16
THE KING’S BUSINESS
a large tub, or “gong,” as the Chinese call it, which the Chinese men keep filled with water. We go to a near-by spring for our drinking water, which is excellent. “Mrs. Nonack and three children and Mr. Wilkins and three servants arfe here from Pi Yang, where it is intensely hot at this season of the year. “On Sunday afternoon the Chinese have meeting, and on last Sunday I was delighted to count 270 as they entered. Most of the women were dressed all in white—white pants, white ‘guadsi,’ dr outer garment, and black slippers. All the women here have bound-feet, but I have been told that after a woman reaches a certain age' it is agony to unbind them, and they never do so, except to put on clean bandages. The men also wear white pants and either light-gray or light-blue gown reaching to their feet-1-' of course the Christians only dress thus. The others are filthy and ragged, and most of them bare-footed. “All the missionaries wear white, as laundry is so very cheap. We pay 1% cents for each piece. Wilber wears white duck coat and pants, and these all go in at the same price. I told you eggs were 10 cents a dozen, but I was mistaken; they are only 5 cents a dozen.” Speaking of the marriage of two mission aries, whose names are not given, Mrs. Pike says: “Six chairs had been all decorated for the bridal party to ride to the church, but at the last minute the Coolies who were to carry them struck for more money, so they were obliged to walk. They cannot give-in to these Chinese, for they would soon get the upper, hand and haVe to be taught a lesson. Last summer they decided to raise the price of milk and meat, so the missionaries got along without their prod ucts for a few days and they came to terms. “Out of the twenty-one days we have been up here, it has rained seventeen, not all day, but part of each. I certainly wish it would stop raining, for things are so damp, our books and all leather things get mouldy.
“Bessie’s journey from Pi Yang to meet us at Hankow was made in a cart, and she was several days on the way. She spent the nights at mission stations, except the last, when she found herself without a place to sleep. She happened to meet a Chinaman whose father was a member of Mr. Nonack’s church, and he permitted her to go into an unfinished building, upon which he was working. There was no window and the floor was covered with plaster, but she put something on the floor and slept there with only fleas for company! She is looking very well. Everybody com-
MISS FLORENCE PIKE ing to or going from the mountains is com pelled to stop at that point, and they are all praying that God will move some one to build a mission station there. “In Hankow we stopped at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Deutch, of the Christian Missionary Alliance, where all the mission aries stay when in that place. Mr. Colby, whose wife died on the way over and was buried at Honolulu, is there studying the language. We went with him across the river to Wuchang—a typical Chinese town. We took rickishas and went through some of the narrowest streets I ever saw, as well
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