The Story of Lottie Moon by Cathy Butler Woman’S Missionary Union, SBC P

The Story of Lottie Moon By Cathy Butler Woman’s Missionary Union, SBC P. O. Box 830010 Birmingham, AL 35283-0010

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Dewey Decimal Classification: 266.092 Subject Heading: MOON, CHARLOTTE DIGGES (LOTTIE) MISSIONS—CHINA

ISBN: 1-56309-862-8 W043107•1004•2.5M1 CONTENTS

Author’s Note ...... 4 Cast of Characters ...... 5 Introduction ...... 8 Chapter 1: Arrival ...... 9 Chapter 2: Sink or Swim ...... 15 Chapter 3: Country Work ...... 20 Chapter 4: Eddie ...... 24 Chapter 5: A Quarrel Between Brothers ...... 30 Chapter 6: Home to China ...... 35 Chapter 7: First Claim ...... 40 Chapter 8: The Younger Generation ...... 45 Chapter 9: T. P. Crawford ...... 48 Chapter 10: P’ingtu ...... 52 Chapter 11: A Thousand Lives ...... 57 Chapter 12: Furlough ...... 64 Chapter 13: Gospel Mission Troubles ...... 68 Chapter 14: Boxer Rebellion ...... 72 Chapter 15: Schools, Again ...... 77 Chapter 16: Famine ...... 83 Chapter 17: Kobe Harbor ...... 90 Epilogue: The Tengchow Church Remembers Forever ...... 94

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON 3 AUTHOR’S NOTE

This book is not the result of new, original research into Lottie Moon’s life, and was not meant to be. Exhaustive research has already been done by, among others, Catherine Allen. Her book, The New Lottie Moon Story, is the main source for this retelling of Lottie Moon’s life. Another invaluable source for Lottie Moon study is Send the Light, a collection of the missionary’s own writings, edited by Keith Harper. It is hoped that this story of Lottie Moon’s life, told as narrative, will help introduce her to a new audience of Christians. Since it is narrative nonfiction, or story, some will wonder, is it historically accurate? The answer is—as much as possible. Lottie Moon’s letters are quoted exactly as given in The New Lottie Moon Story and Send the Light. The author has attempted to portray Lottie’s relationships with fellow missionaries, her family, and the Chinese as they actually were, according to Lottie Moon scholars. The descriptions of schools and country work are taken directly from Lottie’s own writings. But, to move the story forward, some things were condensed. The description of Lottie’s day in chapter 2 is not the depiction of one actual day, but a composite of many experiences and duties Lottie had on a daily basis—visiting, being questioned, learning the language, being called a foreign devil. The descriptions of homes, landscapes, and other physical surroundings all come from Lottie’s own writing. To her credit and our benefit, she had a gift for descriptive writing, which she used to make Southern Baptists “see” her China. With that said, all credit for the information on Lottie Moon should go to Catherine Allen and Keith Harper for their excellent work, and any mistakes are mine.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON 4 CAST OF CHARACTERS

Lottie and her family and friends Charlotte Digges Moon, known as Lottie. Born December 12, 1840, to Anna Maria and Edward Harris Moon at Viewmont, Virginia. She went to China in the autumn of 1873 and became Southern Baptists’ best known and best loved missionary. Died Christmas Eve 1912.

Edmonia Harris Moon, known as Eddie, was the youngest Moon child and preceded her sister as a China missionary. She left the field after only a few years due to physical and emotional problems, but her presence in China cushioned Lottie’s entry into the missions field.

Anna Maria Moon, mother of Lottie Moon and several other children. Anna Maria was a devout Baptist and taught her children to take their faith seriously.

Edward Harris Moon, father of Lottie, master of Viewmont estate. Like his wife, Anna Maria, he was a devout Christian and a tremendous support to his church. He died while on a business trip when Lottie was 13.

Orianna Moon Andrews, oldest Moon daughter. Orie, as she was known, became a doctor and worked as a surgeon for the Confederacy during the Civil War. She and her husband later settled in north Alabama and had a number of sons. One of these, Luther Andrews, became a frequent correspondent of his aunt Lottie.

Isaac Moon, Lottie’s brother, who settled in Virginia as a schoolteacher. Lottie was buried beside him in Crewe, Virginia.

Mary “Mollie” Moon Shepherd, Lottie’s sister, died in October 1876 while her sisters were returning from China. Her daughter, Mamie, was Lottie’s only niece.

Colie Moon, another Moon sibling, worked as a counter for the US Treasury Department.

Tom Moon, oldest Moon son, a doctor who died of a fever while ministering to patients during an epidemic. Lottie promised his wife that if anything happened to her, she would look after Tom’s son. It was not until she was released from this promise that Lottie felt free to pursue missions in China.

Crawford H. Toy, a brilliant scholar and one of Lottie’s professors. He and Lottie became friends and later planned to marry while Lottie was a North China missionary. She apparently broke off their engagement, saying only that the call of God came first in her life.

Foreign Mission Board staff Dr. Henry A. Tupper, recording secretary (now known as president) from February 1872 to June 1893. He was a strong advocate of women in missions and a good friend to Lottie.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON 5 Dr. Robert J. Willingham succeeded Tupper as leader of the Foreign Mission Board and was still recording secretary at Lottie’s death.

Lottie’s fellow missionaries W. W. Adams was mentored by Lottie when he came to Tengchow as a young missionary. He married Floy White, a WMU Training School graduate. Lottie “adopted” this young couple and was greatly loved and admired by them.

Dr. T. W. Ayers felt called to China after hearing of the deaths of two of the Pruitts’ children. Lottie became a family friend.

Harry Ayers knew Lottie Moon when he was a teenager in North China with his family. He traveled back to America with Lottie as a chaperone. Later a successful journalist, he credited much of his education and worldview to Lottie’s teaching.

Martha Crawford was the wife of T. P. Crawford and an energetic evangelist to Chinese women. She was well respected and loved by Southern Baptists, and by Lottie.

T. P. Crawford was the senior missionary at Tengchow when Lottie and Eddie arrived. A hardworking missionary, he feuded for years with Hartwell, and eventually broke with the Foreign Mission Board to begin the Gospel Mission movement.

Anna Hartwell, missionary and daughter of J. B. Hartwell, undertook schoolwork in the Tengchow area and had a long, honored missionary career.

J. B. Hartwell was constantly at odds with T. P. Crawford. When reappointed to North China, he became a longtime co-worker and friend of Lottie’s. He began the first Southern Baptist church in North China.

Dr. T. O. Hearn cared for Lottie during her last illness.

Sallie Holmes helped teach Lottie about evangelistic work in villages. Left the missions field finally to take her son Landrum home to the US for his education, and for health reasons.

Fannie Knight, the missionary upon whom Lottie pinned her hopes of continuing the important work in P’ingtu and the interior, abandoned her role with the Foreign Mission Board when she married a Gospel Mission missionary. She died shortly after her wedding.

Mr. and Mrs. Mateer, Presbyterian missionaries and friends of Lottie and other North China Baptist missionaries, were instrumental in early Christian work in the area.

Jessie Pettigrew was the missionary nurse called in when the Mission first realized Lottie was seriously ill. She was the first trained nurse ever appointed by the Foreign Mission Board, and worked at the Baptist hospital in Hwanghsien.

C. W. Pruitt, one of the younger generation of Shantung missionaries, was Lottie’s beloved and trusted co-worker. He married Ida Tiffany, a Presbyterian missionary who died two years

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON 6 after their marriage. In 1888 he married another Presbyterian missionary, Anna Seward, and with her had several children.

Anna Safford was Lottie’s partner in running a girls’ school in Cartersville, Georgia. A Presbyterian, she also went to China to serve as a missionary. The two made a point to visit and support each other’s efforts whenever possible.

Cynthia Wilson, missionary nurse who attended Lottie in her last illness.

Lottie’s Chinese co-workers Mrs. Lan provided a schoolroom for one of Lottie’s day schools. It was at her home village that Lottie and Eddie had their first experience in establishing village worship services.

Mrs. Kiang, a Bible woman supported by the Tengchow Baptist Woman’s Missionary Society, who went with Lottie frequently to visit and evangelize in the city.

Mr. Chiang, Lottie’s longtime Chinese language teacher and the leading deacon of her church. He was invaluable in handling business matters for the Mission.

Pastor Li was one of North China’s greatest evangelists. Mentored by several male missionaries, he nevertheless always remembered Miss Moon as his first teacher in the faith.

Mr. Mung, a deacon who helped with conducting services and evangelism.

Pastor Woo, pastor of North Street Baptist Church while under the administration of J. B. Hartwell.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON 7 INTRODUCTION

To overestimate the impact of Lottie Moon’s who could not or would not grasp the needs life on Southern Baptists is almost impos- of a lost and dying world. Again and again sible. Millions of dollars have been raised she wrote, “Oh, that Southern Baptists would in her name to fund international missions. wake up to their responsibilities!” Generations of missionaries have followed in She insisted that missionaries must have her footsteps. Yet for many Southern Baptists, furloughs (now stateside assignments), asked she is only a name. To understand what and even demanded that new missionaries be power she still wields among missions-minded sent, and to a great extent motivated Southern Christians of many denominations, one must Baptist women to organize for mission know more than her name. One must know support. her life. To the Chinese, she became a lady Charlotte Digges Moon, known as Lottie, teacher who would talk books, a wonderful was born December 12, 1840, to Anna Maria cookie maker, a critic of foot binding, and, in and Edward Harris Moon at Viewmont estate the end, a fellow sufferer. The Lottie Moon of in Albemarle County, Virginia. She and her 1912 who died of starvation was not the same six brothers and sisters were upper-class chil- Lottie Moon who went to save the heathen dren of a respected and well-to-do family. But “John Chinaman” of 1873. The Chinese had when Lottie was 13, their father died while become her people, and she wished only that on a business trip. she had a thousand lives to give for Chinese While Lottie continued to receive the women. finest education available to a Southern Her personal and business letters as well woman, she found few outlets for her abilities. as Mission journal contributions allow us to Like almost all Southern families, the Moon know much of Lottie’s life and thoughts. But, family’s finances were reduced by the Civil there are some things about Lottie Moon the War. Teaching then became not just a voca- woman that we will never know. There has tion, but a necessity. been debate, for instance, over whether Lottie Lottie grew up in a family that was often Moon broke off her engagement to Crawford torn by denominational questions and differ- Toy because his theology was unacceptable ences. Her father left the Presbyterian Church to her. Others argue her love affair was laid after a period of soul-searching and became on the altar of missions, sacrificed, as was her a Baptist, like her mother. When her sisters life, to China. Lottie’s only explanation of Mollie and Colie converted to Catholicism, why she did not marry was that God’s claim their mother was horrified. Lottie counseled on her life came first. her mother to show tolerance for her sisters’ And, perhaps, that is the most simple choice. This attitude showed up throughout answer for why this tiny woman has had Lottie’s life as she developed close friendships such gigantic influence. Not because she was with missionaries of many different Christian brilliant, though she was. Not because she led backgrounds. To the gospel of Christ as an unusual and adventurous life, though she Savior she remained always true from the day did. Not because she was a gifted communi- of her conversion in 1858. cator, though she was. She inspires us because When Lottie began her missionary career she shows us what happens when we put God in 1873, no one knew the impact she was first. going to have on Southern Baptist missions. What would happen if we as Christians She gave of herself unstintingly to the followed Lottie Moon’s example of putting Chinese, and harangued Southern Baptists God first today? One can only imagine.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON 8 1 ARRIVAL

A morning drizzle was coming down in Yokohama harbor when two small boats launched from the side of the steamer Costa Rica. Each boat carried four passengers, missionaries all eager to set foot on dry land after almost four weeks in the steamer’s close quarters. None were more eager to reach land, however, than a young woman with dark hair and eyes and a face pale from unrelenting seasickness. Lottie Moon was in her early 30s, a modestly dressed woman, remarkable only for her tiny size. She appeared no taller than a half-grown child, and now her eyes were wide with childlike wonder as she studied the Japanese coastline. During her growing-up years in rural Virginia, a deep sensitivity to nature and its beauty had been instilled in her. Now that sensitivity, coupled with her habit of keen observation, caused Japan to appear like a sort of fairyland to her. As the boat drew closer to shore, she noticed how the steep cliffs and sloping hills came almost to the water’s edge. The cliffs seemed to be giants dipping their feet in the ocean. Through the rain and mist she could see that some of the open hills were terraced, and others wore a deep green mantle of juniper and pine. “How could I possibly describe this loveliness to the folks back home?” she wondered. The boat landed and the gentlemen missionaries, Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Holt, gallantly helped Lottie and Mrs. Holt out. Since not all the Southern Baptist missionaries could travel in the same boat, Lottie had come ashore with a party of Northern Baptists who would make sure she connected with her party at the Grand Hotel. The sense of being in a fairyland left her when a swarm of rickshaw drivers surrounded her, clamoring for her attention. Each fellow seemed more insistent than the last, but the gentlemen waved them away. “We can walk to the Pacific office and buy tickets for the Shanghai steamer, then get a rickshaw,” Mr. Atkinson explained. Lottie and Mrs. Holt waited patiently while the men conducted business. When they left the office the rickshaw drivers descended upon them again, pushing and talking in a rush of Japanese, not a word of which she understood. Desperation was overtaking her when Mr. Atkinson swooped in and picked out a rickshaw for her. As she was bundled in she could not help but compare herself to a baby in a baby carriage. But she was safe, more so than poor Mr. Atkinson. Lottie looked around to see what had become of her champion and saw two drivers fighting over him. Mr. Atkinson was smacking one of them with his umbrella to try and stop the fight. Just then Lottie’s rickshaw lurched forward and, with her in the front of the line, the three rickshaws, each bearing a missionary, took off. Mr. Atkinson was left to fend for himself. For the first little while Lottie could only take in the sights of the narrow Yokohama streets and feel pity for the miserably dressed rickshaw driver, working like a pack animal or carriage horse for 10 cents an hour. As they rolled along, however, it began to dawn on her and the Holts that the drivers had no idea where their passengers wanted to go. Finally, Mr. Holt jumped out of his rickshaw and began gesturing wildly as he tried to make the drivers understand that Miss Moon wished to go to the Grand Hotel and they wished to reach No. 39. Lottie could see he was making no headway at all. Suddenly he looked around and exclaimed with relief, “There is a man.”

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • ARRIVAL 9 Confused, Lottie followed his gaze. A man? There were men everywhere. A lack of men was hardly the problem. Then she caught sight of the one whom Mr. Holt referred: a white, English-speaking man, who graciously agreed to translate for them. Soon the Holts took off in one direction, and Lottie’s driver took off in another. All the while the poor man raced through the streets, his small white passenger let out peals of laughter. “I cannot help it,” she thought, “it has all been so silly!” Finally, the driver stopped before a large building, which gave no indication of being either grand or a hotel. Nevertheless, Lottie confidently went inside. It was obvious to her upon entering that it was a hotel, but she saw only Japanese employees. She decided to follow Mr. Holt’s example. Looking around, she finally spotted a man who looked like he might be a native English speaker. Approaching him, she appealed for help. If the man was amused at the bold little woman with the cultured Virginia accent, he did not show it as he looked down at her. With his willing assistance, she was united with the rest of her party in no time. Then, it was back in the rickshaws, and for three hours the missionaries went sightseeing and shopping. Lottie admired rich silks and elegant lacquered wood. Looking through a selection of lacquered boxes she found one shaped like a hexagon. Opening it, she gasped with delight to see three smaller diamond shaped boxes nested perfectly inside. And it cost only $1.25! “What an exquisite gem,” she murmured. Yet, she reminded herself she must resist the temptation of so many gorgeous bargains. “But if I were headed back to America instead of on to China, it would be a different story!” At last it was time to head back to the Costa Rica, which was waiting to take them on to Kobe.

The Costa Rica steamed into Kobe harbor on a Saturday night, and Lottie bade good-bye to her friends that had been sent to strengthen the Mission there. On Sunday morning she joined the other missionaries for services at Union Church. A missionary visiting Kobe, Mr. Burnside, preached the sermon. She enjoyed Mr. Burnside’s sermon, and that afternoon heard her first sermon in Japanese. Moonlight glimmered on the waters of Kobe harbor by the time the exhausted but happy missionaries returned to the Costa Rica. As she moved about the ship the next morning, Lottie was delighted to recognize some now-familiar faces. “Mr. and Mrs. Burnside!” The Burnside family was returning to their home in Nagasaki. Would Miss Moon and the other missionaries be their guests for some sightseeing? Of course! When they reached the city, Mr. Burnside revealed his skills as a tour guide and his knowledge of his adopted home. With the gracious and sociable couple as hosts, the day flew by as if on wings. In the evening they had to return to the ship. “Just in time for dinner!” someone said, and Lottie groaned inwardly. At the very first lunch aboard ship, seasickness had struck her. The long formal dinners had done nothing to improve the situation. As a child of an old Virginia family Lottie was well versed in etiquette, but she chafed under the obligations of two-hour meals full of polite conversation and endless courses. The fact she fought nausea the entire time did not help, nor did the ship- board formality. But what did it matter? The crossing from Nagasaki to Shanghai was only 48 hours long. Soon after that she would be on the missions field of Tengchow and her darling little sister would be in her arms. Eddie had gone out as a missionary in April 1872, 17 months before Lottie. It was in great part Eddie’s letters from the missions field that helped clarify Lottie’s call to China.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • ARRIVAL 10 Lottie could not help but think of those she left behind in order to follow that call. Her little students at the girls’ school in Cartersville, Georgia, had wept when they found out she was leaving. It was easier to bear the criticisms of those who accused her of abandoning the needs of her own people to waste her life among the heathen. But at 33 years of age, Lottie had the maturity to know to follow God’s call, not gossip-mongers’ advice. Soon she would be on the missions field, where she would probably die. “The wind seems to be picking up a bit, isn’t it?” The passengers passed the time playing games, reading, and talking about all sorts of topics, including the weather. The wind had been quite pleasant, but now it did definitely appear to be strengthening. Before long the strong wind became a gale and the passengers went to their rooms. As the ship pitched and plunged, Lottie focused on staying calm, but that became more difficult as she was thrown about and even dumped out of bed. Soon that sound was overwhelmed by a groan and crack. Pieces of the deck were breaking off and falling into the sea. Finally, the rudder broke off and was gone, and with it any hope of steering the ship to safe harbor. Salvation was completely in God’s hands. Lottie noticed that the ship’s surgeon and one passenger were preparing for death by drinking countless bottles of liquor. As for the missionaries, they had all known when they left America that their lives might be sacrificed in any number of ways. Now they were peaceful, though there was nothing around them but the sound and force of the tempest. It seemed almost a living thing to Lottie. “What a mad waste of waters. It howls as if it wants to engulf us,” she thought. So peacefully and strongly did she feel His presence, it would have been hardly a surprise to see Jesus walking across the water to her, saying, “It is I; be not afraid.” “Is it my imagination, or is the storm lessening?” the weary passengers began to ask. The storm was beginning to weaken on the second night. “Make for that island,” the captain ordered, indicating an island close by. But then he changed his mind. With the shape the ship, its crew, and passengers were in, Nagasaki was the best hope. At 9:00 p.m. on a Friday night, they limped back into port. The crew breathed a collective sigh of relief; the missionaries offered up prayers of thanksgiving; and the ship’s surgeon sobered up. Sunday morning the missionaries went to worship and give thanks in Mr. Burnside’s church. When Lottie entered the little jewel box of a church, she was smitten with its charm. The seats were comfortable, there were stained glass windows, an organ, a choir, and five preachers. But, Lottie decided, the most wonderful part of the service was simply being in the house of God after such a close call with death. At last, the Costa Rica was ready to leave for Shanghai Sunday evening, and the trip was blessedly uneventful. On October 7, Lottie saw Shanghai harbor. Among the people milling about at the harbor were two middle-aged couples, all wearing the worn look of veteran missionaries. They were waiting for her. She greeted them with a sense of respect bordering on awe. Mr. and Mrs. Yates and Mr. and Mrs. Crawford were legends, having survived over 20 years on the missions field. Now they were in their 50s, but still on the missions field at such an advanced age. Most of their counterparts had either left the missions field by that age, or had never lived to see that many birthdays. As the cheerful party conducted her to the Yateses’ home, Lottie felt as if she were at a celebration. Except for Canton, Shanghai was the greatest hub of missions efforts in China, as well as a headquarters for US interests. She was really on the missions field, at last. She was touched by the missionaries’ welcome. They were incredibly happy to see her! As soon as Lottie reached the Yateses’ home, callers and invitations to dinner poured in. As charming as this was, Lottie yearned to go on to Tengchow. The Crawfords explained that

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • ARRIVAL 11 Mr. Crawford had to take care of some business matters in Shanghai; and since Lottie could not travel with him alone, Mrs. Crawford had joined him. Eddie had stayed in Tengchow to supervise the work of adding rooms to the Crawfords’ home—rooms for herself and Lottie. “Miss Edmonia is mastering the Chinese language with amazing ease; she is already teaching Sunday School and supervising a boys’ school!” Mrs. Crawford related. Lottie’s heart swelled with pride. Eddie had been named Robinett at birth, but when their father died on a business trip when she was 2, their mother had changed her name to Edmonia Harris Moon, in his honor. Eddie was 11 years younger than Lottie, and her big sister had helped educate this youngest Moon child. Yet, Eddie had taken the lead in going to China, and encouraged Lottie to come. When other missionaries visited, they also spoke highly of Miss Eddie. The male missionaries tried to sway Mr. Crawford to let her come to Shanghai. “She’s too young and pretty to be walled up out in Tengchow,” one complained. “Well, she had the opportunity to be the mistress of her own home here, I believe.” Lottie’s ears perked up at this comment. What were they talking about? It was only then she discovered that Eddie had turned down a marriage proposal from an attractive gentleman in Shanghai. “And she never let on,” Lottie thought. Oh, how she would tease Eddie over this bit of news! Mrs. Crawford soothed Lottie’s feelings. “We shall not let your time be wasted. I will take you visiting.” This would be the first step on the road to learning the intricate courtesies she must know. During the visit, Lottie was served her first Chinese tea. She took a sip, and tried not to gasp. Why had someone not told her that Chinese tea was served scalding hot? As they traveled the Shanghai streets, Lottie learned something else about the city. It smelled terrible, a combination of garbage and open sewage. No wonder so many missionaries succumbed to illnesses, with such a miasma of filth all about them. She did not think she could ever live inside Shanghai. Lottie did not have to do all the visiting. A Chinese lady paid a call on her, and graciously brought the new missionary some goodies prepared for the upcoming Chinese feast of the moon, an important harvest festival. Lottie peeked into the boxes, meaning to be polite and eat what was inside. The strange, oily food was too awful looking. She didn’t even attempt to get any down. Would she ever be able to tolerate such stuff? As the days sped by, a Chinese pastor who related to Mr. Yates made a social call. She wondered how much she could expect from a man rescued from heathenism who was now preaching the word of God. When he greeted her Lottie was a little surprised at his obvious refinement. As their visit continued, she quickly perceived he was a man of good sense, with a kind heart. Since she shared the view of so many that the Chinese were a clever people but with degraded culture and morals, the pastor gave her much to think about. To Lottie’s relief, she and Mrs. Crawford eventually boarded a vessel bound for Shantung Province. Mr. Crawford would follow later. It appeared he was still working out business matters of some sort. Among the many good harbors of Shantung Province, their vessel would put in at Chefoo, which had been just a sleepy little fishing village a few years earlier. Lottie knew that the Chinese did not welcome the presence of any “foreign devils,” but in 1858 some countries had used brute force to make the Chinese open certain ports. The Chinese also had to endure accepting the nationals of those countries, who would not be under Chinese law, but under the authority of their own governments. The American consul for Shantung Province was in Chefoo. Doctors, a scarce commodity inland, were also to be had in Chefoo. At the moment, to Lottie the important thing about Chefoo was that it was only 55 miles from Tengchow.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • ARRIVAL 12 While the city had many missionaries coming and going, the only Southern Baptist missionaries stationed in the city were J. B. Hartwell and his wife. Lottie happily met the couple, since Eddie had traveled to China in their company. Mr. Hartwell had left Tengchow for Chefoo, but he still had influence in Mission matters in Tengchow, since he directed a school and the North Street Baptist Church. Poor Mrs. Hartwell, Lottie noticed, was ill. She had taken sick on the trip to China and had been unhealthy ever since. The Hartwells had moved to Chefoo not long after arriving back in China with Eddie. Perhaps the move was for Mrs. Hartwell’s health, but Lottie would never be so nosy as to ask. She quickly found, however, that the Chinese were not at all shy about asking the most personal of questions. Some Presbyterian missionaries took her visiting in Chefoo, and Lottie soon found herself swarmed by Chinese children. Their black eyes and pigtails charmed her, but she could not make out a word they were saying. She looked to her Presbyterian hostess for help. “They are asking you how old you are,” the missionary explained. “You don’t have to answer,” she added quickly. “But, don’t be offended. It’s a customary question to ask strangers.” The woman quickly translated the rapid-fire questions. “Are you a man or a woman?” “Do you have a mother-in-law?” “What is your name?” Being offended was the farthest thing from Lottie’s mind. She loved these children! “I will learn how to speak to them myself,” she vowed. When the time came to leave for Tengchow, the women made arrangements to go over- land. Tengchow’s ancient harbor was so full of silt that foreign boats, which rode lower in the water than Chinese vessels, could not navigate the harbor. Only the light Chinese sampans could manage it. Lottie and Mrs. Crawford would take a shentze for the two-day trip. The ride in a Japanese rickshaw had not prepared Lottie for a trip in a shentze. If anything, it was more like the Costa Rica during the typhoon. She crawled into the contraption, which looked like a basket turned on its side, with the opening facing forward. It was suspended by poles, which were in turn attached to mules in front and behind the shentze. A cloth weatherproofed the basket and helped make the inside smotheringly close. Lottie reclined on mountains of bedding that, in theory, absorbed the shock as the mules walked along the rutted path, urged on by the driver who walked beside them. On October 25, almost two months after leaving San Francisco, Lottie arrived in Tengchow. Taking a deep breath, she relished the fresh air. She was grateful Tengchow did not smell anything like Shanghai, even though garbage littered the streets. The mules’ hooves clopped on streets paved with worn-out millstones. Sampans glided through a gate into the protection of the walled Water City. A pebbly beach led from the water’s edge to the large gray walls looming over the city proper. Lottie marveled at learning that the city walls were built before the birth of Christ. The only object rising above the uniform roofs of thatch and tile was an ornate gate, the Chee Monument. There were even walls hiding homes from the view of the streets. No home was higher than any other home. This, she also learned, was to prevent anyone in a taller building from spying on neighbors in lower courtyards—especially women neighbors. Was it any wonder that a city so ancient, a people so private, would despise the tiny foreign population? Six Southern Baptist missionaries, counting herself, and about that many Presbyterian missionaries lived in Tengchow. The city lacked even any foreign business interests. Lottie began to perceive that the Shanghai missionaries were not merely joking when

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • ARRIVAL 13 they warned that Eddie would go crazy in Tengchow. Her respect for the Crawfords, already immense, deepened as the realization of their faith and sufferings sank in. Lottie’s gaze rose to two structures towering out of place over the Chinese roofs. A Western-style church, complete with steeple, which she learned Mr. Crawford had built with his own money, was across from the Crawfords’ home, which now had its second-story addition. The shock of seeing these two tall buildings was forgotten when a young woman, taller than Lottie but with the same dark hair, raced toward her. “Lottie!” “Eddie!” Their meeting was ecstatic, even confusing. As they embraced they began to babble. There was so much to tell each other, so much Eddie wanted to show Lottie, and so much Lottie wanted to learn. But for now she was content to simply be with her sister. When the two calmed down, Eddie briefed Mrs. Crawford on the progress of the building. The upper bedrooms were livable. Each sister would have a study on the first floor, where they would meet with their language teachers and entertain guests. The whole Crawford compound was comprised of 36 rooms. When Eddie first arrived, the Crawfords had almost no warning of her coming, and she had stayed in a small room that was not attached to the house. Mr. Crawford had torn it down when he made the second-story addition. Lottie and Eddie had grown up on a fine Virginia plantation, but their house, Viewmont, was small compared to this estate. It was only later that Lottie learned the trouble that had come because of adding their bedrooms to the already sprawling property. For now, she was busy meeting the other members of the Mission, Mrs. Sallie Holmes and her little boy Landrum. Here was another, Lottie knew, who had sacrificed much for the cause of sharing the gospel. Sallie Holmes and her husband were the pioneer missionaries of North China. They had been part of opening the area after the treaties were finalized. When J. B. Hartwell and his first wife came in 1860, they took Tengchow, while the Holmeses moved to Chefoo. In 1861, Sallie Holmes suffered the tragedy of many missionary families: the death of a baby. Then just after she buried her infant daughter, another tragedy struck. A robber band killed her husband. The young woman, bereaved and expecting another child, refused to leave the missions field. She and her husband, like others, had counted the cost before giving themselves to missions. She gave birth to Landrum in June and moved back to Tengchow in July of 1862. Except for a short visit to America for Landrum’s health, they had been in Tengchow ever since. While Lottie learned these stories of hardship and sacrifice, a question began to grow in her mind. Why? Why were Southern Baptists, who called themselves a missionary people, sending so few to the missions field, and allowing those like the Crawfords, Hartwells, and Holmeses to bear the burden and the heat of the day, even to martyrdom? She would voice that question sometime; and though she did not realize it in 1873, Baptist missions would never be the same because of it.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • ARRIVAL 14 2 Sink or Swim

