Page 191 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 191
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
three chairs but no carriers, so now I could have one with the baby, Miss Haslam, who had a lame leg,
had one, and the third was reserved for Grannie to use. The rest walked. As we were carried
through the city, I felt I knew what being like ‘a rat in a trap’ meant. The city, usually so full of life, was
like a city of the dead, no preparations being made to defend it, the Reds less than ten miles away, we
could hear the firing, and nobody allowed out of the gates.
Then as we got on to the Chenggu road, I began to know what it felt like to be a refugee. The roads
were packed with people carrying little bundles on their backs, some wheeling barrows with small
children sitting on top of bedding rolls, while other small families were just trudging along holding the
hands of tired little children and going, they hardly knew where, so long as they got away from
Hanzhong and the threat there. Many wealthy business men had just taken a little bundle on their
backs and fled and were planning to get to Wuhan (Hankow) or Tianjin if possible. We met people too
who had come from the Ningqiang district, and they said nobody could possibly have escaped from
that city and, when the Reds entered it they slaughtered people left and right. We began to give up all
hope for the Frenchams. It was 9:30 at night when we finally reached the Chenggu West suburb and
began to look for somewhere to spend the night. The city gates were all locked.
All the way from Hanzhong I had been thinking about Percy and praying that somehow we would meet
him. It seemed utterly impossible with the roads packed with people, every inn crowded, and we didn’t
even know whether he would take the direct route to Hanzhong or go by a shorter route which would
get him there quicker. When he got there what would he do? He would find us gone and think we had
gone to Xi’an, but if he tried to follow us, he would walk right into the Reds at Baocheng. As we
entered the Chenggu suburb, my carriers put my chair down till we found a place to stay. Doug and
Grandad were walking beside me and we had stopped outside one of the many inns. The innkeeper
peered in to see who was in the sedan chair and then said, “Some of your Gospel Hall people are
staying in this inn tonight.” Grandad and Doug looked at each other and went to see, and there was
Percy rolled in his bedding between two Chinese coolies sound asleep.
What a joyful reunion that was, and quite miraculous that we should have been in that particular
suburb that night at all. He and the coolies, whom he had hired to carry his things, had arrived late at
the suburb on the other side of the city and normally would have looked for a place to stay the night
there. But Percy wanted to make an early start next morning to reach Hanzhong as soon as possible,
so he suggested they circle the city that night and find a place to sleep on the Hanzhong side, and that
is how they were at the very place where my chair was put down as we entered the same suburb.
All the inns were so full that Grandad talked the soldiers on the gate into letting us in so that we could
go to the Mission Home which the Stranges had so lately vacated. So we had comfortable beds and
all we needed that night. We helped ourselves to some of the Strange’s things, knowing that they
would be glad for us to use them.
When we got up on Tuesday morning, we were still not certain which way to go, and were still thinking
of Xi’an via the old route through Yang Xian. We were just packing up to leave, when a business man
whom we knew, came in and advised us not to take that route but to go south through Xixiang and
Shiquan to Wuhan (Hankow). So the decision was made and Percy and I found ourselves on our way
back to our own home, I for the first time since Raymond was born. Percy went on to prepare a little
for such a large party and to make sure there was enough food and a meal prepared when we arrived.
We left again the next morning and I wrote to my family in Australia,
“Our little home never seemed so precious as I looked round on all
the family photos and books and all that made it home, and realised
we must leave everything. It is a new sensation to be homeless and
191
Amy Moore
three chairs but no carriers, so now I could have one with the baby, Miss Haslam, who had a lame leg,
had one, and the third was reserved for Grannie to use. The rest walked. As we were carried
through the city, I felt I knew what being like ‘a rat in a trap’ meant. The city, usually so full of life, was
like a city of the dead, no preparations being made to defend it, the Reds less than ten miles away, we
could hear the firing, and nobody allowed out of the gates.
Then as we got on to the Chenggu road, I began to know what it felt like to be a refugee. The roads
were packed with people carrying little bundles on their backs, some wheeling barrows with small
children sitting on top of bedding rolls, while other small families were just trudging along holding the
hands of tired little children and going, they hardly knew where, so long as they got away from
Hanzhong and the threat there. Many wealthy business men had just taken a little bundle on their
backs and fled and were planning to get to Wuhan (Hankow) or Tianjin if possible. We met people too
who had come from the Ningqiang district, and they said nobody could possibly have escaped from
that city and, when the Reds entered it they slaughtered people left and right. We began to give up all
hope for the Frenchams. It was 9:30 at night when we finally reached the Chenggu West suburb and
began to look for somewhere to spend the night. The city gates were all locked.
All the way from Hanzhong I had been thinking about Percy and praying that somehow we would meet
him. It seemed utterly impossible with the roads packed with people, every inn crowded, and we didn’t
even know whether he would take the direct route to Hanzhong or go by a shorter route which would
get him there quicker. When he got there what would he do? He would find us gone and think we had
gone to Xi’an, but if he tried to follow us, he would walk right into the Reds at Baocheng. As we
entered the Chenggu suburb, my carriers put my chair down till we found a place to stay. Doug and
Grandad were walking beside me and we had stopped outside one of the many inns. The innkeeper
peered in to see who was in the sedan chair and then said, “Some of your Gospel Hall people are
staying in this inn tonight.” Grandad and Doug looked at each other and went to see, and there was
Percy rolled in his bedding between two Chinese coolies sound asleep.
What a joyful reunion that was, and quite miraculous that we should have been in that particular
suburb that night at all. He and the coolies, whom he had hired to carry his things, had arrived late at
the suburb on the other side of the city and normally would have looked for a place to stay the night
there. But Percy wanted to make an early start next morning to reach Hanzhong as soon as possible,
so he suggested they circle the city that night and find a place to sleep on the Hanzhong side, and that
is how they were at the very place where my chair was put down as we entered the same suburb.
All the inns were so full that Grandad talked the soldiers on the gate into letting us in so that we could
go to the Mission Home which the Stranges had so lately vacated. So we had comfortable beds and
all we needed that night. We helped ourselves to some of the Strange’s things, knowing that they
would be glad for us to use them.
When we got up on Tuesday morning, we were still not certain which way to go, and were still thinking
of Xi’an via the old route through Yang Xian. We were just packing up to leave, when a business man
whom we knew, came in and advised us not to take that route but to go south through Xixiang and
Shiquan to Wuhan (Hankow). So the decision was made and Percy and I found ourselves on our way
back to our own home, I for the first time since Raymond was born. Percy went on to prepare a little
for such a large party and to make sure there was enough food and a meal prepared when we arrived.
We left again the next morning and I wrote to my family in Australia,
“Our little home never seemed so precious as I looked round on all
the family photos and books and all that made it home, and realised
we must leave everything. It is a new sensation to be homeless and
191
