Chinese Hatred of Christians.

Hastings Standard, Issue 102, 24 August 1896, Page 4

Chinese Hatred of Christians.

A QUACK ENDEAVORS TO STIR UP A RIOT. Shanghai, .June 1. How anti-missionary.riots -are fermented in China is shown very clearly jp tbe latest outrage at Ki&ngyin, in - which only good laek saved the lives pf a F»WI piri/ o£ Ejogliahacd Ameri-

cans in that town. A Chinese quack doctor bore a grudge against the missionaries because of some fancied grievance in regard to the lease of the land of their houses. To get revenge he planned the scheme of making- it appear that the missionaries bought the bodies of dead children in order to use the hearts and eyes for medicine. He took one of his servants into his confidence, and told this man, as a great secret, that the missionaries had offered him 20dol for the body of a child that had been buried the day before. lie offered the man half of the proceeds to help him. The two went to the graveyard, removed the corpse, and hid it under a pile of rubbish in the yard of the missionaries. Then when the mother of the child discovered that the grave had been robbed, the quack doctor appeared and led a mob to the yard, where, after some mummery, he pretended to locate the body, and had it brought out before the mob. Of course, the fanatical Chinese, with what looked like clear proof of the worst outrage known to the Mongolian, attacked and demolished the missionaries' houses, and the men and women connected with the mission only saved their lives by prompt flight.

After the affair was over some influential friends of the missionaries obtained the secret of the quack's plot from the servant, who spent his money on an opium debauch. While under the influence, of the drug he told of the whole shameful scheme. The quack, finding that he had been betrayed, pretended to make confession, in which he cunningly implicated the eldest son of the family that had begun the investigation. Though this man was innocent, he could not endure the torture to which all Chinese suspects are subjected, and therefore made a false confession to save himself. Though English and American warships have been sent to Chin Kiang, where the missionaries sought shelter, it will be long before any good feeling is restored. The worst feature of the case is the heavy penalty paid by the natives who befriended the Europeans. Doubt is felt here about the reported conversion of Chou Han, the ex-man-darin who wrote and caused to be printed the false and obscene attacks on the Christian religion which led to the murders of several missionaries. This man has done more harm to the cause of Christianity in China than all other influences combined, for his book, with its vile statements and its viler pictures, has been scattered all through the central provinces and up and down the great Yangtse river. When the Government made a pretended effort to suppress the book, Chou Han received ample warning so that he had time to remove nearly all the blocks and pictures from his native city. Where these blocks (equivalent to our stereotype plates) were sent has remained a secret, but an explanation now comes from the northern counties of Honan, on the Hoang-Ho river. A missionary writes that these unspeakable attacks of Chou Han on the religion of Jesus are being circulated in northern Honan, and that their influence is already felt in the increased hostility to all foreigners and the reviling of their religion. He says he has good grounds for the belief that the books are being printed from the old blocks at K'aifengfu, the capital of Honan. If this be the case, the whole of Northern China will soon be flooded with this pernicious literature, and we may soon expect to see the fruit of it in another crop of anti-missionary outrages.