A church
[Page 262]
spire is said to disturb the good luck of a neighbourhood--the
people burn the building. A rumour is started that babies in a
foundling hospital have their eyes taken out to make into photographic
medicine--the hospital is demolished and the Sisters of Charity
killed. A skeleton found in the house of a physician is paraded
on the street as proof of diabolical acts--instantly an angry mob
wrecks the building and murders every foreigner within its reach.
One of these instances was seen in the Tientsin massacre of 1869,
the other in the Lienchow massacre of 1905. Nor are these isolated
cases. Two American ladies doing hospital work in Canton were set
upon by a mob, who accused them of killing a man whose life they
were trying to save, and they narrowly escaped murder. But why
extend the gruesome list? In view of their mad fury, so fatal to
their benefactors, one is tempted to exclaim: _Unglaube du bist
nicht so viel ein ungeheuer als aberglaube du!_ "Of the twin
monsters, unbelief and superstition, the more to be dreaded is
the last!"
In China if a man falls in the street, the priest and Levite consult
their own safety by keeping at a distance; and if a good Samaritan
stoops to pick him up it is at his peril. In treating the sick a
medical man requires as much courage and tact as if he were dealing
with lunatics! These dark shadows, so harmful to the good name of
China, are certain to be dissipated by the numerous agencies now
employed to diffuse intelligence.
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