Show f CHINA MISSION HOMES 1 Every Christian Village is a Fortified Stronghold I MISSION HOUSE 0 A CITADEL It Stands in the Center of the Town is Surrounded by High Walls and Flanked at Its Corners by Four S t Towers Well Fortified Also There t arc No Doors Going1 in and Out is I Effected by Ladders Which aro 1 Each Time Drawn Back Within HowAlarms are Given Now York June 18Rcv C Frin of the Catholic mission at KlangNan where there is now danger from the 3toxers has written nn account of how tho members of his community meet all attacks of the natives Lie says Those sections of our mission which border on southern Chang Tung arc j f 1 no le > Infested with biinda of rohber and murderers than Ciiang lung itself These brigands organize In regujar f companies under a nupremc chief and subordinate leaders They live together In villages and districts which become their headquarters ordinary times they attend to their t usual work at I I homo and In the fields and behave to I all appearances like peaceful citizens But suddenly an order comes to take the field and then they march forth In a body Impose contributions on other I vlllagee burn and even kill without flcruple If they have a grudge against dome mandarin they assemble In sufficient suf-ficient numbers to form a large army and are not afraid to light pitched battles bat-tles with the troops sent out against them It Js not hard to see how much troublo such men can give and indeed do give to the missionaries But the missionaries on their sides have devised a plan for protecting themselves and their Christian converts con-verts which la not the least of their successes in China As soon as tho Inhabitants of somo village have been I converted tho fathers while attending to the duties of their apostolic ministry min-istry Bee that they are thoroughly drilled and taught to watch the enemy and defend themselves In case of necessity ne-cessity Time mandarins look with favor fa-vor on these measures which are ot great assistance to them and they are always ready to send reinforcements when notified of a threatened attack Thus it happens that when the marauders ma-rauders fall upon a 1 Christian village they arc greeted with a sharp fire of guns and cannon and are generally beaten back with heavy losses l To get a true idea of one of our mission mis-sion centers in the districts which the robber bands have hitherto terrorized I terror-ized at pleasure picture to yourself every Christian village as a small stronghold fortified at every point of vantage III tho center of the village stands the residence of the commander who Is none other than tho missionary i This residence is a regularcitadel surrounded I sur-rounded by high walls and flanked at Its corners by four towrs well forti I fled also There Tire no doors The going In and out IK effected by means I of ladders which arc each time drawn back within During the day tic father attends to his duties and the Chinese to their work At nightfall every one Is at home again and If clanger has been signaled they all retire within the fort sentries being appointed to keep l watch from the towers At the first cry of alarm the men are up In arms and the father directs the defense It the enemy has been reported in larger numbers thali usual the missionary has taken care to ask the mandarin for additional ad-ditional help and Is therefore weB prepared pre-pared to repulse the assailants An h result of these measures the brigands become little by 1 little discouraged discour-aged and leave the Christian villages unmolested while the missionaries win for themselves the love of the neophytes neo-phytes the confidence of the public authorities I au-thorities and popularity among Hie pracefully Inclined portion of the people peo-ple 1 |