" as having
collected indemnities for Boxer damages in China at the rate of three
hundred taels for each murder, "full payment for all destroyed property
belonging to Christians, and national fines amounting to thirteen times
the indemnity." It quoted Mr. Ament as saying that the money so obtained
was used for the propagation of the Gospel, and that the amount so
collected was moderate when compared with the amount secured by the
Catholics, who had demanded, in addition to money, life for life, that
is to say, "head for head"--in one district six hundred and eighty heads
having been so collected.

The despatch made Mr. Ament say a great deal more than this, but the
gist here is enough. Mark Twain, of course, was fiercely stirred.
The missionary idea had seldom appealed to him, and coupled with this
business of bloodshed, it was less attractive than usual. He printed the
clippings in full, one following the other; then he said:

By happy luck we get all these glad tidings on Christmas Eve--just
the time to enable us to celebrate the day with proper gaiety and
enthusiasm. Our spirits soar and we find we can even make jokes;
taels I win, heads you lose.

He went on to score Ament, to compare the missionary policy in China
to that of the Pawnee Indians, and to propose for him a
monument--subscriptions to be sent to the American Board. He denounced
the national policies in Africa, China, and the Philippines, and showed
by the reports and by the private letters of soldiers home, how cruel
and barbarous and fiendish had been the warfare made by those whose
avowed purpose was to carry the blessed light of civilization and Gospel
"to the benighted native"--how in very truth these priceless blessings
had been handed on the point of a bayonet to the "Person Sitting in
Darkness."

Mark Twain never wrote anything more scorching, more penetrating in its
sarcasm, more fearful in its revelation of injustice and hypocrisy, than
his article "To the Person Sitting in Darkness." He put aquafortis on
all the raw places, and when it was finished he himself doubted the
wisdom of printing it. Howells, however, agreed that it should be
published, and "it ought to be illustrated by Dan Beard," he added,
"with such pictures as he made for the Yankee in King Arthur's Court,
but you'd better hang yourself afterward."

Meeting Beard a few days later, Clemens mentioned the matter and said:

"So if you make the pictures, you han