Thousands killed--Mr. Gammon’s staff of colporteurs--The American
Bible store in Pekin and the Emperor--Chinese translations of
religious and scientific books--Prosperous days of the reform
party--Demand for foreign books--Mr. Gammon’s ability--A historical
wife.
It has not yet been ascertained how many native Protestant Christians
and converts were killed during the Boxer movement, but although not
quite so numerous as the Roman Catholics, there is no doubt that
thousands were massacred.
[Illustration: COLPORTEURS OF THE AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY MURDERED BY
BOXERS]
Take, for instance, Mr. Gammon’s staff of sixteen colporteurs of the
American Bible Society store in Pekin, some of whom are represented
in front of their premises in the illustration. Fourteen of them were
killed. The keeper of the store escaped by taking timely refuge in the
Legations.
Mr. Gammon’s store was probably one of the first places to be attacked
by the mob in Pekin, as it was widely known and had quite an historical
interest. It was from this shop that in 1898, during the period of
reform, the Emperor ordered 140 scientific and religious books, of
which 129 were supplied to him, including 89 published in Chinese by
the “Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among
the Chinese.” Prominent among the translators of these books into
Chinese are Timothy Richards, Drs. Williamson, Muirhead, and Faber, and
Messrs. Moody and Young Allen. These volumes dealt principally with
Christianity. The other forty were scientific books.
The Imperial order was sent direct from the Palace, and great
impatience was shown even at the short delay required to send the
volumes from Shanghai. A eunuch was sent to inquire every day when the
books would arrive, as the Emperor was very anxious to read them, and
on reaching Pekin the books were taken immediately to the Palace by a
number of eunuchs despatched to the store for the purpose. The Emperor,
curiously enough, ordered of the store a classical and a mandarin
Bible, and he is said to have studied these books with great interest
and care, expressing admiration for the Christian religion.
There is no doubt that, about that epoch, the Emperor assumed a
favourable attitude towards Christians and their civilisation, and the
reform party then saw its most prosperous days.
There was a great demand for foreign books at that time, and Mr. Gammon
himself told me that, in the four northern provinces alone, he and
his colporteurs had been selling an average of 47,000 books a year.
The influence of the reform party was swiftly spreading, owing to the
Emperor’s attitude, and with it Christianity itself; for although not
all reformers were Christians, all Christians belonged to the reform
party.
[Sidenote: MR. GAMMON]
Mr. Gammon, himself a gentleman of considerable ability and
enterprise, has been of no mean assistance to the society in the
furtherance of their civilising work. He was a good Chinese scholar,
and was for three years instructor and drill-master in the Imperial
University in Tientsin. His work as superintendent of colporteurs for
Northern China kept him constantly travelling all over the provinces
in which the Boxer disturbances occurred, and he was among the first
to call attention in the American Press to the rapidly-growing
importance of the Boxer movement. Having returned late in May from a
long journey beyond the Great Wall, he called the attention of the
United States Minister to the grave state of affairs prevailing in the
region he had visited, and to the insulting and threatening attitude
of the natives everywhere towards foreigners and native Christians.
It is reported--not by Mr. Gammon, but from other sources--that this
information, as well as much more, was received with patronising
hilarity, because it had not been collected by employees of the
Legation.
[Illustration: BOXER LEADER CAPTURED BY MR. GAMMON RECOGNISING THE HEAD
OF HIS DECAPITATED BROTHER]
The grim illustration shows the heads of two Boxers beheaded at the
West Gate in Tientsin. To the right stands a noted Boxer leader whom
Mr. Gammon assisted in capturing and photographing. He was known to
have murdered thirty-two people. Some information was needed from him
regarding one of the beheaded, and he was led to the execution ground.
He was quite calm and composed until he recognised that one of the
heads swinging to the left pole was that of his brother. Seized with
horror, he trembled and shook, and cried with pain and fear, but a few
moments later regained absolute control over himself and said he was
now ready to have his own head cut off. It was.
It is due to Mr. Gammon to mention that, during the Tientsin siege, he,
with fifty native Christians, served with one of the British 12-pounder
guns. Moreover, Mr. Gammon, besides the historical Bible store,
possesses a “historical” wife, not that his delightful life-partner
is old--on the contrary--but that she was fortunate enough to have
escaped, when a child, from the massacre of Tientsin in 1870, and has
now escaped from the bombardment of the settlement in 1900.