SHANG-TSAI HSIEN.- by H. W. Miller, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 6, 1906

SHANG-TSAI HSIEN.—

By H. W. Miller, M. D.

Some time ago I received a letter from the Board in reference to securing a location in a mountainous district, to serve as a place where the workers could go during the heat of the summer, and recuperate. This we have sadly felt the need of ever since we came here, and so there was a committee appointed to look up such a location. We found a place as ideal as we could wish, located in the region of a thickly populated district, and were able to rent it for a period of fifteen years, at a very small sum. We thought this much better than buying, for we do not want to get a large amount of money stored up in property in the interior of China until the prospect toward foreigners is more favorable.

After renting the place, the trouble broke out in this district between the rebels and the officials, and the people thought they would have to flee to the place that we had rented. But the people of that village became very angry because the man had rented it to us. We did not feel safe in going ahead, under those circumstances, so we have done nothing further to secure the place. But we still have the deed of rental, and we have learned since that there is a possibility of our being permitted to take over the property without any objection. If not, we have an investment of only ten dollars in it, and this will be returned if they do not give us a permit. Somehow, there is a way of securing things in China that is just the opposite from that in other lands; but by perseverance things are accomplished.

I can not express how thankful I am for the help of Brother and Sister Allum. It was a little over fifteen months that I had been alone, and during that time I was indeed a Chinaman, living as the Chinese do, at times boarding with them in their homes. You can appreciate how valuable an experience this is to one who works for them. There is something about the Orientals that the foreigner can not understand unless he can see them as they are in their homes. Not only was this a help to me in learning how the Chinese live, and how they think and reason, and to see their relations with their neighbors, but I was constantly learning the home language and the expressions not found in books, the lack of a knowledge of which, most of all, makes the foreigner's language strange to them. And these expressions very few, even of the old missionaries, have; for the Chinaman always tries to speak the best language he can before the foreigner, but when the Chinese are among themselves, they will talk quite a different language. However, the Lord saw fit to give me fifteen months of such training, but I have not felt that it was his will that I should continually be thus situated, and I greatly appreciate the change of having the company of earnest workers.

H. W. MILLER, M. D.