As Lottie strolled along the lane near Monument Street Church, she used her newly learned Mandarin to greet a child. She followed up the greeting with a smile. “Foreign devil!” the child shouted, and ran off. Lottie kept walking, and spoke respectfully to two women as she passed their gate. They stared sullenly and spoke to each other, knowing the foreign woman could not understand. “They say she has no mother-in-law,” one said. “Who would marry a woman with such big feet?” the other sneered, looking at Lottie’s unbound feet and strange Western shoes. Lottie kept walking, trying not to imagine what ugly things the women were saying about her. This was part of her work. After only a few days to adjust to the new culture, climate, and language, she had been started on the rounds of city visits. Most Chinese women did not leave the privacy of their homes, even to shop. It was considered indecent for women to attend church, and only the boldest or most faithful would defy convention and do so. This meant the missionary women had to be invited into private houses. These opportunities were proving rare, so Lottie went out of her way to connect with new people, in hopes of an invitation. She was starting to feel downcast when she met a friendlier group of women and children. The eternal question came up, but she was ready this time with the answer Mr. Crawford had supplied. “Do you have a mother-in-law?” “Mothers-in-law are too hard to get along with. I am afraid they will beat me!” This time her words were met with sympathetic laughter. The Chinese woman was at the mercy of her mother-in-law, and knew what cruelty she could deal out. After a few more pleasantries, Lottie left the women and went to meet Mrs. Mung, a church member helping her learn the proper way to make a call. They always went together to a home and first paid their respects to the matriarch—the oldest mother-in-law. Younger women and children would join them, and sometimes friends and neighbors would be included. Sometimes when they stopped by, the women were weaving or sewing. At such times the missionaries would talk while the women worked. Today, however, the mother-in-law was smoking an opium pipe. She quickly offered Lottie a smoke, as a good hostess should. “No thank you,” Lottie replied, again ready with an answer. “Women of my country do not smoke.” She thought wryly that even though she never accepted a pipe, she ended up smoking anyway. Most Chinese homes lacked ventilation and the smoke lay thick in the air. The walls were blackened from the years of accumulated smoke and soot. All Lottie could do was inhale as little as possible. Mrs. Mung took the lead in talking about Christianity. She explained the Resurrection at length. Lottie concentrated on shallow breathing and learning the language. When Mrs. Mung finished she looked at Lottie. This was her cue to read from the catechism Mrs. Crawford had written and used for years as a teaching tool.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SINK OR SWIM 15 The visit was a success in that they were treated cordially, listened to respectfully, and invited to come again to “talk books” as the mother-in-law said. As they were leaving the home, Lottie’s high spirits were dashed by a sight that she would never come to accept: a little girl, beautiful and bright, weeping in pain because of her bound feet. Bandages had been put on her feet in such a way that the toes were bending under and the bones, as they grew, would break. It was agony. Lottie knew the child would receive no sympathy. Other women in the family were drag- ging themselves along on the deformed claws that Chinese men considered the acme of feminine beauty. Lottie had already written Dr. Tupper at the Foreign Mission Board on the subject. “Their deformed feet and tottering walk are but a type of their narrow minds and degraded morals,” she said. When Chinese women received a Christian education, they would gradually give up such things as opium smoking and foot binding. “The greatest blessing we could bestow upon this people is the Christian education of the future wives and mothers.” When the work grew hard and Lottie wanted to shut out the sight of so many Chinese faces, she sustained herself with that thought. Later, at home with Eddie, Lottie talked more about the need for women’s education. “Some day we will have the kind of school for girls we want,” they told each other. That kind of school was a collegiate level school for upper-class girls. In Virginia, Lottie and Eddie had both graduated from such schools, Lottie from Albemarle Female Institute in Charlottesville, and Eddie from Richmond Female Institute. Such a dream was for a day far off, they knew. Chinese girls were married off at a young age, when American girls were still considered children. Families felt education was wasted on a daughter who would take that education to her husband’s family. They should instead be at home doing the family’s menial chores and having their feet bound. Then, when the girl’s groom was ready to claim her, she must be ready to go to him at once. School would interfere with all that. Putting aside her dreams for the moment, Lottie went to her study to meet with the language teacher. While Lottie was not the prodigy Eddie was at learning Mandarin, she was far from slow. Mrs. Crawford, herself fluent, attested to Lottie’s ability. The girl who had amazed her professors with her knowledge of biblical Greek and modern French was now the mature woman speedily learning the written language. This was something few Americans bothered to do. During her lesson, her teacher pointed out the Chinese characters with his long fingernails and pronounced them as he went. There were few, if any, explanations in English. It was Lottie’s job to learn Mandarin, not his job to learn English. There was never a question of her learning to write the characters; some were made with as many as 17 separate brush strokes. It was the work of decades for an educated Chinese to learn writing in-depth. Lottie would always need a teacher to help her put things into written Chinese. She bent to the task of language study with all her considerable energy, but the oral part was slow going. Mandarin and all its many dialects were tonal; mispronounce a tone and the speaker got the whole word wrong. Much time was spent with the teacher drilling the student in learning the tones. After the taxing lesson Lottie dragged herself upstairs to rest. She had seen enough in six months on the missions field to know that overwork had killed or crippled many missionaries. If she wanted to be of use to the Lord long-term, she had to take care of herself, so early on she determined to rest when she needed it. And, she had to admit to herself, she must get away from everything sometimes, even if only to withdraw into the privacy of her own thoughts and prayers. She loved the Christians

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SINK OR SWIM 16 and her fellow missionaries. The climate in Tengchow was wonderful. She knew she was where God wanted her to be. Still, the constant sounds of Chinese being spoken, the endless personal questions, the smoke, the food, the dark eyes filled with hatred or curiosity, and the awful stress of country work were almost more than she could take some days. “I am tired of being called a foreign devil,” she thought. Just a few days earlier a group of soldiers had surrounded her and Eddie. The soldiers had jostled and pushed them, cursed, and threatened to kill them. She knew many in the city would welcome such an action. “They would vent their hatred of us with bloodshed if they dared.” Only the treaties with foreign countries kept foreigners safe. The Chinese knew they would be attacked if foreigners were attacked. She and Eddie had done what they always did, tried to speak kindly and gently. Finally the soldiers let them go. But, she was trying to rectify one reason their immediate neighbors hated them. It had to do with the room she was living in. Their bedrooms were on the second floor of the addition Mr. Crawford had built. From her window, she could look down into neighboring courtyards, if she wanted to. As much as Lottie esteemed Mr. Crawford, even she already knew that the Chinese could not abide the idea of foreigners spying on them. It was not until a while after Lottie arrived that Eddie told her Mr. Crawford had been forced to protect his property with force against a mob who tried to attack the house when they saw the addition going up. Missionaries had literally held them off with guns. The first week she was in the Crawfords’ home, Lottie wrote Dr. Tupper at the Foreign Mission Board to ask him to encourage the Southern Baptist women to fund a house for herself and Eddie. Besides the issue of the second-story bedrooms, Lottie argued that every missionary home was another entry point into the city. When they began their girls’ school, they wanted it in their own place. She was too much a lady to tell the other reason she was determined to move out. Americans, like the English, felt it was only proper for unmarried women to live with a married couple as chaperones and protectors. This was not the Chinese way of thinking. To her neighbors it looked as if Mr. Crawford had installed two young concubines in the upstairs bedrooms. They could hardly spread the gospel and encourage morality with a reputation like that! Lottie lifted up these concerns in prayer, as she did with all her concerns, and then went to sleep. The Lord Who sent her to China would make a way.

April came to Tengchow, and with it the springtime. Lottie welcomed warmer, sunnier days. The climate in North China, she had discovered, was much more severe than it was in the same latitudes in the US. “When they do send new missionaries, I am going to tell the Board to make sure they have plenty of flannel undergarments!” she vowed. Her first winter had made her wish she had brought more of those wonderful items. At the same time spring was reviving the land and the Chinese, a letter came that revived Lottie’s hope for a home. She opened a letter from Dr. Tupper and found he had enclosed a letter from the women of the Second Baptist Church of Atlanta, asking about her work and offering to help fund her house! Lottie dashed off a letter to the church, describing her work and suggesting they coordinate fund-raising efforts with the ladies’ societies in Cartersville and Albany, both of which were providing her support. Anything above what was raised for salary could go to the house fund— if, she added, the societies wanted it that way. Then she wrote back to Dr. Tupper, showing her faith in the women of Georgia. “I am convinced that they will not be satisfied with merely having a missionary in the field, but that they will place at my command such facilities as are necessary for the work.”

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SINK OR SWIM 17 While Lottie was happy at the progress on her house fund, she still grappled with the shock of realities on the missions field. She received no training before going, and little training when she arrived. The situation into which she had been thrust was more dire than anyone had told her. Now she knew why the missionaries had greeted her like a long-lost daughter. They had been desperate. She and Eddie were the first new workers for the North China Mission since the Civil War. The veterans were tired and overworked and had little time for handholding or coddling. It had been sink or swim from the first week. Lottie could not know the impression she had made on the Crawfords. She might have felt better if she had known that within her first month there, Mr. Crawford had written to Dr. Tupper: “She will prove a true missionary, or I’m a poor judge of character.” Nor could she know that in her diary Mrs. Crawford had written, “Miss L. Moon is a highly cultivated, very pious, self-sacrificing woman.” All Lottie knew was that she loved her work but wanted more. She taught the children in Sunday School, sat with women who dared come to church, and taught catechism to a few who were serious about Christianity. There were city visits and country tours, and letters to write to stir up interest back home. Still, her energy and power had not found enough of an outlet. She yearned to do more. It grieved her to know that while she wished to do more for the Lord, Baptist women in America seemed content to do little. “Oh, that Southern Baptists would wake up to their responsibilities!” she said and wrote. Yet, fair-minded as she was, Lottie admitted that it was her arrival on the missions field that had shown her how much work there was to be done, how great a sacrifice must be made. If only those in America could see that Presbyterians and Northern Baptists were sending numbers of men in the prime of life as missionaries to China. And what were Southern Baptists doing? Leaving three single women—one with a child—and exhausted couples to do the work of evangelizing hundreds of villages and thousands of city dwellers. What would happen if one of them died or collapsed? Mr. Crawford, all the missionaries knew, was a likely candidate for that. Their Presbyterian friends, who were also dealing with a missionary suffering nervous prostration, had noticed Mr. Crawford’s condition and were worried about him. A highly excitable person under the best of circumstances, he was now in desperate need of a rest before his nerves were shattered completely. But who, Lottie wondered, would take his place while he rested? Chinese deacons did an admirable job leading church services when he was away on business, but they could not do everything. She determined to shake off such morbid thoughts for the moment and think of happier things, like the upcoming party at Mr. and Mrs. Mateers’ house. The Mateers were pillars of the Presbyterian Mission and often opened their home to members of both missions for parties. The Crawfords would then take their turn hosting the next party. It was a tame event as parties went, Lottie supposed, but for that little time Lottie could almost feel she was in America again. There would be music and singing, charades and jokes, and a chance to speak English instead of laboring to express her thoughts in Chinese. Not that she wanted to return to America. She just missed it, along with her brothers and sisters and friends there. The ladies of her special missionary society in Cartersville had not written her in months. If only they knew how much letters meant to missionaries! Lottie caught herself sinking into unhelpful thoughts again, and shook off the mood. She knew that activity sometimes changed thoughts, just as thoughts sometimes changed one’s activity. Taking her trusty umbrella, she went out for a walk on the broad city walls.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SINK OR SWIM 18 Perhaps later she would collect shells or work on some embroidery. “Who knows?” she asked herself with a little smile as she left the house for her walk. “Perhaps today will be the day someone calls me foreign teacher instead of foreign devil!” When that day came, she would know she had really begun to swim.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SINK OR SWIM 19 3 Country Work

As Lottie gained confidence in her language skills, she traveled more into the countryside around Tengchow. Her first taste of the work had come in the first month after her arrival. One November morning as Lottie sat grinding away at language study, Mrs. Crawford had announced, “We are going on a picnic, Miss Moon.” The previous week’s cold weather had gone, and the air had turned warm enough for a pleasant lunch outdoors. The sky was a beautiful clear blue, and a picnic sounded delightful. But Lottie wondered if it was right to take a day away from language study for pleasure. Mrs. Crawford quickly explained that the ladies of the Mission were going on a one-day evangelistic tour of some villages and would take their lunch. Therefore, it could be considered a picnic. “And what better way to study the language than to mingle with the people,” Lottie told herself. Her guilt at abandoning language study for the day vanished. To her pleasure, the trip was going to be made in sedan chairs carried by coolies rather than in the awful shentze. A Chinese deacon from the Monument Street Church would walk along with them. Mrs. Holmes, who loved country work and never seemed to tire, would take the lead, riding her braying donkey. Though he was loud, Lottie admired the little fellow for he did not bite, kick, or act in any way ungentlemanly. And what if he was loud from time to time, she thought. “Does he not have a right to express himself, too?” Lottie would never forget that day. When she returned home she wrote about it at length for the Foreign Mission Journal so that Baptists at home could understand and feel the great need for missionary work in North China. Before they had gotten well away from the Mission compound they met a Chinese Christian woman who was bringing a little boy there to start school. Lottie thought he was most forlorn looking. He had been intended for the priesthood, so lacked the pigtail most Chinese boys had. He also lacked decent clothing. Some matting and animal skin was thrown over his shoulders and he held it in place. This was his only covering from the waist up. He was terrified of the foreigners, but had surrendered to them because he had nowhere else to go. Lottie knew he would be clothed and started in school immediately. The group went on its way. They first turned onto Main Street and went through the open market where vendors sold huge baskets of vegetables and peddlers carried baskets of goods swinging from poles. Mule trains laden with fuel and grain bumped and jostled their way through the gate. Goods were displayed in the shops, the street, and even on the bridge. When the group heard the tinkling of bells they automatically moved over to make room for the shentze that would soon be passing by. When they got into the suburbs they expected a quieter mood, but suddenly found themselves in the middle of a laughing throng of both men and women. Some looked curiously at the missionaries, but only laughed and said, “They are going to the theater.” The missionaries knew then that the people were waiting for a theater performance to begin, and were in a holiday mood. It would be useless to compete with the theater, so they traveled to a quieter place. When the coolies lowered her chair to the ground, Lottie began her main function of attracting onlookers. Men and boys gathered around her as the Chinese deacon launched

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • COUNTRY WORK 20 into a sermon. Lottie was gratified to see all listened respectfully, several were curious, and one listener seemed intently interested. The women, unfortunately, were shy and ran back into their houses when the missionaries approached. Going on in search of listeners, the missionaries ended up in the back of the theater audience and to one side of the makeshift stage. The crowd noticed them then and began to listen with interest to one chair bearer give his testimony. The status of a chair bearer being low in Chinese society, he was soon being mocked by a jeering young man. The audience stopped listening and started laughing. It was time to move on. As they ranged farther and farther from Tengchow, Lottie noticed that women were much freer to appear in public and the villagers were friendlier than the city folk. She liked the more open atmosphere. In one village she had the privilege of being the first foreigner the people had ever seen. In another, they stopped for lunch but could hardly eat for the press of people commenting loudly on Lottie’s use of a knife and fork. They were aghast at seeing the foreigners drink milk and eat butter. While the crowd was still enthralled, the missionaries began teaching the women and children the hymn “Happy Land.” When one child sang part of the song perfectly, the reward was a hymn sheet. The paper was that best of all colors to the Chinese—red. The effect was as the missionaries had hoped. When the other children saw the red paper, they doubled their efforts to learn the song. Lottie was just thinking of all the hundreds of villages like this one that needed the gospel when Mrs. Holmes said, “We can’t stay here all day. Let’s go!” In another village Lottie stayed with Mrs. Holmes while Mrs. Crawford went her own way. As women began to open their doors and listen to the missionaries, a man appeared, his face dark with anger. The deacon tried to share the gospel with him, but he only grew more scornful. He brusquely ordered the women to avoid the foreigners. The women obediently melted into the darkness of their homes. Undaunted, Mrs. Holmes led her to Mrs. Crawford, who had an ample supply of listeners. They taught and answered questions until it was time to leave. As Mrs. Holmes went back to her faithfully waiting donkey she declared, “This village is conquered!” Worn-out from the long day’s efforts, Lottie still rejoiced at what had been accomplished. As the sun set, they journeyed home and Lottie imprinted in her memory the sight of the calm blue sea in front of them, strewn with purple islands. On the horizon was a gradually darkening sky. Laborers were still in the fields, using every precious moment to work while there was still light. She saw that the slanting evening sun fell with mingled light and shadow upon the grass of the Chinese cemeteries they passed. China was a wonderful place; it had been a wonderful day; and she, Lottie Moon, had been part of it.

Her next country trip, which had only just taken place during the Chinese New Year’s holiday, had been tougher on Lottie. It had been no picnic. The trip happened because of a parent with children in both Mrs. Holmes’s and Mrs. Crawford’s schools. Mrs. Lan went home to her village, eight miles from Tengchow, to visit during the holiday. Her neighbors proved so hungry for the gospel that she could not help all the seekers herself, and called for reinforcements. Mrs. Holmes and Eddie joined her first, Eddie riding in a sedan chair and Mrs. Holmes on her donkey. Soon Mrs. Crawford, a Presbyterian missionary, and Lottie followed. The sight that met them when they arrived was beyond belief. It seemed the Lans’ house was being mobbed. It was—by inquirers. On the streets men and women stood in groups

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • COUNTRY WORK 21 studying hymns and the catechism. Mrs. Lan had not exaggerated the need for help. The harvest was plentiful. Even so, the three older missionaries could not tarry for long; they were needed elsewhere. With dismay Lottie digested the news that she and Eddie would stay a few more days to continue the work. Lottie’s mind told her they would be safe. Mrs. Lan enjoyed status in the village. Eddie knew the language. Lottie’s heart, however, sank as the other women headed back. She had never felt so lonely. She even felt homesick for Tengchow. “Stop it,” she told herself. “You can still work even if you don’t say everything perfectly.” On Sunday the village had its first-ever worship service, with a Chinese girl leading the singing and a Chinese preacher. Mr. Mung, the deacon, had come to deliver the message. This service was doubly wonderful because Sunday in China was a thoroughly secular weekday. Lottie was still trying to adjust to a Sunday with an open market and buyers, sellers, and mule trains doing business as usual. People had no idea of it as a holy day and they worked, gossiped, and played as usual. But this very ignorance made going to church in China that much sweeter. She worshipped with the Chinese Christians and helped answer the questions of those hearing the gospel for the very first time. Usually this happened at the Monument Street Church. How wonderful it was now happening in this village! As happy as they were at how the service turned out, Eddie and Lottie ached to go home. On Monday they bade good-bye to their new friends, climbed into their sedan chairs, and headed to Tengchow. Their high spirits soon ebbed as the cold sea breeze blew into their faces. The temperature kept dropping, and soon their skin stung with the cold. When they breathed, it was like inhaling ice. After an eternity they reached home. Eddie was already getting sick, and Lottie fell into bed gratefully. She had done without even the most common comforts. She definitely could not face more country work until she had time to toughen. Lottie recuperated quickly from the trip, but Eddie sickened with a cough and fever. The diagnosis—typhoid pneumonia. No more cold weather trips for her, ever. It was doubtful, the missionaries agreed, whether Eddie could do country work at all. Their fears proved to be true.

During the first half of 1874, something happened in the Presbyterian Mission that reminded the Baptist missionaries that when there is a great advance of the gospel, persecution often follows. Mr. Corbett had made great progress in one of his outposts in the country. Almost a whole village had accepted Christ. There was so much discipling to be done that the Presbyterian brother sent for some household goods and his children, planning to spend the winter there. Persecution arose, and the missionary appealed to the local magistrate for protection, as the treaty was supposed to provide for him. The magistrate pleaded that he, too, was afraid of the mob, and could do nothing. Mr. Corbett stayed until he was attacked and stoned. His fellow Christians in the village were also attacked, some severely. Fearing for his children, Mr. Corbett fled in the middle of the night, just in the nick of time. The next morning, an enraged mob bent on murder stormed the inn he had just left. The Baptist missionaries sorrowed for Mr. Corbett, feared for the Chinese Christians in the village, and fumed when they found out the final decision by the Chinese authorities. After reporting the attack, Mr. Corbett was told the mob had gone to see him peaceably to question him about reports of Christians kidnapping people and forcing them to convert. He was accused of using vulgar language to some Chinese people who had only wanted to get a better look at his children. At no time, according to the authorities, had anyone offered wanton violence to the missionary.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • COUNTRY WORK 22 Lottie, as indignant as the other missionaries at poor Mr. Corbett’s treatment, still tried to be fair. She later wrote, “It is easy to denounce these outrages in no measured terms, but we blush to think that they have their counterparts in the justice meted out to the Chinese in San Francisco.”

Despite persecution and danger, the work must go on. As the fall of 1874 came around, Lottie attempted country work again, partnered with Mrs. Holmes. On their autumn trip, Lottie rode a donkey also, sidesaddle, of course, as a lady should. They packed bedrolls and food. As they traveled, Lottie was reminded of the scenes of the central United States. Then, she had viewed the scenery from train windows. Now she was in the middle of it—on a donkey! Since it was harvest time, few people could afford to stop working long enough to hear the gospel. Instead, Lottie watched the villagers cut and thresh grain, in the same way it had been done there for centuries. With the blue autumn sky above and the sunlight winking on the far-off sea, such a trip was a nature lover’s dream. The dream ended abruptly when they reached the village where they would spend the night. They had been offered lodging at a temple and priest’s house. Since it was free, they ignored the idols in the yard and went in. The outside of the building was more substantial than most village homes, having a tile roof. But the floor was dirt, and the paper-covered windows were insurance against any fresh air getting in. They would sleep on a kang, a brick platform covered with matting. It was connected by flues to a fire in the next room. Besides being the central source of heat for the home, it offered the only dry, warm sleeping place. Lottie and Mrs. Holmes really didn’t care. Mrs. Holmes was used to such surroundings. Now that Lottie had more country visits under her belt, she could stand the living conditions, though she would never find them charming. That night a Chinese brother came to conduct services. Inquirers joined them. By the light of two candles Lottie observed the pastor sitting at his corner table with his books. He was smoking a pipe and patiently waiting for the crowd to gather. Lottie and Mrs. Holmes waited patiently, too. Finally he laid aside the pipe and said, “We will sing, ‘Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone.’” After that hymn came more singing, preaching, and praying; and questions from those wanting to know more. The service in the dim, flickering light stayed with Lottie for some time. The next day they moved on to another village, to be greeted with the cry, “Devil women!” But the village women flocked around, so curious and close that Lottie finally had to laugh. One village woman asked the perpetual question. Pointing at Mrs. Holmes she blurted out, “Are you a woman?!” Mrs. Holmes assured her she was. Satisfied, the women listened with interest. But, they could not stay forever. Hundreds of villages with millions of people in them had never heard the gospel. By some estimates, it would take 3 years to visit them all. In 11 days the two women visited 44 villages and returned home exhausted. Lottie had a much greater appreciation now for country work, but also a more urgent sense of the need going unmet. In a few years—3 or 4 at most—Mrs. Holmes must return to America to see to Landrum’s education. He was her son; her first responsibility was to him. Lottie never thought to question that. But who would take her place? She had already written of this need in the Foreign Mission Journal. After that first exciting picnic, when Lottie wrote to the Journal, she added a plea. “In city and in village, thousands of women will never hear the gospel until women bear it to them. They will admit women, but men can not gain acceptance to their homes, nor will they come to church. The only way for them to hear the good news of salvation is from the lips of foreign women. Are there not some, yea many, who find it in their hearts to say, ‘Here am I; send me’?”

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • COUNTRY WORK 23 4 Eddie

While Lottie was growing stronger and more confident as a missionary, Eddie was entering a decline. She acted more irritable and her constant illnesses kept her from working. Never easy to please, Eddie’s refusal to conform to the Crawfords’ rigid schedule worsened the already-tense situation. Mrs. Crawford, whom Lottie was learning to adore, curtly complained to Lottie about her baby sister. Mrs. Crawford had invited Eddie to the missions field after Eddie began corresponding with her. But, they had no idea she was coming so soon, or without a housing allowance. Then, Mr. Crawford had provoked the wrath of his Chinese neighbors by building the two-story addition, which included Eddie’s upstairs bedroom. What the Crawfords did not seem to realize was that Eddie’s many illnesses first started in the cramped shed where she originally slept. The dark, dank room contributed to her recurring throat and lung problems. All this Lottie soon realized. What she did not know at the time was that in spite of Eddie’s quick command of the language, the veteran missionaries expected her to fail. They quickly recognized she could not adapt to life on the missions field. Eddie had first written to Mrs. Crawford when she was a member of the Baptist women’s mission society at her school. In the spring of 1872 Eddie had written of her interest to Dr. Tupper, who quickly called a Board meeting to discuss her appointment. By April, Eddie was on her way to China with Mr. and Mrs. Hartwell, the Hartwell children, two Chinese helpers, and three other missionaries. By the time the Hartwells reached Shanghai with Eddie, she was beside herself with panic and homesickness. “Please put me on the next ship home,” she begged. “My brother will reim- burse you for my passage.” Mrs. Yates, after seeing Eddie, quickly wrote a note warning Mrs. Crawford the girl was not fit for the missions field. Mr. Hartwell brushed her off as Mr. Crawford’s problem, though he did write a letter to Dr. Tupper warning him about Eddie. The missionaries called a doctor, who observed Eddie for several days. Finally, he made his diagnosis. “She’s not crazy,” he remarked, “but she is hysterical.” Eddie was packed off with the Hartwells to Tengchow, where Mrs. Crawford nervously awaited her arrival. The girl who came to Tengchow did not seem unstable, however. Eddie settled down quickly to the work, and took everyone’s breath away at her ability to learn the language. She was so young, though—only 21—and so temperamental the Crawfords did not see how she could handle missionary work on her own. Then, Eddie began telling them about her older sister, who was widely considered one of the most educated and intellectual women the South had ever produced. Not only that, she was a devout Christian interested in missions, and was coprincipal of a girls’ school in Georgia. This description of a mature, brilliant, missions-minded teacher was enough to inspire the Crawfords. Why should Eddie not write to her sister to come join her in China?

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • EDDIE 24 Eddie was only too glad to do so. She wrote of the meaningful work, the beautiful country, the stimulating challenges, and fine missionaries Lottie would encounter. “I cannot convince myself that it is the will of Heaven that you shall not come. True, you are doing a noble work at home, but are there not some who could fill your place? I don’t know of any one who could fill the place offered you here. In the first place, it is not every one who is willing to come to China. In the next place, their having the proper qualifications is doubtful.” Spurred on by Eddie’s letters and her own growing sense of call, Lottie had arrived in China, hearing only happy reports of her sister’s ability. Only later, living with the Crawfords, did Lottie begin to see the problems. Lottie tried to improve the situation by pleading to Dr. Tupper for their own home. The Crawfords lived a strict life with a set schedule, and freewheeling Eddie could not abide it. She wanted complete peace and quiet, which was impossible with visitors and students coming and going. Then she began getting sick constantly. Her big sister felt that if they had their own home, their own schedule, their own work, it would be better all around for everyone. Some problems, however, could not be solved by relocation. Eddie, like Lottie, had received no training before going to China. She spent three months aboard ship with strangers. She had unknowingly stepped into the middle of a feud between Mr. Hartwell and Mr. Crawford. And, she made no distinction between her culture and her religion. Eddie loved China, but she had little respect for the Chinese. In her mind, Christianity and civilization went hand in hand. Non-Christian Chinese could not be on the same moral and intellectual level as she. Lottie had at first been guilty of the same thinking, and often called the Chinese heathens. But unlike Eddie, as Lottie began to know the Chinese people, especially the Christians, her attitude changed. She studied not only the language, but everything about the country. While the Crawfords were angry at Eddie’s treatment of the Chinese, they couldn’t say she was stingy in sharing what she had. In the boys’ school, Eddie quickly saw that geography needed to be taught; her little students shocked her with their ignorance of the outside world. She even considered publishing her own geography text. A music lover, she also wanted her students to know and enjoy music, and bought an organ with her own money. After it arrived from Georgia she taught the boys hymns. The organ music also gave Eddie pleasure amidst the taxing job of running a school. She was responsible for managing the Chinese teacher, giving exams, and listening to the boys recite. Things had looked promising for the sisters in 1874. The trip during the Chinese New Year had made Eddie very sick, but her health seemed to be improving. The Richmond missionary societies that had pledged to support Eddie and the Georgia societies supporting Lottie were working like bees to raise $3,000 for the Moon House Fund. To help things along, the sisters offered to have their annual salary reduced from $600 to $450. The extra $150 from each woman’s salary would go to the house fund. At the 1874 Southern Baptist Convention the brethren spoke of the Moon sisters in glowing terms. The stories helped fuel the idea of Woman’s Mission to Woman which Dr. Tupper and like-minded pastors were pushing. They wanted Southern Baptists to understand that in many parts of the world, like China, the only hope for reaching women was through women missionaries. To send women missionaries, they needed the support of Southern Baptist women at home. With that and Lottie’s well-crafted letters and reports, the Moon name was becoming well known among Southern Baptists. Then, late that year, Lottie and Eddie both fell sick.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • EDDIE 25 Once Lottie was feeling better, the older missionaries directed Lottie to go with her sister to Shanghai for rest. This was as much for Lottie’s sake as for Eddie’s. They did not want Lottie’s health permanently wrecked. The change of scene would do her good. It did, indeed, do Lottie good, though she at first dreaded the thought of the voyage to Shanghai. They arrived in January 1875. Lottie had been in stagnant Tengchow long enough that Shanghai was a shock to her system. She compared it to a person leaving a little American country village and suddenly finding themselves in the middle of Broadway in New York. While there, she observed the work Dr. Yates was doing. She took careful mental notes of his methods and accomplishments. The new chapel filled her with admiration and the visit as a whole gave her a renewed vision for what could be accomplished on her own field. After two weeks in Shanghai, the sisters went on to Soochow in the interior. Lottie’s friend Anna Cunningham Safford was with the Presbyterian Mission there and Lottie yearned to see her again. Anna had become Lottie’s friend while they taught at Caldwell Institute in Danville, Kentucky. Anna had taught the very subjects Lottie found most distasteful—math, astronomy, and natural philosophy. Lottie had her hands full teaching grammar, history, rhetoric, and literature. But Anna was a Presbyterian minister’s child, and simply would not allow Lottie to make her into a Baptist. Likewise, Lottie stubbornly refused to become a Presbyterian. Finally Lottie cried, “Anna, I simply will not permit you to become a Baptist!” With that settled, the two friends talked for long hours about how they could best serve God. In 1870 neither of them had hope of being appointed as a single missionary, and neither planned to marry. When Lottie found out her cousin Pleasant Moon was helping his town establish a girls’ school, she lost no time in letting him know she and Anna could operate such a school. With the South in a shambles from the Civil War and Reconstruction, education for girls was more important than ever, and harder to come by. The school was a success in every way except financial. At the same time, both women had the door to China missions open to them. And now, Lottie was going to see Anna again! But first they had to travel to Soochow on a native boat along a canal. The Reverend Mr. Dubose was their escort, and the sisters found him both kind and thoughtful. Even so, Lottie had little hope of the trip going well, and was happily surprised to see how well they traveled. At 2:00 a.m., their boat suddenly shuddered. The sounds of Chinese men fiercely arguing immediately followed. Eddie and Lottie felt the first rush of alarm at what might be happening on deck, but Mr. Dubose came to reassure them. “Our boat has collided with another boat. One of the crew boarded the other boat and seized some property as an effort to recover possible damages. The property, it turns out, belonged to a passenger, and the crewman was almost pulled to pieces between the crew of the other boat trying to regain the passenger’s property and the crewman’s own friends who were trying to rescue him. You ladies are in no danger.” The quarrel continued, but now the relieved sisters could only laugh at it. When the two crews reached an agreement over the collision and the property, the trip continued. They reached Soochow safely, and Lottie spent the next three weeks marveling at the city and its people. There were pagodas, rockeries, a temple of 500 gods, a great Confucian temple, the Bridge of 10,000 Ages, shops of exotic goods, and swarms of people. She noted the southerners had livelier ways than the unemotional people of the North. “Here at last is the China of my youthful dreams, the China which artists have sketched and of which travelers have told glowing tales,” she thought with wonder. Still, she preferred

