now rapidly increasing in numbers. She was
unable to affect her purpose of reaching the yamen. but took refuge on the
guard boat on the river. She might have escaped in safety, but, seeing the
deady peril of her associates, with characteristic heroism and devotion, she
deliberately turned back to share their danger and in accordance with her
request the captain of the guard boat conducted her to Dr. Machle’s resi-
dence on the Mission hill. Dr. Chesnut’s pursuers evidently suspected that
she was bent on reporting the affair to the local authorities and this still
further irritated them.
“On arriving at his house, Dr. Machle at once sent his card to the
magistrate’s yamen, requesting protection. This card was sent 15 or 20
minutes after the conversation with the old man at the hospital gate. In
the meantime, the crowd was gathering in front of the hospital. It appears
that when the men returned to the hospital after chasing Dr. Chesnut, they
would not accept the explanation of the Chinese elders that the cannon
had been returned and the trouble all settled. That the cannon actually
had been returned there can be no doubt. On this point, Mr. Koo Kim, a
Chinese from Honolulu, who was with Dr. Machle at the time of the return
of the cannon, and his entrance to the hospital, corroborates the Doctor’s
testimony, as do several other witnesses, including Li Sung To, hospital
assistant, who actually handed the cannon to one of the old men. The
Commission also ‘feels that the return of the cannon by Dr. Machle to the
old men representing the worshippers at the celebration prior to any assault
either on Dr. Machle or the hospital is a fact.’ Dr. Machle states that
the cannon were in his possession about ten minutes.
“The young men, however, showed by their actions that they were
determined to create a disturbance and insisted on entering the hospitals.
Stones were thrown and windows and doors smashed and presently they
gained an entrance to the Men’s Hospital. Tin pans had been beaten, and
when a tin pan is beaten scores of the very worst characters of the place
are sure to come together in the hope of finding an opportunity for plunder.
These constituted a large part of the crowd. While rushing through the
hospital searching for the cannon or looting, they came across certain ana-
tomical and pathological specimens preserved in earthenware jars, and stored
upstairs. These specimens were brought out and placed on a tray. A pro-
cession was formed led by a man beating a gong, and the specimens were
paraded through the street, attracting a large number of people and increas-
ing the mob before the hospital to several thousands. About the time the
sipecimens were being withdrawn from the hospital, two civil and three mili-
tary officials arrived on the scene, accompanied by about 30 unarmed sol-
diers, many of them having very recently enlisted. The official informed the
mob that the cannon had been returned and that the specimens were for
the purposes of instruction, but the mob was thoroughly aroused and per-
sisted in the belief that Dr. Machle had been engaged in malpractice. Some
of them claimed to have lost children in the past and assumed these speci-
mens to be the explanation of their disappearance. The officials tried by
exhortation and pacific means, according to Chinese standards and custom,
to disperse the people. They were unquestionably much concerned by the
outbreak and did their best, short of exercising force, to disperse the mob,
but, unarmed as they were, the officials and soldiers were too few in num-
bers and inefficient in quality to afford the necessary protection to life and
property.
“On becoming convinced that it was impossible to thwart the mob in
their intent to burn the hospitals, the five officials gathered with their sol-
diers in front of Dr. Machle’s house. The officials assured him of safety
and said that the mob would not dare approach the residences. They
offered Dr. Machle asylum at the yamen, to which Dr. Machle responded :
T am in your hands.’ At this time, the other missionaries, Mrs. Machle and
daughter Amy, Dr. Chesnut, Miss Patterson and Mr. and Mrs. Peale, were
all in Dr. Machle’s house upstairs. The situation was deemed serious. Dr.
Machle went into the house, as the officials supposed, to prepare to accom-
pany them to the yamen. But, with the whole missionary party, he aban-
doned the house by a back door, the officials being unaware of their
departure, and fled toward Sam Kong, distant about ten miles.
“Mr. Peale had a revolver and was at first disposed to take it, but
after consultation with the other missionaries, he left it in the house, feeling
unwilling to begin his missionary career by any act of violence against the
people whom he had come to save. At this time, a native whom Dr.
