Merchant, missionary,
traveler and official all agree that there is yet more trouble ahead
before the West will be won into the confidence of China and _vice
versa_. The people who are studying the Reform Movement of the Young
China, however, and who stolidly refuse to study with it the general
attitude of the common people, laugh and dismiss with contempt the
subject of the possibility of further outbreaks of Boxerism in the
outlying parts of the Empire. But they should not laugh. The European
cannot afford to laugh, and, if he be a sensible fellow, knows that he
cannot afford to treat with contempt the opinions of the people who
know. The more we understand the vast interior of China and the
conservatism and peculiarities of character of the people of that
interior, the less disposed shall we be to jest, the less disposed to
ridicule, what I would characterize as the strongest and most deadly of
the hidden menaces of the Celestial Empire.
One does not wish to be pessimistic, but it is foolish to close one's
eyes to bare fact.
At the moment I am writing, in the middle of China, I know that I am
safe enough here, but I do not disguise from myself that the wildest
reports are still current within a quarter of a mile from me about me
and my own kind in this peaceful city of Tong-ch'uan-fu.
Pages:
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157