Opening of the Friends Mission Station
“ON Monday felicitations began in earnest; fine complimentary tablets that (like shop-sign boards) were carried and through the city, and then brought to us, accompanied with what in China passes for a band of music, and followed by a deafening noise of firecrackers. . . . Other presents of strips of red silk, firecrackers, and small sums of money toward the buildings were sent by other officials and the gentry and neighbors.” This is an extract from the letter of a missionary describing, not a great national holiday, but a pleasant popular demonstration of Chinese townsfolk on the opening of the Friends (English) new missionary station at Sui-ling in west China.