UNDER
MARCHING ORDERS
* 8 SU 03 ?
ETHEL DANIELS HUBBARD
■*£V
GIFT or
IL
• 1
Mary Pouter Gamewell
Under Marching Orders
A Story of Mary Porter Gamewell
ETHEL DANIELS HUBBARD
NEW YORK
YOUNG PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
1909
Copyright, 1909, by
Young People's Missionary Movement
op the United States and Canada
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
iii
381234
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
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
Women with the Scoop Bonnets " 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
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 m 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
vii
viii Illustrations
British Legation, Peking Page 157
Gate to British Legation, Showing Fortifica-
tion and Dry Canal " 157
Dr. Game well and Fortification Staff " 169
Sand-bag Fortification " 169
Ruins of the Hanlin Library " 177
Chinese Watching a Fire in the British Le-
gation f! 177
House in British Legation, Showing Bombard-
ment by Chinese " 181
International Gun, "Betsey" " 181
Last Message from Dr. Gamewell before the
Siege " 185
First News of the Relief " 185
Joy at the Coming of the Allies " 189
Troops Arrive in Front of the Bell Tower " 189
The Mary Porter Gamewell School for Girls,
Peking. " 207
Girls of the Mary Porter Gamewell School " 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 C.
Northup. 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 galled 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, white, and blue flag of the Christian
Church.
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. Eiding
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 1 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.
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, the 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 you 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, seems
very difficult of discovery. 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 girPs 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.
— • — . ■ , ' , ■ —
W>
^
From Yokohama -
Honolulu and*
'■[■■■■\rM'^W^' -*'•■• San Francisco
^^ > \ «■ — <*
Mary Porter's Journey from San Francisco to Peking
7
8 Under Marching Orders
cliored 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 throngh the lovely
Inland Sea, she realized that Japan had
beauty of nature on her side to help her men
and women become trne and strong and loyal
to the empire. Eleven days later she landed
in China, after the six solid weeks on ship-
hoard. 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. ' l The long, long thoughts ' ' of home
were vigorously pushed out by the perform-
ances of the donkey, which compelled atten-
Outer Wall of Pektxg
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 i 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 floors, 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 cornel The
Chinese wondered — some of her friends at
home wondered — but she herself never won-
dered. She knew.
A GIRL IN THE MAKING
17
n
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 Eailroad 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 Roberts," "Camp Hendershott, ' '
and others. On Rock 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
2£ 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,"
"The vacant chair," and others 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.
Ropes 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.
' ' 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, Eobert 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
Women with the Scoop Bonnets
Old Prison Hospital, Arsenal Island
A Girl, in the Making 29
hesitates 1 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,
he stopped nearly opposite her seat and said,
"I am looking for Miss Porter who is going
to China. Do any of you 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
in
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 npon Peking, and the clanging bells of
the camel trains which brought the supply of
coal from the western hills to the city were
a most 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
I desk was in one corner, and a medicine-chest
with its rows of labeled bottles waited in
trim readiness for use. There were pictures
S3
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 ' ' 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 l ' 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 or 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 dnst.
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 bnilding 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, ' since I know that God knows
about this kind of business and doesn't like
it, I am afraid to do so any more. 9 " It was
the same Hui An who, years after, was
burned to death because she would not desert
her post of duty. i i 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, ' ' 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 I" 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 vears 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.
6 • 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
IV
IN A PEKING CART
"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 was 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
Riveb Febby
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 gronnd a few feet distant.
Still farther on lay the nose, which was of
such great weight that no man conld 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 one of the meas-
ures, which was sung with keenest enjoyment.
The music is written in this way :
They sang it thus
mm
J_
<J
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." Eichly 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 Eiver is a novel ex-
perience for the foreigner, to say the least.
A crude flatboat 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 elephant now goes round,
The band begins to play."
If she talked earnestly to the women gathered
in a Chinese 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
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.
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
Koad" 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 i \ 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 mnch 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
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 woman 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 abont
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
Frank D. Gamewell Mary Porter
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.
