tihvavy of t:he theological ^tminaxy 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 BV 3427 .P5 S63 1903 
 Speer, Robert E. 1867-1947. 
 A memorial of Horace Tracy 
 Pitkin 
 
A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
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A Memorial o f$h 
 Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 JUN 17 1957 
 
 V< 
 
 By 
 ROBERT E. SPEER 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1905, by 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 ( Novefnber) 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 6} Washington Street 
 Toronto: 27 Richmond Street, W 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 30 St. Mary Street 
 
To His Wife 
 AND Son 
 
Preface 
 
 Horace Tracy Pitkin was one of the increasing 
 number of young university men who have fol- 
 lowed Christ with their whole hearts, and have 
 set His service above all else, even life. At Exe- 
 ter, at Yale, and in Union Seminary, in the work 
 of the Student Volunteer Movement, in the life of a 
 missionary, and in the death of a martyr in China, 
 he strove wholly to follow the Saviour. This 
 memorial seeks to preserve the influence of one 
 who, loving the truth and scorning unreality, 
 made it his meat and drink to do the will of God. 
 
 Almost all of the material for this memorial 
 was gathered by the Rev. O. H. Bronson, who 
 was a classmate of Pitkin's at Yale, and who was 
 with him in Union Seminary. Both he and Mrs. 
 Pitkin have read the manuscript and made sug- 
 gestions which I have, of course, followed. For 
 any errors of statement or judgment, however, I 
 am responsible. 
 
 In a memorial volume of this character, it is 
 difficult to decide what to include and what to 
 omit. As the majority of its readers, however, 
 are likely to be those who knew the life de- 
 scribed, it seems best to err on the side of incor- 
 porating what they will wish to see, rather than 
 to attempt to exclude what a stranger would 
 
 5 
 
6 Preface 
 
 consider of but slight importance. Accordingly, 
 I have embodied in the memorial much of per- 
 sonal testimony, and of the judgment of friends 
 who knew Horace, which other friends will ap- 
 preciate and understand. 
 
 Some will feel, doubtless, that the story of the 
 life might have been told more briefly. This is 
 true, but this is not simply a story of a life. It is 
 a meeting place, where many who knew and 
 loved the true man pictured here, may gather and 
 compare their recollections, and confirm their 
 purposes to follow more faithfully the Master 
 whom he served, even unto death. 
 
 The supreme glory of Horace Pitkin's life was 
 its exaltation of principle and duty into the su- 
 preme place. Not pleasure, nor ease, nor popu- 
 larity, nor gain, but righteousness and service, 
 were the dominant interests of his heart and will, 
 and these he followed though they led him under 
 the shadow of the Cross. 
 
 « It is the way the Saviour went. 
 Shall not the servant tread it still ? " 
 
 And if he, why not we ? 
 
 R. E. S. 
 
Contents 
 
 I 
 
 Ancestry and Boyhood 9 
 
 II 
 At Yale 42 
 
 III 
 
 At Union Theological Seminary .... 77 
 
 IV 
 
 Among the Colleges of the West . . . 107 
 
 V 
 
 Appointment by the American Board . . 130 
 
 VI 
 
 The Journey to China 152 
 
 VII 
 
 Life and Work in China . . . . . . 178 
 
 VIII 
 *• The Golden Evening Brightens in the West "249 
 
 IX 
 In Memoriam -295 
 
 7 
 
ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 
 
 " A tone of pride or petulance repressed, 
 A selfish inclination firmly fought, 
 A shadow of annoyance set at naught, 
 A measure of disquietude suppressed ; 
 A peace in importunity possessed, 
 A reconcilement generously sought, 
 A purpose put aside — a banished thought, 
 A word of self-explaining unexpressed ; 
 Trifles, they seem, these petty soul-restraints, 
 Yet he who proves them so must needs possess 
 A constancy and courage grand and bold. 
 They are the trifles that have made the saints. 
 Give me to practice them in humbleness, 
 And nobler power than mine doth no man hold." 
 