Machle had observed with the official party appeared offering to escort them
to a boat which would take them across the river, whence they might reach
the yamen. He had, however, no connection with the officials. A boatman
started across from the other side when hailed by the missionaries, but
PAVILLION AT LUNG TAU TSZ (Dragon Cave Monastery).
Under this tree Dr. Chesnut treated her last patient and Mrs. Machle proclaimed the true God
with her dying breath.
returned, either because threatened or because he did not care to render
assistance. Abandoning the idea of crossing, the fugitive missionaries took
up their flight toward Sam Kong, and proceeded as far as a Buddhist
temple, called Lung Tau, distant about one mile. A priest appeared at the
door and invited them in, saying that they would be safe within. The party
entered, but, as money was demanded, they suspected a trap and immedi-
ately departed. They had gone but a few steps, .scarcely out of the temple,
before the pursuing mob was heard near at hand. The party then re-entered
the temple. In the rear of the temple is a large cave having many ramifica-
tions, the only entrance being through the temple. In this cave, the ill-fated
missionaries sought to conceal themseh^es. Dr. Machle remained behind to
close the temple door and was the last to enter the cave. When he
entered, he was unable in the darkness and confusion to find the others.
He called for Mrs. Machle, but, receiving no answer and supposing that
the others were all concealed, he rushed into one of the narrow passages.
Being close pressed, he submerged himself in water in an obscure recess,
and eluded detection until rescued by the officials and soldiers, some three
or four hours later. Some of the mob had by this time gained entrance
to the cave and were searching for the hiding places of the missionaries
with torches and bunches of burning straw. Among the first to enter was
a man who, though among the crowd, had come to try if possible to save
the lives of some of the fugitives. Miss Patterson owed her escape entirely
to the assistance of this man, a non-Christian native by the name of Lo
Cheung Shing, who was the first to encounter her in a place where she
would certainly have been discovered by the mob. This kind-hearted and
humane Chinese took her to a place of concealment in a remote branch of
the cave, where, standing in about two feet of water in a deep pit beneath an
overhanging ledge, they escaped detection. As Dr. Beattie writes, ‘The
brave, unselfish conduct of this man was one bright and redeeming feature
in this tragedy.’ The other five missionaries were successively discovered
and dragged from the cave and met their deaths probably in the following
order: Mrs. Machlc, Dr. Chesnut, Dr. Machle’s eleven-year-old daughter
Amy, Mr. Peale and Mrs. Peale. Eye-witnesses relate that Mrs. Machle
reasoned with the mob to the last, remaining perfectly calm and speaking to
them of the Christ in whose name she had come, until a blow from behind
ended her life. The last act of Dr. Chesnut, one of characteristic thought-
fulness and unselfishness, was to tear off a portion of her skirt and bind up
an ugly gash on the head of a Chinese boy who had been accidentally struck
by a stone. Her last words were a plea for Mr. and Mrs. Peale. She told
the mob to kill her if they desired to do so, but to spare the new missionaries
who had just arrived and who could not possibly have offended them.
“Meantime, the officials had stood for a time in front of the house,
evidently under the impression that the missionaries were preparing to
accompany them to the yamen. This is the explanation covering the sepa-
ration of the missionaries from the possible protection by the oflScials. The
man who told the missionaries he would guide them to a boat had no con-
nection with the officials. The officials and soldiers went towards the hos-
pitals at least as far as the Mary Whitmore Dwight Memorial Hall, where
there is a gate which they closed, and endeavored to keep the people from
approaching the residence on the hill, but the people found other approaches
and soon Dr. Machle’s house was discovered to be on fire. The officials
rushed back intent on at least saving life, but were informed that the for-
POINT ON LIEN-OIIOU KIVKU WIIEKE THE
MARTYRS WERE THROWN.
eigners had fled, together with a number of Chinese Christian converts, but
in which direction they could not learn. It was decided that the sub-prefect
and colonel should go in different directions. The sub-prefect, who went
toward Ho Chun, was informed by natives whom he met that the foreigners
had crossed the river. The colonel and major went toward Sam Kong. Their
statements is that having gone a short distance they received reports that
the missionaries had crossed the river. So the officers decided that the
foreigners had escaped to the city and returned to their own yamens. On
lo
arriving at his yamen, the sub-prefect, not finding the foreigners, sent run-
ners out in search. Shortly afterward, the colonel arrived, stating that the
foreigners were not at his yamen. About this time word came that the
missionaries were at the Lung Tau temple and that a crowd of several
hundred were following them.