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-tzu. 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.' 9
A CHINESE MOB
si
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. GamewelPs 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. Gamewell 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. J '
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. GamewelPs 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 I 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. ' * 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. Game well 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 chi]d by
the hand. Under pretense of being a friend
whom she failed to recognize, he skilfully
diverted Mrs. Gamewell 's 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 ' 9 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 hnrt. 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-
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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-
well's 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.
GamewelPs 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. Gamewell's diary: "5.45 a. m.
A Chinese Mob 97
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-ch'ing riot.
A CHINESE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND
A CHINESE CHURCH
vn
A CHINESE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND A
CHINESE CHURCH
"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 out 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 laborers 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 Und-E.h Marching Orders
ing in full measure 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.
A Chinese Sunday School 103
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 inck to receive them, nor
could they go beyond the half-open door.
They exclaimed, ' ' 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-faced
little folks ' ' who sometimes bartered the cher-
ished cards for food. One cold day Mrs.
Gamewell saw a child not more than six years
old give her 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.
Gamewell's 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 1 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 Sundat 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 : * ' 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 ?" On the streets
could be heard childish voices singing in the
walled courts of Chinese houses, "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
111
VIII
THE CENTER 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 you 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
a
n
Forbid-
den
City
IF
c i It y
c h I
N E S 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 ancient 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 Eussia. 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 Hsu 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 Hsu 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
Hsu 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 Hsu 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
^jm
*Oa
By permission of Dr.
Headland, author of Court Life in ('/,:•
Empress Dowageb
The Center of the Chinese Puzzle 123
matter if the heart of the reformer breaks in
the delay. If only he conld have possessed
that snre 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 t 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 f
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'uan (Fists
of Eighteous Harmony), or the Great Sword
Society. As the Chinese word for " fists' '
signifies wrestling or boxing, they became
known as Boxers.
|»iE<fr«*^g^»l*»***<«i|
"TV
^St
jf^^<lt4»Wfllfig<Ki; 5 jggggj
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. ' ' 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 can 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"). Bed 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. The
Boxer uprising was viewed as 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
1S1
IX
BOXERS AND BARRICADES
"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 which Mrs. Game well had con-
ceived 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-honses might be bnrned, 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
many. 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
" 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. Game well, 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. Realizing 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. Gamewell's 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.
GramewelPs, 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. GamewelPs 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,
GamewelFs was ripped to pieces for a pat-
tern. Two women did the cutting, while
several basted. Mrs. Game well 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 tbe cartridge belt was
added, tbe effect was quite tbe same as if a
tailor bad done tbe work.
On tbe 19tb of June a startling letter was
delivered to Mr. Gamewell by a swift runner
from tbe United States Legation. Tbe letter
read as follows :
"My dear Mr. Gamewell:
Tbe Cbinese Government bas notified us
tbat tbe admirals at Taku bave notified tbe
viceroy tbat tbey will take possession of all
tbe Taku forts to-morrow. Tbis tbey con-
sider a declaration of war by all tbe powers,
and bence tender tbe ministers tbeir pass-
ports, and ask us to leave Peking in twenty-
four bours. We bave replied tbat we know
notbing of tbis, but if tbe Cbinese desire to
act upon sucb information, and declare war
tbemselves, tbat of course, we will go as soon
as tbey will furnisb us tbe 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
warsbips had been anchored at tbe 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 ^thern 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
T 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 tlio
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
Turning into Legation Street from Hata Men Street
Boxers and Barricades 151
come. A steady confidence, born of the habit
of living in the presence of God, dominated
these men and women, foreign and Chinese
alike. An American marine watched with
keen admiration the conduct of the Chinese
Christians and remarked: "The missionary-
society that appointed those ladies to take
care of these Chinese, knew what they were
about for certain.' ' As the last of the Chris-
tian refugees passed within the barricades on
Legation Street, the semi-siege was over and
the real Siege of Peking speedily began.
