Page 214 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 214
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
off her and she had visions of arriving in Hanzhong in her underwear! A young boy who was
rummaging in the pile of things to see if he could find anything of his own, suddenly called to her,
“Here’s your skirt”, much to Alma’s relief. When they reached Hanzhong and reported to the military
there, soldiers were sent up to beat up the whole village as they suspected that the whole village as
well as the landlord of the inn were probably in league with the bandits. As Percy remarked, we never
know from which direction to expect trouble. It could be communists, or Japanese or bandits, or even
the warlords who were supposed to be our protectors!
The Smails went on to Sichuan and in the end, for various reasons, did not come back till early in
1939, as they stayed on for the birth of their second child, a little boy, who was born in the Mission
Hospital in Baoning. Then of course they had to wait the usual month before they could travel.
Our furlough had been granted and we were packing and clearing things up before leaving for
Australia, when we received letters from Hanzhong which shocked us a lot. Alma and Jim with their
two children, were coming back by bus
from Baoning and had almost reached
Hanzhong, in fact they were out of the
mountains and on the plain. Alma was
sitting next to the driver with the new baby
on her lap and Jim had little Kathleen with
him in the back of the truck. On a perfectly
level road, as they drove along beside a
stretch of water, the driver took his hands
off the wheel to light a cigarette. Nobody
knew quite what happened, but the bus
tipped sideways into the water. Alma and
the baby were trapped in the cab, but on
the side above the water, but Jim with
Kathleen in his arms was flung into the water and hit by some of the boxes which were piled in the
truck. He was trapped by the boxes and could not move but he held Kathleen in his arms above the
water so that she would not drown. A passing truck came to their aid and managed to pull them all out
of the water, but had no room to take them on to Hanzhong, so they were left there in the freezing cold
until a relief truck came from Hanzhong. A couple of old Chinese women came by and, seeing the
children wet through and freezing in that cold January weather, opened up their short wadded Chinese
jackets and tucked the children inside against their skin. By doing this they probably saved their lives,
but Jim who was hurt inwardly by the boxes that had fallen on him and bitterly cold in his wet things,
had to lie down there on the side of the road with his head on Alma’s lap until help came. They were
taken to Dr. Xiao’s hospital and given immediate loving care, but it was too late for Jim. He got
pneumonia from the cold and was also severely hurt inwardly and it was only a few days before he
died, leaving Alma a young widow with two tiny children.
It shocked us all and made us realise again the dangers of travelling by bus. Chinese drivers were not
trained with cars as our men at home were. They learned the basic mechanics of making the truck go,
but knew nothing of the insides of the engines nor of safety rules which were second nature to our
men. So on those mountain roads with all sorts of hazards and hair pin bends, many times they failed
to do the, to us, obvious thing, with the result that the truck went over the edge of the cliff and
smashed to pieces on the rocks below. Each time any of us had to travel we prayed for safety all the
way and often as we looked down to the river below us, we saw the wrecks of trucks which had not
made it. I often wished for the old days of mule travel when we walked on our own two feet and had
214
Amy Moore
off her and she had visions of arriving in Hanzhong in her underwear! A young boy who was
rummaging in the pile of things to see if he could find anything of his own, suddenly called to her,
“Here’s your skirt”, much to Alma’s relief. When they reached Hanzhong and reported to the military
there, soldiers were sent up to beat up the whole village as they suspected that the whole village as
well as the landlord of the inn were probably in league with the bandits. As Percy remarked, we never
know from which direction to expect trouble. It could be communists, or Japanese or bandits, or even
the warlords who were supposed to be our protectors!
The Smails went on to Sichuan and in the end, for various reasons, did not come back till early in
1939, as they stayed on for the birth of their second child, a little boy, who was born in the Mission
Hospital in Baoning. Then of course they had to wait the usual month before they could travel.
Our furlough had been granted and we were packing and clearing things up before leaving for
Australia, when we received letters from Hanzhong which shocked us a lot. Alma and Jim with their
two children, were coming back by bus
from Baoning and had almost reached
Hanzhong, in fact they were out of the
mountains and on the plain. Alma was
sitting next to the driver with the new baby
on her lap and Jim had little Kathleen with
him in the back of the truck. On a perfectly
level road, as they drove along beside a
stretch of water, the driver took his hands
off the wheel to light a cigarette. Nobody
knew quite what happened, but the bus
tipped sideways into the water. Alma and
the baby were trapped in the cab, but on
the side above the water, but Jim with
Kathleen in his arms was flung into the water and hit by some of the boxes which were piled in the
truck. He was trapped by the boxes and could not move but he held Kathleen in his arms above the
water so that she would not drown. A passing truck came to their aid and managed to pull them all out
of the water, but had no room to take them on to Hanzhong, so they were left there in the freezing cold
until a relief truck came from Hanzhong. A couple of old Chinese women came by and, seeing the
children wet through and freezing in that cold January weather, opened up their short wadded Chinese
jackets and tucked the children inside against their skin. By doing this they probably saved their lives,
but Jim who was hurt inwardly by the boxes that had fallen on him and bitterly cold in his wet things,
had to lie down there on the side of the road with his head on Alma’s lap until help came. They were
taken to Dr. Xiao’s hospital and given immediate loving care, but it was too late for Jim. He got
pneumonia from the cold and was also severely hurt inwardly and it was only a few days before he
died, leaving Alma a young widow with two tiny children.
It shocked us all and made us realise again the dangers of travelling by bus. Chinese drivers were not
trained with cars as our men at home were. They learned the basic mechanics of making the truck go,
but knew nothing of the insides of the engines nor of safety rules which were second nature to our
men. So on those mountain roads with all sorts of hazards and hair pin bends, many times they failed
to do the, to us, obvious thing, with the result that the truck went over the edge of the cliff and
smashed to pieces on the rocks below. Each time any of us had to travel we prayed for safety all the
way and often as we looked down to the river below us, we saw the wrecks of trucks which had not
made it. I often wished for the old days of mule travel when we walked on our own two feet and had
214
