92 FENSIANG-FU AN INLAND TOWN 



of the pain which troubled him, replied, " In the 

 east end of my stomach ! " 



We left this hospitable mission station with 

 feelings of genuine regret, a regret which was 

 doubly intensified when we learned that on the 

 outbreak of the revolution the mob had risen, set 

 fire to it, and burned it to the ground with all 

 its contents. 



Our kind host and hostess, with their daughter, 

 barely escaped with their lives, and after great 

 suffering and many privations, eventually reached 

 Shanghai, with the loss of all their worldly 

 possessions. 



Mr. Steevens was kind enough to write, giving 

 me some particulars of the revolution at Feng- 

 siang, which are sufficiently interesting to bear 

 repeating. The restrictions on opium growing 

 had caused widespread dissatisfaction a feeling 

 which was augmented when the report was circu- 

 lated that the Mandarin himself, while supposedly 

 carrying out the restrictions, was secretly buying 

 as much of the drug as he could and reselling 

 it at a big profit. The news of the outbreak 

 at Sian-fu was the match which fired the mine. 

 The officials were helpless ; the local city Mandarin 

 was loathed for his avarice and injustice ; the 

 county Mandarin was a Manchu, and no soldiers 

 were available for defending the city. The secret 

 society of " The Elder Brothers " the Ko-lao-hui 

 had great influence in the district, and their 

 aims anti-Manchu, and at the same time anti- 

 progressive complicated the issues at stake. Their 

 idea is to rid China of everything Manchu, foreign 

 and progressive. 