 Horace Tracy Pitkin's ancestry runs back to 
 the beginnings of the American nation. William 
 Pitkin came to New England from London in 
 1659 and was attorney-general of Connecticut in 
 1664. Horace Tracy Pitkin was of the eighth 
 generation in direct descent from William. Wil- 
 liam Pitkin's sister Martha, came to join him in 
 1661, expecting to return with him to England, 
 " not once supposing he intended to remain in 
 the wilderness," as she expressed it. The Pit- 
 kin Genealogy relates that "her first greeting 
 on meeting her brother, whom she found feeding 
 
 9 
 
10 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 his swine, was, ' I left a brother in England serv- 
 ing his king, and find another in America serving 
 his swine.' She was a lady endowed with more 
 than ordmary talent, improved by an excellent 
 education. The reception she met with in the 
 colony, was most flattering; her comely form 
 and accomplished manner making the colonists 
 anxious to retain her in their country. In the 
 words of the Rev. Thomas Robbins, for many 
 years the pastor of the church she attended, 'this 
 girl put the colony in commotion. If possible 
 she must be detained. The stock was too val- 
 uable to be parted with. It became a matter of 
 general consultation what young man was good 
 enough for Miss Pitkin.' Tradition says that so 
 many young men wished to marry the accom- 
 plished beauty, that they cast lots for her hand, 
 but fails to say what part Miss Pitkin was to take 
 in the affair. The facts are, that the sons of 
 Henry Wolcott, one of the first settlers of East 
 Windsor, were well pleased with Miss Pitkin, and 
 to avoid all question of strife or jealousy, it is be- 
 lieved it was decided by lot among themselves 
 which one should sue for her hand. The lot fell 
 to Simon Wolcott, the youngest son; at all 
 events, he pressed his suit, and was successful. 
 Her brother favored the match, and she became 
 the wife of Simon Wolcott, and subsequently 
 the mother of Governor Roger Wolcott." Her 
 grandson, Oliver Wolcott, born in Windsor, 
 moved to the new county of Litchfield, about 
 1750. There he held important civil and military 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 1 1 
 
 positions. This Oliver Wolcott was a signer of 
 the Declaration of Independence, and was gov- 
 ernor of Connecticut for ten years. A second 
 Oliver Wolcott, a son of the former, and a 
 native of Litchfield County, succeeded Alex- 
 ander Hamilton as secretary of the Treasury, 
 and he was again in that place in the cabinets of 
 Washington and Adams. He refused the prof- 
 fered place at the head of the first United States 
 bank. 
 
 The Pitkins settled near Hartford, and when in 
 1783, East Hartford was incorporated as a sepa- 
 rate town, one-third of the officers chosen for 
 the new town bore the name of Pitkin. In 1766 
 a William Pitkin was governor of Connecticut, 
 and held the office till his death in 1769. That 
 year a ballad appeared, satirizing the governors of 
 Connecticut, which dealt with Governor Pitkin in 
 the following lines : 
 
 " Our old friend Will next took the Helm, 
 
 Who'd cruised for many years, Sir, 
 And steer'd as well, when the weather was calm 
 
 As any tar on board, Sir. 
 His friendly art succeeded now 
 
 To accomplish every measure. 
 By a ' How do you do,' with a decent Bow, 
 
 And a shaking of hands forever." 
 
 In war as in peace the Pitkins filled a con- 
 spicuous place in the colony and the common- 
 wealth. They fought in the Revolution and 
 later wars. In 1791, fourteen Pitkins were granted 
 
12 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 a charter as an artillery company. From the be- 
 ginning the family were engaged in manufactur- 
 ing enterprises. From 1686 almost to the present 
 day some members of the family have been 
 operating mills. At first it was fulling, iron and 
 gunpowder mills. In 1750, the British Parlia- 
 ment prohibited the iron industry. When the 
 Revolution came all the mills were run for the 
 manufacture of gunpowder for the new govern- 
 ment at a great loss pecuniarily to the Pitkins. 
 "In 1784 William Pitkin by reason of loss in 
 making powder for the government, was granted 
 the sole privilege of making snuff in the State for 
 fourteen years exempt from taxation." After the 
 Revolution, in many new mills, cotton and 
 woolen goods and glass were made. William 
 Pitkin's powder mill is believed to have been the 
 first powder mill built in this country. In 1807 
 the first patent ever granted in America for the 
 manufacture of felt hats was granted to Joseph 
 Pitkin. In 1834 Henry and James F. Pitkin com- 
 menced to make the first watches manufactured 
 in this country. 
 