“The ofificials at once proceeded to the temple, taking about thirty sol-
diers with them, this time armed. But they arrived too late, for the mur-
ders had already occurred. Learning that there were still two missionaries
in the cave, the officials proceeded to disperse the mob in order that these
two lives might be saved. In this they had the aid of Wong Shan Heung,
a Roman Catholic, who the preceding year and with another agent of the
A>IY MACULE, TEN YEARS OLD.
Roman Catholic Church had given considerable assistance in quelling the
demonstration over the objection to the erection of the mat shed. Dr.
Machle and Miss Patterson were discovered and taken to the yamen dis-
guised as Chinese soldiers. They were retained several days until safe con-
duct could be afforded down the river, when they started before daylight
for Canton, accompanied by the Major, Wong Chan Sin. They arrived
safely, November 8th.”
In determining the causes of the tragedy, the official Com-
mission finds that the act of Dr. Machle followed by “the most
unfortunate discovery by the people of the anatomical and
pathological specimens in the hospital, used for demonstrating
the course of surgical and medical instruction,” were the im-
mediate occasion of the outbreak. But the Commission also
specifies as a direct cause the desire of lawless characters to loot
the Mission compound, and it emphasizes the following indirect
causes which, together with loot, are evidently the real ones:
“Anti-foreign feeling, which is omnipresent to a greater or less extent
in all parts of China. The feehng was doubtless fostered prior to the
massacre, by the American boycott.
“The unruly condition of affairs in and about Lien-chou which has
existed during tlie last two years, particularly noticeable in the resistance
on the part of the people, good and bad, to the will of the Viceroy in his
intention to institute a new form of lottery known as the Po Piu. This
culminated last year about the second of June when a large mob partially
demolished a lottery shop and made a signal demonstration before the
yamen. Although two of the leaders were arrested, the people were not
in general punished, and the lottery was not forced upon them. The people
were thus encouraged to depreciate the power of the officials in favor of
their own power.
“Many of the people of Tsoi Yun Pa and vicinity are known to be
engaged in illicit salt trade ; some of these people were known to Dr. Machle
and they may have suspected that Dr. Machle had informed or might inform
the officials.”
The Commission also refers to the ill-feeling on the part of
the people of the neighboring village because the foreigners had
purchased land and erected buildings on the hill overlooking
them.
The Revs. A. A. Fulton, D.D., Andrew Beattie, Ph.D., and
Wm. D. Noyes, who have resided many years in China, who
speak the Chinese language fluently and who by invitation of
the Commission heard all the testimony, specify the following
as the real causes of the tragedy:
“i. The very anti-foreign and anti-mission feeling that has always
existed about Lien-chou.
“2. The anti-feeling was intensified by the purchase of land and the
erection of foreign buildings.
“3. The encroachment of the festival last year, and failure of the
authorities at that time to make any arrests or inflict any punishment, not
even arresting the men who threatened Dr. Machle with death.
“4 The disorderly state of affairs which existed by reason of the
unsuccessful attempt of the Chinese authorities to establish a new lottery
monopoly, that broke up the favorite gambling places of the people and
aroused their owners.
“5. The condition of affairs resulting from the enrollment of bad char-
acters in the Roman Catholic Church and the reluctance of the officials to
punish for wrong doing, lest the priest should take up the case and report
it to the Viceroy through the French Consul, who would make trouble for
the local magistrate.
“6. The influence of boycott posters, newspapers, inflammatory litera-
ture and the Viceroy’s proclamation in antagonizing the people against for-
eigners. Large quantities of these placards were distributed.”