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • EDDIE 26 Tengchow to Soochow, for the city was laced with canals and pools of stagnant water that bred diseases. Though Lottie had been busy during the trip, she had not ignored Eddie. Her watchful eyes saw that Eddie was only a little improved. Upon returning to Tengchow, the other missionaries also noted that the trip had not been a cure for whatever was bothering the young woman. Still, she continued with her school—enrollment was now up to 14 boys. Lottie continued her nonstop appeals for two single women to help with evangelistic visiting in the city and surrounding villages. She became more and more adept at country work as she traveled with Mrs. Crawford and Mrs. Holmes. In the summer of 1875 Anna returned Lottie’s visit, bringing with her still more ideas for working with women and children. “Why not ask the women’s societies to send you Sunday School and trading cards with color pictures? You can use them as rewards for children who learn Bible verses or hymns,” was one suggestion she offered. This idea went right along with what she knew was Lottie’s practice at the Cartersville school of depending on rewards more than punishment as motiva- tions for learning. The visit was marred by Eddie’s worsening emotional state. Lottie had moved down- stairs so Anna could have her bedroom. One night Anna turned over in bed and made the bedstead squeak. This harmless little sound sent Eddie into a temper tantrum so violent she awakened the entire household. More such behavior followed, and soon Eddie was too sick to do anything but run the boys’ school. That year, a solution to the housing problem appeared. Mr. and Mrs. Hartwell had moved from Tengchow to Chefoo not long after bringing Eddie to the missions field. Their home next to the North Street Baptist Church had stood vacant. Now, Mrs. Hartwell’s illness forced them to return to the US. Lottie and Eddie moved into the North Street house, since it was obvious the Hartwells would not be back for some time, if ever. If Mr. Hartwell wanted the house back, the sisters would vacate it at once. Lottie, with her practical mind, saw no reason to spend the Moon House Fund on a new building when the Board had a perfectly good one locked up and going to waste. Besides, Richmond wanted Hartwell’s North Street Baptist Church, pastored by Mr. Woo, and Mr. Crawford’s church to merge under Mr. Crawford’s direction. Loyal Lottie intended to stay as a member of Mr. Crawford’s church, but wanted to be available to help the North Street congregation. She wrote Dr. Tupper that Pastor Woo was so prejudiced against foreigners, she did not know if he would accept her help, but she wanted to give it if asked. In late summer of 1876 the Crawfords took a trip to Japan to try and recover a little from the years of work and from the stress of Mr. Crawford’s constant disputes with Mr. Hartwell. While they were gone in August and September, the Mission was run by Sallie Holmes, Lottie, and Eddie. Lottie even took over Mrs. Crawford’s medical ministry. Not only did this work make the Chinese more accepting of the foreign missionaries but Lottie discovered it was a great pleasure to relieve suffering. The country work was going well. Lottie began to feel that her powers and energy were now finding their full expression. Her fears for Eddie were the only blight on this time in her life. Eddie’s throat and lungs worsened. Sometimes she could not even speak English; and Chinese, which strained the throat, was impossible. Lottie was filled with a foreboding that Eddie would not be able to stay in China much longer. Any mention of going home, though, upset her. She could not leave her beloved China, she declared. One day Lottie went out on a city visit and when she exited the house, found herself surrounded by soldiers. Instead of threats of “We will kill you, foreign devil woman,” the

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • EDDIE 27 soldiers said politely, “Where have you been, Miss Moon?” Another asked, “Do you have any books for us? Will you explain the books for us?” While they still crowded around her much too close for comfort, Lottie could only be thankful that they now thought of her as the foreign teacher-lady who would give them books. All this wonderful work came to a halt for Lottie in the fall. The Crawfords wrote that they were staying another month in Japan. If they did not recuperate, they would be forced to return to America. Meanwhile, Eddie left for Shanghai with Anna Safford as her traveling companion. Her lungs would not allow her to stay another winter in Tengchow’s damp climate, so she was going to meet Mrs. Yates and travel with her to Japan. Lottie had tried for some time to convince Eddie to go home to America until her lungs were completely healed, and then come back. Even if it took 2 years, the time would be well spent if it saved her for the missions field in the future. Though Eddie had finally given in, she agonized over the thought of how much money and effort the Foreign Mission Board had spent on her. In her mind it was all wasted now because she could not stay well. One day as Lottie was going about her work of running schools, dispensing medicine, and visiting, a telegram was delivered to her. It had been sent from Nagasaki, Japan, by Mrs. Yates to Dr. Yates, who forwarded it to Lottie. She ripped it open and read nine terrifying words. “Eddie much worse. Send her sister to Japan immediately.” Dr. Yates had included a letter which related how Eddie had taken to her bed as soon as she arrived in Shanghai, obsessed with the idea of the wasted Mission money. The Yateses had done all they could to divert her thoughts; but from Saturday, the day she arrived, to the following Wednesday, she was bedridden. Then she had seemed to improve and they had gone on to Japan. Lottie’s fears closed in on her as she read: “This morning I received the enclosed telegram that will speak for itself. Sad as it is, it requires immediate attention! Come at once and prepared to go to the States if necessary, and I fear it will become absolutely necessary.” Lottie threw some clothes together and was gone from Tengchow within four hours. It was one of the saddest, loneliest journeys of Lottie’s life. She desperately wanted to stay in China. She had left poor Sallie Holmes to do everything. But Eddie was so dependent on men, so unhappy when she was away from Lottie—a trip home without a companion was unthinkable for her. “Mr. Hartwell went home with his sick wife. Mr. Williams went home with his wife, too. My sister needs me as much as their wives needed them.” Such thoughts comforted Lottie, as did a tender letter that was waiting for her in Chefoo from Mr. Crawford, who had already heard about Eddie’s condition. “In my opinion Miss Eddie has done all she could (perhaps more than she ought) to remain at her post, that her throat and lungs are not able to bear the strain of life and missionary labors in this land, and that she may return home with honor under providential necessity which she is wholly unable to control, and will be entitled to the kindest sympathy of the Board and the churches. I am also authorized to say that such are the sentiments of all associated with me. Tell the Board and the sisters at home to trust in God and not to allow this misfortune to discourage them. The stroke falls very much more heavily on us as than on them, and if we bow properly to the will of our Heavenly Father—a blessing will follow.” He was thoughtful enough to enclose an order for expense money. When Lottie rushed to Eddie’s side in Japan, she was not sure what she would find. A letter from Mrs. Yates had torn her heart with anxiety and anguish; but, thank God, Eddie was some improved when she reached her. Still, Lottie insisted that Eddie return to Virginia.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • EDDIE 28 Before leaving Yokohama, Lottie took time to write Dr. Tupper a long letter outlining what had happened and explaining that Eddie had been growing sicker for some time, but had valiantly struggled to stay on the field. In part this letter was for Eddie’s sake, but also for her own. Lottie did not want the Board to think she had simply skipped out at the first excuse. In closing, Lottie begged Dr. Tupper to keep Eddie’s health in his prayers. She then added, “I should grieve very much at leaving my work only it seems to me that the will of God has so plainly called me away that it would not be right to be distressed.” Yet in some ways Lottie was distressed. They reached Viewmont on December 22, 1876, and her sister Orie and her husband, both doctors, banished her to bedrest. They and their brood of boys now lived at Viewmont. The other siblings came home for Christmas. Colie returned from her job as a counter at the Treasury Department and regaled them with stories of her work, so different from what the other Moon children knew. Ike, who had passed the Virginia bar but was now teaching school, came over with his wife, Mag, from their estate, Church Hill. Their recently widowed brother-in-law William Shepherd brought his little daughter Mamie. His wife, their sister Mollie, had died in October while Lottie and Eddie were on their way home. Her death left an empty spot in their hearts, and they feared Eddie’s passing would soon leave another. During her forced visit home, Lottie was keenly aware of the criticism heaped upon herself and Eddie from those who would themselves never consider leaving the comforts of America for the missions field. At the same time Eddie left, three other China missionaries were felled by illness. How dare they come home? was the question. What kind of commitment did these missionaries have? Did they not have enough gumption to fall dead from overwork in China? As for Lottie, returning home was a selfish folly. Dr. Tupper was sensitive to this criticism and how it hurt the missionaries and missions funding. He did all he could to help Southern Baptists understand the situation. The Richmond women, whose special missionary Eddie had been, received attention. Other friends of missionaries tried to stem the damage. Lottie did all the public relations work she could, but had to turn down many invitations. As if all this were not enough of a burden for Lottie, reports of famine from Shantung Province reached her. While there had been some rain in Tengchow shortly before she left, the whole area was going hungry, and Lottie ached as she learned of the famine and its ills— disease, suicide, infanticide, and even cannibalism. Mrs. Crawford wrote her begging her to return at once, if not sooner. They needed her desperately, and they missed her keenly. Lottie would have jumped on the first boat back to China, but there was only one problem. The Foreign Mission Board had no money with which to send her back. Lottie was stuck in Virginia.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • EDDIE 29 5 A Quarrel Between Brothers

The year 1877 in Virginia began with cold and snow. Lottie had hoped Dr. Tupper would come over from Richmond, but was disappointed. “Perhaps he will come in warmer weather when Eddie can better enjoy his visit,” she consoled herself. While Eddie was more rested, she grew no stronger. Even writing a letter was too much physical strain. Lottie turned down many invitations to visit and spent a quiet winter at home with her family. She and Dr. Tupper kept up a regular correspondence, he urging her to visit Richmond and she in turn coaxing him to visit Albemarle County. After a few weeks she and Eddie relocated to Church Hill to visit friends and family there. As spring came, the thrice-daily doses of cod liver oil and whiskey seemed to help and Eddie began to really improve. This freed Lottie to socialize more. Though she always reminded Dr. Tupper that she wanted to go back to China, Lottie took much pleasure in the chance to renew her Virginia life. It was in her nature to focus on what was good in any situation. “Isn’t this jolly?” was one of her favorite expressions. It was no wonder Aunt Lottie was adored by her young nieces and nephews. One situation cast a shadow on Lottie’s visit. The feud between Mr. Crawford and Mr. Hartwell simply would not die, and even at Viewmont she found herself unwillingly tangled in it. She could see why it was hard for the Foreign Mission Board to understand all the ins and outs of the dilemma. It had taken her a while to grasp the situation, even when she was right in China. Now she found herself in the role of commentator to Dr. Tupper, trying to help cast some light on a subject she found thoroughly disagreeable. The enmity between the two men had started before Lottie ever dreamed of serving in North China. The Crawfords had spent 10 years in Shanghai, and finally were forced to relocate for their health. This was in 1863, in the midst of the American Civil War. The war had caused Mission funds to be cut off from the missionaries, forcing some of them to take secular jobs to make ends meet. J. B. Hartwell, who had begun the North Street Baptist Church in Tengchow, took an interpreter’s job in Shanghai, and the Crawfords took the Hartwells’ field in Tengchow. As a wheeler-dealer in Chinese real estate, Mr. Crawford did not have the same money pres- sures facing the Hartwells. While pastoring Mr. Hartwell’s church, Mr. Crawford continued his habit of engaging in business ventures, this time with Hartwell’s own church members. After the war, the Hartwells returned to Tengchow, and both couples lived in the same house. From both a professional and personal standpoint, the two men working together proved a disaster. They agreed on nothing. The two biggest disputes were over paying Chinese pastors and assistants with Board money (Hartwell was for it, Crawford against it), and Mr. Crawford’s business dealings with church members. Always, the Chinese ended up feeling victimized by the deals, which fueled resentment in Mr. Hartwell. Even Mr. Crawford starting his own church in 1866 did not help matters. The Board finally had to treat the men as if they were on separate missions fields—they could not even share a treasurer.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A QUARREL BETWEEN BROTHERS 30 Then, Mrs. Hartwell passed away and the bereaved Mr. Hartwell went back to the States to find someone to take her place. Even while absent, he still controlled North Street Baptist Church, since he paid the native pastor. Mr. Hartwell took as his new wife a Miss Norris, a member of Eutaw Place Baptist Church in Baltimore. When they returned to China, they had Eddie in tow. The long trip gave him plenty of time to tell his side of the story to Eddie. Though Eddie was immature, she had enough good sense to try to stay out of the middle of the conflict. Eddie’s mother, Anna Maria Moon, had been a woman of impeccable breeding, who warned her daughters against the evils of spreading tales. Gossip had not been allowed in the Moon home when Eddie was growing up. Unfortunately, Eddie sometimes slipped and said things she shouldn’t, though she never meant to add to the trouble. Probably, no one in Eddie’s place could have avoided the situation entirely. The Hartwells left Tengchow shortly after Eddie’s coming. When Lottie arrived in China, Eddie had told her what she knew of the situation. The sisters both passed up opportunities to stir up trouble or take sides publicly, although Lottie felt Mr. Crawford had been deeply wronged. Things went from bad to worse. Mr. Crawford had entered into some kind of investment with an important member of the North Street congregation and ended up holding liens on all the man’s property. Mr. Hartwell tried to mediate between the two men, but the hostility between him and Mr. Crawford hardly helped his role as peacemaker. Finally, there had been a lawsuit in consular court, which Mr. Crawford won. He threatened to foreclose on the church member if he were not paid within the year. Facing the loss of absolutely everything he owned, the church member planned to kill Mr. Crawford. “Hartwell is involved in this plot, I know,” Mr. Crawford had said, though there was no proof of such a horrible accusation. When he asked the North Street congregation to discipline the church member, the church voted to censure Mr. Crawford instead. That was the last straw. “Mr. Hartwell will henceforth be as a heathen and publican to me,” declared Mr. Crawford. Mrs. Crawford was heartbroken over the whole awful affair. Mr. Hartwell seemed determined to tell his side of it to the whole world, and to smear Mr. Crawford’s reputation among the small community of Chinese Christians. His constant complaining and airing of the whole thing infuriated Lottie. The quarrel made entering the missions field just that much harder on both sisters. The whole Mission of course knew about the quarrel, and felt so ashamed that they did not really wish to speak of it, and certainly not address the Board over it. But, when Mr. and Mrs. Hartwell went back to America because of Mrs. Hartwell’s health, Lottie and Eddie had moved into their home. Mr. Hartwell was furious when he found out! Besides writing to her, he had appealed to Richmond that she and Eddie be ordered to relocate, and that the church property be put under the control of the North Street congregation. Lottie wrote him a soothing letter, assuring him they would relocate if he and his wife came back to China. She also tried to relieve his concerns that she would show bias toward Mr. Crawford’s church. She then wrote to the Board, unburdening herself now that she knew some things had come to light. She explained exactly what property was being used as dwelling place, schoolrooms, and church facilities. She assured the Board that the Chinese pastor literally had the keys to church rooms, and she pointed out that when a missionary vacated a field, it was considered an unwritten rule that he or she no longer had any authority to make demands or shape policy for that field.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A QUARREL BETWEEN BROTHERS 31 Lottie closed her letter by suggesting problems could be solved if either missionary were to give up claim on the Tengchow field. If that person happened to be Mr. Crawford, the rest of the Mission wished to make it known to the Board they would go with him, not just from warm personal feeling, “but because we are unanimous in our views of mission policy.” Lottie did not realize at the time the impact her letter had on the Board; the brethren quickly saw that she was a person of uncommon fairness, insight, and Christian wisdom, and voted to follow her suggestions. And, since the Hartwells could not return unless Mrs. Hartwell recovered—which seemed unlikely—the issue was closed. Or so Lottie and the others thought. Now, it seemed, things were not settled. Dr. Tupper had written her on January 12 about transferring the boarding school funds raised for the sisters’ work to Mr. Hartwell, whose school facilities they were using. He had paid for many improvements to the North Street property. Lottie replied, “We arrange with Mr. Hartwell, with the consent and approbation of the Board, to use the premises formerly occupied by Mrs. Hartwell for a girls’ boarding school, and not by way of purchase, but simply of kindly cordial Christian feeling we transfer any rights we have in the money in exchange for any rights he had in the house.” Because Lottie felt so close to Dr. Tupper, she knew she could confide feelings to him that she would never share with others. After writing the business part of her letter, she picked up her pen again and added some lines concerning the feud. “My only fear is, and I say it to you in confidence, that he means to keep up the fight in Tengchow. His implacable spirit has embittered the lives of two ‘of whom the world is not worthy.’ They are deeply ashamed of the quarrel and would so have rejoiced in a full reconcilia- tion. While the one party has bruted it in correspondence from one end of China to the other, a dignified silence has been preserved by the other party. While the one, by a shrug or a sneer, has given the cue of scorn and contempt to the native Christians of one church, the other has remained absolutely silent or has resolutely upheld the Christian character of his opponent. “I assure you that we in Tengchow are too thoroughly ashamed of the quarrel ever to hint it in any of our letters whether to persons in China or America. What could be more disgraceful?” Within a week, Lottie got the answer to that question. Mr. Crawford’s private business transactions were brought before Dr. Tupper, specifically a matter in which a Chinese man named Kao had been imprisoned and Mr. Crawford apparently blamed for it. Dr. Tupper wrote Lottie about it. Astonished and angered, she shot back a reply. She reminded Dr. Tupper that Board regulations required that if a missionary’s professional behavior and character were impeached, the person bringing the charges was to sign the charges, and a copy sent to the accused, in order that he could know his accuser and defend himself. “I know that Mr. Crawford will never defend himself before the Board on matters over which they have no jurisdiction,” she added. As much as Lottie despised being embroiled in the whole matter, her sense of fairness and loyalty to the Crawfords, who were too far away to easily defend themselves, forced her to speak up. What Lottie really wanted was for Dr. Tupper to talk to Dr. Yates, the senior Southern Baptist missionary in Shanghai. His knowledge of what actually went on during all the years of the quarrel, combined with his fine Christian character and wisdom, made him the perfect person with whom to discuss the matter. “If only Dr. Tupper would attend the Missionary Conference in May,” Lottie thought. The conference would take place in Shanghai. The leader of the Foreign Mission Board could see the field for himself, talk with the Crawfords, and seek counsel from dear Dr. Yates.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A QUARREL BETWEEN BROTHERS 32 Finally, as 1877 wore on, the quarrel seemed to wind down. Lottie turned to other concerns, mainly getting home to Tengchow. She visited with the women supporting Eddie’s school, which would now be her school. She kept tabs on when missionaries from other boards were going to China, so she would be ready to join them as soon as there were funds for her passage. And, she kept reminding Dr. Tupper that they needed more missionaries. In June, the possibility of another male missionary joining them seemed likely. Lottie wanted to make sure there was no chance for the old conflicts to arise again, so she took time to write Dr. Tupper about it. Mr. Simmons, she had discovered, shared Mr. Hartwell’s feelings about paying native assistants. She, like Mrs. Holmes, shared the Crawfords’ opinion that it caused more harm than good. They had already all lived through the turmoil of having two missionaries on the same field who differed on the subject. It was just begging for trouble. She heartily assured Dr. Tupper that Mr. Simmons would be accepted in Tengchow, but if he simply could not refrain from paying native assistants, he had better be sent elsewhere. She did not mean, of course, that he should not pay a teacher, but he should not pay for preaching. Perhaps, she suggested, as a way of experiment Tengchow could be a field free of paid native assistants, while another field had them. Then, the outcomes could be studied and the question settled. Finally, late in the year, Lottie knew she was going home to Tengchow. She visited the Tuppers for a few days, then went on to New York to connect with the missionaries traveling on the same steamer with her. When she reached San Francisco, Lottie had one more job to take care of before leaving. It, too, had to do with Mr. Hartwell. Mrs. Hartwell continued to decline, and the Hartwell children were leaving China to join their parents in the States. Mr. Hartwell feared for them traveling in the US, which was not a familiar place for them at all. As Lottie was taking care of her own business before starting out, she also undertook the arrangements for the Hartwell children. For her, not helping Mr. Hartwell because of his feud with Mr. Crawford was an unthinkable pettiness. Of course his children must be seen after, and he must suffer no anxiety for them. Help in seeing after the Hartwell children came from a very unexpected source. “A caller, Miss Moon.” Lottie marveled at how many callers she had had in this unfa- miliar city. Word had spread quickly she was there and the time had passed most pleasantly. The man she now met looked vaguely familiar. “Miss Moon,” he said, “Dr. Kerr told me you were here. I am Dr. Francis.” Lottie was transported back 20 years to Viewmont. She was a teenager, and her mother had invited a Dr. Francis and his nephew to enjoy the Moon hospitality for a week or so as they did itinerant Christian work in Virginia. Anna Maria Moon never passed up a chance to show kindness to such Christian workers. Now, after all this time, Dr. Francis was living in San Francisco and had come to renew the acquaintance. How charming! Lottie explained she had many arrangements to make, including some for the Hartwell children. She hoped a lady named Mrs. Nevin would be willing to make the long train ride with them to Baltimore to meet the Hartwells. Then, the family would eventually return to San Francisco. Apparently Mr. Hartwell had plans of working among Chinese immigrants in California. Dr. Kerr, missionary to the Chinese, was involved with these plans and had told Dr. Francis that Miss Moon, now all grown up and a missionary herself, was in town. “Miss Moon, Dr. Rosewell Graves of China has already written to me about the Hartwell children,” Dr. Francis explained. “If the Hartwells are coming right back here to San Francisco, the children might just as well stay with my family until their parents arrive.” Lottie at once saw the arrangement would save a considerable amount of time and money.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A QUARREL BETWEEN BROTHERS 33 As if this kind offer were not enough, Dr. Francis accompanied her to the Bank of California, where he did his own banking, and identified her to the bank officer so she could withdraw money for the children if they did travel to Baltimore. Lottie had hoped to see the Hartwell children herself if they arrived before her own steamer left port. If not, they now had Dr. Francis. “I shall be on the lookout for the steamers and will meet them,” he promised. Lottie sent a letter to Dr. Tupper informing him of Dr. Francis’s kind offer, and urging him to telegraph the Hartwells so they would know the children had the option of staying in San Francisco. She also told him of how her mother had shown kindness to Dr. Francis, and now that kindness was being repaid 20 years later. “Cast thy bread upon the waters and thou shalt find it after many days,” Lottie recited to herself. In later years, Lottie would find out how casting her own bread—showing friendship to both Mr. Crawford and Mr. Hartwell—would come back to bless her, proving again the truth of that scriptural promise.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A QUARREL BETWEEN BROTHERS 34 6 Home to China

Lottie was in a happy frame of mind when the Tokio Maru left San Francisco on November 8, 1877. The trip from New York had been thoroughly enjoyable. She was in the pleasant company of 13 other missionaries—2 for Siam, 4 (counting herself) for China, and the rest for Japan. But most of all, she was happy because she was going home to China. Unlike her trip 4 years ago, she now had her own work, her own home, her own grasp of the language. Even the travel was different on this trip. There were no typhoons, no broken rudders, no heaving seas. When the Tokio Maru steamed placidly into Yokohama harbor, Lottie left the ship to visit in the home of some Northern Baptist missionary friends. After the visit she looked forward to sailing again through the enchanting Inland Sea, and hoped to be home by New Year’s. Her first stop in China was Shanghai, where she visited with her good friends Dr. and Mrs. Yates. When Dr. Yates greeted her, Lottie was shocked at his appearance. His health was obviously failing. But he was full of news, and she wanted to know everything that went on while she was gone. The Yateses were a wonderful source of information. “Oh, Lottie, it’s too bad you missed the all-China missionary conference last May,” they told her. She listened eagerly while they described the program with its 45 speakers, 4 of whom were women. Her dear Mrs. Crawford had been one of the women selected to present a paper. It was an excellent portrayal of women’s work in China. Mr. Crawford’s paper was not so well received as his wife’s, the Yateses had to admit. His topic was “The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Employment of Native Assistants.” Never known for his tact, Mr. Crawford argued against paid assistants, in a way that one debater found “self-contradictory and destructive.” In the published proceedings, the editor had added a note to the effect that most attendees did not agree with Mr. Crawford. A happier event at the conference was the organization of the Woman’s Missionary Association, of which Mrs. Yates was president and Anna Safford was vice-president. Mrs. Yates told Lottie that Anna had already dreamed up a new publication, Woman’s Work in China. Would Lottie be a contributing editor? Of course she would. “Never at a loss for ideas,” Lottie thought about her Presbyterian friend. Mention of Anna brought up Lottie’s desire to visit her friend. Dr. Yates had been told the steamer for Chefoo would not leave until mid-December at the earliest, which gave Lottie plenty of time for a visit. Anna came to Shanghai and collected Lottie, who spent a wonderful two days in Soochow. The Presbyterian missionaries could not be outdone in their warmth and hospitality. “How I hate to leave,” thought Lottie as she journeyed back to Shanghai. But, she must not miss her steamer. The Yateses bade good-bye to Lottie the week of Christmas, and after a four-day trip (prolonged by strong headwinds) she reached Chefoo in a snowstorm. Mrs. Nevius of the Presbyterian Mission bundled her up in quilted Chinese clothes, stuffed her in a shentze, and sent her on to Tengchow. A Chinese Christian had agreed to serve as her escort, and Lottie declared the journey home a pleasant one. The Lottie Moon

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • HOME TO CHINA 35 who had crept out of a shentze 4 years ago, stiff and pale, was no more. This Lottie Moon was comfortable with Chinese travel, even in a shentze. When she finally arrived the Crawfords and Sallie Holmes could not wait to greet her. For two days they talked about everything. There were two new members of the Mission for Lottie to meet, too. Mr. and Mrs. Crawford had become adoptive parents while she was away. “Miss Moon, meet our children, Minnie and Alfred.” Fourteen-year-old Minnie and 7-year-old Alfred—known as Freddie—were not what Lottie had imagined. She had known the Crawfords were in the process of adopting these children from an orphanage in Japan, where they lived after the deaths of their British parents. Now, in addition to mothering a large portion of Shantung Province through teaching, evangelizing, and dispensing medicine, Mrs. Crawford had responsibility for two children. Lottie’s kind heart ached when she saw Sallie Holmes again. Her friend was almost bowed down with grief over Landrum’s departure. The Mateers were going to America, and the boy would travel with them. But once in the States, he had no one to care for him. While Sallie and his late father both had family still living, religious and political differences made them unsuitable guardians for teenaged Landrum. Sallie was torn between staying with her son and continuing her missions work. After much agony, she let Lottie and the Crawfords know she was staying. Lottie marveled that she could make such a sacrifice. Though single and childless, she empathized with a mother’s grief. She had already reminded Dr. Tupper how hard it would be on Mrs. Holmes when Landrum left, and added that Southern Baptists owed it to Landrum’s father, “who fills a martyr’s grave,” to look after his boy. While Lottie found all these personal changes, she also found changes in the missions work itself. The first thing she noticed was that the city residents were not quite as frosty to the missionaries as they had been. The famine, which was still going on in some places, had humbled the Chinese. The benevolence work of all the missionaries, including Southern Baptists, caused people to see Christians in a new light. Lottie was most touched at the efforts of the Tengchow believers to collect money for the starving. Lottie tried her best to accept the famine as unavoidable suffering, but she could not help but say of the Reverend Mr. Richard, an English Baptist doing relief efforts, “There is something terrible to me, as well as heroic, in the idea of thus contending alone and single handed against this grim famine frenzy, yet Mr. R. is doing it with no thought of glory or reward— only intent to follow in His Master’s footsteps.” Lottie settled back into the North Street house and resumed schoolwork in February. She started school with 5 ragged girls, and soon had 13. The parents had to provide clothes; the missionaries provided everything else, from room and board to school supplies. On this basis, she was able to gather girls from only the poorest families, girls who could have expected a life of slavery or prostitution otherwise. Lottie still dreamed Eddie’s dream of educating the daughters of the influential upper class, but that day had not come yet. “It will be 20 years before I have that kind of school,” she often thought. For now, she spent her time making sure the girls didn’t pawn their clothes, refereeing fights, and supervising a fantastically bad cook. “Poor or not, my girls will have an education,” she vowed. She outlined a course of reading, arithmetic, and geography, supplemented with singing lessons. She played Eddie’s organ and thought wistfully of her sister. Religious materials were Lottie’s textbooks: a hymnbook which Mr. Crawford had compiled and composed; the 100-page catechism written by his wife; and a book of Bible stories called Peep of Day which Mrs. Holmes had translated into Chinese.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • HOME TO CHINA 36 Lottie could not be tied down all day teaching, and hired an attractive young woman to oversee the daily memorization of lessons. The girls all read and recited aloud at the same time. What sounded like chaos to Western ears was perfectly normal to the teacher. As Lottie made her way down the row of schoolrooms, she noticed with satisfaction that the girls were hard at work—no fights to break up today. She knew the girls had been taught from birth to be jealous, hot-tempered, ready to fight at a moment’s notice. With the poverty and oppression that ruled their lives, hostility had become a survival skill. Lottie hoped to teach them a different way to live, and tried to model peace. Lottie had come to hear the girls at their oral exams. One by one they stood, turned their backs to Lottie and the teacher, and recited from memory. She was pleased to see some of her prize students were on their way to memorizing the whole Gospel of Mark, as well as Matthew. Lottie’s pleasure at the day’s schooling was short-lived. The family of one of her most promising students had just sent for her; it was time for her to marry. Lottie’s heart sank— the groom was an opium addict. The heartache of seeing her girls taken away from her Christian influence to live out their lives with opium eaters and ancestor worshippers was never-ending. Three of her girls were baptized, others were learning, but what hope was there for them in an environment hostile to the gospel? After sending the girl home, Lottie sat down to write support letters. Missionaries who ran schools were used to paying expenses out of their own pockets, but missionary pockets were never deep. To pay for teachers, food, medicine, and supplies, Lottie appealed to Baptist women. A mission society or an individual might pledge to support a girl, usually to the tune of $15 a year. The money was sent to the Board but earmarked for the school. Lottie kept busy writing letters to let the sponsors know how “their” girl was doing. The girls were often named for their sponsors, a practice which made it a little easier for Lottie to keep track of who was sponsoring whom. The only sound for a few hours was the scratching of her pen as she wrote. “Mary has memorized the Book of Matthew”; “Lois improves in both health and demeanor”; “Emma struggles with homesickness but applies herself diligently.” Her letter writing was interrupted by news that a family had come to see her. She was a little surprised. She had talked to this family only recently. They were actually the future in-laws of one of her students. Lottie greeted the father, whom she knew to be a Christian. “Miss Moon,” the man began. “I know I said my future daughter-in-law’s feet could be unbound, but as you know, my son is very angry. He demands you rebind her feet. His mother agrees. Now I agree, too.” Lottie recoiled in horror. To unbind a girl’s feet inflicted pain as the bones were finally able to spread out. That pain was necessary, but to rebind her feet—it would be unspeakable agony for the girl. She exploded with a fury few knew she had. “Then you can take her away tomorrow! I usually abide by the parents’ decision, but it would be a refinement of cruelty to bind the feet of a grown girl. I refuse to have such suffering inflicted under my roof. I will not be a witness to it!” Before the family could object, Lottie went on to ask the father how he could profess Christianity and yet give in to such a practice as footbinding. By the time she had finished, the whole family had wilted. The subject was dropped.

