First Word From Chang-Sha, China
IN a letter written by H. H. Winslow, April 21, and sent out from Shanghai by trans-Siberian mail, the Mission Board received the first word regarding the safety of our missionaries in Chang-sha, the seat of the recent disturbance in China. He says:— The trouble began with an uprising of the poorer classes there over the price of rice. This would have been comparatively easy to quell, had not between five and six thousand modern-drilled soldiers gone over to the rioters, and begun a systematic pillage and destruction of all foreign property. Two letters just received from Elder J. J. Westrup and Brother Cush Sparks at Hankow, give us the first particulars regarding the escape of our Chang-sha workers. Elder Westrup's letter follows:— “They have had a great uprising in Chang-sha because of the scarcity of rice. The mob killed the governor and his son, and burned all his buildings. They burned and destroyed all the missions. We are not definitely sure yet whether they have burned our compound and hospital, as we can not get any information from that part of the city. But it is very probable that they have destroyed them. They burned all the warehouses, wharves, foreign buildings, and the consulate (Japanese), and destroyed the property of all the Japanese. They poured kerosene on the river, setting it on fire, in an effort to burn the boat on which all the foreigners had taken refuge. Brother and Sister P. J. Laird, who had to go entirely through the city in order to get out, had indeed a very narrow escape. The angels of the Lord surely were by their side. Sister Laird arrived here with forty other missionaries last Friday evening at ten o'clock; but Brother Laird is still at Chang-sha on a boat, seeing if he can not in some way help our Chinese brethren, who are in great danger, as the mob threatens to kill all the Chinese Christians. Pray for them! Brother and Sister Laird barely got away in their every-day clothing, with no money.” Brother Cush Sparks writes:— “The Chang-sha situation is very bad. We had word from Brother Laird today, April 18. All the native brethren seem to be safe. He will probably come down here before long, as nearly all their things were destroyed. Dr. Laird is here. She is able to be up and around, but has to lie down part of the day. . . . “Fortunately, Brother E. W. Wolfe, with his wife and child, who had only recently joined Brother and Sister Laird in their work at Chang-sha, left the city the day before the rioting began, on account of Sister Wolfe's illness, and arrived at Hankow the day before the first refugees reached there. Thus they escaped the ordeal which so many others passed through. “Later despatches indicate that the movement has collapsed, and the agents of the government are capturing and decapitating the leaders in the uprising as fast as they can be brought in. The papers say that this has been the worst antiforeign trouble since the Boxer uprising.”