We have just ground for indignation in the disposition of
certain newspapers to blame the missionaries. It is nothing less
than brutal to sneer at men and women who were devotedly and
lovingly consecrating their lives to the uplifting of the Chinese,
and who have sealed their devotion by their blood. The en-
croachment of a heathen festival upon Protestant mission
property, especially after it had been made a year before and
protested against, can only indicate a deliberate purpose to in-
sult the missionaries and to make trouble with them.
It is not at all to the discredit of Dr. Machle that he took
advantage of his property rights to protest, especially as the
festival was characterized by the firing of cannon, the exploding
of fire-crackers, the strident music and other distracting noises
incident to a Chinese religious celebration. Such a tumult must
have been highly injurious to the many patients in the two
hospitals on the premises, to say nothing of the discomfort and
possible danger to the missionary families from the excited and
turbulent crowd. The temporary shed could be moved, but the
hospitals could not. But such a protest, while perhaps sufficient
to excite a personal attack upon Dr. Machle, hardly seems an
adequate cause for the murder of five other people and the total
destruction of the entire mission property, while Dr. Machle
himself was unharmed. Nor was the seizing of the alleged can-
non a real cause. Dr. Beattie, who saw them afterwards, says
that they were only toy cannon about six inches long. Beside,
they were returned before the outbreak and the leaders of the
mob knew this, for both the village elder and the officials told
them.
As for the skeleton and other specimens, such objects are a
legitimate possession of a physician. But one can easily under-
stand how, when captured and borne through the streets, they
would inflame an ignorant and superstitious people. The leaders
of the mob evidently knew about the specimens and deliberately
hunted for them and used them to incite the riot. It is plain
that these things were merely superficial causes. The public
mind was inflamed against all foreigners, independently of any-
thing that the missionaries did, so that an accidental and other-
wise unimportant act on their part brought to a crisis a situation
that had already become strained by reason of other influences.
It is grossly unjust in such circumstances to charge that
the act of an individual missionary could have caused
the massacre. The act of Dr. Machle, perfectly proper in itself,
and which in ordinary circumstances would have had no un-
fortunate result whatever, proved to be simply a spark in a pow-
der magazine already prepared by other causes.
The Rev. Henry V. Noyes, D.D., of Canton, writes:
“I wish to say with the strongest possible emphasis that our missionaries
in Lien-chou have been rare exanuples of what may be accomplished by
tactful treatment of the Chinese and constant discretion. That they have
been attacked by a brutal band of ruffians does not change their conduct
and character one iota.”
13
All the presumptions in common fairness should be in favor
of missionaries of known character, intelligence and devotion.
One of the missionaries who was killed, Dr. Eleanor Chesnut,
was a physician who had devoted herself for years to loving-
ministrations to the sick and injured, and she was greatly beloved
by multitudes who cared nothing for Christianity. Of the others,
one was the wife and another the daughter of a physician, Dr.
E. C. Mlachle, and the other two, the Rev. and Mrs. John Rogers
Peale were new missionaries who left this country August 16th,
and had been in Lien-chou only a day and could not have
ofifended anyone.
OUTSIDE TUE WOMAN’S HOSPITAL, LIEN-CHUU.
It is not without significance that nearly all the Chinese in
America have come from the single Province of Kwang-tung in
which Lien-chou is situated. Almost every considerable town
has or has had a representative in our country. The stories of
the ill treatment of Chinese in the United States have gone back
lO China by letter and by word of mouth. The Chinese know
how their countrymen have been butchered and their property
destroyed in scores of American towns. Until recently the
resentment did not find popular expression, but now China is be-
coming more conscious of her power, more jealous of her
dignity and less disposed to submit to insult and discrimination.
The fact which (piickly developed that the irritation of the
people was not peculiar to Lien-chou but that it prevailed to a
greater or less extent in several other and distant parts of the
14
Empire, shows that the real causes were general in their opera-
tion and independent of the individuals and their acts at Lien-
chou. Missionaries and press correspondents at a score of
widely separated places suddenly reported a tension of the
Chinese mind and threats of trouble. The Chinese mind was
stirred to a ferment independently of the missionaries, and con-
ditions at Lien-chou needed only some slight pretext to break
forth in fury.