When Lottie was not absorbed in the school, she was busy trying to get clear title to the North Street property. Chinese real estate matters were incredibly complex to the Western mind. For the first 2 years she was back in China, Lottie’s letters to Dr. Tupper were full of details of her fruitless, time-wasting project.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • HOME TO CHINA 37 But in February, Lottie was still hopeful the title could be cleared. The question of the property was related to a church merger that was taking place. Mr. Richard had left his Chefoo church to go into the interior while the famine raged. Mr. Hartwell was still in America. At the end of February, Mr. Crawford asked the members of Mr. Richard’s church, the North Street Church, and Monument Street Church to vote to merge into the Tengchow Baptist Church. Years earlier a merger had been attempted, but did not work. This time, things seemed to be going better. Mr. Crawford, however, was getting worse. Mrs. Crawford’s deep-set eyes often followed him as she noted with growing concern what she called “brain trouble.” He started complaining of numbness in his limbs. He became gloomy and couldn’t think straight. His wife poured out her fears into her diary. Finally, he left on June 21, not sure where he was going, just knowing he must get away, and that Japan was his first likely destination. The church merger did not survive the summer without Mr. Crawford. A few North Street members started causing trouble. By July, Lottie was writing Dr. Tupper about it. What especially displeased her was that a Chinese girl whom the missionaries had taken in to care for had become a leader in the dissension. The girl, nicknamed Mary, was writing to Mr. Hartwell on behalf of some of the members, and receiving money from America. After investigating the matter, Lottie realized that some of the men had used the girl. They had appealed to her vanity and naivete to get her to do their bidding. When the missionaries explained the situation to Mary, she was very repentant and promised to be a loyal church member. What bothered Lottie the most was not that the North Street members wanted to keep their identity as the oldest Baptist church in Shantung Province; it was that a few false members were trying to sneak Confucianism into the church. “They will never get the North Street chapel for that,” she promised herself. Her other worry was for her boarding school students. She could not ask them to walk a mile to the Tengchow Church if the North Street Church began meeting again in the chapel practically at Lottie’s door. But, she would never surrender her girls up to the influence of these false brethren. Mr. Mateer counseled with her. “Tell the good members you will not take their names off the roll,” he advised. “They will one day come back.” He also pointed out that if the Board refused money to the troublemakers, they would go away. He eventually proved right, though as Lottie sweltered through the month of July, she often wondered. Some of the faithful Christians who lived up to 50 miles away could not come into Tengchow for church. The merger never made sense for these believers, so she helped them establish a church in Shangtswang. It was begun as North Street Church, so that congregation’s historical identity could remain intact. While Lottie tried to run a school and settle church disputes at the same time, she still found the energy to do country work. The effects of the famine were still being felt. Inflation was high, though not as bad as it had been. A few gifts for hunger relief trickled in—$5.50, some stamps, and an earring. When the earring arrived Lottie stared at it, nonplussed. Just exactly what good was one earring? This was the kind of gift that was more trouble than it was worth. While Mr. Crawford was gone, Mr. Mateer helped with the preaching, and the women handled the country work, as usual. Her first year back in China gave Lottie many opportunities to take country trips, but she knew she still could not manage to live completely in the interior. It was just too hard, regardless of what some in America seemed to think.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • HOME TO CHINA 38 “Look, Sallie, at this article in the Biblical Recorder,” Lottie had cried one day. The women read the article, which assured readers that the days of missionary hardship were past. “I cannot let this go unanswered,” Lottie said. She wrote the Religious Herald: “When it comes to living in native houses with dirt or brick floors, sleeping on native beds, and eating only food prepared in the native style, this most people would consider a hardship.” Besides the constant dirt and vermin, there was the emotional and spiritual pain a missionary felt. “Almost daily he is brought into contact with those who hate him and who would take his life if they dared.” While country work was not the torture it had been at first, Lottie still couldn’t eat much Chinese food, and had not mastered chopsticks. Some days, the constant personal questions were harder to take than anything. During the questioning, Lottie could feel fingers touching her clothes and hair, could see dozens of pairs of eyes watching everything she did. Yet, she knew the people did not feel they could trust her until they knew all about her. As her country work went on from 1878 into 1879 and beyond, she began to see her patience paying off. There was less hostility, and more invitations to speak and visit. Though she enjoyed the visits more and minded the hardships less, the article on “the end of missionary hardships” still rankled, especially when neither she nor Sallie Holmes could make a sound after days of teaching and open-air travel. She unburdened herself to Dr. Tupper. “If anyone fancies sleeping on brick beds in rooms with dirt floors and walls blackened by the smoke of many generations, the yard also being the stable yard and the stable itself being within three feet of your door, I wish to declare most emphatically that as a matter of taste, I differ. If anyone thinks he would like the constant contact with ‘the great unwashed,’ I must still say from experience, I find it unpleasant. If anyone thinks that the constant risk of exposure to smallpox and other contagious disease against which the Chinese take no precaution whatever, is just the most charming thing in life, I shall continue to differ. In a word, let him try it! A few days of roughing it as we ladies do habitually will convince the most skeptical.” She went on to repeat one of her favorite themes: a nation full of Southern Baptists could send only one man and three women to evangelize all of North China. Many things, like dirt floors and bed bugs, Lottie could get used to, although she didn’t like it. But this apathy on the part of Southern Baptists, who called themselves a missions people, she would never like, never understand, and never accept.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • HOME TO CHINA 39 7 First Claim

Prospects were good in 1879. A few of the North Street Christians, including one who had received a severe tongue lashing from Lottie, were coming around again, bringing students for the schools and asking the ladies to visit in their villages. Of course, the missionaries wanted to restore the relationship. Mr. Mateer’s prophecy about the good Christians returning had come true. After a cool, rainy start to the year, the weather cleared enough to allow country work. She and Sallie began what was supposed to be a brief trip. By the end of the second day they had visited 16 villages. Then they held a night service in the schoolroom of a sympathetic teacher. Finally the service ended and the two women went stumbling through the darkness to the inn. “I like this sort of thing; it seems romantic,” Sallie declared as she marched along. Exhausted, sleepy, and achy, Lottie trudged beside her. Any romance was totally lost on her at the moment. All she wanted to do was get to the inn, spread her bedroll on the kang, and go to sleep before the rain set in, which it seemed likely to do at any minute. The rain did fall that night, but the next day dawned clear and fresh. After visiting 9 villages together, she and Sallie separated. On the way back to the inn, Lottie stopped at 2 more villages to talk to the women. At both villages, the men also crowded around. It was most improper for her to share the gospel in a mixed group, yet how much more improper to hold back the message of eternal life! “It’s not my fault if the men choose to listen,” she told herself, and plunged ahead. When she finally got back to the inn, she had barely sat down on the kang when it was announced she had visitors. Visitors? It was a group of men from a village she had visited that morning, accompanied by a Chinese brother who preached. The effect had been so electric, the villagers had come seeking to learn more. Lottie handed one likely fellow a catechism and asked him to read aloud to the others. He read, but added his own commentary. Lottie corrected him on some points, but rather than be offended, he was grateful. “The more I hear, the more I want to hear!” he cried, and his friends enthusiastically agreed. “The book is yours,” Lottie said, for she could see he wanted it very much. Beaming, the man thanked her and took his leave. The others stayed to learn a hymn. Then it was time for supper. Afterwards she taught the men and boys of the innkeeper’s family, then all the women and girls. Worn out, she finally was left alone to fall back on her brick bed and go to sleep. On the way home the next day she stopped at 10 villages. During the trip she had time to think of an article she had recently read which claimed that when it came to missions work “women do not make good pioneers.” “If we don’t make good pioneers, the Board should send more male missionaries to do the pioneer work so we are not forced to fill the role.” With thoughts like these she passed the time until she reached home. The day after Lottie got home, she wrote a description of the trip for Dr. Tupper, and at the end called his attention to the critical remark about women pioneers. She also reminded him that they had asked for two more missionaries, but they really needed a dozen.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FIRST CLAIM 40 During the summer Lottie received cheering news. Mr. Eager would be appointed for Shantung Province, specifically Tengchow. The missionaries already knew this young man was interested, but he had no wife. Lottie feared that the loneliness of Tengchow would be too much for him, and had urged Dr. Tupper to do some matchmaking before he was appointed. This situation gave Dr. Tupper the chance to turn the tables on Lottie for once. He, too, could do some prodding and suggesting. He sat down and began a letter to her. “I have noted your generous inconsistency which I commend in your wishing for him what you have forbidden yourself! Please regard these last lines as if not written or let me make amends by repeating what I said in a recent speech, ‘I estimate a single woman in China is worth two married men.” He also informed her that Mr. Eager’s bachelor days were over. He had found a fiancée. Lottie wrote back to Dr. Tupper in September, expressing her happiness for Mr. Eager and his fair lady, and mentioning Mrs. Crawford’s illness. She did not allude to his comment about her own marital status. She did, though, try out her new spelling rules on him. ‘Hav you eny rules for speling in the For. Journal? I asked bekaus I hav adopted the fonetic style of speling, but I shal not dare to spel that way if your compositor snubs me by putting my letters in type in the old way. Plese let me kno.” Though an adept language student, Lottie had not come upon these new spelling rules on her own. The American Philological Society had undertaken the project. Its president was Lottie’s old teacher, Dr. Crawford H. Toy. While she was home on furlough with Eddie, their friendship had rekindled. Now it was becoming something more. Only 4 years older than Lottie, Toy had been greatly admired by his female students. But it was in blue-eyed Lottie Moon, a friend of his sister Julia, that he had found his equal. He encouraged her in studying Hebrew and Greek. When Lottie graduated with a master’s degree—one of the first women in the South to earn such a diploma—she had to go off to teach in order to help support her family and herself. Dr. Toy had spent some time teaching at the University of Alabama and had gone to study in Germany for 2 years before settling down on the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. During those years when he and Lottie were pursuing their careers and she was learning the ropes in China, they had not kept in touch. Then, suddenly they had found each other again, not as young teacher and even younger student, but as mature man and woman. Letters continued to cross the Pacific in 1878 and 1879. In May 1879 Dr. Toy endured a stunning personal and professional blow. At the Southern Baptist Convention, a call was made for his resignation. He had been one of the first professors to teach what was called “higher criticism” of Scripture. This new method was perceived by some as too liberal for Southern Baptists. Though Dr. Toy’s friend John Broadus, who was also one of Lottie’s mentors, tried to warn him, Dr. Toy continued to teach in the same vein. As the controversy about him raged on, not even his critics would question his character or Christian commitment; his course content, however, was unacceptable. He gave his resignation. At the train station he bade good-bye to colleagues and students, some of whom wept openly. The whole mess was aired thoroughly in the denominational press, with some defending the seminary and some defending Dr. Toy. Anyone who, like Lottie, read the denominational journals and newspapers could become very well acquainted with the controversy. But while Lottie soon stopped using the new spelling with Dr. Tupper—he seemed less than enthusiastic about it—she continued her correspondence with Dr. Toy.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FIRST CLAIM 41 Dr. Tupper was delighted over the match, since he thought highly of both Dr. Toy and Lottie. Still, missions work had to go on, even in the midst of drama and romance.

The winter of 1879–80 was very hard on Lottie and she welcomed the warm sunshine of spring. She confided in a letter home that she still had a horror of country work. Yet, she also found many rewards in it, as she explained in a letter to Dr. Tupper. In March, she wrote another letter to her friend, again begging for Mr. Eager and his intended bride to be sent quickly. Dr. Crawford, though returned from his rest trip, was not really well. Sallie was beside herself with worry over Landrum, and physically worn out. Mrs. Crawford’s health was only tolerable. As for herself—she was lonely and sick of living alone. “Send on our good brother and sister,” she pleaded. By May there was still no hope of the Eagers coming. Dr. Tupper reminded Lottie she had not written for the Foreign Mission Journal as much as they would like. She wrote back to apologize but also explain: “I once had strength enough to work all day in the villages and at night sit down on a kang and write off the day’s experiences. But, somehow, mission life takes the strength and energy out of us before we know it, and we have to learn to be watchful and not overwork lest the time come too soon when we can work no more.” She added a closing plea that the Eagers come quickly. Dr. Toy, now professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages at Harvard University, was well aware that Lottie wanted the Eagers on the field. He found out that Mr. Eager had not yet married and come to China because of money troubles. He had worked while putting himself through school. Even with the utmost thrift, there had been nothing to save in order to marry and outfit himself and his bride for life in a foreign country. Dr. Toy wrote of the matter to Lottie, and she in turn wrote to Dr. Tupper. She suggested the Board return to an old practice of allowing a onetime sum to help new missionaries buy necessities. She didn’t mean furniture, though. A missionary could gradually furnish a home with his salary, but there were other necessities, like books. “For a man to attempt to keep his mind strong and growing without books is like a workman’s using his fingers instead of tools.” Even in America, a person must have books to keep track of new ideas and not fall behind. How much more crucial they were for someone in an intellectually stifling place like Tengchow. Above all, she urged, send the Eagers quickly.

In August, Lottie began a letter to Dr. Tupper in which she fell back into the phonetic spelling habit, as well as the suggestion-making habit. “I am afraid you will think I am veri fond of making suggestions, but I am going to venture once more and then quit—until next time.” Her suggestion was that Sallie Holmes be invited home for a furlough. Sallie had agreed with Dr. Taylor, the Board’s previous recording secretary, to stay in China 8 years before returning home. She had now been there 11 years. Lottie had started agitating for regular missionary furloughs in December 1878. She thought it foolish for Southern Baptists to expect their missionaries to stay on the field until they dropped dead from overwork—especially when they were so slow to send replacements. Sallie’s exhaustion and the Crawfords’ ill health were prime reasons for sending the Eagers. Even if they arrived soon, they would need six to eight months to even begin to function, so it would be that many more months before Sallie and the Crawfords could leave. Perhaps Lottie herself would want to leave someday.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FIRST CLAIM 42 August was also when Anna Safford paid another visit to Tengchow. This time she stayed for several weeks, and the two friends had a wonderful time together. After the happy visit from Anna, Lottie received a blow. Dr. Yates brought news that the Eagers were not coming to China. Mrs. Eager felt called to Italy. Of all the Mission, Lottie was the only one who saw things from the Eagers’ point of view. The others, even Dr. Yates, were bitterly disappointed. Mrs. Crawford and Minnie, on holiday in Chefoo, were not there to weigh in with their opinions. “The lady had a right to her preferences and I think they should have been considered,” Lottie argued. A letter from Dr. Tupper arrived telling them what they already knew—the Eagers were not coming. But he also indicated someone else would be appointed in their place. Lottie wrote back, affirming the Board’s decision but admitting the others were upset. She mentioned rumors of war between Russia and China. Of Dr. Toy she said, “I trust he has a bright future before him at Harvard.” After she wrote the letter but before she mailed it, Lottie had the chance to talk to Mr. Crawford, who had also read Dr. Tupper’s letter. Now that he knew Tengchow was still to get a missionary, he was at peace about the decision. Lottie added a comforting PS to her letter. “The new man will make it all right.” The new man (and his wife) were Dr. and Mrs. T. P. Bell. He was appointed at the 1881 Southern Baptist Convention, along with South Carolinian John Stout. Bell had recently been Dr. Toy’s student, but neither that nor John Stout’s staunch support for women’s mission societies in his state seemed to bother the Board. It bothered someone, however. When questioned about their views on Scripture, both men honestly acknowledged that they shared some of Dr. Toy’s views. Their appointment was withdrawn in order to spare the Board controversy. Dr. Tupper was spared by no one, not even the China missionaries. What difference did it make, they demanded, what stand the missionaries took on different theories of Genesis or such like? The Chinese wouldn’t understand or care about that—they needed the gospel! Both men would be so busy preaching Christ, there would be no time for such hair splitting. It was to no avail. The men would not be appointed. Dr. Tupper was heartsick and poured out his grief to his friend half a world away. “You see by the papers they are not to go to China. This is a dreadful disappointment. But you will say, ‘Is it not your own fault?’ Now, my sweet sister, don’t turn on the friend seeking your good offices. I know your love for Dr. Toy.” Yet, the Board could not appoint men who held to Dr. Toy’s views, even though Brothers Bell and Stout were “the noblest among the noble.” When word reached Tengchow that the Bells were not coming, Sallie Holmes gave up. “I can stay no longer,” she admitted. “I will sail immediately.” And she did. Lottie hated to see her go, but knew she must. Sickly Mrs. Crawford would go soon, too. And as for herself…time would tell. In September the missionaries that were left gathered to discuss the future. Twenty years of tears, prayers, and toil—the sum of Southern Baptist work—hung in the balance. The future of the Mission, at least for the time being, depended on a 40-year-old woman who was so little that when she sat in a tall chair, her feet dangled like a child’s. Could she take over all the schools? What would happen to the country work? What of Mrs. Crawford’s medical work? (Mr. Crawford upon his return had forced her to scale it back to just their immediate church members, but it was still a viable ministry.) Whatever the missionaries were expecting to hear, they were not ready for what came out of Lottie’s mouth: “I am leaving.” Of course, there was more to it than that. In the shock of

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FIRST CLAIM 43 her announcement some confusion set in. Mr. Crawford was sure she was going to Harvard to teach Hebrew with Crawford Toy. Mrs. Crawford understood she was going to Harvard as Dr. Toy’s bride. Either way, they begged her to wait until spring. By then, they would have heard from Dr. Tupper about possible replacements. She agreed. When Dr. Tupper received the news, he was extremely pleased.* But the springtime wedding never came. Lottie and Dr. Toy ended their engagement, and Lottie’s life in China went on as before. Many people speculated and wondered what happened, though they would not be so uncouth as to ask. Though good manners kept them from prying, it did not stop them from guessing. Was it Toy’s theology? Lottie knew his beliefs quite well before she agreed to marry him. Was it plain old cold feet? Toy’s family knew only the engagement was broken because of a question of religion. Could it be her call to China would not let her go? Many years later, a young relative dared to ask of an elderly Lottie, “Weren’t you ever in love?” Softly and simply Lottie answered, “Yes, but God had first claim on my life, and since the two conflicted, there could be no question about the result.”

*It would be expected that Lottie would have shared her reasons with Dr. Tupper, whom she trusted with her personal information. In the file of Moon-Tupper correspondence, there is a 2-year gap, which includes this time period in her life. So, unless those letters are found, we will never know what she wrote to him about her engagement.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FIRST CLAIM 44 8 The Younger Generation

The Crawfords were leaving. Mrs. Crawford was finally going home to have surgery and a much-deserved rest. Her husband was going with her part-way. Minnie, now in her late teens, was to be married in Chefoo. After the wedding Mr. Crawford would stay a while in Shanghai. Lottie was left to do everything. “I feel the weight of the nation on my shoulders,” she thought wearily. She combined her school with Mrs. Holmes’s school and continued what was left of Mrs. Crawford’s ministry to church members. To be closer to her new work, she left the North Street property and moved into Mrs. Holmes’s compound at the Little Cross Roads. She would vacate the place if and when Mrs. Holmes came back. (This never happened; the woman Lottie had called indefatigable had finally become too fatigued to ever again face the missions field.) When Mr. Crawford came back, he made changes to his wife’s school which almost ruined it. He pressured Lottie to make the same changes. She agreed to start teaching English, but refused to go along with charging fees. She saw that attendance at Mrs. Crawford’s school had plummeted when the fee system was created. Mr. Crawford focused on what was now his school, and on the church and preaching. Lottie ran her school and did country work. More and more Lottie wanted to focus on the work that would do the most to extend God’s kingdom. She had seen how doing schoolwork and country evangelism had almost destroyed Sallie Holmes and Martha Crawford. It had destroyed her Presbyterian friend Mrs. Capp. Just that year Lottie had sat by the dying woman and held her hand. Mrs. Capp had also tried to do both school and country work. Her nonstop labor had helped end her life too soon. But, good news had finally arrived; two young men were coming to Tengchow as missionaries! Lottie hoped they would keep the schools going while she devoted herself to country work. N. W. Halcomb arrived in January 1882 and C. W. Pruitt followed in February. Lottie greeted them with ecstatic relief—just as she had been greeted when she first arrived. The two bachelors plunged into the interior work, but also the schools. They respected Lottie and looked to her for guidance, but the time came when she had to push them out of the nest— just as Martha Crawford and Sallie Holmes had done to her. When Lottie announced the two young men would be attempting country visits without her, they were filled with dread but they managed—just as she had done. Not many months after their arrival, Lottie had a new joy: welcoming a bride to the Mission. Ida Tiffany had come over on the same steamer with Mr. Pruitt, but she was bound for the Presbyterian Mission. The Baptists paid the Presbyterians for the expense of bringing her to the field, since she was now to be a Baptist missionary. They married, and she was baptized as a member of the Tengchow Baptist Church. Her vitality and sweet spirit charmed Lottie and everyone else. Not all Lottie’s time was taken in training the younger people. In 1883 the “woman question” was still raging in the denomination. The greater freedom of American women

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • THE YOUNGER GENERATION 45 threatened some Southern Baptists while others, like Dr. Tupper, welcomed women’s greater involvement in missions. In her role as contributing editor of Woman’s Work in China, Lottie wrote an article explaining the reality of missions work for many women. She was especially appalled that in some missions, including the Presbyterian, women could not vote on Mission matters or travel freely to do evangelism. She was also displeased with Mission schools. “Can we wonder at the mortal weariness and disgust, the sense of wasted powers and the conviction that her life is a failure, that comes over a woman when, instead of the ever-broad- ening activities she had planned, she finds herself tied down to the petty work of teaching a few girls.” This comment drew some criticism in the next issue, but more debate was to come. “I am not against schools,” she tried to explain on more than one occasion. “But one can supervise a school of 100 girls as easily as a school of only 40.” As the young people settled into their work, the question of schools rose within the Mission. Mr. Crawford wanted to close his wife’s school, but Mr. Halcomb and Mr. Pruitt thwarted that move. Mrs. Crawford was planning on returning, and they wanted her school to be waiting for her when she got back. They also voted to enlarge schoolwork. Lottie’s school was finally having to turn away students. Education for both girls and boys was now a sought-after commodity among the Chinese. The Mission needed funds to meet the growing demand. Mrs. Crawford returned in July and Lottie rejoiced to see her again. Martha looked worn-out from her trip, but quickly began to rally once she was home. The Pruitts and Mr. Halcomb planned to open a new mission station in Hwanghsien, about 20 miles inland. Lottie and the other women missionaries had worked for a long time to get this field ready. For Lottie, it was a dream come true. The school question was answered for Lottie in December 1883. A fever raged through her school, and to save her students’ lives she had to close the school and send them home. But, she was comforted by news that she was finally getting another woman missionary. Miss Mattie Roberts of Louisville, Kentucky, was arriving in January 1884. Lottie loved these young missionaries. She wrote to Dr. Tupper, “Our brethren seem to be progressive and cautious in their views, ready to be guided by the opinions of older missionaries, and yet prepared to strike out new paths where their own judgment finds it desirable.” As for Miss Roberts, Lottie wanted to know if there were more at home like her, and if so, send them quickly. Miss Roberts was the cure for the loneliness Lottie had suffered. “She brings sunshine with her,” Lottie thought as she watched the young woman move about her daily tasks with a bright, cheery smile. But Lottie was not to have Miss Roberts for long. Mr. Halcomb had also noticed the bright young woman. How could he not when they were the only two young single people in the Tengchow Southern Baptist Mission? And Ida had made Mr. Pruitt so happy. It made a bachelor feel most forlorn to see such marital bliss. Soon Lottie found out she was losing a housemate, but could look forward to another wedding. How jolly! And the new Mrs. Halcomb would go out with her groom to open the Hwanghsien station. Ida Pruitt was another bright spot for Lottie. She was a faithful Sunday School teacher and helped out at Lottie’s school. “She has to cross the city every day to do less than an hour’s work, but she is always prompt. I can always depend on her,” Lottie praised. In the spring of 1884, Ida took a long country tour with her husband and Mr. Halcomb. The Chinese were charmed by her sweet, gentle ways and opened their homes to her. She

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • THE YOUNGER GENERATION 46 pushed herself too hard and came home looking bad. Lottie recognized the symptoms of overwork; but though she was not particularly well that summer, the veterans were not alarmed over Ida’s health. The fever crept over her. In September she helped a friend pack for a trip to America and then was unable to do anything else. “Oh, do not worry about me, I am only idle,” she said. But those who loved her knew differently. Tengchow now had a Presbyterian doctor. He was called, and Lottie stood ready to nurse her young friend. At first Ida was hopeful she would get well. She tried to continue her language studies and she was most embarrassed at the trouble she was causing her nurses. “She takes more thought for our comfort than we do for hers,” Lottie whispered. Lottie had been at the bedside of other dying people: Mrs. Capp and her own mother. She now sat with Ida and heard the young woman say, “I cannot understand why God has sent this illness, yet it is all right. I submit to his will.” At times when Ida felt better, she told Lottie stories of her trips into the interior. She had especially liked the women of P’ingtu, who were very eager to hear the gospel. At the close of a day when Ida had seemed better, she suddenly died. She was buried in the little cemetery for foreigners, called Mount Hope. Her husband was heartbroken, the other missionaries mournful. The work on the new mission was put on hold until another couple could arrive. Lottie poured out her thoughts about Ida’s life and death to Dr. Tupper. “Her beautiful self-sacrificing life will not have been in vain if it shall stir us to imitation. The memory of such a life will be an abiding inspiration.”

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • THE YOUNGER GENERATION 47 9 T. P. Crawford

Lottie’s country work had been put on hold during Ida’s illness and death. Now it was December and Mr. and Mrs. Davault and Mr. and Mrs. Joiner were to arrive soon. As relieved as the missionaries were to get reinforcements, living space was becoming a problem. Lottie was the only one left with a spare room. Mr. Pruitt was living at the North Street property and expected the Joiners to move in with him. Mr. Halcomb was turning the empty schoolrooms into living quarters. He and Mrs. Halcomb would be near Lottie and would share a yard in common. The Davaults would board with the Crawfords. Lottie hoped to move back to North Street when the new mission opened and Mr. Pruitt relocated. She didn’t look forward to the actual move, but most of her city work was centered in North Street and it would be more efficient to live there. When she wrote to Dr. Tupper about this and other issues, she affirmed that one thing she must have if she were to continue living in China was a home of her own. She didn’t mind offering for a new woman missionary to stay with her until she got her bearings, and perhaps they would want to continue sharing a home. But, what if they found each other disagreeable? Mrs. Holmes had also written Lottie, asking about the possibility of reopening the school. Lottie could not bring herself to do it. As for the suggestion that a woman missionary might open a day school, Lottie responded with a resounding “No!” They were not yet at the point where a day school had a ghost of a chance at succeeding. Boarding schools worked because they offered more than an education; they unburdened the family of a child. In June 1885, Lottie thought the whole question of determining her future work was moot. She got so mad she decided to resign. She had received the printed report for the Foreign Mission Board’s committee on women’s work. In it was printed her article from Woman’s Work in China in which she had argued for equal rights for women missionaries in Mission meetings and missions work. Part of her article had classified single women missionaries into three classes: (1) those with serious grievances who wanted major reforms, (2) those who were satisfied and willing to carry out their purposes by indirect influence, (3) those who enjoyed rights and wanted others to have them. Then her eye fell on a disclaimer: “This is not endorsed by the committee but is reproduced to show what some others think.” Shock, indignation, and then fury flooded through her. She sat down and fired off a letter to Dr. Tupper. “I wrote the article from a deep and intense sympathy for my suffering sisters. I have belonged heretofore to the third class who are free. It seems to be the purpose of the committee to relegate me henceforth to the first class. I distinctly decline from being so rele- gated. Will you be so kind as to request the Board to appropriate the proper sum, say $550, to pay my return passage to Virginia? On arrival, I will send in my resignation in due form.” Dr. Tupper did not accept Lottie’s offer to resign, which he knew came from a woman whose strength and nerves were stretched to the breaking point. First, she was dealing with the death of Mrs. Halcomb, the former Mattie Roberts. The young lady with the sunny personality had died less than a year after her wedding.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • T.P. CRAWFORD 48 With her had died the plan to immediately open Hwanghsien. Mr. Halcomb and Mr. Pruitt, now both widowers, aligned themselves with the Tengchow Mission. But Dr. Tupper knew there was more than that bothering Lottie. The problem was centered in T. P. Crawford. In April, Lottie had written to him about the problems so he would know there was another point of view besides Mr. Crawford’s. That gentleman was planning a trip to America, though he would not reveal why. Lottie and the others suspected it was to promote his plans and ideas as if they were the unanimous will of the Mission, which they were not. Dr. Tupper had responded with a wish that they could talk face-to-face. That letter and Lottie’s angry resignation crossed in the mail. By July 17, his letter reached Lottie, and she responded by pouring out page after page of well-crafted explanation of the whole sordid conflict with Mr. Crawford. Part of the conflict rested on the same issue she wrote about in the article—she did not want her own rights or the rights of other missionaries trampled upon. She closed her epistle by again offering her resignation. He ignored this offer, too, but wrote back soothingly. He especially appreciated all her insights into the Crawford problem, for that gentleman was heading his way. Dr. Tupper was bracing for trouble. The conflict had started almost as soon as the young men reached the field. As Lottie wrote her letters to Richmond she recalled vividly the first bomb Mr. Crawford had dropped on them. Their Mission meetings were held in a private parlor. Mr. Crawford laid out his plans—one could hardly call them suggestions—for changing the rules for how missionaries were sent out and under which they worked. The other missionaries sat wide-eyed as they listened to him propose a “Shantung Mission” encompassing the whole province. He would regulate all moneys, down to the last Chinese cash, as well as missionary salaries. Lottie could hardly believe her ears. His plan made him a dictator, even after he was dead! She had agreed with the policy of not using Board money to pay native assistants. The two young men could see nothing wrong with paying helpers to get the new station up and running. They were willing to avoid making a habit of paying for church workers; but at this early stage of their missions career, they balked at making a lasting promise. “You must promise,” Mr. Crawford demanded. The young men stood firm and earned even more of Lottie’s respect. At the time, seeing the opposition, Mr. Crawford did not send his plans to the Board. But he continued pressuring the young men on the subject of money and schools. Then, one day during the time when Lottie was preparing to welcome Miss Roberts to her home, Mr. Crawford had a private audience with her. “Miss Moon, I intend to call a mission meeting and give up the pastorate. I will call upon our young brothers to take charge.” This was another shock. He hurried on to explain, “I am not only unable to get on with my fellow missionaries, I have alienated the Chinese. My withdrawal is absolutely essential.” True to his word, after Miss Roberts settled in he called the Mission meeting and announced his plan. The question was, would Mr. Pruitt or Mr. Halcomb succeed him? Lottie could see both men were dismayed. They wanted to open a new work, not maintain an old one. Yet, they were young and untried. Lottie’s heart was touched as they gave up all their own hopes and dreams to stay in harmony with their elder. Mr. Pruitt offered himself as pastor. As the handover came closer, however, Mr. Pruitt came to see he was only a figurehead for preaching. Mr. Crawford and a Chinese deacon would run the church. He withdrew

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • T.P. CRAWFORD 49 his consent, a move Lottie applauded. Mr. Halcomb refused to even consider it, so Mr. Crawford stayed as pastor. As the weeks went by Lottie felt more and more compassion for the young men, who were badgered endlessly to comply with Mr. Crawford’s ideas. “It took Dr. Crawford twenty years to find out the folly of schools. He wished others to reach that point in as many months,” Lottie observed. It also irked her that until the winter of 1882, the missionaries had poured themselves into building up schools. Then, suddenly, the policy was turned on its head, almost on a whim it seemed. Every Mission meeting now became drudgery. They sat for two hours, conducting 20 minutes worth of business and then spending the remainder of the time listening to Mr. Crawford. The older man’s long beard gave him the air of an Old Testament prophet, and he held forth like one on all his pet ideas. For Lottie, the meetings seemed to drag on eternally. After Mr. and Mrs. Davault arrived, Mr. Crawford brought up the church pastorate one more time. It was at a Mission meeting that had been called to consider a proposition made by the Presbyterian Mission. When it was dealt with, Mr. Crawford made an announcement. “I have told the church I will resign as pastor this coming Sunday. Mr. Wong will preach in my absence.” By now the missionaries should have been used to such announcements, but they were still amazed. The young man was not even licensed to preach. But, there was more. “Mr. Davault will decide when Mr. Pruitt or Mr. Halcomb need to replace Mr. Wong for a Sunday.” All eyes turned to the unfortunate Mr. Davault, who had been there all of two months and on a good day could understand a few dozen Chinese words. He was not even a member of the church yet! The plan was opposed by a majority of the Mission, and the conversations continued afterward. Lottie’s favorite words regarding the idea were absurd and ridiculous. She and others expressed their opinions so forcefully Mr. Crawford withdrew his resignation. Now, Mr. Crawford was on his way to America to preach his ideas. Lottie just wanted Dr. Tupper to know the other side of the story. Mrs. Crawford did not go with her husband. She was left in charge of the church, and she immediately invited the young men to take charge, which they did with a will. If Lottie could only forget about the trouble brewing in America, she could have been most content now. The Mission meetings were serene. They met, elected a moderator, disposed of business, and then closed in prayer, always led by one of the gentlemen. Lottie did not blame Mrs. Crawford for her husband’s actions. She considered Martha a woman of good judgment and great tact. She knew Martha had an added pressure that Lottie did not have: Lottie was not married to T. P. Crawford. Martha’s marriage was unusual, even by missionary standards of the day. Unlike many young women who went to the missions field so they could be with their husbands, Martha took a husband so she could get to the missions field. As a young woman from Pickens County, Alabama, she wrote the Foreign Mission Board regarding appointment as a missionary to China. The Board notified T. P. Crawford, who was looking for a wife before he went to China, that there was an eligible schoolteacher in Alabama. They met, married, and headed for China in quick order. They had lived and worked together through war, famine, lawsuits, murder threats, health crises, missionary conflicts, drudgery, and tedium. But in the 1880s Mr. Crawford had begun to make demands of his wife so they could heal what he called “the drift” in their marriage. She curtailed her medical work and accepted Minnie and Alfred as her children, sight unseen. She had come back from her sick leave ready to do whatever it took to

