means the starvation of multitudes.



V

A SHENDZA IN SHANTUNG

THE spring of 1901 was not the most propitious time
for a tour of the province of Shantung. It was
shortly after the suppression of the Boxer outbreak
and the country was still in an unsettled condition. The
veteran Dr. Hunter Corbett, who had resided in the province
for a generation said, ``We are living on a volcano and we do
not know at what moment another eruption will occur.''
Students returning from the examinations at the capitol told the
people that the Boxers were to rise again and kill all the foreigners
and Chinese Christians. The missionaries did not believe
the report, but they said that it might be believed by the
people and cause a renewal of agitation as such rumours the
year before had been an important factor in inciting the populace
to violence. But the interior of this great province was
one of the objective points of my tour and I could not miss it.
Besides, if the missionaries could go, I could. Wives, however,
were resolutely debarred. No woman had yet ventured
into the interior and the authorities refused to approve their
going. In case of trouble, a man can fight or run, but a
woman is peculiarly helpless. Nor could we forget that the
Chinese during the Boxer outbreak treated foreign women who
fell into their hands with horrible atrocity. So the wives, rather