Of interest from this view-point is the following opinion
expressed by the late Hon. Charles Denby, for thirteen years
American Minister at Peking, in the book published since his
recent death :
“On an analysis of llic bitter anti-Christian movement, we find
tliat it is largely to be explained as primarily anti-foreign ; that is,
largely directed against missionaries solely as foreigners, not solely
as teachers of a foreign religion. We find that ‘Some of the spe-
cific charges made against the missionaries have no reference to their teach-
ings Few, if any, accusations of aggressiveness and personal violence
on the part of missionaries against Chinese can be substantiated, while there
are authentic cases of bad conduct against Chinese by foreigners of other
classes. The missionaries, in the vast majority of cases, are loved by those
Chinese with whom they succeed in establishing intimate relations, and they
are almost universally respected by all classes in the communities in which
they are well known.”
The local officials in this particular instance appear to have
done what they could to protect the missionaries after the out-
break had actually occurred, but the official Commission of In-
vestigation does not exonerate them. It declares:
“The preparation of the officials, both civil and military, in that condition
of affairs obtaining at Lien-chou on or about the 28th of October, 1905, was
not such as to enable them to preserve law and order in the protection of life
and property.
“It is believed that a prompt and firm tone on the part of the officials
when, they arrived at the hospitals prior to the burning might have been
efficacious. The officials, instead of using their soldiers and making a firm
stand with fixed bayonets and calling upon the people to disperse or they
would fire, merely depended upon pacific means, that of exhortation.
“The officials only claim to have had in and around Lien-chou, for a popu-
lation of one hundred thousand, on or about the 28th of October, 120 sol-
diers. They only claim to have had with them 30 soldiers at the scene of
disorder. The officials admit their inability to have coped with the situation.
We hold that the officials and troops were insufficient in number and ineffi-
cent in quality, and for this condition of afifairs do hold the Viceroy of
Kwang-tung Province directly responsible.”
The causes may be many and complex. But we need not
multiply words of explanation. Enough for us that our repre-
sentatives are not justly open to any accusation of malice or
aggression or unfairness toward the people among whom they
lived and labored in the Saviour’s name. For those who would
seek more particularly into conditions, of which this outbreak
15
MliS. KUVVAUD C. MACULE.
was only a symptom, there are the consular reports. But behind
all fact and circumstance there lies the lesson of Lien-chou’s
tragedy — and even through the dark cloud of evil and through
this mystery of sorrow we must look for its message and its
meaning. Every providence of God brings its message to the
waiting heart. In every such mystery there comes a divine
appeal. And surely the meanings of this message are not far to
seek. The glory of self-forgetfulness in service is there ; the
fragrance of faithful witnessing is there, and there the heart-
searching call to reality of consecration that does not count
life dear.
Neither the hero worship of treasured legends nor the
fidelity of historians’ record can show a tenderness of self-forget-
ful service surpassing that of one who in a moment of deadly
peril hungered to bind up another’s wound. No heart could
show such love save one filled with the love and spirit
of a Master who while going to His own death could
pause to heal a servant’s wounded ear. We need not
turn to the records of martyr lives in other ages to
find the meaning of “faithful unto death.” when another whom
we knew and loved and who had served her Lord faithfully day
by day passed into His presence with His message on her very
lips. And if sometimes we seek from Him a word of comfort
in a life service that seems unsatisfying we may hear again the
message coming, now, from that calm riverside in far away
South China, that success, in God’s thought, is not measured
by the length of service but by its spirit and its consecration.
In the glory of these graces so manifest on that day of trial
and of triumph we find the deeper meaning of the appeal that
the story must bring home to every life.
“Ye are witnesses. As the Father hath sent me even so
send I you.” Even so send I you …. to a life of loving, self-
forgetful, self-sacrificing service in His name, it may be to a
life that shall find its highest glory in a death for His sake that
will bear abundant fruit. And surely in every heart that appeal
will find its echo in the words, “I must work the works of Him
that sent me while it is day.”
