Page 127 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 127
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
they hung a sheet across the window to try and get some privacy. To the children who had never
travelled anywhere except in China, there was a certain sense of security in waking during the night to
smell the familiar smokiness of the inn and to hear their parents whispering together close beside
them.
At last they reached the railhead in Henan, and the children had their first ride on a train. It started
with such a jerk that they nearly fell over.
SHANGHAI
The family remained at Qingjiang until February 1917 and then moved down to Shanghai. This was
the first time Percy and his sisters had ever been exposed to life in a big modern city, and it was a
revelation to them. There were electric lights which switched on in one place to light up another.
Woosung Road, Shanghai. The Headquarters of the China Inland Mission until 1931
The Mission home at that time was in Wusong Road, and the children loved to play on the spiral fire
escape. One night there was a real fire alarm, and Jessie remembered her mother rushing to take
them out on the road till the scare was over. Percy’s main memories of Wusong Road compound
seem to have been of when he was there on holidays from Chefoo. He and the other Chefoo boys
took delight in tearing around on their bicycles trying to snatch caps from the heads of their rivals in St.
John’s, the big English Boys’ School in Shanghai. They, of course, retaliated in kind, but I never
heard how the parents or masters of either side dealt with the problem. I imagine that to lose one’s
school cap might have been looked upon as a major offence.
Jessie remembers marvelling at the shop windows in Shanghai and the celluloid baby dolls displayed
there that could be put in a bath like a real baby. Another of her memories is of her and Marj having
their hair curled by a Chinese amah who was rather rough and made them cry.
One day she told her mother she had seen an angel crossing the road, and when Esther explained
that it was a nurse in uniform she had seen, Jess decided then and there that she would be a nurse
when she grew up.
127
Amy Moore
they hung a sheet across the window to try and get some privacy. To the children who had never
travelled anywhere except in China, there was a certain sense of security in waking during the night to
smell the familiar smokiness of the inn and to hear their parents whispering together close beside
them.
At last they reached the railhead in Henan, and the children had their first ride on a train. It started
with such a jerk that they nearly fell over.
SHANGHAI
The family remained at Qingjiang until February 1917 and then moved down to Shanghai. This was
the first time Percy and his sisters had ever been exposed to life in a big modern city, and it was a
revelation to them. There were electric lights which switched on in one place to light up another.
Woosung Road, Shanghai. The Headquarters of the China Inland Mission until 1931
The Mission home at that time was in Wusong Road, and the children loved to play on the spiral fire
escape. One night there was a real fire alarm, and Jessie remembered her mother rushing to take
them out on the road till the scare was over. Percy’s main memories of Wusong Road compound
seem to have been of when he was there on holidays from Chefoo. He and the other Chefoo boys
took delight in tearing around on their bicycles trying to snatch caps from the heads of their rivals in St.
John’s, the big English Boys’ School in Shanghai. They, of course, retaliated in kind, but I never
heard how the parents or masters of either side dealt with the problem. I imagine that to lose one’s
school cap might have been looked upon as a major offence.
Jessie remembers marvelling at the shop windows in Shanghai and the celluloid baby dolls displayed
there that could be put in a bath like a real baby. Another of her memories is of her and Marj having
their hair curled by a Chinese amah who was rather rough and made them cry.
One day she told her mother she had seen an angel crossing the road, and when Esther explained
that it was a nurse in uniform she had seen, Jess decided then and there that she would be a nurse
when she grew up.
127