 Although a member of the Church of England 
 when he came to America, William Pitkin and 
 his family became members of the Puritan Church 
 of the Colony, ** The First Church of Christ in 
 Hartford." A manuscript volume of religious 
 writings which he left, shows him to have been 
 a man of devotion and of considerable theological 
 knowledge. The Church later established in 
 East Hartford, was called ** The Third Church" 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 13 
 
 of Hartford. Into this church some two hundred 
 Pitkin children have been baptized, and about one 
 hundred and fifty of the same name received into 
 membership. Mr. Elisha Benton's humorous 
 lines, written more than a century ago and pre- 
 served in Major Samuel Pitkin's papers, giving 
 advice as to seating the people in the meeting 
 house, indicate the standing of the various 
 families in the community. Of the Pitkins' the 
 poem says: 
 
 •' As mean folks should never be mixed with their betters, 
 You ought to distinguish and know the great letters, 
 Especially all the great capital P's." 
 
 On his mother's side, Horace Tracy Pitkin was 
 descended from Thomas Yale, the founder of the 
 Yale family in America, who came with his 
 mother and his stepfather, Governor Eaton, from 
 England in 1637, and settled in New Haven. 
 The third son, Elihu Yale, born in 1648, was left 
 by his father in England in 1659, when he re- 
 turned to America from a visit to England begun 
 the previous year. At the age of thirty, Elihu 
 Yale went to the East Indies, in the service of the 
 East India Company, and remained in India about 
 twenty years, acquiring a large estate. On his 
 return to London he was chosen governor of the 
 East India Company, and spent the rest of his 
 life in England. He helped the college in New 
 Haven so generously, that in honor of his munifi- 
 cence it received his name. The Yale Gene- 
 alogy quotes his epitaph : 
 
14 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 EPITAPH OF ELIHU YALE, ESQ. 
 
 Who Died July 22, iy2i. 
 
 Interred at Wrexham, in Denbighshire, Wales. 
 
 Born in America, in Europe bred. 
 In Africa traveWd^ and in Asia wed. 
 Where long he lived and thriv'd, at London dead^ 
 Much good, some ill he did; so hope that alVs even^ 
 And that his Soul thro' Mercy^s gone to Heaven, 
 You that survive and read, take care 
 For this ?jiost certain exit to prepare ; 
 For only the actions of the just 
 Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust, 
 
 Horace's mother was a daughter of the Rev. 
 Cyrus Yale of New Hartford, Litchfield County, 
 Connecticut, a lineal descendant of Elihu Yale. 
 The grandfather was a neighbor and friend of 
 the father of Samuel J. Mills, one of the group at 
 the Missionary Hay Stack at Williamstown, the 
 fountain of foreign missionary impulse in 
 America. Litchfield County was a foreign mis- 
 sionary region. Dr. Trumbull in his account 
 of Litchfield County's Contributions to the 
 Nation's Power and Fame sketches the work of 
 this one rural county in the work of missions: 
 
 "Samuel J. Mills was the earliest American 
 student volunteer for the evangelization of the 
 world. He was the leader in the little group 
 under the haystack at Williamstown, when the 
 storm came on as they prayed and as they pur- 
 posed to go abroad. He was born in Litchfield 
 County, where his father was a pastor; as was 
 also the father of Adoniram Judson, who was 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 15 
 
 one of the first five missionaries to go out under 
 the American Board. 
 
 "The first school for foreign missions or- 
 ganized in this country, if not in the world, was 
 in Litchfield County. It included pupils from 
 the Sandwich Islands, natives of Africa, and 
 persons from various tribes of American Indians. 
 A number of these pupils went back to the peo- 
 ple from whom they came; and quite a number 
 of those who saw them, on visiting the school at 
 Cornwall, were aroused by this object lesson to 
 go out as foreign missionaries. Among these 
 was Hiram Bingham the pioneer missionary to 
 the Sandwich Islands. 
 
 " Of the pupils in that Foreign Missionary 
 School at Cornwall, ten went as missionaries to 
 the Indians, seventeen to the Sandwich Islands 
 and the others were widely scattered. 
 
 '* Litchfield County was, in a sense, the be- 
 ginning of American foreign missionary work. 
 For years, it continued to be in the lead. It is 
 recorded of Dr. Worcester, the early correspond- 
 ing secretary of the American Board, that when 
 the liberal contributions came in from this field 
 in a time of financial embarrassment, he cried out 
 with a grateful heart: 'I bless God for making 
 Litchfield County.' And so said many another 
 man of God, as the years passed on. 
 