Those who are most nearly face to face with the reality of
this seeming calamity were the first to hear its message of
appeal. The Rev. Wm. D. Noyes of Canton, writes :
“Perhaps this seems a strange time to call for volunteers, but the
Canton Mission never needed them more. We did not see how we could
get along with the small force before, and now our thin line is thinner.
The murderers need the Gospel. The people not responsible there in Lien-
chou need it. We know that this work must go on. In our grief we must
write for more like Mrs. Machle, Dr. Chesnut and the Peales to come out
and do what they would have Hked to do. They did not count their lives
dear. By their death they have claimed Lien-chou for Christ and we must
enter into this heritage. Don’t have thoughts too hard against the Chinese !”
17
UU. ELEANOR CUESNUT.
The stricken Dr. Maclile writes:
“I hope I shall have the blessed privilege of rebuilding the mission and
spending my remaining days among those people who in a frenzy of anger
were influenced by about two hundred rowdies to sanction their work of
destruction and pillage. The spiritual work of the mission still temains.
Christianity at Lien-chou has not been stamped out. It is only a matter of
time when the work at Lien-chou will be in a much more flourishing con-
dition than it was before this trouble. The blood of the martyrs is the
seed of the church. The greater number of the 6,000 persons who wit-
nessed the atrocities of the two hundred rowdies, thieves and gamblers,
are now very sorrowful that they even lent their presence. Hundreds of
the people had been benefited by the hospital. These, when the excitement
of that day was over, must have thought of the benefits received and are
no doubt at heart our friends.”
And will tlic Church respond? Already the message has
gone home to many a heart and the response has begun to be
heard. The pastor of- the Church at Moosic, Pa., which was
supporting Mr. and Mrs. Peale writes:
“Our church feels that this is a call to a deeper consecration to the
work for which Mr. Peale gave himself, and there is open expression that
we must have two men to ‘^tand for us in the place of our pastor who has
fallen. Our work will be the firmer because of this call of our God. The
church, in fact the town, feels that we must not only not stop our work,
but increase it.”
But will any yoimg men be willing to go to such a place?
Already the seed that fell into the ground and died is bringing
forth its fruit. Four men promptly ofifered to go. Rev. Mr. J.
S. Kunkle was graduated at the Western Theological Seminary
last year, and was appointed to the Canton Mission with Mr.
Peale, but delayed going for a year as he was given a fellow-
ship for superior class standing, so that he is now spending a
year at Oxford University, England. Instead of congratulating
himself on his escape, he writes:
“I cannot help thinking that had I been more zealous, it would have
been I that gained a martyr’s crown, and a better than I spared for the
work. Now I earnestly seek the privilege of taking the place of one of those
faithful ones who have given their lives for the cause. If, in the judgment
of the Board, these sad events and the increased need justify my leaving my
studies and proceeding at once to the field, I shall be very glad to do so.
I shall hold myself in readiness to go at any time. I hope our Government
will take no steps that will lessen the effect upon the natives of the dying
testimony of these faithful servants of God.”
We believe that the whole Church will be as deeply stirred
as the Board has been by such expressions, and that they are
indicative of the deep and solemn determination of the Presby-
terians of our country to press the work at Lien-chou with new
vigor. Already a member of the Board Mr. Warner Van
Norden, has pledged $4,000 for the Men’s Hospital, and Mirs.
James H. A. Brooks $3,000 for the AVomen’s Hospital in memory
of Mr. James H. A. Brooks. The Board feels that as soon as
conditions in that rej^^ion permit the station should be rebuilt.