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • T.P. CRAWFORD 50 cooperate with her husband, even if it meant giving up her school. She was also going to vote with him on Mission matters. But for now, things were going swimmingly at the Mission. In America, Mr. Crawford spoke to the Board at length in October and November. Other veteran missionaries had been invited to be present, for Mr. Crawford wanted his policies accepted worldwide. He wanted no Board money spent on paid assistants. He wanted each missionary, wherever they were assigned, to receive the same appropriation. But, he wanted the Mission system abolished so that each missionary would be a free agent. Board members could not grasp how the Board would pay each missionary the same salary, yet have the Mission system dismantled so that each missionary would be on his or her own. They tabled these ideas for later study, and declined to make self-support for native Christians a policy. “Of course self-support is the long-range objective,” several listeners agreed, but it was not the time to make it a hard and fast policy all over the world. “Not all missionaries want to work under such a policy.” “Conditions are different in different parts of the world.” “Is God not capable of raising some native Christians above a love of money so that their work is genuine and sincere? Are they to be refused adequate compensation for their good work?” And so the conversation went. Finally, the Board made two decisions, neither of which Mr. Crawford liked. Missionaries were now prohibited from making private business deals while on the missions field and they could not draw from the Mission treasury at will. This would hinder Mr. Crawford’s financial habits, for he did both these things. The last action the Board took was to ask Mr. Crawford to go home and not spread his ideas among the churches. He declined to do this. He went across Southern Baptist territory preaching his missions proposals. Some pastors, forewarned by friends of the Board, refused him their pulpits. He attended the Southern Baptist Convention, but did not get a friendly hearing. Others, however, listened with great interest. While this was going on, the Hwanghsien Mission was finally established, and Lottie had a new interest. She remembered Ida Pruitt’s stories of how open P’ingtu was to the gospel. This village was 120 miles in the interior, far from the protection of treaty ports and the luxury of Western companions. When Lottie was younger, the idea of going there would have been unthinkable. Now she was seasoned, fluent in the language, and ready for a challenge. She could even eat most Chinese food, “although I do get tired of eggs three times a day,” she sighed. What was there for her in Tengchow—the opening of another school? Visiting villages she had visited before? Mrs. Crawford must stay to await her husband’s return. The younger people had their work. And Lottie had P’ingtu.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • T.P. CRAWFORD 51 10 P’ingtu

Her interest aroused by stories from the other missionaries, Lottie traveled the 120 miles to P’ingtu. She found the people friendly, the area prosperous, and the women eagerly searching for divine truth. Hundreds, she learned, were members of different religious sects. “I have never seen such teachableness,” she marveled when she returned home. As soon as she got back to Tengchow she started preparations for returning to P’ingtu. But this would be no ordinary country tour; she planned to take a house and live there the better part of a year. This was one step in a long-range plan of opening stations throughout Shantung. Her first trip had been in the autumn of 1885. She had spent three miserable nights in Chinese inns before she reached P’ingtu on the fourth day. After battling bugs and rats at the inns, she rejoiced to see the fertile fields and prosperous city of P’ingtu. Mr. Chao, the Crawfords’ servant, had family in P’ingtu, so he kept Lottie company as she traveled and helped her settle in. She stayed a month. When she returned to Tengchow again, she knew what she would need for her sojourn in P’ingtu. She began packing medi- cines, bedding, a mattress, Chinese literature, leisure reading material, food, a cookstove. Was anything missing from her list? Yes—lots of warm underwear for the encroaching winter! As she was getting ready, Lottie received a letter from her P’ingtu landlord, saying she could not rent his house after all. “Well, this is a bit of a sticky wicket,” she thought. Still, she was going and the Lord would provide housing when she got there. In December, all the mules were packed and Lottie was ready to crawl into the shentze. Mr. Chao and his wife were going with her to take care of her housekeeping. Lottie planned to give herself completely to evangelism. That is, after she found a house. After several days Lottie and the Chaos arrived in P’ingtu City and began house hunting. Lottie looked at one after another. “No. No. No.” was her answer to all of them. “Now, this is promising,” she finally thought upon seeing a house that, with improvements, would do. It belonged to Mr. Chao’s relative, Chao Teh Shin, who was an opium addict. The house was located in the west suburb of P’ingtu City. Lottie surveyed the dirt floor, smoked walls, bare rafters, and thatched roof. “I wouldn’t want it forever,” she mused, “but I don’t mind roughing it for a year or two.” “How much is the rent?” she asked. “Twenty-five thousand cash a year,” the landlord answered. Lottie did some quick calculations. That amounted to 24 American dollars a year, a high rent, but she expected it. Foreigners always paid more. “I’ll take it,” she said. Her new house was a row of four rooms, and each would have its own purpose. “This room will be the kitchen. Let’s put the cookstove in there,” she directed. Then she picked out a storeroom and a passageway. The last room, with the kang in it, would be her living room and bedroom combined. She would sleep on the kang at night and during the day, when she received visitors, she would sit on it, cross-legged, as the Chinese typically did. Though Lottie wanted to blend in with the local population, she did pay for a couple of luxuries that only wealthier Chinese might have. She papered the blackened walls and had

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • P’INGTU 52 a paper ceiling put in to hide the bare rafters. For an added touch of comfort she put straw matting and rugs on the floor. Then she put out her bedding on the kang and waited for visitors. She didn’t have to wait long. Her landlord’s wife soon came to visit. She needed work, and Lottie hired her to be her laundress. Another neighbor was hired to be a seamstress. A local man agreed to draw water for her. By paying for the services of these neighbors, and biding her time, Lottie was able to gradually establish herself as a benign presence in the community. When Lottie did start venturing out to make visits, she took Mrs. Chao with her. She didn’t want to offend her neighbors by aggressively evangelizing them. Her philosophy was to be a friend, get to know them, and earn the right to be heard. Through her contacts with the Chao family, Lottie eventually had a number of homes where she was a welcome teacher. That didn’t mean there weren’t problems, however. “Devil woman! Old devil woman!” the children chanted as Lottie walked down the street. Lottie stiffened her backbone and turned to face them. From her earliest days in China she had made it a practice to confront rude children, not in a mean way, but firmly. It wasn’t just the teacher in her that made her do this. It went all the way back to her own childhood days, when in the Moon household, rudeness was not tolerated. “To call me a devil is to show disrespect. You should call me teacher,” she said clearly. She followed up with the promise, “I shall speak to your parents about this.” Sometimes it was the parents themselves she had to rebuke. When the adults called her devil she would say, “Do not curse me. I am a human like you. We are brothers and sisters.” Yet, Lottie racked her brain to think of ways to make friends with these same children and their parents. What did children like? She smiled as the answer came to her. What child didn’t like a cookie?! Though Chinese people didn’t make the elaborate, rich desserts Americans enjoyed, they liked an occasional taste of something sweet. Lottie thought about the teacakes she had had as a child in Virginia. They were delicious, but not too sweet. And, she knew how to make them. Soon from the foreign woman’s house came a mouth-watering smell that drew children like a magnet. When the tiny woman came out with a platter of small round things and offered them to the children, a few reached out bravely and took them. Others were hesitant, watching to see if their bolder friends fell down dead from poison. If their friends survived, maybe they would take one, too. Still afraid, the children scampered off to show the strange things to their parents. Most of the mothers and fathers drew back in alarm. “Don’t eat that! You don’t know what that foreigner put in it!” was the usual reply. But then they began to wonder. They examined the cookies. They looked good, certainly harmless. They smelled good. Many people said she was a nice foreign teacher, so perhaps she wasn’t trying to commit mass murder. They tasted good. And nobody died from them. The children went back for more. “We can’t let the children keep taking cookies from her without giving a gift in return,” the mothers told each other. A stream of parents, small gifts in hand, began showing up at Lottie’s door. She was delighted. And so the days wore on towards winter, with Lottie visiting in the villages, making cookies, and getting to know her city neighbors. She never heard one word of English spoken. This solitude drove her to see a deeper relationship with God through prayer, meditation, and Bible study. Since she had no one with whom to share her thoughts, she put them on paper. In her Bible she wrote, “Words fail to express my love for this holy Book, my gratitude for its author, for His love and goodness. How shall I thank him for it?”

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • P’INGTU 53 Lottie’s relationship with God had already been deep before she went to P’ingtu. She wrote many times of feeling Christ close beside her. Now she was entering a new level of communion with Him. She begged for prayers on her behalf. As cold weather set in, Lottie discovered her Western clothing was not keeping her warm enough. She put on two sets of flannel underwear beneath her dress and shawl. Then as the temperature plunged, she found herself still shivering. What to do? The Chinese, with their quilted garments and heavy robes, seemed to bear the cold much better. Lottie had avoided wearing Chinese dress because she feared the Chinese would think she was ridiculous. This fear was confirmed when Mr. Pruitt tried wearing a Chinese outfit and was publicly mocked. Still . . . it was so cold! Lottie’s seamstress friend was called in and they planned Lottie’s Chinese wardrobe. Over her dress she would wear a quilted coat that hung below her knees. The sleeves were three times wider than American style coats. Over the quilted coat she wore a robe of deep blue, with enormous sleeves. The cuffs were trimmed with black satin. With her summer suntan, Chinese clothes, and dark hair severely pulled back, Lottie now looked almost Chinese. Of course, her dark blue eyes gave her away. Still, to her surprise, when she went out on the street, no one made fun of her. It was just the opposite. Children were courteous, women were friendly, and no one had to ask if she were a woman. As an added bonus, she was no longer subjected to bone-jarring jolts when riding. The thick layers acted as shock absorbers. But, they were incredibly heavy. This was the only drawback. She was worn out by the end of the day, just from wearing all the layers of cloth. “Oh, springtime, please hurry!” she thought as the winter crawled by. In her cocoon of clothes, Lottie went visiting through the winter into the spring. She was welcome at more and more homes, and felt her experiment was proving a success. She loved to visit, but tried to avoid eating Chinese food, since much of it still made her sick. Thanks to the Chaos, she could live well on the local produce, with the addition of flour and coffee she brought with her. She dined on rice, beef, chicken, small oranges, cabbages, eggs, and sweet potatoes. It was a good diet, so good Lottie discovered she was developing middle-age spread. The only day when Lottie would not visit was Sunday. She kept this strictly as a day of rest and worship. The local mandarin (the highest government official) discovered that even for him, she would not break this rule. “Tell the mandarin I cannot come today; it is the Sabbath,” she explained when the messenger brought her the invitation to visit him. The messenger went back and told the mandarin that the foreign woman would not come because it was her day of worship. Instead of being offended, the mandarin was more curious and eager to see this woman than before. He arranged for Lottie to come at a time that suited her. It was during this visit she got another ghastly glimpse into the lives of Chinese women. The visit started out well enough. A woman showed up at 11:30 on a January morning to escort Lottie to the mandarin’s house. After leading her through gateways and courtyards, she brought Lottie to the private residence. A young man hurried ahead of them to announce Lottie’s arrival. When she walked in, Lottie didn’t know what to think—the house seemed to be in an uproar. A servant had been busy combing a little girl’s hair. She hastily brushed the dust off some matting covering a wooden bedstead and asked Lottie to sit down. “We were not expecting you so early,” the woman said apologetically. The announcement of her arrival this morning had thrown the servants into some confusion. They spoke for a few minutes when two blind men suddenly entered the room.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • P’INGTU 54 “What is the Sabbath?” one asked abruptly. Apparently word had spread through the household of her declining to visit on account of the Sabbath. But it was neither confusion nor questions from strange blind men that was bothering Lottie at the moment. In the room with her was a pitiful old woman who was trying to rise from her bed to greet Lottie. The woman’s hair was uncombed, her face streaked with soot, and her clothes appeared never to have been washed. Lottie’s tender heart went out to the poor creature, whom no one seemed to notice. “Who is this lady?” Lottie asked. “She is the mandarin’s wife,” the servants replied. The mandarin’s wife! How could this be? Lottie tried speaking to her and urged her to go back to bed, since she was obviously sick. And no wonder—in the bitter January weather the woman’s bed was opposite the open door, in the coldest part of the room. She had one thin rug to lie on, and one ragged covering to put over her when she lay on the hard bed. Some equipment for taking opium lay on the bedside table. Lottie tried to sit down on the bed by the woman, but the servant efficiently insisted Lottie go back to her original seat. Just then a man in quilted satin clothes hurried through the apartment. It was the mandarin, the woman’s husband, and he could not spare his wife a kind word. “What in the world is going on in this house?” Lottie wondered. She soon got her answer. She was ushered into the inner room, where another sick woman lounged. This room, however, was the polar opposite of the den where the wife huddled. Comfortable furniture was covered with elegant, warm bedding. A fire was burning on the Chinese stove, and a teakettle bubbled merrily with hot tea. A woman greeted her with a bow and clasped hands. The lady had a pleasant face, but was obviously in ill health. “But who was she?” In Chinese fashion, Lottie just came out and asked. The woman, she learned, was a concubine, who had earned all this luxury because she had an adopted son and daughter. The legal wife had borne sons and daughters to her husband. The daughters, who didn’t count, were married and too far away to help their mother, even if they could. The sons had died. Lottie’s sense of justice was outraged. The man’s legal wife, whose only crime was that her sons had died, had to live in squalor while in the next room a lesser wife lived in luxury, with servants ready to attend her every whim. And the woman’s son was adopted. Why couldn’t the legal wife be allowed to adopt a son instead of bringing in this stranger to steal her place and her husband? Lottie’s train of thought was interrupted by the two blind men again. They were musicians, and Lottie asked them to perform. While they did so, the lady of the house had her morning smoke of opium while she lay on her couch. Lottie watched her as she took something that resembled a knitting needle and put a little opium on it. She extended it over a lamp flame until it grew soft. Then she put it into the opium pipe, applied the pipe to the flame and breathed deeply. The sickly sweet smell filled the apartment. The musicians sang endlessly, and Lottie began to feel the effects of the opium, the music, and the depressing situation. She wished with all her heart she could make a getaway. Finally, the lady stopped smoking and went out to get something to eat. Blessedly, the music stopped, and when the lady returned Lottie tried to have an earnest talk with her. The woman wanted to know what kind of people were allowed to join the church. Lottie refrained from admitting that if it were up to her, the mandarin wouldn’t be allowed to join the church until he had put the concubine away and given his lawful wife her rightful place in the home.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • P’INGTU 55 Instead, she admired the woman’s adopted son, a bright, handsome, healthy boy. It hurt Lottie to think of the examples being lived out before the promising child. She warned the woman against opium smoking, and pleaded that she must leave because it was time for her to go home to dinner. On her way out she stopped to speak to the legal wife. Grateful to be away from the mandarin’s house, she kept the incident on her mind and wrote about it for the Foreign Mission Journal. “Years ago this miserable creature was probably a happy wife and mother, living in comfort, with servants to wait on her. Now she is an outcast, ill-clad, in abject poverty, her daughters far away, her sons in the grave, and, in the adjoining room, separated only by a curtain over the doorway, lives in luxury the woman who has supplanted her and the man who was the husband of her youth.” Lottie was irked at those even in the missionary community that argued that polygamists should not be denied baptism because it would mean forcing a man to put away the mother of his children and cause suffering. She had seen firsthand the suffering polygamy itself caused.

Spring finally came and with it a visitor for Lottie. C. W. Pruitt came to check on her progress. When he asked for Miss Moon, the foreign teacher, people pointed out to him a tiny Chinese woman who would not shake hands with him or, in fact, come close to him. This was Miss Moon? When they were alone she explained why she would not appear on the street with him. It was not something a modest Chinese woman would do, and she was trying to embrace the Chinese life as much as possible. She wanted to show the people that a Chinese life could be a Christian life, too. “We must go out and live among them, manifesting the gentle, loving spirit of our Lord,” she told him. “We need to make friends before we can hope to make converts.” And she had made friends. But now, spring was quickly turning into summer, and summer in P’ingtu was akin to living in a furnace. She had to rest, at home, at the Little Cross Roads house. In June she started out in a two-wheeled cart, drawn by a mule. Now that she wasn’t wearing her heavy quilted winter clothes, she didn’t have the shock absorbers she needed to ride in such a contraption. As she bounced along she tried not to complain. “It is an excellent substitute for gymnastics,” she observed. On the way home she stopped to pay some visits and move her letter to what used to be the North Street Church, now flourishing in Shangtswang under Mr. Halcomb’s leadership. It was the closest church to P’ingtu and she felt it needed her tithe. Besides, she was very fond of young Mr. Halcomb. When she worshipped with the church, the fellowship and warmth, after so many months of isolation, brought tears to her eyes. After many days the mule cart brought her home. She had been away six months, and looked forward to taking it easy for a while. But that was not to be.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • P’INGTU 56 11 A Thousand Lives

Instead of resting in Tengchow, Lottie found herself caring for the younger missionaries. Mr. and Mrs. Joiner and their baby came to stay at her house, where Mr. Joiner rested for more than two months, recovering from stress and “heat apoplexy.” While Mr. Joiner was trying to regain his health and his emotional balance, Mr. Halcomb was struggling with questions about his own religious beliefs. He was so torn that he told Lottie and Mrs. Crawford that he felt he should resign. “No! Out of the question!” they replied. Mr. Halcomb was in many ways the strongest of all the male missionaries. “His character seems to me a singular blending of strength and sweetness, such as one rarely meets,” Lottie observed. They could not afford to lose such a co-worker. For one month, Lottie met with Mr. Halcomb to study the Bible and help him struggle with his doubts and questions. She admitted to herself and others that if he came down on the side of his doubts, then he should not be on the missions field. But Lottie felt strongly that Mr. Halcomb was going through the kind of spiritual crisis that, once resolved, would leave him with a surer and stronger faith. “I cannot work for the Board while I struggle with these questions, lest that bias my thinking. I must be clear of all outside influences,” he explained. To the regret of both Lottie and Martha, he sent Dr. Tupper his resignation. Lottie wasn’t ready to give up. She discreetly wrote a letter to Dr. Tupper, begging him to ignore the resignation and write some comforting words to Mr. Halcomb. In the same letter she warned that Mr. Davault’s health had given way. Lottie and the others suspected he had consumption. His heavy workload and the loneliness at Hwanghsien made the sickness worse. And Mrs. Davault was pregnant. The worry over their wives and babies haunted the new missionaries. With Mr. Joiner and Mr. Davault both in poor health, Lottie felt even more urgently the need to keep Mr. Halcomb. A few days later Lottie wrote again, asking for two married couples and two single women for P’ingtu. After that station was established, they would open others, with the seasoned missionaries doing the initial work and new missionaries taking over later. She took time to explain in detail “woman’s work for woman.” Two unmarried women should be assigned to each interior station, and the Board should do what it could to keep them happy. They should share a home, and come to the coast every year to rest. She also asked for a doctor for the interior missions. A doctor would certainly be busy among the Shantung missionaries at present. Mr. Davault broke down completely and the Joiners hurried back to Hwanghsien. The Davaults returned to Tengchow, where Martha Crawford tended them. Lottie went with the Joiners and moved into the Davault house. Mr. Joiner was still sick and Mrs. Joiner, caring for a baby, needed someone to count on in an emergency. Lottie cared not only for the Joiners, but for the little church there. The young missionaries depended on Lottie as they would a mother, but she was more than that to them. Both Mr. Joiner and Mr. Davault were sick to a great extent because of

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A THOUSAND LIVES 57 the emotional trauma they endured from culture shock. As the missionaries would go out, the young men would recoil in horror at the sight of dogs eating dead bodies, or unwanted babies left to die in ditches. On a daily basis there was hostility and curiosity, filth and heat, and always, there was loneliness. One day in Hwanghsien, Mr. Joiner, who was trying to work as he was physically able, called on Lottie. “Mrs. Joiner and the baby are sick. Could you come and stay with us?” he begged piti- fully. Of course she would. So she moved yet again, into the Joiner home, to be a nurse. While all this was going on she was able to make a visit to P’ingtu, but not much could be done until someone got better. That someone was not Mr. Davault. He steadily declined physically and mentally. In November his wife delivered their baby. It was a long winter for everyone. Lottie wrote to Dr. Tupper that she needed a furlough, lest she break down like Mrs. Holmes. She had not left China since the trip home with Eddie nearly 10 years before. She desperately needed rest. While she waited in Hwanghsien for an answer from America, she made plans to return to P’ingtu. First, she would have to go back to Tengchow and pack. When she finally got home, Mr. Crawford was again in residence. Lottie started packing, and hired a mule train to take her to P’ingtu. When she found the train delayed, she used the time to rest at home. When she finally set off for P’ingtu in a mule cart, she was ready to get away. As the mule trotted over the rough trail, a new noise arose. Lottie lurched and swayed in time to the sound of tin cans and glass bottles clacking and clanging. Except for one night in the Joiners’ home, along the way she lodged in Chinese inns, which were not encumbered with either doors or windows, and filled with the odors of pack animals stabled just a few feet away. When the bouncing mule cart finally reached P’ingtu, she received a warm greeting. The few children who cried, “Devil woman!” were squelched quickly and firmly. The foreign cookie maker had come back to teach, and the women were glad. When Lottie wasn’t teaching she was writing descriptions of the spiritual hunger in Tengchow for the Foreign Mission Journal. She talked of the promising young women, the open homes, the fact even the men were now friendly. She always included a plea for more help. “How long is ‘the King’s business’ to go undone?” she wrote. In July she was home resting and hoping to hear news that her furlough was approved. It came. At once she wrote back to Dr. Tupper that she would try to hold on until the next June, but only if she could stay healthy. “I have an intense horror of going home ‘broken down’ to be of no use to myself or anybody else.” While Lottie was resting her throat she was also worrying about the younger generation. Mr. Joiner was still sick and finally was sent on a trip to Siberia for a change of climate and scene. Brother Davault was worse. In fact, he was dying of consumption, but that was not all. The Baptist missionaries called him “nervous,’ but the Presbyterians simply said he was insane. With such examples before her, Lottie wrote passionately to Southern Baptists about the suffering missionaries endured, especially the emotional stress of feeling always hated. Not all of Shantung Province was as friendly as P’ingtu. Could they imagine what it was to be reviled every time they stepped outside? The missionaries could. She added a plea for understanding for the missionary who gave up the field—the kind of understanding her sister Eddie had not received. “Give the returned missionary a cheerful welcome, even if he breaks down in two or three years remembering that in his place you might not have done so well as he did.”

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A THOUSAND LIVES 58 While she was in P’ingtu, Lottie wrote for the Foreign Mission Journal some suggestions for raising more money for missions. She knew that Methodist women were well organized and the results spoke for themselves. Sixty-six thousand dollars raised for missions last year alone! And the women they were sending as missionaries to China were of the highest quality. Southern Baptist women should be ashamed. Why should they not organize as the Methodist women had done? Lottie measured the effect of her words carefully as she wrote. She knew the “women’s question” was raging in the Southern Baptist Convention. Men, and some women, envi- sioned Baptist women becoming mad with power if they organized. She decided to write, “In seeking organization we do not need to adopt plans or methods unsuitable to the views, or repugnant to the tastes of our brethren. What we want is not power, but simply combination in order to elicit the largest possible giving.” The Methodist women had chosen the week before Christmas as a week of prayer and self-denial for missions. Lottie thoroughly approved. “Need it be said why the week before Christmas is chosen? Is not the festive season when families and friends exchange gifts in memory of The Gift laid on the altar of the world for the redemption of the human race, the most appropriate time to consecrate a portion from abounding riches and scant poverty to send forth the good tidings of great joy into all the earth? “I wonder how many of us really believe that it is more blessed to give than to receive. A woman who accepts that statement of our Lord Jesus Christ as a fact, and not as ‘impractical idealism’ will make giving a principle of her life.” After a few words about tithing, Lottie closed the letter: “How many there are among our women, alas! alas! who imagine that because ‘Jesus paid it all’ they need pay nothing, forgetting that the prime object of their salvation was that they should follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ in bringing back a lost world to God, and so aid in bringing the answer to the petition our Lord taught his disciples: “Thy kingdom come.” Lottie mailed the letter and fervently hoped someone would read it. It wouldn’t appear in print for a few months, and they needed help now. In October, Mr. Davault died. His was not the peaceful death of Ida Pruitt. It was terrible. His widow gamely tried to stay on, but had to relocate to a better climate for her and her baby. The Joiners, physically broken, left the field forever. Only Mr. Pruitt, Lottie, and the Crawfords were left. Did no one notice or care? Many people did notice and care, including a woman Lottie had never met. Annie Armstrong, with her sister Alice, was laboring to bring Southern Baptist women into a united organization for mission support. The state central committees would meet together in May to vote on organization. Annie read everything she could get her hands on from the Southern Baptist missionaries, especially Lottie Moon’s letters in the Foreign Mission Journal. To her, Lottie’s plea for help rang like a clarion call. She, for one, would not let the missionary down. While Annie, Alice, and a host of other women like Lottie’s friend and almost-sister- in-law Julia Toy Johnson, were working in America, Lottie kept working in P’ingtu and neighboring Sha-ling. It was a man of Sha-ling who had begged Lottie to come teach them about Jesus. So she came, and in a low-ceilinged room with a screen dividing the men and women, Lottie directed the men in song leading, public Scripture reading, prayer, and the catechism. Lottie’s furlough date came and went, and still she worked. At last she had to flee the summer heat for Tengchow. When she arrived at Little Cross Roads, Lottie sifted through

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A THOUSAND LIVES 59 mail and caught up on all the happenings outside P’ingtu. Her heart lifted when she learned the Southern Baptist women had resisted pressure and voted to organize for missions. How wonderful! Lottie had been appealing for such organization for so long. But . . . what? The Virginia women—her special women—were not ready to organize. And her old professors, especially Drs. Hart, Cocke, and Broadus, were outspoken against the women. She couldn’t believe it. Lottie was not pleased, but rather than waste time fuming, she wrote to Annie Armstrong, offering encouragement and support. Lottie ended up spending her vacation working in Chinkiang in Central China. Robert Bryan asked her to come and help their mission begin woman’s work for woman. He had no single women co-workers, and the married women had not bothered to learn Chinese, devoting themselves instead to being wives and mothers. Unlike Martha Crawford and Sallie Holmes, they believed their duty stopped at their front doors. Lottie went. As the summer went on, more Chinese women in Chinkiang turned up for worship services. A few of the missionary wives began to catch the idea of what they could do to help the visitors. The new interest spread to the other wives soon. True, Lottie was working in Chinkiang, but it was different from working in isolated P’ingtu. She found the missionaries “bright and pleasant society.” The admiration was mutual, so much so that she received a tempting offer. “Miss Moon, why not stay here and help us?” Mr. Bryan coaxed. Dr. Yates, whom Lottie much respected and admired, joined Mr. Bryan in tempting her to join their mission, but she resisted. Focusing again on her own field, she wrote Dr. Tupper and Miss Armstrong to please hurry up with workers for P’ingtu. She could hold on for one more year at the most. “I would I had a thousand lives that I might give them to the women of China!” she wrote. But she didn’t, so she could only beg for mature, dedicated women to come help her. Lottie went to God again and again in prayer, begging for Southern Baptists to bestir themselves to send help. She also racked her brain for ways she could help get missionaries on the field. Her thoughts turned to some money she had in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. The Board could borrow it at 6 percent interest. She made the offer, but it was refused. Then she offered to let the Board have it interest free for a year, if the money were to be used to send two women to P’ingtu. Still, no workers were sent out. The Shantung Mission did gain one new missionary in 1888, when widowed C. W. Pruitt married Presbyterian missionary Anna Seward. The newlyweds moved to Hwanghsien to operate the Mission there. Lottie was glad of that, but grieved that Mr. Pruitt had to resign the work at Shangtswang. He had accepted the work there when Mr. Halcomb resigned. Now that he was leaving, Lottie would be in charge of Shangtswang, too, and she didn’t want to be. Now it was October, past when she usually would be in P’ingtu. While getting ready to head back to the interior, Lottie had some surprise visitors arrive at her gate. Two tired men from Sha-ling had walked the 120 miles from the P’ingtu area, trying to find her. “Miss Moon, the women and girls of Sha-ling became worried when you did not come back,” the men said. “We came to find you.” Lottie was touched and amazed, but before she could return with the men, she had to spend three weeks in nearby villages where she and Mrs. Holmes used to work. By mid-No- vember, she and Mrs. Crawford were on the road to P’ingtu, with Mr. Pruitt promising to follow soon. Dr. Tupper became worried that his dear Miss Moon was working herself into a grave, as so many of her peers had done. He begged her to rest, but she responded, “The speediest way to afford me rest is to send reinforcements immediately.”

