She has had an interesting life and one not devoid of danger. In 1895 she
was wounded and barely escaped death in the Hwa Shan (Flower Mountain)
massacre in which ten women and one man were brutally murdered by a mob of
fanatic natives known as "Vegetarians." The Chinese Government was required
to pay a considerable indemnity to Miss Hartford, which she accepted only
under protest and characteristically devoted to missionary work in Kucheng
where the massacre occurred.

Conditions at Yuchi when we arrived were most unsettled and for some months
there had been a veritable "reign of terror." A large band of brigands was
established in the hills not far from the city, and we were warned by the
mandarin not to attempt to go farther up the river. A few months earlier
several companies of soldiers had been sent from Foochow, and the result of
turning loose these ruffians upon the town was to make "the remedy worse
than the disease."

The soldiers were continually arresting innocent peasants, accusing them of
being brigands or aiding the bandits, and shooting them without a hearing.
At one time accurate information concerning the camp of the robbers was
received and the soldiers set bravely off, but when within a short distance
of the brigands the commanders began to quarrel among themselves, guns were
fired, and the bandits escaped. A Chinaman must always "save his face,"
however, and when they returned to Yuchi they arrested dozens of people on
mere suspicion and executed them without the vestige of a trial. Finally
conditions became so intolerable that no one was safe, and after repeated
complaints by the missionaries, a new mandarin of a somewhat better type
was sent to Yuchi.

As it was impossible to do any collecting farther up the river because of