There are still needed a Boys’ Boarding^ School (about $3,000,
new), a Girls’ Boardino- School (about $3,000, new), a Church
(about $2,000), and three residences ($2,500 each, one new). This
would give us a better equipped station than we had before,
but it would still be a modest equipment, and would provide only
what is really needed for the enlarging work in this very
promising field. An enlarged work, maintained with deepened
consecration in this place made sacred by precious sacrifice,
will be the most fitting memorial to those whose departure we
mourn while in the glory of their triumphant service we rejoice.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Mrs. Edward C. Machle (Ella May Wood) was born in
Philadelphia, Oct. 28, 1859. She was the daughter of Howard
C. and Hannah C. Wood. She was graduated from the Ger-
mantown High School, and established a successful kinder-
garten in Philadelphia. As a Christian worker she was an ac-
tive member of the Wharton Street Church, especially in its
Sunday-school and its class for Chinese. In July, 1889, she was
married to Dr. Machle of Cincinnati, Ohio, who while a student
in the Medical College of Philadelphia labored with her for the
Chinese in AVharton Street Church. They sailed for China
with Miss Louise Johnston, the first missionaries sent to Lien-
chou. Mrs. Machle labored efificiently as a missionary in the
Girls’ Boarding School, among the women in their homes, and
the patients of the Hospital, to whom convalescence was made
less tedious through her ministry of love and sympathy. Four
children were born. Two are being educated at Wooster, Ohio,
one died of diphtheria at Lien-chou about a year ago, and sweet
little Amy. eleven years of age, was killed with her mother.
Mrs. Machle was a devoted missionary, a loving wife and
mother, and a noble woman in every way. On her forty-sixth
birthday she laid down her life for Christ.
Miss Eleanor Chesnut, M.D., was born in Waterloo, Iowa,
Jan. 8, 1868. Orphaned in infancy, she spent her childhood with
relatives. At the age of twelve, while living with an aunt in
Missouri, she heard of Park College. With an ardent desire
for an education, she sought admission, as soon as she was old
enough, and after a creditable course was graduated. Conse-
crating her life to missions, she studied nursing at the Illinois
Training School in Chicago, but not being satisfied with this she
took the full course at the Woman’s Medical College. After
valuable experience as house physician for six months at the
Woman’s Reformatory in South Framingham. Mass., and a
course of Bible study at Moody Institute, Chicago, she sailed
for China in the fall of 1894. Her eleven years of missionary
service were broken by only one furlough, and that was spent
in post-graduate medical work in New York, in caring for a
friend, in raising money for a chapel in China, and in further
study at Moody Institute. She was proficient in the Chinese
language, and in addition to her heavy hospital and dispensary
work made several translations into Chinese, studied French
IN THE (“IIILDRENS WARD.
and German for pleasure, conducted a class of medical students,
trained two nurses, taught a blind girl massage and helped in
school and church work. Once a week she traveled ten miles
on horseback to hold a clinic at Sam Kong. Last year she
treated 5,479 patients at the Woman’s Hospital. Her devotion
to her work knew no bounds and led to great sacrifices most
willingly made. She denied herself many of the comforts and
some of the necessaries of life in order that she might aid desti-
tute Chinese women. Money that friends gave her for personal
use, and for a residence she put into the mission work, and con-
tinued to live in cramped and uncomfortable rooms over her
hospital. She was singularly direct and truthful in all she said
and did, a true fricMul. a brave and fearless woman. She spoke
of death as welcome, at any time, for Christ and China.
During the year tliat J)r. Chesnut lived alone, the only white
person in Lien-chon, the station made substantial progress and
she was unmolested. An exploring English scientist passed
through Licn-chou and was astonished to find this young Ameri-
can woman in that remote interior city. He paid high tribute
to her courage and made a gift to her hospital. When the Rev.
W. H. Lingle made her a visit, he found her about to amputate
a man’s leg in order to save his life. Mr. Lingle assisted her,
but the slight woman did the surgical work herself. The man
lived and believed in her and in Christ. Last year she asked
the Board to send another physician to take her hospital at
Lien-chou and to permit her to remove to an out-lying city
where no work was being done saying that she was not afraid
to live alone. But the Board felt that the plan was unwise. It
indicated, however, her splendid courage and zeal. When dur-
ing her furlough she heard Dr. Fenn of Peking in an address on
China say that if he had many lives he would gladly give them
all for that country, she turned to a friend and said, “I honestly
believe that I could say the same.” Her physical strength was
not sufficient for her indefatigable labors and about a year ago
she had a very serious illness. She recovered but did not fully
regain her vigor. In her last known letter she quoted these lines :
“Being in doubt, I say,
Lord, make it plain;
Which is the true, safe way?
