THE KING’S BUSINESS
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to send for their friend, the conva lescent insane man, we did not learn, but in some way they had turned to him for help in this time of trouble. You cannot quite appreciate their anxiety unless you know the universal Chinese belief regarding those struck by lightning. Until very recently the Chinese were never known to attempt to rescue anyone who might fall into their rivers or canals. The reason was their fear of offending the river spirits who had evidently claimed this unfor tunate man, woman or child as a vic tim or sacrifice. So hundreds of lives were lost that might have been saved by an outstretched hand or a rope. But to be struck by lightning is a still more dire disaster, not only for the victim but for his family and friends, for it is a sure sign that the victim has committed some heinous • crime, perhaps secretly, and the gods have inflicted swift and terrible pun ishment. Recall to your mind the strength of family ties in China arm the interdependence of the father and sons in escaping future punishment, and you will get some idea of how this stricken family felt and what they would have given to save the life of this man that he might in some way atone for his sin. This, their extremity, alone could have induced them to turn to, their strange friend for help, for he was avowedly a Christian, having accepted Christ while in the refuge for the insane. How I wish I could make you all see the picture as I saw it that evening. Every detail in it spoke eloquently of facts that one can read about but can never realize until he sees them in real life. Let me try to help you to see the picture as I saw it. As we entered the door, the on.y door open that night on the street at 10 o’clock, I saw the interior of an ordinary dwelling of a poor Chinese. It was not the dwelling of a coolie,
he feared was dying. I asked the privilege o f going with the doctor and what I heard arid saw that evening has led me to write this account of one day’s experience of a young mission ary. Dressed in water proof clothes and carrying lanterns we followed our strange guide avoiding puddles and mudholes, in one place crossing a canal on a small ferry, winding through the crooked streets of the vil lage, none of them more than 8 feet and most of the only about 4 feet wide, until we came to the dwelling, place of the dying man. Chinese fear the dark or rather the evil spirits that roam about after nightfall, and all houses and stores whose fronts are open to the street in the day time, are closed tight at night and were it not for the muffled sound of voices or the clink of the coins in a gambling game, one could walk, through the streets at night and think himself in a deserted village. While threading the narrow streets on the way to this house our guide told the doctor the cause of this night call. When the heavy crash of thun der startled us at 10:30 that morning, I was seated studying by the fire place. The fire place and grate were of cast iron and I had thought at the time that my position at the foot of the chimney was not the safest one during an electric storm. Now from the lips o f our guide I learned that at the foot of another chimney another man had been sitting, not recklessly as I had been but ignorant of his special dan ger. That bolt at 10:30 had struck the chimney, ripped it open at the bottom and grounded itself through the man’s body. From the top of his head and all down his back he was badly burned and the bolt had shocked his organs as it passed through his body. The rest o f the family were uninjured and immediately laid the man on his bed. Just how they came
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