 ** Among the earnest and influential friends and 
 representative advocates of the foreign missionary 
 cause was for years the Rev. Dr. Augustus C. 
 Thompson, a native of Goshen, of Litchfield 
 County. He was one of the Prudential Com- 
 mittee of the American Board for more than forty 
 years. He was a member of the deputation 
 from the Board to visit the missions in India in 
 1845 and 1855. He was for a time the formal 
 lecturer on foreign missions in Andover Theo- 
 logical Seminary, in the Hartford Theological 
 
i6 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Seminary and at Boston University. He wrote 
 an important volume on Moravian missions, an- 
 other on Protestant missions, and yet another on 
 foreign missions. Yet, while doing all this work 
 at home and abroad, he was for nearly sixty 
 years pastor of the Eliot Congregational Church 
 at Roxbury, Massachusetts, and he was the 
 author of very many sacred and devotional 
 volumes that have made their impress on his 
 generation. And this is but a single Litchfield 
 County native. 
 
 "The Hon. Robbins Battell of Norfolk was 
 one of the friends of missions who made Litch- 
 field County a place to thank God for. He was 
 a relative of two of the pioneers whose names 
 are on the famous haystack monument at 
 Williamstown. 
 
 "For eighteen years, he was a corporate 
 member of the American Board, giving ever wise 
 and valued counsel in its management and con- 
 tributing of his means to aid it liberally in its 
 ordinary outlays, and again, on special occasions, 
 to lift its occasional debts. This continued to his 
 Hfe's close. 
 
 "A number of active missionaries to foreign 
 fields were natives of Litchfield County, and all 
 of them were worthy of their nativity. Isaac 
 Bird of this county was a worker of note in 
 Palestine, and both there and after his return, he 
 did good service to God and to man. A yet 
 earlier missionary from this county, Benjamin C. 
 Meigs, did good service in Ceylon, which has 
 been for years one of the strategic points of the 
 world's conquest for Christ. 
 
 " In the first fifty years of American missionary 
 history, it should be noted that, besides those 
 already mentioned, and besides the children of 
 Litchfield County natives born elsewhere, the 
 Rev. Abel K. Hinsdale went from Torrington to 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 17 
 
 the Nestorian Mission; Mary Grant, wife of the 
 Rev. Ebenezer Burgess, went from Colebrook to 
 Ahmednugger in the Mahratta Mission; Julia M. 
 Terry, wife of the Rev. Charles Harding, went 
 from Plymouth to Bombay; Sarah M. Peet, of 
 Bethlehem, with her husband, Benjamin C. Meigs, 
 went to Ceylon; the Rev. John M. S. Perry went 
 from Sharon to Ceylon; the Rev. Samuel G. 
 Whittlesey went from New Preston to Ceylon; 
 Sarah A. Chamberlain of Sharon, wife of the 
 Rev. Joseph Scudder, also went to Ceylon. Be- 
 sides those missionaries already named as going 
 from Litchfield County to the Sandwich Islands, 
 there should be mentioned the Rev. David B. 
 Lyman, of New Hartford, who went to Hono- 
 lulu; the Rev. Eliphalet Whittlesey, of Salisbury, 
 who also went to Honolulu; Mr. Abner Wilcox 
 from Harwinton to Hilo; Louise Everest of 
 Cornwall, wife of the Rev. James Ely, went to 
 Honolulu. 
 
 "Quite a number of the most active and influen- 
 tial missionaries among the Cherokees and Choc- 
 taws and Dakotas, and the Ojibwas and Osages, 
 were from Litchfield County. In former days, 
 the American Indians were counted a foreign 
 nation, — as they are still, by many, treated as 
 though they were." 
 
 Other great names of sons and daughters of 
 Litchfield County are Ethan Allen, Harriet Beecher 
 Stowe, John Brown of Ossawatomie, Horace 
 Bushnell, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles G. Fin- 
 ney, Nathaniel W. Taylor, C. P. Huntington and 
 Elisha Whittlesey, and the list might be in- 
 definitely extended. 
 