BESIEGED BY FRENZIED CHINESE
153
BESIEGED BY FEENZIED 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."
'f ... • .'.. ■
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
seer Mouse aiuum> MfS$ block
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BJLOCl
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r^lfy stows
pt;v,'> r£A<.»e«s House
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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. Squiers, 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. Game well 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 1 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 were 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
MaeDonald. To prepare for such an emer-
gency, thick, high walls were built of earth
and braced by heavy timbers. Countermines
Dr. Gamewell and Fortification Staf
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
silks, 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,
in 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 npon 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 marin es 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." j 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.
THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
I CABLE MESSA
INCORPORATED
■Mil on the Me«aur« tlaoks pro.ldwl i.y th
THQ3. T. ECKERT. PresiAontjind, General toahager.
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CONNECTS »t*o w,th FIVE ANCLO-AMERICAN *« D ONE DIRECT U. S. ATLANTIC CABLES.
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LlMl
LIVERPOOL: No. 8 Rumford Street.
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RECEIVED at
fiUA,
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Last Message from Dr. Gamewell before the Siege
-4
TRANS-ATLANTlC v j r ^^^
European offices:
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1 ;:-'::
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"VIA COMMERCIAL CABLES," -. il
'lltf /allowing Cablegram received^
pubjert to the terms and eon il it Ion* p
the back hereof, -which are ratified and fireed to
WKB» OHCTOO IX
pejcim3 believed all veubers missioi 8afe well davis oameteu
First News of the Relief
The Coming of the Allies 185
It was more than a week before a second
commnnication 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. Game well
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 ! 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
■ ' ■" '■ ' :,BB- *^ ^"jf ^ J
■— . _fli*p
Joy at the Coming of the Allies
Tboops Abeive in Fbont of the Bell Toweb
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 ' ' a 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 ' i 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 Gate 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
'A. NEW WORLD
"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 i * 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. Bare 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.
Game well 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. ' 1 1 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
Chautauquan 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, ' 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. Gamewell's 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 ch'ing-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 desi)ised
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. GamewelPs 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 Maky Portep Gamewell School for Girls, Peking
B^flH^Ssfil *B
*i^^''W&^L
! W '
i
Girls of the Mary Porter Gamewell School (UrPER Row)
A New World 207
ch'ing, reached by the long, perilous trail of
the Yang-tzfi, 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. Game well spent almost half the
208 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 1 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
Tung-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, tune 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
Squiers, 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'ung Chih, 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,
held in New York City, December, 1901. To meet the
need that was manifested at that conference for mission
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of Christian Endeavor, and Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman
of the General Missionary Committee of the Epworth
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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
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The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering
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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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i. The Price of Africa. (Biographical.) By S. Earl
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3. Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. (Bio-
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4. Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. A study of
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5. Heroes of the Cross in America. Home Missions.
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6. Daybreak in the Dark Continent. A study of Af-
rica. By Wilson S. Naylor.
7. The Christian Conquest of India. A study of
India. By James M. Thoburn.
8. Aliens or Americans? A study of Immigration.
By Howard B. Grose.
9. The Uplift of China. A study of China. By
Arthur H. Smith.
10. The Challenge of the City. A study of the City.
By Josiah Strong.
11. The "Why and How of Foreign Missions. A
study of the relation of the home Church to the foreign
missionary enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown.
12. The Moslem World. A study of the Moham-
medan World. By Samuel M. Zwemer.
13. The Frontier. A study of the New West. By
Ward Piatt.
14. South America : Its Missionary Problems. A
study of South America. By Thomas B. Neely.
15. The Upward Path : The Evolution of a Race. A
study of the Negro. By Mary Helm.
x6. Korea in Transition. A study of Korea. By
James S. Gale.
In addition to these courses, the following have been
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i. Uganda's White Man of Work. The story of Alex-
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3. Under Marching Orders. The Story of Mary Por-
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These books are published by mutual arrangement
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formly and are sold at 50 cents, in cloth, and 35 cents,
in paper; postage, 8 cents extra.
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