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A THOUSAND LIVES 60 Her best hope for those reinforcements at that moment lay with Annie Armstrong and the brand-new Woman’s Missionary Union. The Board had authorized $100 in expense money for WMU to promote the Christmas offering. Annie Armstrong wrote 1,000 letters to mission societies and wrapped hundreds of packages of literature. The goal was $2,000. For Annie and the women helping her, it was a busy time, with this work taking place during the usual holiday preparations. Christmas in P’ingtu was just another day for most residents. If Lottie had been in Tengchow, she could have celebrated with other missionaries. Instead, she spent the time teaching in Sha-ling. While Lottie taught the girls and women, the men eavesdropped on the lessons from the next room. Lottie considered work with women and girls her area, and was increasingly frustrated that no Baptist men would come out to share the good news with the male relatives of her dear women. “If you cannot find ministers, send laymen to do the job,” she finally instructed Dr. Tupper. The men of P’ingtu were so desperate to hear about Christ, some of them would follow her (at a respectful distance, of course) and talk to her as she walked. This was not showing good Chinese manners, but the men were determined to learn. Some of the inquirers added their written appeals to Lottie’s. Christmas passed, and Lottie received a wonderful gift, one for which she had asked repeatedly: WMU had raised $3,315.26—enough for three missionaries! And the women had not even spent the whole $100 the Board had allocated! Fannie Knight and Mr. and Mrs. George Bostick were quickly appointed. When Lottie received the blessed news, it renewed her strength. She could now hang on, she wrote, until the new missionaries had arrived and she had trained them. She warned Annie Armstrong to let nothing delay the sending . . . and to make sure the missionaries had a two-year supply of warm flannel underwear. Even with this encouragement, Lottie found herself failing. By spring of 1889 her health was so poor that she began to think perhaps this was the end. It was not, and after a rest, she was ready to work again. That same spring, WMU had its first anniversary meeting in May. Everyone was talking about Lottie Moon. Julia Toy Johnson, Crawford’s sister and the first president of Mississippi WMU, spoke of Lottie. With passion in her voice she said firmly, “She is an invalid and should be at home but will not leave until someone comes to take her place. If I kept still in this meeting, I would not be a friend of Miss Moon.” Another friend of Lottie’s school days, Jennie Snead Hatcher, was president of Virginia women. Mrs. Stainback Wilson, Georgia WMU president, had helped raise money for the Moon House Fund and had fervently supported Lottie’s work. They were both Lottie advo- cates, as was Mrs. T. A. Williams, president of Alabama WMU. These women and others helped make the Christmas offering a permanent fixture of WMU. Finally, in July 1889, Fannie Knight arrived in Tengchow. Lottie treated her as a mother would a daughter, hiring a teacher, having the proper clothes made for her, picking out a Chinese name, grooming her in manners and customs in preparation for P’ingtu. Lottie found Miss Knight to be kind and dedicated, with the same sweet, sunny spirit that Mattie Roberts had shown. Fannie wasn’t the only new missionary. Mrs. Crawford was training the Bosticks. Laura Barton of Texas was also appointed and sent out in 1889, and she was trained along with Fannie Knight. But when Lottie returned to P’ingtu, it was Fannie Knight who went with her, while Miss Barton set to work in Tengchow. The time had come to constitute a church in Sha-ling. On a glorious day, Mr. Pruitt stood in a pool outside Sha-ling and baptized four men and two women, mostly from the

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A THOUSAND LIVES 61 families of Dan and Yuan. Fannie also helped constitute Sha-ling Baptist Church. It was only the fourth Southern Baptist church in North China. A Baptist association, Teng-lai Baptist Association, was then formed from those four churches. After the baptism, while the work of organizing the church was going on, one of the women converts came up to Lottie and embraced her. “How can I ever thank you aright for having come to bring me the good news of salvation?” she whispered. This was particularly touching to Lottie, for public confession of Christ could still lead to persecution, and did. As for this young lady, she was soon married off into an unbeliever’s household. The little Sha-ling Church was terrified for their young sister. On the third day after the marriage, the bride was supposed to worship at the ancestral tablets of her new family. A Christian could not in good conscience take part in ancestor worship. Also, they had been taught to do no work on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. But this was just another work day to unbelieving Chinese. What would happen to her? Her wedding was to take place on a Sunday, and her friends had asked Lottie to please visit her beforehand. She did and had the church meet with her before the bridegroom came for her. Lottie marveled at the joy which shown from the bride’s face; not joy at marrying, but joy that she could suffer for her Lord. After she left, the rest of the church tried to continue the service, but the Chinese brother leading prayer broke down sobbing. When Lottie was a new missionary, she had spoken critically of what she considered the Chinese inability to show emotion. Now, she knew better, and did her best to comfort the believers. The next day Lottie received a message that the bride was “at peace.” This was an answer to prayer. The young woman had told her bridegroom why she could not worship his ances- tors. More importantly, she had explained it to her mother-in-law. The bride’s respectful but firm manner won over her new family, and she was not persecuted. Other believers of every age and walk of life were tormented by their own families. Even this persecution could lead to the spread of the gospel. One day while Lottie was teaching on the threshing floor, an old man stood back and eavesdropped on her teaching. Later, he asked Lottie for a New Testament. He was so bold as to ask a young relative, a Confucian scholar named Li Show-ting, to help him read the New Testament. Li took the book so he could destroy it, and was so moved when he read it, he came looking for Lottie also. She gave him a book that answered some of his objections to Christian faith. When Lottie began to know Li Show-ting, she saw he was an unusual young man. Since the Sha-ling Church still had no resident missionary or Chinese pastor, she asked Mr. Pruitt and Mr. Crawford to come help in his teaching. Li Show-ting went on to become one of the greatest Christian evangelists of North China; but of all the missionaries who helped him, he always spoke of Lottie Moon, his first teacher. Persecution arose full force after Chinese New Year 1890. This was another time when families worshipped before the ancestral tablets. When word got out that Christians would no longer do this, families and neighbors reacted with beatings and threats. Mr. Dan, who had first sent the messengers to invite Lottie to Sha-ling, was tied up and beaten by his family in front of the ancestral tablets he now rejected. Li had to run from the area to save his life. His own brothers had beaten him, dragged him by the hair, and torn off his scalp. Lottie had expected persecution, because when the church grew, persecution usually followed. When the Sha-ling Christians sent word to her of what they suffered, she first prayed, and then got into a sedan chair. The foreign treaties specified Chinese Christians should be protected from persecution, but she felt Christians should face persecution for their Lord as a witness for Him.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A THOUSAND LIVES 62 Lottie went to Sha-ling, and stood between the mob and her fellow believers. She boldly told the lead persecutor that he would have to kill her before he destroyed the church. She was ready to die for Jesus, Who had died for her. This statement did not impress the mob, for one member started to attack her. The church members cried out to her, but she replied, “Only believe, don’t fear. Our Master, Jesus, always watches over us, and no matter what the persecution, Jesus will surely overcome it.” With prayer and Scripture reading she encouraged them, and the attackers did not lift a hand against her. As the days went on and the Sha-ling Church stood firm, persecution wavered. Those who had attacked or allowed Christians to be attacked began to say, “They do not fight back,” meaning they had not called on the treaty rights to protect them. The church became stronger and flourished more than ever before. Now it was time to take the gospel to another P’ingtu village, Li T’z Yuen. Mr. Dan, Mr. Li, and Mr. Yuan spearheaded the work. When they had 10 serious male inquirers, Lottie and Fannie were called in. The ladies arrived to help with services for the women. They also trained a leader, but resisted the impulse to take over and run everything themselves. Still, there was the old problem of no male missionary to preach and baptize. The numbers of seekers were overwhelming the small crew of believers. She appealed to Southern Baptist men—since no missionaries were coming, should she preach and teach men, or allow the churches to be run by men who had perhaps not even been converted yet, but were still in the inquirer stage. She would appreciate an answer—say, in the pages of the Herald? She got no response. Lottie postponed furlough and spent Saturday mornings ministering to 40 beggars that showed up outside her door. She visited the sick, and provided what she could for those in need. This was in addition to helping the younger female missionaries adapt, and opening up work in yet another P’ingtu village. In November 1890 a married couple, Mr. and Mrs. League, at last arrived, feeling called to work in the interior. They took up work in P’ingtu and after so many years, Lottie could think of rest, as could the Pruitts, who also needed a furlough. With Viewmont sold off and most of her brothers and sisters dead, Lottie planned to stay with Eddie in a little home she had built and named Bonheur. She wanted to see the orchard, the chicken house, the garden, and even Eddie’s milk cow, Belle. Most of all she wanted to see Eddie, and rest. It had been 14 years. The missionaries embarked on the Empress of China and Lottie immediately got seasick. Some things, she thought ruefully, just don’t change.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • A THOUSAND LIVES 63 12 Furlough

When Lottie reached Bonheur she was still racked with the headache that plagued her on the voyage. It seemed to last forever. She tried to ease it by walking through the woods and fields of her childhood years, and much rest in her little bedroom. Eddie had given her a comfortable bed and marble-topped dresser. As cold weather came on Lottie enjoyed the cozy fire in the bedroom fireplace. Scores of relatives came to visit, but Lottie rejected all outside invitations, even to the Baptist women of Baltimore. “I have been so unmerciful to myself in China, that I must call a halt now and take a needed rest.” Actually, what Lottie wanted could rightfully be called recovery rather than rest. Since she could not come to him, Dr. Tupper came to her in Scottsville. Eddie’s little home was only a mile from the town, which had a train station, so the travel was not difficult. Dr. Tupper’s visit was not just a social call. Shortly before Lottie left for furlough, T. P. Crawford began brewing trouble again, and Dr. Tupper was worried. Mr. Crawford had convinced the new missionaries, who were still green as grass, to sign Articles of Agreement under which the Shantung Mission would operate. Mr. Bostick and Mr. League had sent them to state Baptist newspapers. The articles had stated, among other things, that the missionaries would be evangelistic, would follow the philosophy of self-support, and would not purchase or build property for the Board. Neither would they be “pastors, school teachers, charity vendors, or meddlers in Chinese lawsuits.” To Dr. Tupper’s surprise, Lottie had signed the articles. He asked his assistant, T. P. Bell, to write Lottie for an explanation, which she provided. Lottie felt Mr. Crawford had lost his ill feelings for the Board, though he could seem extreme. As for herself, she agreed with self-support for native churches. Building their sanctuaries and schools, paying their pastors, or giving them money should not be done, unless the missionaries wished to donate from their own private funds. Missionaries should model self-denial and sacrifice, for her study of the New Testament convinced her that was the Christian’s duty. Now, Dr. Tupper was visiting her to find out who among the signers of the articles were still friends of the Board. “My love for the Board is unshaken,” she assured him, as was Mr. Pruitt’s. She described Mr. Pruitt as elegant, scholarly, cordial, and graceful, all characteristics which helped make him most acceptable to the Chinese. Unfortunately, Mr. Pruitt was not political, at least enough to keep out of the trouble starting. He had shown public support for some of Mr. Crawford’s friends, who in turn were equating self-support with hatred for the Foreign Mission Board, something Mr. Pruitt never meant to endorse. He became so upset about the misunderstanding that he had to talk to Miss Moon about it. He caught a train in Georgia and arrived after dark in Scottsville, only to discover Lottie and Eddie had gone to bed. He could not stay until the next day and he must have her help. So Lottie sat in her darkened bedroom while her friend sat on the porch, and they talked it all out, their voices carrying in the soft Virginia night. Lottie explained things to both sides, and the relationship between missionary and Board was restored.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FURLOUGH 64 Besides a visit to Orie’s sons in Roanoke, Lottie kept still in Scottsville for seven months. When she was ready to greet the world again, she did it with her old zest. Lottie had been attending Scottsville Baptist Church, founded in large part by her parents. When she looked up at the sanctuary platform where the preacher sat, she could see another family reminder, for Viewmont’s rosewood and horsehair parlor furniture had been given to the church. No one would claim horsehair was particularly comfortable, but it looked quite stately up there. With this background, naturally it was to the Woman’s Missionary Society in Scottsville that she pledged her membership. She also planned a tour down South to WMU’s Annual Meeting, held this year in Atlanta. On the way she stopped at several churches, but lavished most of her time in Cartersville. The little girls who had been her pupils 20 years ago were now grown women. They flocked to see their beloved teacher, now a famous missionary. From their perspectives as adults they could now better realize how short Miss Moon really was, and how young she had been when she left. The Cartersville mission society went all out in planning a reception, and she spoke to a large audience (all women, of course). On Sunday she visited the black church and spoke there, too. Then, the whirlwind continued at the Southern Baptist Convention. She met with the Foreign Mission Board that week, and saw that the Sha-ling Christians had sent a crimson silk banner that stretched for yards. With it they had sent an appeal that Lottie come back soon, as well as a thank-you to the Board: “We thank God that he gave his servants wisdom to choose and send so good a missionary as Miss Moon, whose heart is filled with love like that unto the Son of God.” It was at the WMU meeting that Lottie literally and figuratively took center stage. Wearing her Chinese robes, she waited to be introduced by Fannie E. S. Heck, the national WMU president. The beautiful young president, her clothing and prematurely gray hair both impeccable, stood before the adoring crowd. When she presented Lottie, she spoke in a deep but musical voice. “Here is our heroic missionary,” she announced, and as Lottie began to speak, she conquered the meeting. She told of China’s progress, of the intellect of its people, but also their hatred of foreigners. She described what it was like to have a dozen people follow her, all screaming for her life’s blood. Then she described how things had changed since the horrible Shantung famine. Now the doors, especially in the interior, were swinging wide open. Her beloved Chinese Christians were growing their churches. What could Southern Baptist women do for China? What would they do? The women adored her, and left the meeting ready to champion work in the Chinese interior. Lottie was home during the centennial of William Carey’s first trip to India, which was seen as the beginning of the modern missions movement. To mark the occasion, Southern Baptists were raising missions funds at rallies. To help, Lottie traveled, always paying her own way, and spoke at many of the rallies. In April 1893 she spoke at a half dozen Baltimore churches and to the Maryland Woman’s Baptist Foreign Mission Society. She wore Chinese clothes and carried some curios. At country churches she was often the first missionary the people had ever met, and she found she liked this. Her years in China, where she was also an oddity, had equipped her to deal with such curiosity. Besides, Lottie liked the country churches. She had grown up in the country, and liked the values of rural people. She also felt country churches were the key to missions expansion.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FURLOUGH 65 Lottie spent three straight weeks visiting such churches. In the wake of her visits, dozens of hens were named Lottie Moon and their eggs sold for missions. But it was not only hens that ended up in mission service. One little girl was listening enraptured as Lottie talked of life on the missions field. Suddenly, she knew that her life’s work would be missions. She said later that she heard God’s call “as clear as a bell” through Miss Moon’s words. But Lottie could not stay in the rural churches forever. She pressed on to Richmond for the centennial meeting of Virginia Baptists. The women met at Second Baptist Church and were awestruck to have both Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong at the same meeting. At a tea after the proceedings, women pressed forward to shake their hands. Six-foot-tall Miss Armstrong towered physically over Lottie Moon, but in every other way, the women were equally matched—in their love for God, their brilliance (Lottie’s in languages, Annie’s in administration), their passion for missions, and their ability to work and sacrifice. The women would never forget being with them. They also would not forget Lottie’s teachings about the Chinese. She, who had gone to China talking glibly about heathens and “John Chinaman” and who in turn had found out what it was like to be called foreign devil, was now teaching those at home how hurtful and painful such names were. She talked about how ancient the Chinese culture was, the high degree of civilization they had attained, how disdainful they could be of non-Chinese. But she talked most of all about treating the Chinese with Christian love. “Isn’t it time that we missionaries part company with those who roll this word heathen under their tongues as a sweet morsel of contempt? Shall we Christians at home or in mission fields be courteous in preaching the gladdest tidings on earth, or not?” She added, “It is time that the followers of Jesus revise their language and learn to speak respectfully of non-Christian peoples.” This was the message she carried with her to the 1893 WMU meeting in Nashville. There she spoke feelingly of her martyred and persecuted Chinese believers, the courageous women who suffered for their Lord, and the church at Sha-ling. At the same time that Lottie was promoting missions through the Board, and understanding of the Chinese, the Crawfordites and their Gospel Mission movement were doing everything possible to distance Southern Baptists from the mission board. Lottie could not have come home on furlough at a more needful time. The women, who knew what was at stake for missions, rallied around her. Speaking for many of them was Fannie Breedlove Davis of Texas. She put her arm around Lottie and declared, “You have been the inspiration of my life.” Then she looked at the delegates challengingly and said, “She has given her life. What must she think of us? Shall we come up next year with such a small sum?” Lottie was not always the center of attention at the WMU meeting, nor did she wish to be. She took her place among the women as they discussed the future, and surprised some of them when she agreed the next year’s Christmas offering should go to further the work in Japan. For Lottie, money for missions in that beautiful country was well spent. As focused as she was on China, the eyes of Lottie’s soul could see needs elsewhere. The meeting ended, and Lottie felt her furlough time was flying past. The only thing that marred it, once she got rid of the headache, were the efforts of T. P. Crawford, which now was dubbed the Gospel Mission movement, and the Board’s reaction to it. She found J. B. Hartwell was being appointed again for Tengchow, and the news had almost knocked her flat. “Life will not be worth living,” she prophesied. Dr. Tupper had fended off several of her requests to be transferred to Japan if trouble started again between Hartwell and Crawford.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FURLOUGH 66 Finally, even Dr. Tupper had to give up. Unrelenting debt and the Gospel Mission movement were draining him, and he was not a young man. He resigned. Lottie would go back to China under the direction of a new secretary. Meanwhile, Lottie put all the negatives out of her mind and proceeded to plan something fun. Her only niece was her dead sister Mollie’s child, Mamie Shepherd. Mamie had been just a tiny thing the last time Lottie was home; she was now a teenager. Would Mamie care to accompany her old aunt on a little trip? Say . . . three weeks at the World’s Fair in Chicago? Would she! It was only the most talked-about event in America. Mamie was raised Catholic, but was engaged to be married into a devout Baptist family that personally supported Lottie’s work. This would be her only chance to really get to know Mamie before her marriage. So Lottie and Mamie went to Chicago, and Mamie could not have had a better chaperone in a city replete with crowds, diseases, and rude men. China had been a teaching ground for Lottie’s trip to Chicago during the World’s Fair. But who could stay away from a place that featured, all at the same time, people like: Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Thomas Edison, Henry Adams, Nikola Tesla, Clarence Darrow, Marshall Field, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Susan B. Anthony, Jane Addams, Philip Armour, and Ignace Paderewski? But, not even the World’s Fair could last forever; it was closing after October. Lottie went back home to hastily pack for China. She left Scottsville on November 13 and met Eliza Yates in San Francisco. They boarded the China and sailed November 21. She didn’t have to look after the Hartwell children this trip, but she did write a note of welcome to Dr. Tupper’s successor. His name was R. J. Willingham. The only difference between this voyage and others was that it was very hot, and the ship stopped at the Sandwich Islands, also known as Hawaii. Lottie thought it was a nice place to visit, but she wouldn’t want to live there, or even visit again. She felt keenly the injustice of the Hawaiian people having their queen removed from power by American might, and it soured her opinion of the beautiful islands. She reached home, finally, for that was what China had become. Eddie was always sick, and Lottie still worried about her. Orie’s sons didn’t go to church. Ike was the only other sibling left, and he had moved to another town. She preferred Viewmont as a memory, for the estate was now run down and out of the family’s hands. But China, her China, lay before her. It was good to be home.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FURLOUGH 67 13 Gospel Mission Troubles

Lottie was happy to be home again in her comfortable Chinese robe and slippers which were now so familiar. She arrived in Tengchow in a snowstorm, just as she had the last time she came home from America. While outwardly things seemed the same, much had changed. Mr. Crawford had managed to draw away many of the new missionaries from the Foreign Mission Board to the Gospel Mission camp. When Mr. Hartwell had reached Tengchow in August, the whole Gospel Mission group moved to P’ingtu, and started using rooms the Board had been using. After Lottie settled in she began taking stock of the situation. Mr. Hartwell was in Tengchow, living with his third wife and their young children in Mr. Crawford’s old house. The Crawfordites were in P’ingtu, which she had labored to open; and Fannie Knight was helping to house them. The Pruitts had also returned from furlough and were back in Hwanghsien (at least that remained the same). Mrs. Crawford, who had kept cordial relations with the Board, had gone with her husband, yet left Lottie her blessing on the women’s work in Tengchow. Leaving this field wrung Martha’s heart, and only Lottie’s presence there comforted her. “You will love and care for these as no one else can, for they are yours as well as mine,” she wrote Lottie. As the days passed, Lottie considered what direction her work should now take. Returning to P’ingtu while the Crawfordites were in residence was out of the question. Besides, she planned for Fannie Knight to take that field. The Gospel Mission people were planning on moving further inland, but what to do in the meantime? In the Mission’s first meeting, Lottie looked around the room and saw that she was the senior missionary in terms of China experience. Laura Barton and Mr. and Mrs. Sears were all still fairly new. The Pruitts were seasoned. Mr. Hartwell had come to China before Lottie, but had long been in the United States. His wife was just learning the language, and, besides, Lottie did not approve of making mothers of small children accept a heavy workload. She knew they had their hands full tending to their little ones. She did, however, decide that she would help Mrs. Hartwell with the language and the customs, so that she could find some work suitable to her gifts and abilities. Before coming back, Lottie had warned Dr. Tupper that the Board’s decision to send Mr. Hartwell to Tengchow might mean “war to the knife” between him and Mr. Crawford. Now that she saw that Mr. Crawford did definitely still harbor ill feelings toward the Board, she was glad he was gone. Never did she mention her anxieties about Mr. Hartwell. At the first meeting the subject of schools came up. Mr. Hartwell had never changed in his belief that Board subsidy was acceptable practice, and Lottie did not challenge him on it. The missionaries decided the Pruitts should open a school for boys, a self-supporting school except for a small amount of Board funding for the teacher. Lottie did not object to the subsidy. She did, however, remind them that girls needed educating, too. All Chinese girls were expected to marry. What better influence for an entire home than a well-educated, well-discipled Christian daughter-in-law?

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • GOSPEL MISSION TROUBLES 68 No action on a girls’ school was taken then, but the missionaries listened. Then the question came up, what would Lottie do? She could have claimed Sha-ling, but felt it was ready for younger hands. She wanted Fannie Knight to have P’ingtu, and had written the younger woman a tender letter revealing very deep feelings for both Fannie and the work she hoped would prosper under Fannie’s guidance. In the letter she had said, “Yes, come to me, dear child, in the early spring. I had thought of doing some much needed work in this region before going to P’ingtu. You may help me in this and then in the summer I can go with you to P’ingtu.” With these and other words Lottie conveyed her hopes to Fannie, whom she frequently referred to as “dear” and “child.” For now, however, the missionaries agreed that Lottie would devote herself to evangelism in Tengchow and the outlying area of several hundred tiny villages. The gentry of Tengchow were still unfriendly to the missionaries; some neighbors had not yet condescended to speak to Lottie, or even acknowledge her presence after all these years. A lesser woman would have given up, but Lottie accepted her new duties with energy. Then news came that dealt a death blow to Lottie’s cherished hopes. Fannie Knight had abruptly married a member of the Gospel Mission and would be abandoning P’ingtu to go with her groom to the interior. In typical Lottie fashion, she kept her anguish to herself upon receiving this news. She received another blow within weeks—Fannie died shortly after her honeymoon. Lottie did not mention the young woman again. Now that the Crawford camp was gone, she could return to P’ingtu. In May she climbed into a shentze and bounced along for four days before reaching P’ingtu. She had personally purchased land for the Sha-ling Church. Now they showed her their Chinese-style church building, which she heartily approved. The 40-member church swelled in membership while she was there, for they baptized another 11 converts. It was a happy day for everyone. Lottie was moved by the greeting she received in P’ingtu, for the Christians considered her the mother of their church. She stayed for two months making visits all around the countryside, but went home to rest throughout July. Lottie disciplined herself to take on only her regular church duties and to rest instead of doing endless evangelistic work. This year she devoted July to a greater study of the Chinese language. Though the Gospel Mission camp had left for the interior, their presence was still felt in the stands their followers took back in America. Annie Armstrong and the other WMU leaders had their hands full trying to keep the women’s mission societies from falling into the Gospel Mission movement. Mrs. Stainback Wilson of Georgia, who had stood up for Lottie and the offering, was now trying to be a friend to both the Board and the Gospel Mission people, a stance many found unacceptable. While the conflict was going on at home, Lottie was feeling the effect in her salary. The Crawfordites had been saying the Board lavished money on its missionaries. That complaint fell on ready ears, for people are always eager to believe that rather than be asked to give more, they should demand that those receiving their gifts be more frugal. And, the Board was sinking deeper in debt. With all this pressure, Dr. Willingham asked the missionaries to agree to a one-third cut in their salaries. The missionaries discussed this. “I hardly think it lavish for us to eat meat once a day,” Lottie remarked tartly. “No, nor to use soap when we bathe,” contributed Laura Barton, who wrote those sentiments to the Board. As for Lottie, she wrote a soothing letter that she would be glad to have her salary reduced from $600 to $500 per year, but no more. The missionaries paid their own medical and dental bills, as they had no Southern Baptist doctor. They paid their own Chinese language teachers. They opened their homes to both Chinese and foreign guests, and would of course not charge visitors for room and board. Also, they gave

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • GOSPEL MISSION TROUBLES 69 from their own salaries to support the Chinese churches where they were members. And there were always beggars who needed a little money. Though a peacemaker, Lottie took this one opportunity to point out to Dr. Willingham that the Gospel Mission missionaries could perhaps take lower salaries because they felt it a matter of principle not to extend this kind of hospitality to visitors and beggars. She felt it was a Christian virtue to do so. With that said, Dr. Willingham accepted the compromise Lottie suggested. Lottie was more and more disillusioned with the Gospel Mission forces. She always insisted that, since the two missions groups now existed, the Gospel Mission people must be treated with the same courtesy as the Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries. But, she saw that Crawford’s group, while preaching that mission boards were unnecessary and unbiblical, were actually setting up their own central organization. She suspected they were also using Board money to do it when possible. But as the year rolled on, Lottie had something else to think about besides the Gospel Mission troubles. China was going to war with Japan, and like many other foreigners, Lottie found herself labeled as a Japanese spy. She did not allow herself to be frightened, but trusted in her reputation as a friend of the local people. She continued her work, and for a while the biggest problem the war brought was not Japanese attacks, but Chinese soldiers. These men were not the soldiers who for years had been given books and learned to talk to Lottie as a venerable teacher. They did not know her, and pelted her with cries of “foreign devil!” It was her policy to ignore them, but one day when she was riding in her sedan chair, a little neighborhood boy took up the cry with the soldiers. His childish voice cried out, “Beat the foreign devil!” Lottie had never, ever taken that kind of rudeness from a child and wasn’t going to do so now. “Put me down at once!” she ordered the chair bearers, who immediately obeyed. As fast as her short, middle-aged legs would carry her, Lottie chased the urchin to an inn, where she demanded to see his mother. The soldiers had followed, too. The mother appeared and Lottie told her what the child had said. “I am so sorry, I apologize for my son,” the mother said with great sincerity. “He was only following the example the soldiers set for him,” Lottie explained. “I tried to ignore them. If I report them to the officials, they will of course be severely punished, for I have a proclamation of protection posted on my street gate. But if this continues, I will be forced to act.” The soldiers took the hint, and melted away. She was not bothered again. She continued her country work, and Mr. Hartwell worked in the city until his health collapsed. She wrote to Dr. Willingham that they must have reinforcements, else Mr. Hartwell would kill himself with overwork. The new secretary did not know her as Dr. Tupper did. He was overworked, anguished at churches pulling support from the Board to support the Gospel Mission movement, and bombarded by letters from Miss Armstrong of the Woman’s Missionary Union, who seemed as indefatigable as Miss Moon. He dashed off a terse note that every station wanted more missionaries and she must wait her turn. Rather than take offense, Lottie began a patient campaign of letter writing, just to let Dr. Willingham know how the work in Shantung Province was going. As the days and weeks went on, the letters had at least some effect. Dr. Willingham began to marvel at what the little handful of North China missionaries could accomplish, especially Lottie. At Christmas, Lottie was in P’ingtu, but journeyed homeward to Tengchow in January. News reached her that the Japanese had shelled Tengchow on January 16, 1895. As Lottie went toward Tengchow, she met a wave of suffering humanity running away toward

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • GOSPEL MISSION TROUBLES 70 Hwanghsien. Old men, women tottering on bound feet, mothers holding crying babies, all flowed around her. The temperatures were freezing and the people marched through muddy slush. She pressed on toward home and was horrified by what she saw. A mortar shell had demolished her wall and damaged the porch and even her doorway. Worse than the physical damage, she found the other missionaries had already fled on the American warship Yorktown. They had propelled themselves down the icy cliffs to the beach. In their haste the Hartwell luggage was left on the shore. Lottie didn’t know what to do. She had literally missed the boat. No one would take her to P’ingtu. While she was mulling over what to do, she had surprise visitors. The upper class of Tengchow now humbly came to the dreaded foreign woman to ask if she would stay in the city. Her presence there would calm the people, they said, and if the Japanese invaded, she could fly the American flag. Lottie did not scoff at the suggestion that the sight of an American flag would stop an invasion. Instead, she agreed to stay. She would suffer with her neighbors. So Lottie passed the days in Tengchow where she could see the Japanese warships floating off shore. She knew the Chinese could not protect her. “I am immortal till my work is done,” she whispered to herself, not for the first time. God would protect her. And God did, for the fighting around Tengchow subsided and the refugees came back, missionaries and Chinese alike. When Mr. Hartwell opened the church for services, they were flooded with visitors. Soon, he was overworked again. Since they couldn’t get new missionaries, Lottie asked if his grown daughter, Anna Hartwell, could be transferred from her missions field of Canton to help her father. This request was granted, and Anna arrived in July 1895. With this solid, sensible young woman by her side, Lottie felt a renewed ability to do country work. She would teach until her throat gave out, which it did more frequently than in her younger days. Putting some food in her pocket, she would go out in the morning and teach at one village, then take a midday rest and eat her lunch before going on to the second village. She was still surrounded by people on these occasions, often by very young boys who would stay just to watch her chew her food. This didn’t bother Lottie as much as the fact that these boys were frequently stark naked. (Clothing was considered optinal for boys this age in warm weather.) She found it easiest just to pretend not to notice. Country work was still her joy. “I have never found mission work more enjoyable,” she wrote after one such trip. “To go out daily among a kindly people, amid enchanting views of nature, everywhere one turns catching lovely glimpses of sea or distant hills or quiet valleys, all this to me is most delightful. I constantly thank God that he has given me work that I love so much.” While this was going on, the Chinese Christians were strengthening their congregations, and growing in their ability to manage their churches and associations. They began to address issues like school and foot binding. The years of the 1890s were busy and full, though there had been heartbreak, war, and denominational conflict. Many of her dreams had ended, but many others were coming true. But Lottie was to find that the new century rushing toward her would bring forth changes, the likes of which even she had never imagined.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • GOSPEL MISSION TROUBLES 71 14 Boxer Rebellion

In late 1896 Lottie began to be plagued with nerve problems, both physical and emotional. Her body ached constantly, and she feared she was headed for a nervous breakdown. “I can’t end up like Eddie,” she told herself. Instead of going to P’ingtu at Christmas, she stayed home, but not alone. She was expecting guests. The door flew open and a host of little Pruitts romped into the room. “Aunt Lottie! Aunt Lottie! We’ve come to spend Christmas in Tengchow!” they squealed. The children were lonely in Hwanghsien, but Aunt Lottie cheered everyone when she came to visit. This Christmas, the children cheered her. Mr. and Mrs. Pruitt had lost no time in starting a large family. Their first daughter, an intelligent little girl now of school age, was named Ida, after the first Mrs. Pruitt whom Lottie had loved. All the Pruitt children, as well as their parents, considered Lottie a part of the family. It was a happy Christmas, much more exciting than most of Lottie’s life these days. She seldom entertained formally, but when the churches or association held meetings, her house overflowed with guests. And, when missionaries were sick or just worn out, they found a haven in her quiet, clean little house. Lottie still liked to walk and visit the seashore, but she spent more of her leisure time reading or in prayer, saving her strength for missions work. Some thing she would have liked to do, but could not in China. Like any well-bred Chinese woman, she had merchants bring in goods for her to choose. As she greeted them at her front door, she consoled herself with the thought that she was avoiding temptation. She tried not to think of how much fun it was to shop in well-stocked stores, like those she enjoyed in Japan. Some excitement Lottie could do without. Tengchow wasn’t the important city it had once been, and as the city declined, crime increased. At first, thieves stole just from Lottie’s kitchen, but then started breaking into the main house. They even stole her Chinese clothes. The shards of glass strewn across the top of her wall weren’t enough to keep out one thief, who simply used low-hanging tree limbs to vault over the wall. He plundered her storeroom while she slept. When she discovered how he had made his entrance, she was chagrined. It had never occurred to her that someone could use the tree to get in her compound. Well, she would take care of that! Under Lottie’s orders the tree was trimmed, the walls fortified, and a tile roof put on some of the buildings. She wrote to Dr. Willingham that the work was growing at a healthy pace. Sunday School was especially popular; and if it continued, they would soon need more rooms. Mrs. Hartwell had begun a girls’ school, and all the schools were flourishing. There was a cost to all this growth, however. Poor Mr. Hartwell was working himself to death. Lottie had watched the missionary age before her eyes. When he had first come back to Tengchow, his hair was iron gray. Now it was snow white. He had once walked with a spring in his step; now he shuffled. He was doing the work of four men at times, and his doctor had warned him he was shortening his life. On July 1, 1897, she wrote Dr. Willingham her quarterly report in which she admitted she had not done as much as she should because of a terrible bout of tonsillitis. But it was

