'Cbe Conservative *
THE MISSIONARIES.
We are learning a good deal nboufc the
Chinese in these days , and are likely to
learn still more. And probably before
we get through such of us as wish to go
to the bottom of the affair , will know
more about missionaries and their meth
ods than we do at present. These people
ple go voluntarily into foreign coun
tries , tell the natives they are all wrong
and their fathers in hell an idea par
ticularly painful to a Chinaman and
then presently our government has to
protect them with gunpowder and
bullets.
Minister Wu has this to say of them
in a recent article in the Christian
Commonwealth : "It is only when indis
creet Christian missionaries go to ex
tremes and excite the people that they
ever have- any trouble. " He says
further , speaking of the various bloody
persecutions carried on at different
times by branches of the Christian
church : "We have no such records in
China ; Jews , Mohammedans , Buddhists
have lived there peaceably side by side. "
As to the ways by which the mission
aries seek to establish their influence
among those whom they call heathen ,
there is abundant literature available t o
any one who wishes to investigate , and
mnoh of it will strike the novice as very
curious reading.
Take a few passages from the journal
of one who passed through Nebraska hi
the early days. This is right at home ,
and long enough ago for us to judge of
the efficacy of the treatment on the par
ticular heathen in question.
* * * The Ogallallah Indians
who accompanied us had a buffalo and
a dog dance , the real object of which I
could not satisfactorily ascertain. * *
* * An Indian came to me and
manifested that he wished me to in
struct him. I endeavored to communi
cate to his mind some ideas of God , and
sang the hymn , 'Watchman , Tell us of
the Night.1 He and those with him
shook hands with me as a token of their
satisfaction , and left me. He soon re
turned , however , bringing others , that
they too might hear what he had heard
. - < * .with so much apparent pleasure , and
they again shook hands with me. This
was several times repeated.
"When they were assembled , I read
to them about the relative duties of
husbands and wives. I told them that
when they marry it must be for life.
All but two agreed to go back to their
former husbands and wives. It was
interesting to see that they are ready to
practice instructions as soon as received.
"A chief who several times came to
hear , disliked what was said about , a
plurality of wives. He said he would
not part with any of his wives. He had
always lived in sin , and was going to
the place of burning , and it was too late
for him now , he was getting old , to
repent and bo saved ; and as he must go
to that place , he would go in all his
sins , and would not alter his life. Those
who are familiar with the various
methods to which sinners resort to avoid
the convictions of truth , may see in his
deep hatred to holiness , that the opera
tion of sin is the same in every nnsano-
titled heart.
1 'I told them it was right to meet and
pray and sing , and talk about God , butte
to dance on the Sabbath was very
wrong , and would offend God. A chief
kneeled down , and , with tears in his
eyes , said , 'If you must go away , do
send us some one to teach us the right
way to serve God. ' * * * One of
their chiefs stated to Mr. T. that they
had changed their mode of worship ;
that they do not now dance on the Sab
bath , as they used to do , but they meet
and sing , and pray ; and that since they
have been better acquainted with the
way to worship God , He hears their
prayers ; and that now , when they are
hungry , they pray for deer , and go out
to hunt , and God sends them deer.
"I attended worship this evening with
the chiefs and as many as could assemble
in one of their lodges , and explained to
them the ten commandments. My
method of instructing them was to give
the first chief the first commandment ,
by repeating it until he could repeat it ;
and the second commandment to an
other chief in the same way , and so on
through the ten , "
It would seem that a strong sense of
humor is at all events not characteristic
of every good missionary. It would be
interesting also to follow the subsequent
career of those ten warriors , each with
one of the ten commandments in his
inside.
THE TRUSTS AND THE PEOPLE.
Rev. Sam P. Jones , in the Manufac
turers' Record , discusses the trust ques
tion from the standpoint of the people
as follows :
The large trusts and combinations
already formed and being formed by
aggregations of capital are considered
hurtful to the masses and the common
people. This is a theory. Theoretically
a thing may be so , and practically it
may be very untrne. When we speak
of trusts and combines we think of the
Standard Oil trust , the Sugar trust , the
Tobacco trust , etc. When the Standard
Oil trust was formed I was paying forty
cents a gallon for kerosene oil ; I am
getting it now for ten cents a gallon. I
was paying twelve and one-half cents
for sugar several years ago , but when
the combines set in we got it at five and
one-quarter. When the Whiskey trust
was organized I was in hopes it would
put up whiskey where the poor devils
couldn't get it , but they have seemed to
cheapen that down to where they can
pay the government $1.15 a gallon rev
enue on it and yet sell it for $1.27) ,
which demonstrates that they are mak
ing it and letting the public have it at
about twelve and one-half cents a
gallon.
There is no doubt about the aggrega
tion of wealth , with brains controlling
it , that they can manufacture any arti
cle cheaper than it is or has been manu
factured on a small scale. The great
railroad combinations , many think , will
eat us up blood rare. Occasionally I get
on a little jerk-water road that is not in
the combination , and I want to double
my accident policies and be satisfied
with a 15-mile-an-hour gait and console
myself with the idea that I can ride all
day for a dollar , but when I get on the
Pennsylvania or Vanderbilt system of
roads , with their schedules forty miles
an hour , vestibule trains , with parlor
cars , sleeping cars , dining cars , I have a
hotel on wheels carrying me towards my
destination , and all this for about two
cents a mile. Give me the road that is
in the combine to carry me where I am
going.
Public sentiment is the safeguard
which is thrown around all aggregations
of wealth and all combinations of in
terest. The Standard Oil , the railroad
combinations , the Sugar trust are as
sensitive to public sentiment as the
snow-bank to the rays of the sun.
Trusts and combines will not hurt the
public , but stockholders and bond
holders may suffer later on , when these
great bulky institutions become un
wieldy and fall with their own weight.
Fifty thousand men in the United States ,
perhaps not more , are interested in the
great trusts of the country. Those 50-
000 men know that there are 70,000,000
of other people in America , and their
wisdom teaches them where boundary
lines are , over which they cannot go
without peril to themselves and disaster
to their business. No combination now
says "damn the public , " but they have
their weathercocks out on every prom
inent cupola watching how the wind
blows.
Of course , political capital can be
made out of such formations of wealth ,
and social orders may raise the black
flag to fight them ; but I am a thousand
times more afraid of demagogues and
politicians than I am afraid of trusts
and combines. Good government
which means not only the well-being of
the citizen , but the overthrow of all
that will hurt the citizen depends upon
good men in office , and we had better
pay less attention to what we call trusts
and combinations and more attention to
those whom we elect to office in the mu
nicipal , state and national governments.
Mr. Stead , in his book "If Christ Came
to Chicago , " speaks of the "Big Four of
Chicago , " and says of them that "their
methods are clean and their transactions
ore honest , but that in the road of their
success lies the blood and bones of the
victims over whom they have run to
success. " The successful man or com-