Which would be vain?
I am not wise to know,
Nor sure of foot to go,
My blind eyes cannot see
What is so clear to Thee.
Lord, make it clear to me.
“Being perplexed, I say.
Lord, make it right;
Night is as day to Thee,
Darkness as light.
T am afraid to touch
Things that involve so much,
My trembling hand may shake,
My skilless hand may break,
Tliine can make no mistake.”
The Rev. John Rogers Peale was born in IMoomficld, Pa.,
September 17, 1879, and was graduated from Lafayette College
in 1902. He was an honor man in his class, President of the Y.
M. C. A., and editor of the College Annual. He won the Cole-
man Biblical Prize in his Freshman year, and was three times
a delegate to Northfield and was leader of the Student Volunteer
Band. His chief purpose while in College was the spiritual up-
lift of the college life. He entered Princeton Seminary in the fall
of 1902 and became very popular there also. A fellow student
writes: “Seldom has there been a student more intensely in-
terested in Foreign Missions. He was a man of constant prayer
life. Many men testify that on coming into his room, they often
found him on his knees. He kept a map of the world hung on
his wall to keep ever before him the claims of the world.”
THE REV. JOHN ROGERS PEALE.
He was graduated from Princeton Seminary in 1905, and
sailed for China August 16th. Almost immediately after his
arrival the massacre occurred. His death came as a great shock
to the entire student body at Princeton. Yet no greater stimu-
lus could have come to the Seminary for Foreign Missions than
the martyrdom of this one beloved by all, who worked so zeal-
ously for that cause while here. Instead of its being a damper
thrown upon the cause, men are hearing in it a clarion call to
rise and fill the gap left vacant. On Sunday afternoon, Novem-
ber 4, a memorial service was held and practically the entire
23
student body and faculty were there. It was one of the most
impressive meetings ever held in Princeton. Mr. Peak often
began a missionary address with the dying words of Charles
Young, who died while a senior in this Seminary, “Go to the
heathen, they cannot die as I die.” His message to Princeton
Seminary and the Presbyterian Church at large is now an invita-
tion, “Come to the heathen, they cannot die as I die.” One of
his last letters breathed a spirit of such large-minded sympathy
MRS. REBECCA (ilLLESPIE PEAEE.
with the Chinese that when it was sent to Sir Chentung Liang
Cheng, Chinese Minister at Washington, His Excellency replied:
‘”His words seem to me to have a prophetic ring. In his un-
timely death America has lost a noble son, and China a true
friend.”
Mrs, Rebecca Gillespie Peale was born in Cecil County,
Maryland, August 16, 1878. Mr. Horace Gillespie writes: “Her
father, George Gillespie, died when she was but three years of
age. She became a member of the Nottingham church when
24
fourteen years old. About four years ago she met Mr. Peale
and was married to him June 29, 1905, a few weeks before start-
ing for China. Mrs. Peale lived a simple, happy and cheerful
life. She was reared in a home where Christianity was a thing
to be lived. Whatever she did in the social and spiritual life of
the church was done freely and with pure enjoyment. She was
interested in mission work as in every other good thing that
came into her life. When she decided to go to China, she took
up her work with an enthusiasm which grew as she learned
more about it and of her husband’s devotion to it. Her character
was well summed up in a recent letter of a friend to her mother:
‘There are none of us who knew her, whom she had not helped
in showing how daily life might be made a religion, and how
God’s service might consist in doing our ordinary duties cheer-
fully and well.’ “
All of these beloved missionaries had unreservedly con-
secrated themselves to the service of Christ. They were ready to
go at any time that the Master called. They were faithful unto
death, and they have received the martyr’s crown. May God
give unto us all like fidelity ! In the immortal words of Lincoln
at Gettysburg, “We should ‘be dedicated to the great task re-
maining before us ; that from these honored dead we take in-
creased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full
measure of devotion ; that we highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain.”
THE WILLETT PRESS
NEW YORK
p