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • BOXER REBELLION 72 Mr. Hartwell for whom she was concerned. She put it bluntly: “We ought not to stand by and see him die when a little money might save him.” Couldn’t the Board send him and his wife to San Francisco for a rest? Finally, he did leave for San Francisco, where he was hospitalized for many months. Mrs. Hartwell went with him, and Anna took over the school. This cut into her country work, but what could be done? Lottie would not, could not, beg Mr. Hartwell to come back before he was completely well. Trouble arose with the schools; and though Lottie confided in Dr. Willingham, she didn’t want Mr. Hartwell to hear about it, for fear it would upset his nerves. She urged Anna Hartwell to deal severely with her Bible woman, whom Lottie thought was at fault. Anna didn’t want to, but she followed Lottie’s direction. As the conflict subsided, Lottie felt convicted that she had been too harsh. She went looking for Anna, and when she found her, begged her pardon. The younger woman was abashed at having Miss Moon apologize to her. Flustered, she cried, “Oh, Miss Moon! Don’t apologize to me! I am so much younger.” The fact that Anna was younger meant nothing to Lottie when it was a question of fairness. “Why not?” she replied. “I erred in judgment. You were right and I was wrong, yet I insisted, and you followed my advice. I want you to rescind the action and let the whole family know it was my doing, not yours.” Nothing seemed to go right in 1897. Lottie thought of it later as one of the hardest years of her missionary career. Word came that Mr. Hartwell was not recovering nearly as quickly as he had hoped. Anna began having headaches. The doctor forbade Lottie from speaking Chinese for a month because of her throat problems. She was told to rest. Death came to haunt Lottie again late in the year. She had long been friends with the Mateers from the Presbyterian Mission. Mrs. Mateer was about her age, and they had worked and socialized together throughout their time in China. Mrs. Mateer had always been a solid worker, helping build up their school for young men into a first-class institution. She collapsed in late 1897 and entered a slow decline. It took four months for her to die, in unrelenting mental and physical pain all the while. The Baptists were under the shadow of death also. All the missionaries at Hwanghsien were sick about the same time as Mrs. Mateer. The Pruitts were dealt the hardest blow, when their little son died two hours before the doctor arrived. Aunt Lottie went immediately to comfort the little boy’s siblings and try to help the family. With such tragedies happening around her, Lottie sat down one day and confided in a letter to a Scottsville friend, “I have felt the uncertainty of life very keenly of late.” She was immortal till her work was done, but someday the Lord would have to decide she was finished. Who would take her place? They needed more missionaries now! Dr. Willingham was unable to offer any hope. So she went on, trying to help Christians who were being persecuted, feeding multitudes, translating articles, taking country tours during the middle of the week, teaching Sunday School, helping conduct worship services, and beginning school work again. Early in 1898 she began a radical experiment—a day school for both boys and girls. Coeducational insti- tutions were practically unheard of in China, but everyone, it seemed, wanted their children educated now. Not only was education in vogue, but suddenly foot binding began to be out of fashion, to her jubilation. The Christians and other Chinese began promoting the Heavenly Foot Society, which advocated unbound feet. She dreamed of the day when Chinese girls and women could stand and walk like other women, rather than totter along on little clubs.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • BOXER REBELLION 73 In early 1899 Anna Hartwell became really sick. Lottie described her illnesses as “bron- chitis, pneumonia, meningitis, and ‘congestion of the brain.’” She spent as much time as she could caring for the young invalid, whose parents were still in America. When they arrived in late April, Lottie breathed a large sigh of relief. Nervous exhaustion was hampering several of the missionaries. Lottie exerted her usual self-discipline to avoid this kind of illness. When she felt she was overworking, she stopped and took a rest. When she felt overheated, she wrapped a wet towel around her head. Among her many long-standing personal habits was a love of daily baths and regular shampoos. To those who saw such habits as excessive, she simply testified that they worked for her. She taught the wet towel trick to the young women missionaries, too. One of those young missionaries was Mattie Dutton of Missouri. She arrived early in the new century, just a few months after Dr. and Mrs. W. J. Lowe, who were assigned to P’ingtu. Lottie was thrilled to have a couple for P’ingtu, but also very happy to have Miss Dutton with her for a while. She didn’t know, however, that the novice missionary would be with her during one of the most frightening and risky times of Lottie’s career. The dowager empress ruled China at this time, and Lottie had suspected that she was encouraging both antiforeign and anti-Christian feeling. China still smarted under the humiliation of being forced to open its ports to foreign powers and allow large conces- sions to those powers. A group of mainly young men formed the Yihetuan, or Society of Righteousness and Harmony, in the late 1890s. This group, nicknamed the Boxers, wanted to purge China’s economy, land, and culture of foreign influence. Christianity definitely fell into the category of foreign influence as far as they were concerned. The Boxers embraced violence as the method by which China would be purged. John Fowler, the American consul at Chefoo, had not been able to convince the American legation at Peking of the missionaries’ theory that the Chinese government, far from being attacked by the Boxers, was encouraging them. But Lottie was certain no help was to be had from the Chinese government. Rumors of Boxer violence swirled around the missionaries for months and tensions rose with the summer temperatures. Then, in June 1900, the Boxers attacked the foreign legations and embassies in Peking (now Beijing) and Tien-Tsin (now Tianjin) and the Russians, British, Japanese, French, and Germans responded immediately. Warships of various nations were in Chinese harbors. American troops were ordered to China from Manila. Newspapers around the world carried sometimes conflicting stories of massacres of hundreds of Christians. It was reported that the foreign residents of Tien-Tsin had taken refuge in a certain district of the city, and a group of American engineers, including a young man named Herbert Hoover, quickly began erecting a protective wall around the area. While no battles were going on in P’ingtu, the Christians were being persecuted, with the aid of a Chinese government official. Word reached Lottie that a magistrate had accused 13 male Baptist church members of robbery. They were arrested between Laichowfu and P’ingtu. Pastor Li begged the missionaries to intervene, for he feared the Christians would be killed. By the time Lottie learned all this, the men had been transferred to P’ingtu, but were still in custody. “Lottie, be careful,” others begged when they found she was set on going to P’ingtu. “The dowager empress has given orders that missionaries and Christians are to receive no protection. The Boxers are everywhere and can murder you at will.” “I cannot abandon the P’ingtu believers,” she insisted. But how to get there safely? Well, her cousin Lottie of Civil War spy fame wasn’t the only one who could be daring in wartime. Lottie hatched a plan.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • BOXER REBELLION 74 “I will need a closed sedan chair, the kind Chinese officials ride in, and a cap with an official’s red button. Also a man’s Chinese robe and the kind of short coat officials always wear. And some glasses, the bigger the better,” she ordered. When she had obtained her props, Lottie completed the disguise by slicking back her curly graying hair, donning the clothes and big glasses, and entering her sedan chair. As she was carried off, she opened the front flap of the chair and propped her arms on the folded arms on the bar. Rather than hide inside and hope no one stopped the chair, she looked out boldly and confidently. No one dared bother the little official, obviously a person of importance, on “his” way to P’ingtu. When the chair was finally set down, she abandoned the disguise and met her brothers and sisters with joy. To her relief, the Christians had not been killed, but she was horrified to hear how they had been tortured. The Christians could not believe the risk their Miss Moon took just to be with them, to pray and comfort them with the heavenly Father’s love. But soon, she realized she had to leave. “I am drawing danger to them by staying here,” she told herself. The Boxers were swarming everywhere, and the less foreign contact the local Christians had, the better. Already churches, mission stations, and Christians’ homes were being targeted. Consul Fowler wanted all missionaries to come to Chefoo, but they should travel with an armed guard. So Lottie bade good-bye to the P’ingtu church members, and went back to Tengchow, which was still physically safe, though hostile. Lottie, however, would not stay. She would lay down her life for her Lord, but she wasn’t going to throw it away foolishly. The Boxers not only killed people, but did it in horrific ways. The report of one foreign woman who was cut into pieces while still alive especially frightened her. “The bravest would shudder to meet such a fate,” she wrote Dr. Willingham. Before she could leave the city she had a social engagement to keep, however. Murder or no, there was a wedding she wanted to attend. Baptist missionary Jesse C. Owen had planned to marry Presbyterian missionary Rebecca Miller. The wedding went on, in Lottie’s parlor. The call to leave the province assured that a good group of missionaries was assembled for the service, though it was hardly the joyous occasion Lottie had wanted it to be. Within hours after the couple spoke their hasty I do’s the missionary community fled on the Hai-Chi. It was July 1, 1900. The Hai-Chi was a Chinese gunboat under the command of Mr. Sah, an anti-Dowager Christian. Few refugees ever received the treatment the missionaries enjoyed while under Mr. Sah’s protection. He gave them the best rooms, made sure they ate well, and forbade the Boxers among his crew to molest them. From his care they went to the US Yorktown, which delivered them to Chefoo. Lottie watched over Miss Dutton during this time. Surely, the young lady was getting an introduction to the dangers of Mission life! But Chefoo was only a stopping place. Consul Fowler wanted all Americans out of Shantung Province. The English consul had alerted his people that if attacked, Chefoo would not be protected. With that knowledge, Lottie suggested they move on to Shanghai. After getting her bearings in Shanghai, she knew they must move on to Japan. The missionary house was outside the city limits, which was dangerous. Even worse, they were surrounded by marshy rice fields, a breeding ground for malaria. Lottie had never forgotten her impressions of Shanghai as an unhealthy city. What finally made up her mind was when the missionaries began to talk about whether they should buy guns to defend themselves in case of a Boxer attack. “This is madness,” Lottie thought. “A handful of men cannot fend off hundreds of Boxers.” With this in mind, she and Mattie Dutton visited with the Bryans until the two

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • BOXER REBELLION 75 women could book passage to Japan. Several missionaries went over on different steamers and were reunited once in Japan. They arrived in Fukuoka and were greeted by the McCollums, also Baptist missionaries. Within a few weeks, Lottie and Mattie were living in a rented house, which Lottie asked the Board to help pay for, and she was teaching English in a commercial school. To her delight, she was told to pick any book she liked as a textbook. “I choose the Bible,” she informed the school. The teaching went well, and one day as she entered class her best student greeted her: “Verily, verily, I say unto you.” Private students came to her home for English lessons, and Lottie was soon writing of the fine qualities of Japanese young men: courteous, lovable, respectful, and bright. Several of them became Christians while she was their teacher. Many of the private students were not boys, but educated staff of the school, one a famous fencer. They wished to learn not only English, but the Bible, and it warmed Lottie’s heart to teach them. Lottie was unable to do evangelistic visiting because she did not speak Japanese. Mrs. McCollum spoke Japanese, but could not visit much because she was busy teaching her children, of which there were quite a lot. In no time the women switched roles. Lottie enjoyed teaching, and Mrs. McCollum enjoyed the freedom to do her evangelistic work. “I like Aunt Lottie as a teacher,” one of the McCollum youngsters said one day. “Yes, but doesn’t she take a lot of cold baths?” a brother answered. He said this a little too loudly, and to his dismay, his father heard him. The scolding he got for commenting on a lady’s bathing habits stayed with him for some time. Though Lottie kept listening to news for signs it was safe to go home, she allowed herself to enjoy Japan. She loved her students so much, she even let them take her picture, something she had never been fond of doing. One day she sat, in her Chinese robes, surrounded by young men and one young lady from the commercial school, and had a picture taken. Another day she posed for a more formal picture with three of her young converts. When in April 1901 she finally had to say good-bye to them, they promised to write. Many of them kept that promise, and Lottie enjoyed their letters for years to come. As much as she loved Japan and hated to leave, she wanted to go back to China. She kept up with reports of how things went, and took it seriously when the American consul said, “Don’t come back yet.” She had held off longer than Miss Dutton, who had been persuaded that things had calmed down and had gone back. Finally, in April 1901, she felt her presence would not endanger the Christians, who had suffered terribly under the Boxer Rebellion. And she knew, after great persecution, the Holy Spirit moved in great ways. Yes, it was time to go home.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • BOXER REBELLION 76 15 Schools, Again

The Boxer uprising did not end overnight, but life gradually settled down. It was not as before; in many ways, it was better. The P’ingtu Christians and missionaries were entitled to huge indemnity payments from the Boxers. The only time the victims accepted restitution was when they knew it came from the actual guilty parties. They refused to take money from anyone who had not personally harmed them. This action, coupled with the Christians’ faithfulness during persecution, caused many of their neighbors to wonder, “What is it about these Christians that makes them so different?” Soon the churches and mission schools were filled with friendly inquirers, and some who simply wished to associate with the group because of its newfound popularity. When Lottie returned to Tengchow she resumed her day school. She had helped Mrs. Hartwell open a girls’ boarding school after her last furlough. The boarding schools grew apace, as had Lottie’s coeducational day school. A few years earlier she had told the Board a day school would never work. In old China, it probably wouldn’t have, but this was a new China in a new century. In July 1901 she and the other missionaries took time off to celebrate the Owens’ first anniversary. Since the Boxers had cheated them out of a happy wedding day, the Baptist and Presbyterian Mission families determined to make up for it. The couple were the guests of honor at a festive meal and glowed as toasts were offered to their happiness. A few days later the missionaries gathered on the beach to celebrate the Fourth of July. Under a shelter which they had all helped pay for, the two missions had a prayer meeting and a tea party. Lottie lounged under the shelter and enjoyed the cool ocean breezes. Try as they might, the younger missionaries could not coax her to join them for some sea bathing. She now considered herself officially old and was happy to sit back and watch the young folks play. As the year rolled on the Mission received what it always considered the best news— more missionaries on the way. One appointee was Miss Mary Willeford. The other was the first trained nurse ever appointed by the Foreign Mission Board, Miss Jessie Pettigrew of Virginia. She had heard God’s call to missions in her mother’s Sunbeam Band. Lottie had thought they might stay with her, but instead Mr. Owen asked if he and his wife could have her guest rooms until they could secure a place of their own. She was happy for them to move in, but she still scurried around making arrangements for the two new missionaries. Now, with young folks around and the work growing, what more could she want? But another blessing was still to come—Dr. T. W. Ayers and his family arrived and took a house at Hwanghsien. Dr. Ayers had heard of the Shantung missionaries, but he was moved by the story of the Pruitts, who by now had lost two children. When he heard about their children, he felt God calling him to China. They finally had a Baptist doctor, and one with a charming family. The Mission held a meeting at Hwanghsien and the Ayerses hosted Lottie for the night. As they talked about work in China, they agreed on the need for a full hospital ministry. The Mission agreed also and voted to ask the Board for $7,000 to build a hospital. This was another historic first for Southern Baptists.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SCHOOLS, AGAIN 77 With all that was going on, Lottie’s summer vacation of 1902 was upon her before she knew it. Instead of hosting sick missionaries or studying Chinese, she spent this July in Chefoo with a tailor and shoemaker. It was already time for another furlough. (The Board had embraced her suggestion of a furlough every 10 years.) She wanted to look good when she returned home. The loose Chinese robes “covered a multitude of sins” she liked to say, but she wanted American clothes, too. But not, she was certain, those immodest form-fitting dresses the young women wore now. She still couldn’t get over the shock of seeing Miss Pettigrew wearing a tight pink dress while playing the organ in church. Lottie had been scandalized. As Lottie made arrangements for furlough, she felt almost a reluctance to go home. She wanted to see Isaac and Eddie; both were in poor health. Dear Eddie wrote her faithfully every week, and she knew that her sister was now a nomad, roaming the eastern seaboard looking for good health. The sweet little Bonheur had been sold a few years ago. But there were so many wonderful things happening here. A new station was opened in Laichowfu. So many inquirers now came forward that the Chinese churches held off for a while on baptisms to make sure only those who were truly ready received church membership. Even her arrogant Tengchow neighbors were warming to her. Where once she had almost begged for a greeting as she walked in Tengchow, now strangers called to her when she went out. And the schools! She had grown men attending her day school, as well as boys and girls. She was in the process of upgrading the curriculum, and she simply must have funds for expansion. Yet, there was also work to do in the country. Two more single women were assigned to North China, and Lottie wanted them both for country work, while married women handled the city visits. Anna Hartwell had returned to China, but was still not strong, and her father was adamant that one of the single women work with her. The Board decreed the new women should choose their own area of work. Lottie found this to be an imminently fair solution. As she was preparing for her trip home, Lottie received a pleasant request from Dr. Ayers. “It’s time for Harry to go back to America to study,” his father said. “Could he travel in your company?” Nothing would please Lottie more. They were already great friends. She had shared with Harry her riches of knowledge stored up from a lifetime of study, and the wisdom learned from a lifetime of godly devotion. Her attention and her library were always available to him. They reached America and parted company. Lottie went on to visit relatives, some who seemed little more than strangers, and some who were very dear. Eddie came to visit. Lottie stayed a while with her nephew Luther Andrews. He was Orie’s son, and a good correspondent to his aunt Lottie. Lottie was able to visit with Mamie, though, and with other kin before speaking to the Virginia WMU. She again shared the program with Annie Armstrong of WMU, SBC. As Lottie reconnected with her past, she was troubled by some of the changes, especially in relations between the races. She had grown up in the antebellum South, where, though certainly never on equal footing, the races had lived and worked together, and white Christians usually felt a responsibility for the spiritual welfare of the black population. She could not understand how missions-minded people of the twentieth century could send the gospel to Africa, but ignore the physical suffering and spiritual needs of their black brothers and sisters in America. As in China, Lottie practiced what she preached. With her sister-in-law, she visited in the black community. In some homes she offered food and clothing; in others, teaching; and in others, companionship for fellow Christians. In all of them she offered love and compassion.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SCHOOLS, AGAIN 78 She was sorry to say good-bye to Isaac and Eddie, but not really sorry to say good-bye to America on February 15, 1904. “No one in Virginia really needs me,” she thought. She took a train through the southern states, caught the China in San Francisco, and started for home. The ship stopped in Hawaii again, which she still found too hot and mosquito-ridden for her taste. Even Japan was not the joy it usually was to visit, owing to the war with Russia. Everyone was on edge for fear they would get caught in a sea battle. She was glad and relieved when she got home to the Little Cross Roads house and was among her dear, familiar things again. She found huge advances had been made in her absence. Mr. Hartwell and Mr. Pruitt, those two worthy men, had begun a theological school in Tengchow. Soon a training school for women church workers would become a reality. The Chinese were already organizing and supporting their own schools. A sound plan was in place to assist the Chinese in developing their own church leadership. And the Warren Memorial Hospital, funded mainly by the First Baptist Church of Macon, Georgia, was being built in Hwanghsien. Lottie weighed this new reality: Woman’s Missionary Union and the growth of the Southern Baptist Convention were enabling the Board to expand its personnel and plans. China was modernizing and the demand for education was endless. She could no longer ride for days in a shentze or mule cart visiting remote villages. It seemed the best plan was for her to return to the dream she and Eddie had shared in the beginning—schools. With the help of Mr. Chiang, her Chinese teacher, Lottie set about expanding the school ministry. Mr. Chiang was invaluable to her in improving her existing school and beginning new ones. He had been Mr. Crawford’s teacher long ago, and Lottie had inherited him. Much more than a teacher, he filled the role of secretary and business manager that most missionaries needed. Now he helped her in negotiating for property on North Street, where her coeducational school was already operating. The girls’ school in P’ingtu required all students have unbound feet. Lottie agreed with this rule; but, in practice, could not bring herself to turn a girl away just because her parents had bound her feet. In fact, she could not bring herself to turn away anybody. “The school gives me great pleasure,” she wrote. But she knew when to let go. W. C. Newton, a new missionary, was given control of a new school she started in Tengchow. Mr. Owen did country work and supervised a school. Mary Willeford was in charge of the school training Bible women and women evangelists. Lottie had laid the groundwork for all these efforts, but was happy to see the younger generation take hold of the work. One of the younger generation found her way back to Lottie when her health collapsed. Mattie Dutton, whom Lottie had hoped to keep with her, had felt God leading her to P’ingtu. So Lottie let her go with her blessings. But now Mattie had come to Lottie’s home to be tended after collapsing with nervous exhaustion, the bane of so many missionaries. Lottie nursed Mattie lovingly for weeks, to no avail. Finally Dr. Ayers put his foot down. “She cannot get well unless she goes away for a while.” Lottie had seen many missionaries go home for a rest and come back, like Anna Hartwell and her father. She had also seen many more who could never come back. Mattie was a fine missionary, and it was with sadness Lottie let her go, hoping against hope she could return. She never did. But the other new missionaries still needed help. Wisely, the Board now required new missionaries to undertake language study before being thrown into major roles. Lottie made sure they had language teachers, helped them with the culture, and gave them Mission work they could handle as they learned the language. Just when things seemed to be going so well, Lottie’s past came back to disrupt her happiness. Someone aligned with the Gospel Mission movement spread the rumor in Georgia

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SCHOOLS, AGAIN 79 that Lottie did not teach the Bible according to Southern Baptist doctrine. It was brought up that she had once been close to Crawford Toy. Dr. Willingham first learned of the rumor when two women came to him with the accusation, which they claimed originated with Martha Foster Crawford. He wrote to Mrs. Crawford, who said that Lottie had once declined to teach the catechism Martha had written. She went on to say, however, that she had complete confidence in Lottie and regretted that the Gospel Mission name had been brought into the mix. Lottie found out she was being discussed and shot a letter to the Board stating that she used Mrs. Crawford’s catechism, but other books as well. Both women expressed surprise that such claims were even being brought up after so long a time. Dr. Willingham informed Lottie’s accusers that perhaps Lottie did not thoroughly approve of Mrs. Crawford’s catechism, just as he did not approve of everything he read in certain catechisms, but he still used them. What really helped end the conflict was Lottie’s blunt statement: “I have never taught contrary to the usual views of the Southern Baptists.” She went on to say, “Deeply conscious of weakness and failure, I yield to none in devotion to the Lord.” She put the incident aside and focused on the work. As 1905 rolled in, she was finding more invitations into the higher-class city homes. When two single women missionaries arrived on the field, Lottie even arranged for them to have a Chinese-style dinner, hosted by three upper-class women. The missionaries reciprocated by inviting the ladies for an American dinner in their home. Many such new missionaries arrived in 1905. Ella Jeter and Ida Taylor lived with Lottie for several months and she trained them, also. She grew closer to them when the Mission voted to move the theological school to Hwanghsien, which was now a booming city, whereas Tengchow was in a steady decline. The Mission discussed leaving the city altogether, but Lottie would not hear of it. After all these decades, she had finally gotten people to speak to her! She wasn’t giving up now. With the school went Mr. Hartwell and Anna, the Pruitts, and the Newtons. The troubles with Mr. Hartwell had never erupted again, since Mr. Crawford was out of the picture. As Lottie had predicted to Dr. Tupper all those years ago, when one person withdrew from the field, often the conflict ended. She had worked in accord with Mr. Hartwell for many years now. Lottie just knew that with Miss Anna Hartwell’s absence, she was in charge of the boarding school; indeed, all of Tengchow. The two young women were still novices. Running the boarding school was administratively exhausting, and Lottie’s evangelistic work suffered for it. As soon as possible, she turned the school over to Miss Taylor. She and Miss Jeter set up housekeeping at the school and were running it by the end of 1906. Although the two sweet young women had their own home, Lottie’s home was far from empty. When she had returned from furlough, her stream of Chinese visitors, which had increased steadily through the years, had turned into a flood. Women inquirers came to learn from her. Many brought their children and stayed for days or weeks. She went on, teaching and comforting and sometimes nursing these women, many of whom never received a kindness from anybody else. One day a woman turned up who looked vaguely familiar, but whom Lottie knew was not a villager. As she introduced herself, Lottie realized it was one of her first students. The young woman had met with hardships and had come with her children for rest in her old teacher’s home. “Come in! Come in!” Lottie urged, ushering them all into a guest room. For the next several days her student rested, and her children whooped and hollered to the annoyance of

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SCHOOLS, AGAIN 80 everyone but Lottie. She felt sorry for their mother and was glad to see the young woman rest from her labors for a while. As Lottie taught missionaries and students and grown women, she still kept her eyes and ears open for possible trouble. She knew the Boxer uprising could reoccur, and already was raging in other parts of the country. She began to think about anything that might bring down the wrath of the Boxers. Last time, a missionary had been killed for eating pickled onions, which the rebels had said were babies’ eyes. They were ready to believe anything. With a gasp, she suddenly remembered the skeleton at the Hwanghsien hospital. Dr. Ayers used it for teaching. Now he was on furlough and Miss Pettigrew and Mr. and Mrs. Morgan were in charge. They would not know that the Boxers could use the skeleton as a pretense for killing them all. Swiftly, she wrote a letter warning them to hide the skeleton. Her wording left no doubt that she was serious. That night, by lamplight, the three young people took the skeleton into an unfinished hospital room, and buried it under a pile of earth and bricks. They wrote Miss Moon not to worry; all had been done as she requested. The rumored rebellion never came, at least not into North China. The work continued to grow. Mr. Pruitt now concentrated on developing theological studies in Chinese, and Lottie gave him books from her library to help with the task. Then, in 1907, Lottie got a rare treat. Martha Crawford literally trundled into town in a specially made wheelbarrow and stayed with Lottie while she led evangelistic meetings for women. At 77 years of age, Martha was still an active missionary. The only time the two women had seen each other since the Gospel Mission split was when they were running from the Boxers in Chefoo. But they had written regularly. Mr. Crawford had now passed away, and Martha was instrumental in many of the Gospel Mission personnel coming back to the Foreign Mission Board. It was so wonderful for Lottie to see again the woman who had helped train her as a new missionary, and had been her friend ever since. After her regular July rest period, Lottie went back to work supervising several day schools and two Sunday Schools, teaching classes of women inquirers in her home, hosting endless hordes of attention-hungry visitors, and supervising the church when a missionary pastor was not around, which was most of the time. And she still tried to keep up her rounds of city and village evangelism. While all this was going on, word came that Dr. Willingham was coming to visit—the first time a Board official had ever toured the Asian missions. The fact his son was now a missionary in Japan probably helped the secretary decide a trip was due; but, the missionaries told each other, what difference did it make? He was coming to Tengchow for a meeting of the Shantung Baptist Association! No, he was not coming to Tengchow, because at the last minute meningitis broke out in the schools. Well, Lottie would go to Hwanghsien to see him. Then, after that excitement, came excitement of another kind. Tengchow was hit with bubonic plague, which kept Lottie in isolation at home for Christmas. She opened her cards, celebrated Christ’s birth, and paid a man to clean her yard. She didn’t want plague-carrying rats to nest there. When she could leave she took shelter in Hwanghsien for three weeks. While Lottie struggled with loneliness, others were noticing her struggle and trying to help her. First, Dr. Ayers wrote to J. B. Hartwell, who was on furlough, that Lottie needed reinforcements. He in turn wrote to Dr. Willingham. As Lottie had once interceded for him, now he in turn pleaded for her: “Misses Moon and Taylor hold the fort for the native Christians. There is not even a native pastor. Miss Moon, our oldest lady missionary in

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SCHOOLS, AGAIN 81 Shantung, loved and honored by both natives and foreigners for the noble, persistent, and successful work she has been doing all these long years, is now like myself, older than she was thirty-five years or more ago. I feel that this is a crying need, an imperative need.” But his plea went unanswered.

“Miss Moon! Come quick!” Lottie moved as quickly as her 68-year-old body would allow. What was the problem now? The problem was that Miss Taylor was ill, perhaps dying, and there was no one to care for her but Lottie. The young woman had been coming home from an exhausting country tour when she collapsed in her shentze. As Miss Moon had taught, she wrapped a wet towel around her head. But then the mules had stopped. To her horror, a strange old man thrust something into the shentze’s smothering interior. What was it? She could see—it was a child covered with smallpox. She didn’t know why he had done such a thing, but she could do nothing for herself but pray that God would see her home safely. She was diagnosed with three different strains of smallpox. Day and night Lottie nursed her. After three eternal weeks, a new missionary nurse, Florence Jones, left language study in Hwanghsien and came to help. The women worked in six-hour shifts. They fed the patient like a baby as she lay between life and death. The sheets stuck to the bleeding sores and had to be pulled away. Her infected eyes must be washed. Lottie could feel when she was on the brink of breakdown and left the nursing to Miss Jones. She still had her sense of humor, for while she was disinfecting herself she remarked, “I’d rather go home than to heaven.” And she did go home, where she was quarantined for lonely weeks. As for Miss Taylor, after months of being an invalid, she had to leave the field. Lottie wrote to Dr. Willingham that missionary candidates must have vaccinations before coming to the field. In Miss Taylor’s case, she had tried to be vaccinated, but for some reason the vaccine never “took.” Other women had died for lack of a vaccination, including Mrs. Bostick and Mrs. King. The latter had refused vaccination on religious grounds. “Unfortunate,” was how Lottie described Mrs. King’s scruple against vaccinations. The woman contracted smallpox and died quickly. Lottie’s story of Mrs. King was one of the few times she ever referred to the young woman, who in life had been better known to her as Fannie Knight, her “precious child.”

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • SCHOOLS, AGAIN 82 16 Famine

To Lottie’s relief, a new missionary family arrived late in the year. Dr. and Mrs. James McFadden Gaston were going to open the third Southern Baptist hospital in North China. But first, they would stay with Lottie, who would ease the culture shock for them. As Lottie prepared the guest rooms, she also drilled one of her schoolboys with a little welcoming speech. Then she sent him to meet the missionaries at the steamer. How wonderful, she thought, that a steamer could now run on the coast from Chefoo to Tengchow—no bouncing like a rubber ball inside a shentze for these new missionaries! When the Gastons and their little Chinese escort arrived, Lottie was standing on her veranda with outstretched arms. “Welcome! Welcome!” she cried. She ushered the couple into her home, and for the next weeks fed them home cooking and made sure there was plenty of mosquito netting over their comfortable beds. There would be time enough later to introduce them to Chinese food and kangs; now, they must concentrate on learning the language. The Gastons could scarcely believe they were with Lottie. Mrs. Gaston had met Lottie on her last furlough. During the visit, the older woman had drawn her out in conversation about the ministries she was doing in her own community. “I fear I talked overmuch,” Mrs. Gaston said later, embarrassed at how she had chatted. But the visit helped the younger woman see that a missionary life in China was a possibility. As for Dr. Gaston, he had been a faithful Presbyterian in Atlanta when he heard a Baptist pastor speak of Lottie. The pastor described her in such terms that the doctor felt led to pray for her work regularly. As time passed he became a Baptist, and then a missions volunteer. He had never stopped praying for Lottie all that time, and now here he was, eating her biscuits and sleeping in her guest room. The young couple could not help but discuss their hostess. “How old do you think she is?” Mrs. Gaston asked. “I would guess around 75,” her husband answered. “But her hearing and eyesight are excellent.” (Lottie was 68 years old at the time.) “What I can’t get over is her work schedule—dawn to dark. It’s incredible.” “She has so much going on in this little compound.” “Yes,” Dr. Gaston mused. “I suspect she is centralizing her work to avoid the pain of so much travel.” “And don’t the people love her,” Mrs. Gaston marveled. “Law Moo Guniang: ‘Revered Miss Moon’ the people call her.” “She wants to teach the scholarly class of this old city,” her husband replied. “She is imminently qualified to do so.” The couple would have liked to have stayed with Lottie, but they also wanted to get on with their work in Laichowfu, so they bid her a fond good-bye, just in time for Wayne Womack Adams to arrive. While Lottie was begging for help and wondering if she had been abandoned in Tengchow, Mr. Adams had been studying at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. There he had heard the name of Lottie Moon invoked, but what riveted his attention was her loyalty to God’s work in such depressing circumstances.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FAMINE 83 “She is alone in Tengchow!” the speaker cried. “Not a single male missionary to help her!” As he heard these stories, the tall, rangy divinity student felt the stirring of God’s call in his heart. He could go to China. He could be the help Miss Moon needed. So he went, leaving behind his intended bride, Floy White, who was in the WMU Training School in Louisville. She would join him later. For now, he was spending his first night in Lottie Moon’s guest room. When he exited the room the next morning, he saw across from him, in the other row of rooms, an old beggar woman. What was she doing there? He learned later that she was one of Lottie’s “permanent guests.” Lottie showed Mr. Adams the house she had secured for him, but they agreed he would eat his meals with her and they would split the cost. The missionaries had had their salaries restored to a whopping $600 a year, but they still needed to be frugal. Mr. Adams was happy to eat with Miss Moon, who also arranged for his Chinese teacher and picked out a Chinese name for him. She talked to him about current newspaper reports, Chinese culture, and life in general as they sat in the living room visiting by candlelight. She also taught him the nitty-gritty of missionary behavior. On the first Sunday, Mr. Adams went to the Tengchow Church, and was surprised when W. C. Newton, the visiting preacher, called on him for announcements. Announcements? He didn’t know enough to make announcements! “I’ll go ask Miss Moon,” he said, and started around to the room where the women worshipped. When he reached the entrance, he was stopped by Lottie’s open umbrella. “Mr. Adams, this will not do!” she declared. “The first rule of life in China is that men do not enter where women are.” Embarrassed, he retreated. Unlike some older people, who would constantly have made sport of the incident at the younger person’s expense, Lottie never mentioned it again. When Mr. Adams missed his sweetheart, he eased his loneliness by writing her long letters about China, which he was quickly growing to love, and the Chinese people, whom he admired. But most of all, he adored little Miss Moon. He wrote about her class of women inquirers, 13 of them, who lived at her house for several weeks. They could not be regular school students, for their parents would not unbind their feet. He described what happened when Lottie found out one student was to be sold off as a concubine. She intervened and saved the girl “with skill and firmness.” As much as he enjoyed Lottie’s company, Mr. Adams didn’t want to overstay his welcome. He would listen each evening for the cook to finish cleaning up the kitchen. That was his cue to bid Lottie good night. One night, though, their happy routine was broken by cries of “Fire! Fire!” They raced outside to see that flames from an unoccupied house next door had spread to the roof of one of Lottie’s buildings. While Mr. Adams tried to douse the flames, the neighbors stood around and gleefully announced the fire as a judgment on the foreigners. Chinese Christians and the mandarin’s servants came to help. When the fire was out on Lottie’s property, Mr. Adams and the Christians went to fight the fire’s spread to other houses. The crowd’s attitude changed abruptly when they saw this unselfish deed. Some were embarrassed when they learned that the fire had started, not on Lottie’s building, but on Chinese property.

