resaw and foretold more than two months ago that
it could not in the nature of the case be of long duration, that
it was a mere _ballon d'essai_--an encouraging proof that
Orientals are learning to apply our methods. But is there not a
deplorable difference between the conditions under which it is
used in the two countries? In one the people all read, and the
newspaper is in everybody's hand. The moment a strike or boycott
is declared off all hands fall into their places and things go on
as usual. In the other the readers are less than one in twenty.
Newspapers, away from the open ports, are scarcely known, or if
they exist they are subject to the tyranny of the mandarins or
the terrorism of the mob. Hence a war may be waged in one province
and people in another may scarcely hear of it. Chevaux-de-frise may
bar out goods from one port, while they are more or less openly
admitted in other ports. Not only so, the hostile feeling engendered
by such conflict of interest is not dissipated by sunshine, but
rankles and spreads like an epidemic over vast regions unenlightened
by newspapers or by contact with foreign commerce.

"Witness the massacre of American missionaries at Lienchow in the
Canton province. I am not going to enter into the details of that
shocking atrocity, nor to dwell on it further than to point out
that although the boycott was ended on September 14, the people
in that district were in such a state of exasperation that the
missionaries felt themselves in danger fourteen days after that
date. In the New York _Sun_ of November 5 I find part of a
letter from one of the victims, the Reverend Mr.
[Page 248]
Peale, written exactly one month before the tragedy. Allow me to
read it along with an introductory paragraph.

"'PRINCETON, N. J., Nov. 4.--A. Lee Wilson, a student in the Princeton
Theological Seminary, received a letter a few days ago from John R.
Peale, the missionary who, with his wife, was killed in Lienchow,
China, on October 28. The letter was dated September 28, and reached
America at the time that Peale and his wife were murdered. It gives
a clue to the troubles which led to the death of Peale. The letter
says in part:

"'"The interest in the boycott is vital to the missionaries. Heretofore
the Americans always enjoyed special favour, and to fly the American
flag meant protection; but it is different now. No personal violence
has been attempted, but the people are less cordial and more suspic