The new year of 1909 rolled in, and Lottie went on as usual, but something worried her. Eddie always wrote every week. But the last three mail calls had brought nothing from her. Isaac had already passed away, as had her nephew Tom. She hoped Eddie was not seriously ill. Then on the morning of January 11, news of Eddie finally came. Lottie’s hands trem- bled as she read Luther’s letter: Eddie had committed suicide. In her tiny cottage in Starke,

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FAMINE 84 Florida, she had gone to bed, settled the covers, and shot herself in the head. The date was November 19. Now Lottie knew why the letters had stopped coming. That day, when Mr. Adams came for a meal, Lottie was not the chatty companion he had come to expect. He noticed how her eyes teared up and her hands shook, but he did not know her well enough to ask what was wrong, and she did not know him well enough to tell him. Such personal griefs were not shared with acquaintances, even ones as nice as Mr. Adams. Lottie dealt quickly with the unpleasant business side of Eddie’s death. She learned that her nephews wanted to avoid payment for Eddie’s embalming because they had not specifically ordered it. Her body had been moved from a good casket to a cheap one, also a nephew’s decision. Lottie was Eddie’s heir, but it was suggested, and she agreed, to turn her inheritance over to her nephew Isaac for expenses he had incurred as his aunt Eddie’s executor. Eddie did have an annuity with the Foreign Mission Board, and Lottie sent a brief letter with instructions that she would now receive the quarterly payments. The first few payments she wanted to go to her nephews in Roanoke. Later she found she would need them herself. Lottie poured herself into her work that year. Hostility toward foreigners was on the upswing, but Lottie’s schools remained strong. Among her students she had grown men, young boys, and some little fellows so small they could barely peer over her desk when they came up to recite. They were her favorites, and she admitted it. She also had more and more adults wanting private English lessons, and some simply would not take no for an answer. She got out of teaching private lessons as soon as she could, for she had no time or strength left for anything else. At the end of 1909 Lottie was 69 years old, and she had to save her strength for that which provided the most gain for the Master’s work. Bad news bracketed the beginning and end of 1909 for Lottie. The Foreign Mission Board ended the year $32,000 in debt, and it did not hide the fact from its missionaries, but urged them continually to be frugal and not to expect more funds. For a while in 1910, Lottie had Eddie’s annuity payments turned over to the Board to pay down the debt. The Board had enlarged its work quickly, and was already committed to sending out several new missionaries to North China, including Mr. Adams’s bride-to-be, Floy White. But receipts had not come in as predicted for 1909; and with no systematic giving program, the Board was dependent on borrowed money, or on sacrificial giving of WMU members and others. But the work must go on. Martha Crawford had passed away, and with her death the Gospel Mission group broke up. Many missionaries wanted to come back to the Board. Lottie urged the Board to accept them back. They were veteran missionaries who knew China and had opened West Shantung. The Board was happy for them to come back, but their support meant more money than ever was needed. With all the bad news, there was still one major bright spot in 1909: Mr. Adams greeted Miss White in China and they were married. Jane Lide and Jewel Leggett, also Training School students, were appointed with Floy White in May. They, along with Mr. and Mrs. J. V. Turner, arrived in Tengchow in October. She continued to mother the Adamses and the other young missionaries. “Don’t eat the apricots, they will give you dysentery,” she warned. “Why aren’t you wearing your pith helmet in this awful sun? Are you writing letters back home to tell the people about our needs and the work? Be sure you have plenty of warm underwear for the winter. You should rest 15 minutes every day after lunch.” As she aged, Lottie could be inflexible and abrupt in her teaching—she felt she didn’t have as much time left for the niceties—but it was to benefit them in their work. She especially wanted to make sure the young ones were not so overburdened as to be destroyed.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FAMINE 85 Meanwhile, the schools were booming, plans were eagerly made for expanding the work, and she still kept up country and city visiting. But she could not see as well at night, and she had to rest more often. She turned her home into a haven for children, where dogs romped, flowers begged to be picked, and cookies appeared as if by magic. Even here, though, tragedy sometimes came. One day a favorite little boy fell out of a tree swing and was killed. The other children were horrified, but Lottie was heartbroken. The tree was cut down at once. She apologized to the child’s mother and tried to ease her grief, and in so doing, ease her own. It was an awful thing. Lottie well knew by now that awful things were part of life, but she had had so many of them happen, and she did not have the resilience of her younger years. Still, children came to the Little Cross Roads to pick flowers, play, and learn “Jesus Loves Me.”

The time would soon be at hand for Lottie to furlough again, but she was not eager for it. Her letters and comments started to include phrases like “If I live until 1913.” She still lived alone, now that the current crop of new missionaries were settled into their own homes. She still did evangelistic visiting and kept several schools, though she would turn one over to a new missionary as each one was ready for the job. There was so much to do, so many people who had never heard the gospel of a Christ Who loved them enough to die for them. How could she leave as long as there were Chinese women who would ask wonderingly, “Can there be a heaven for such as us?” Besides, revolution was brewing in China; not the uprising of the murderous Boxers, but true revolution. The old dynasty was in the process of being overthrown so a republic could be erected. “I am definitely on the side of the revolutionists in sympathy,” she explained. “But missionaries cannot be anything but neutral in their actions and attitudes.” If the new missionaries were to survive and prosper in China, they had to know more than the language; they had to know the Chinese culture and people. Lottie constantly tried to convey over 30 years of learning the Chinese to the younger generation, so they would not have to struggle as hard as she had. There was one struggle she couldn’t help with, however. The Board was sinking deeper and deeper into debt. In June 1911 the Convention heard the disheartening report that the debt had grown to $89,000, nearly one-fifth the total operating budget for foreign missions. She had been turning her annuity payments over to the Board, but now she had to ask that they be sent to her. Along with war, China was now contending with plague and famine. “In times of famine and revolution one sometimes feels the need for money more than usually,” she explained to Dr. Willingham when her annuity payments did not arrive. She wrote again, apologizing for bothering him, but insisting she needed her money. Dr. Willingham had ceased writing her personal letters, now that he had almost 300 missionaries on the Board rolls. The form letters from the Board were all about debt now, and Lottie was far from the only missionary who worried. C. W. Pruitt agonized over the situation. All the missionaries made lame jokes about it, but they prayed fervent prayers. Lottie did spend $12 to be inoculated against the plague when it broke out and closed her schools. She didn’t want to be sick, and she didn’t want the other missionaries taking valuable time to nurse her if she became sick. She had to undergo a monthlong quarantine anyway. During that time she had nothing to do for hours on end but think about starving Chinese. Always she had associated famine with drought; now, floods were wiping out whole crops. Her letters home that year were filled with images of suffering and pleas for help. To Luther she wrote, “How can we bear to sit down to our bountiful tables and know of such things and not bestir ourselves to help? I hope you know that missionaries not only

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FAMINE 86 give their money, but give their lives to help the famine stricken. Hardly ever did I know of a famine that did not claim its victims among missionaries.” Yet the work went on. Attendance was spotty at some of the schools because of fear of the war, and because in hard times children were needed more at home. But, somehow, the schools kept growing. The Tengchow Church called its first native pastor. In the fall of 1911 the North China Baptist Association (previously the Shantung Association) met, and with it the members of three Woman’s Missionary Societies. In Lottie’s living room the women voted to organize Woman’s Missionary Union of North China. Lottie was elected president and was to preside over the meeting in 1912, God willing. Pastor Li of P’ingtu spoke at the associational meeting. Lottie had never stopped admiring and loving this fine Chinese evangelist, but now his reports of the seven churches—all of which he pastored—and the 250 baptisms that year did not cheer her as usual. Instead she sat, filled with horror, as he described how his church members subsisted on leaves, sweet potato vines, and roots. Missionaries were making superhuman efforts at relief work, but still millions suffered. The associational meeting ended, but the revolution went on. The upper classes of Tengchow were loyal imperialists, another reason Lottie watched her step in political matters. Any little thing could bring down disaster at such a time. One day, a student showed up at her house sporting short hair: he had cut off his queue. He thought it would please her, but Lottie was frightened. “Go home and attach that queue to your head before you come back!” she said. The thought of what could happen if her imperialist neighbors saw her student, in her home, looking like a revolutionary, was beyond bearing. Unlike the Boxer uprising, which was decidedly anti-Christian, the revolutionary forces attacked the temples of the traditional Chinese religions. Word reached Lottie that some local Baptists had helped loot such a temple and had the stolen goods in their home. She marched straight over, demanded the stolen property, and delivered a stiff lecture. After all the religious persecution Christians had suffered, were they now to be guilty of the same thing? “Such behavior is not Christian!” she finished sternly. Now, she would have to take the items to the city council and apologize; she was so embarrassed and dreaded the task. Gently, Mr. Adams suggested that he could do that for her. She was grateful to be relieved of the duty. It was bad enough that she felt honor-bound to apologize to every non-Christian acquaintance she saw and explain that religious persecution was not the Christian way. As January 1912 went on, fighting around the mission stations worsened. Acting on consul advice, the whole Mission staff left Hwanghsien for Chefoo. Word reached Lottie in Tengchow that fighting was bad in Hwanghsien. She must go there at once and see if she could help. When she arrived, the Chinese staff was running the hospital as best they could, a handful of women dealing with an ocean of wounded and sick. Though her only nursing experience was what she had learned firsthand, Lottie took charge of the hospital for ten days. Her greatest contribution was the calm she brought with her. The Chinese staff labored on, and Lottie carried them endless cups of tea, along with a large helping of prayer. For the patients, she did what she could. After ten days, Dr. Ayers and the others decided they must return, and went through a battle to reach the hospital. They did not know what catastrophes might have taken place while they were gone. When they arrived, Miss Moon greeted them calmly. “Well, now that you are here, I must be getting back to Tengchow,” she said. The stunned missionaries collected their wits and protested.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FAMINE 87 “But, Miss Moon, they are shooting out there!” Of course, they had been shooting all the while she was at the hospital. But, she gently insisted, she must go home. What could they do to protect her? the men wondered. Finally, they sent word to the opposing sides that Miss Moon would be passing through. A young missionary, Carey Daniel, would escort her through the danger zone. For 20 miles the two traveled, and all was peaceful. Mr. Daniel bade Lottie good-bye and went back along the same path, which was now peppered with gunfire, since she was not with him. Word reached Lottie not long after that J. B. Hartwell had died. The missionaries listened in amazement to the story of his last hours. In his sleep he greeted those he had known throughout his long life in China, ones who had already gone to heaven. Then he seemed to say hello to a Chinese deacon and a South China missionary who were still living. “Oh, he is only hallucinating,” his loved ones said. But after he died, they discovered that the Chinese deacon and the missionary had only recently passed away. Among his numerous children, Mr. Hartwell had four who took up the missionary work he had laid down after a lifetime of labor. She continued working as best she could, and in May was happy that China was now a republic with a declaration of religious liberty. Perhaps, she hoped, things would get better now. Her school-in-the-home was now a homeless shelter. She could not bring herself to turn away widowed, abandoned women she found starving, or those who managed to walk on bound feet to her door. She simply told her old cook to prepare more food. All the missionaries tried to help, but they feared Lottie was wasting herself on hopeless cases. That idea did not seem to enter Lottie’s mind, so full it was of the suffering of her Chinese. Sometimes she was asked for help, but other times she went looking for the needy and kept her ears tuned for news. One day she heard, “I wonder how long it will take her to die.” “I hear she threw herself over.” “What are you talking about?” she inquired, and found out a beggar woman had thrown herself over a bridge onto the stones of a dry riverbed. “Oh, Miss Moon, it is taking her a very long time to die,” the observer said. “She is just lying there in the hot sun.” “I must go there at once,” Lottie said without hesitation. She and her helpers found a lump of humanity wallowing in pain on the dry riverbed. Lottie gave instructions and soon the woman was on a kang in Lottie’s home. Her wounds were bandaged, her eyes washed, and her filthy hair and body cleaned. Even her fingernails were scrubbed clean. When it was time to eat, the door opened and the woman, who could not compre- hend what had happened to her, saw a tiny foreign woman standing over her. She spoke comforting words about a God Who loved her and gave His Son to die for her. This was why she was now in this clean room surrounded by love—God sent people to show her His love. The heavenly Father did not want her to kill herself on the hard stones. He wanted her to live in this world, and with Him in the next. For weeks, this went on, and gradually the anguished lines on the woman’s face smoothed out. She no longer protested when her caregivers tried to help her. Lottie never tired of telling her there was a heaven for women such as her. Lottie still visited in the country and begged Dr. Willingham for more workers. But something was not quite right with Miss Moon; the other missionaries could feel it, but could not identify the problem. Still, perhaps something could be done. “She needs company during the summer,” one suggested as they discussed what could be done to ease her burdens. As they talked, a plan came to mind, using the one group

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FAMINE 88 of people—besides Chinese women—that Miss Moon could not resist: the missionaries’ children. “Miss Moon, we have come to visit,” chimed the little Newton girls as they arrived. “Oh, jolly!” Lottie said, and welcomed them with her usual open arms. She thought the children were coming to spend part of their vacation with her so they would not be lonely. “We want to run errands for you,” one said. And they did, though, if there were any of her Virginia cookies about, the girls would not mind having one (or five). So the days passed, and everyone had fun, but the girls reported to their parents later that there were bugs in the cereal. “What did Miss Moon do about the bugs?” “She couldn’t see them,” the children replied. “And her cook looks skinny.” The parents agreed with the children, the faithful old cook was looking poorly, as was Miss Moon. But, as other children visited, they found Lottie still full of fun and news about the outside world. The Gastons also visited that summer, and Lottie seemed all right. She was still writing her usual lucid, flowing letters to the Board. But alone, as Lottie pored over her bankbook, she worried about money. Coal was so expensive. She had to pay for schoolbooks from her own pocket; the Board never supplied enough funds. Some of the Chinese had to borrow money from her, as did the missionaries. How could she say no? And there were her Chinese sisters to feed. Late that summer Lottie wrote a strange and heartbreaking entry in her bankbook. “I pray no missionary will ever be as lonely as I have been.” All the visits from children and their parents, all the Chinese women and schoolchildren, could not take away the loneliness that had haunted Lottie throughout much of her missionary service. Now it was her ever- present companion. The loneliness and worry finally did to Lottie what it had done to so many of her peers. It broke her down completely, and she cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” But she was not forsaken. God surrounded her with the young missionaries who came to care for her. When they reached her, they discovered at last what was happening to Miss Moon.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • FAMINE 89 17 Kobe Harbor

Mr. Adams was appalled when he saw his friend and mentor in such condition. She had sent for him and he had left his country work immediately. Now he saw a gaunt, haggard woman who could not be consoled. “Oh, Mr. Adams, I have no money, none at all,” she wept. She had made out a new will. “Will you be my executor?” “Of course, Miss Moon,” he soothed. She thrust some of her financial papers at him and he looked through them hurriedly. “Miss Moon, you still have some money, certainly enough to last until your salary comes again.” She shook her head. He tried to show her, but she was not convinced. The young man racked his brain trying to think what he could do to calm her. “Would you like a loan, Miss Moon?” he offered. “I have some money.” Again, she refused and would not be comforted. On the table with her will and papers was the morning mail. She showed him a letter from the Board saying no new missionaries could be sent to Tengchow until the debt was paid. The debt, always the debt! And he could see in the Religious Herald she had been reading the obituaries. In them she had found the name of an old friend. As Lottie stared blankly at things Mr. Adams could only imagine, he decided he had to have help. He conferred with Miss Lide. “She’s got to get out of the house, away from all those women,” they agreed. “I’ll close up the house and pack her things,” Miss Lide offered. She did, and gave the old cook her notice. “Now, it’s time to go, Miss Moon,” she said gently, only to have Lottie burst into tears. Leave her home? Leave Little Cross Roads? “All right,” Miss Lide hurriedly agreed, “we won’t go.” It certainly would not help Miss Moon to leave if doing so made her hysterical with grief. Other missionaries were called in to help. Mrs. Turner offered to take meals to her. Soon she was informing the other missionaries why Miss Moon was in such a state. “She’s not eating,” the missionary reported. “She stopped eating so she could give all her food to the Chinese.” For two weeks the young missionaries tried to help, but Lottie continued her spiral into malnutrition and dementia. “We must have professional help,” one said, and they called in Jessie Pettigrew. The nurse came at once, only to find Lottie treat her as a stranger. “It is Jessie Pettigrew, Miss Moon.” Finally, memories came together in Lottie’s confused mind and she recognized the woman who had worn the pink dress in church. (Many years later Jessie had worn the pink dress again, when her other clothes were ragged, and Lottie had said, “My dear, how sweet you look.” Lottie had never been afraid to modernize her ideas.) Now that once-novice missionary was an experienced North China hand. But, like the others, she was unnerved at the change in Lottie, her mentor. Gently she examined Lottie and drew back in dismay when she found a huge carbuncle, or sore, at the base of Lottie’s ear.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • KOBE HARBOR 90 “It is eating into her head,” she thought. It had to be treated and dressed at once. As she worked, she tried to get Lottie to talk. “Tell me what is the matter, please, Miss Moon.” “It is troubles in my mind,” she said. “I am such a sinner. I have been so awful. So unworthy.” Then she told her what she had told Mr. Adams—she was a pauper. The missionaries conferred again. It was Miss Pettigrew’s professional opinion that Lottie had to get away. If she went to Hwanghsien, an eye could be kept on her. They would be discreet; all wanted to spare Lottie the humiliation of word getting out that she was mentally unbalanced. They presented her the idea of a visit to Hwanghsien. “But it will cost money!” was her first response. No, Miss Pettigrew promised, there would be no expense to the Board. In that case, she would go. In Hwanghsien the nurse observed Lottie for several days. She was listless, napped during the day, and tore at her hair at night. She refused to let food pass her lips. She described for Jessie the ancient Chinese practice of fastening up old people in a cave with just a few days’ food and leaving them to die. As a young missionary, Lottie had seen a place that was reported to have been such a burial chamber for the living. “That is what should be done with me,” she wept. “I deserve such a fate.” Her other obsession was the idea that not only the Chinese, but the missionaries were suffering. She cried at the thought that the precious Newton children were starving to death, and no one could dissuade her from the idea. This was more than Jessie Pettigrew could deal with by herself. Miss Moon needed to be under a doctor’s care. She notified Dr. Gaston in Laichowfu, and he came personally and collected Lottie. She was cared for in his home, with the help of nurse Cynthia Miller. As Miss Miller tended Lottie, some of her anxiety began to rub off on the younger woman. She wrote Dr. Willingham, “It is hard for one to hear her and not become depressed. It seems impossible to divert her from the Board’s finances.” Due for a furlough, Miss Miller decided she would take a secular job to pay her way while at home—anything to save the Board money. As for Dr. Willingham, though he did not have the warm relationship with Lottie that Dr. Tupper had enjoyed, he cared about her more than some might have realized. The debt was strangling to him, also. He waited anxiously in Richmond for any word of Miss Moon’s condition. Finally, missionaries from across Shantung left their work to discuss what to do to save Lottie. Only a trip to America, such as she had often advised for her co-workers, might save her. Miss Miller would take her furlough early so she could escort the patient. It was impossible for her to travel alone in her state. With loving care, she was transported to Dr. Hearn’s home in P’ingtu. Nurse Florence Jones helped take care of her as travel arrangements were made. The Hearns also lavished care on her. Lottie did not make a good patient. In moments of lucid thought, she realized she was in P’ingtu. “Let me up, I want to go teach,” she would beg, wanting to take her place on a kang again. She was told no, she was being sent home. This hurt Lottie worse than anything. Didn’t they realize there was a famine? Didn’t they care Chinese women needed the gospel? The thought of leaving her home was crushing. But she was going, to the new port city of Tsingtao. It was 2:00 a.m. when Dr. Hearn and Miss Jones cushioned Lottie on a bed of pillows inside a shentze for the trip to the coast. Dr. Hearn tucked her in, but she would not stay tucked in.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • KOBE HARBOR 91 “Just lay down, dear Miss Moon. Lay down now,” he soothed with kind tones but poor grammar. The language expert in Lottie came through for a moment. “I will not lay down sir, but I will lie down,” she replied. The missionaries watched from the balcony as Lottie’s shentze left P’ingtu for the last time with Florence Jones attending her. For 12 days she stayed in a German hospital until Dr. Hearn could arrive with Cynthia Miller. They all put Lottie on board the ship Manchuria. A steward carried Lottie on board and to her cabin. “She can’t weigh more than 50 pounds,” he thought wonderingly. Miss Miller followed. She would sleep in the cabin with her. “I will stay on board until Shanghai,” the doctor said. “I need to discuss her condition with the captain and the ship’s doctor.” He had thoughtfully brought on board a supply of grape juice, which he knew Lottie loved, and a special food for invalids. He also made sure that those in Richmond knew Lottie must have someone meet her at the ship—should she live to see America. He discussed the patient with the doctor and captain. “She will have the best of care if she lives, and a decent burial if she dies,” they promised. With an aching heart, Dr. Hearn told Lottie good-bye. He did not believe he would see her again in this world. No patient could have asked for more dedicated care than Miss Miller gave Lottie. But she could see that as Lottie left her beloved China, the will to live seemed to leave her body. For days, she was in a stupor, or deep sleep. Then, in the dark hours of late December 18, she roused up. Miss Miller gave her a drink of grape juice. Lottie asked, “Where did this grape juice come from?” “Dr. Hearn brought it just for you,” Miss Miller replied. “Oh, Dr. Hearn is a good man,” Lottie said. “Thank you for taking such good care of me. I am sorry to be so troublesome.” Then she said plaintively, “Will you tell me why it is that Christian people are so good?” “I think it is because Christ’s Holy Spirit lives in their hearts, Miss Moon,” the nurse said gently. “Why don’t you pray for him to come and fill up my heart?” Lottie begged weakly. “I have been praying this very day, Miss Moon, that he would come and give you the peace and comfort that he alone can give.” “You have?” Lottie asked with a smile. “Well, he has come. Jesus is right here, now. You can pray now that he will fill my heart and stay with me. For when Jesus comes in, he drives out all evil, you know.” The nurse knelt beside the bed and prayed fervently for her friend. Occasionally Lottie’s weak voice would join in. And so the hours passed. Later, Miss Miller heard Lottie whisper, “Jesus loves me! this I know, for the Bible tells me so; Little ones to Him belong; They are weak, but He is strong.’ Do you know that song, Miss Miller?” “Yes ma’am. Many is the time you have taught that to the Chinese, haven’t you?” “Yes, but if we want him to stay with us, we must trust Him, mustn’t we? Will you sing, ‘Simply Trusting Every Day’ for me?” Gently Miss Miller sang the old hymn. When she finished, Lottie said, “Oh, but that is a sweet old song.” Then she fell silent for a while. When she spoke again, it was to say now and again, “We are weak, but he is strong.” Morning dawned, and Lottie could speak no more, but would point heavenward when Miss Miller was near. By Christmas Eve, the Manchuria was in Kobe, Japan, to take on coal. This was one of Lottie’s most beloved spots on earth, and one of the ports she visited on her very first tripas

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • KOBE HARBOR 92 a new missionary all those long years ago. As Cynthia Miller watched, Lottie opened her eyes and looked about. She smiled and raised her hands, fists together, in a Chinese greeting to Someone. A bit later Cynthia Miller informed the captain and doctor that her patient had died. Lottie was cremated in Yokohama the day after Christmas and her possessions, consisting of one steamer trunk and her ashes, were consigned to the nurse’s safekeeping. Dr. Willingham had asked Dr. Bryan, Lottie’s Central China friend who was furloughing at the time, to go to San Francisco to meet her ship. When Dr. Bryan arrived to inquire for Lottie Moon, he was handed a little silver urn of ashes. That urn was expressed to the Foreign Mission Board, where a young woman clerk received it from the delivery man. She was buried next to her brother Isaac on January 29, 1913, in Crewe, Virginia. The day before, a small, quiet memorial service was held at Second Baptist Church of Richmond. Through the country, groups of women held their own memorial services for her. As tributes poured in, so did questions. Why was this allowed to happen? The missionaries could tell them. Cynthia Miller, who had articulately related the last hours of Lottie’s life and the manner of her death, stated, “It is infinitely touching that those who work hardest and make the most sacrifices for the Master should suffer because those in the homeland fail to give what is needed.” Edgar L. Morgan, treasurer for Lottie’s Mission, wrote pointedly to the Board when he described Lottie’s depression: “This has raised the question in the minds of some of us as to how much ought to be said about debt in letters to missionaries. Not even members of the Board can know how much it makes for depression.” Belatedly, Southern Baptists determined to honor Lottie by raising money for missions. They wanted to memorialize the woman who died aboard ship in Kobe harbor. The Christmas offering was given new importance. In a memorial service held as late as 1915, it was said of Lottie’s self-imposed starvation and her melancholy, “This thought should sink deeply into the heart of every careless, indifferent Christian woman of the homeland.” In 1918, Annie Armstrong, now in retirement in Baltimore, spoke up to suggest that the Christmas offering, now an annual occurrence, be named the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The idea was greeted with acclaim. While Southern Baptists at home were trying to honor Lottie and, in some cases, perhaps ease their guilt, the North China missionaries were left to go on without her. She was no longer there to entertain their children, to fuss at them about wearing their pith helmets, to say, “The Chinese would think thus-and-so,” or to show them how to use an umbrella to fend off rude soldiers. But like any family with a strong mother, they found that it was because of what she had been to them in life that they could go on and prosper even after her death. At the first Mission meeting without Lottie, they agreed to ask Southern Baptists to send them 30 evangelistic missionaries in the next 3 years. This should be done, they felt, debt or no debt; for among all the many precepts they had absorbed from Lottie, one was paramount: God’s work must go on, no matter what.

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • KOBE HARBOR 93 Epilogue The Tengchow Church Remembers Forever

In 1987, a group of Southern Baptists went to China in search of any remnants of Lottie’s life there. Members of the group included Catherine B. Allen, author of The New Lottie Moon Story; special China consultants, Jody and Britt Towery; as well as Eloise Glass Cauthen, who had grown up in China with missionary parents. They wondered: Lottie was so well known among Southern Baptists, but was she even remembered in her beloved China? She was. Tengchow was now known as Penglai. When they reached the city, they found the Monument Street Church building still standing, though worse for wear. They were given permission to enter the rubble-strewn yard, and under the debris they found a treasure: a monument to the memory of Lottie Moon, given by the Tengchow Christians. The only defacement the monument suffered was in one place, where the word American had been deliberately chipped out. As someone translated, the words on the first side of the monument became clear. It could be read as “In loving memory of [American] missionary Lottie Moon, in the year of our Lord 1915/Gift of the Dengzhou (Tengchow) Baptist Church.” Or it could also be translated: “The Tengchow Church Remembers Forever.” The rest of the monument went on to describe Lottie’s life: how she graduated from school, never married, but came to China and loved the people. It named schools she had started, told of times she had risked danger to be with the Christians, and described her as someone who opposed evil. Mostly, however, it spoke of her love. She would help the old, sick, children, beggars, expectant mothers, widows, and anyone in distress. It even mentioned the fact her salary was not enough to live on and she often lacked food and clothing, but she never regretted her life. The tribute closed with the fact that Lottie did not want to leave the people, but she had to; and when she left them she died. As thrilling as this discovery was, the group was more moved by meeting people who were active members of congregations that Lottie helped begin, such as the Sha-ling Church, which was constituted in 1889. Though the physical memorial to her might have been hidden and forgotten, the spiritual memorial lives on in multitudes of devout Chinese believers. It lives on, also, in the generations of missionaries who felt God’s call through her story. It lives on in the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which has been the channel through which millions of Southern Baptists have given millions of dollars to the cause of international missions. With such a legacy, there are still Southern Baptists who do not know who Lottie Moon was, and even some who ask, “Was she really such a big deal?” She was not the only missionary to die on the field; far from it. She was not the only one to reject comfort, home, and marriage in order to better serve God. She was certainly not the only missionary that spent a lifetime of seed-sowing in order that others could reap the harvest. So why all the fuss about Lottie Moon?

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • EPILOGUE 94 It seems to be human nature that those we most build up, we also wish to tear down, especially when their achievements spotlight our own failings. Is it possible that some of us do not want to hear of Lottie Moon’s life and death because it makes us uncomfortably aware of our own selfishness and lack of commitment? The story of Lottie Moon cannot be allowed to fade from the consciousness of Southern Baptists. To do so would be to willingly lose a large part of our missions history and an example for future generations to follow. There are others who suggest that Christmas is really no longer the best time to collect the international (previously foreign) missions offering because of the other financial demands of the season. Bluntly put, how can we afford to give money to tell others about the Gift of God when we are spending so much on ourselves? A renewed emphasis on the story of Lottie Moon could also help change the attitudes of Christians toward Christmas and bring it back to its place as a sacred celebration. When the little group of Baptists went to China in 1987, they wondered if they would find any signs of Lottie Moon’s life and work. Through both physical and spiritual monu- ments it became clear, “The Tengchow Church Remembers Forever.” The question for Southern Baptists now is, will we?

THE STORY OF LOTTIE MOON • EPILOGUE 95