 The traditions of New Hartford where Horace's 
 mother was born, are in harmony with the deep 
 
l8 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 and distinctive spirit of the county. Dr. Edward 
 Dorr Griffin, President of Williams College, was 
 one of Mr. Yale's predecessors in this parish. A I 
 the third annual convention of the Sunday-school 
 Teachers of Connecticut, held at Bridgeport in 
 September, 1859, Dr. Hodge, of Bridgeport, 
 said : 
 
 "Dr. Griffin once wrote a letter to Dr. W. B. 
 Sprague, of Albany, giving an account of a revival 
 in New Hartford, where he was first settled. He 
 said he could stand on the steps of his house and 
 look over into three parishes, where the rains of 
 the Spirit were falling, where the Spirit was 
 poured out upon them in a most wonderful man- 
 ner. But in New Hartford no dew descended. 
 He used often to go out, and stand on the steps, 
 and look over into these parishes, where God 
 was achieving such wonders by His grace ; and O ! 
 how he did wish that it might please his heav- 
 enly Father to cast an eye of compassion on him- 
 self and his people, and wonder if the Lord had 
 no blessing for them. With such feelings he said 
 he went into his study one day, and prostrated 
 himself on the floor. He did not kneel, he lay 
 down, and rolled there in agony, and cried to 
 God that it might please Him to bless him too, 
 and also remember New Hartford. While thus 
 engaged in prayer the words of the Psalmist, in the 
 sixty-second Psalm came to him, ' My soul, wait 
 thou only upon God, for my expectation is from 
 Him.' He said it at once occurred to him that he 
 would prepare a sermon on that text. He deter- 
 mined to do so, and prayed over every line as he 
 wrote it. On Sabbath morning he was so wrought 
 up in spirit that he said when he went into the 
 sanctuary he did not know there was anybody in 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood ig 
 
 it — he didn't see them. He went into the pulpit, 
 commenced the introductory service, and when 
 he came to read his text, he read it in this wise — 
 ' jMy soul, wait thou only, only, only upon God, 
 for my expectation is from Him.' He preached 
 the sermon, and went home, followed by forty 
 men, inquiring with tears, to know what they 
 must do to be saved." 
 
 Cyrus Yale was pastor of this parish from 1814 
 to 1854, the date of his death. In i860 his 
 daughter Lucy Tracy Yale, was married to Horace 
 W. Pitkin at the house of her sister in Hartford. 
 Mr. Pitkin had lived at the Manchester home, 
 attending school until he was about twenty years 
 of age, when he went South to Virginia to engage 
 in raising mulberry trees for silkworms. There 
 he remained two years, after which he went to 
 Alabama as a missionary to the Cherokee Indians. 
 One writes of him : 
 
 "He worked faithfully among them for six 
 years, at the end of which time he took up the 
 business of introducing the Osage orange hedge 
 in northern states. At this business he earned 
 the first thousand dollars that he had ever owned. 
 Feeling very wealthy, he went home to Man- 
 chester, to live a year. He invested the $1,000 in 
 a seed store in Louisville, Ky., in partnership 
 with his brother, George W. Pitkin. The busi- 
 ness of selling seeds and farming implements 
 proved very successful, and the two brothers 
 continued in it until the beginning of the war, 
 when their business was wiped out. 
 
 ** After their marriage in i860, Mr. and Mrs. 
 
20 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Pitkin went to Louisville, Ky., to live. In the 
 fall of 1861, they went to Philadelphia, with their 
 one child, Leila, a baby at the time. In the fol- 
 lowing spring, Mr. Pitkin went down to Virginia 
 and looked over the field. He was impressed 
 with the great waste when 'camp broke,' the 
 many useful and valuable things left behind. 
 This opened his eyes to the needs of the soldiers, 
 when tents were pitched again, and he saw an 
 opportunity to serve the soldiers and support his 
 family. Accordingly, he opened up stores in Alex- 
 andria and other places, and stocked them gen- 
 erously with supplies for soldiers. In this way 
 he became known to a large number of soldiers 
 and officers, and was able to help them in many 
 ways. After the war, he engaged in the business 
 of selling government supplies; things that had 
 been ordered for armies and which were not 
 needed, such as tents, uniforms, etc. From this, 
 he naturally entered into the business of manu- 
 facturer's agent, where he made a very comfort- 
 able income. In this business, he engaged in 
 partnership with Mr. Augustus Thomas, until 
 the time of his death, November 8, 1889, at 
 the age of sixty-six years. 
 
 "Horace W. was a most generous man, and 
 gave a great deal to charity. He was also very 
 modest, and did not even tell his family of the 
 many ways in which he helped people. When I 
 was in New Hartford, I heard from a number of 
 their gratitude to Mr. Pitkin for some help which 
 he had rendered them. When in Tryon, N. C, 
 a retired minister told me with tears in his eyes, 
 that Mr. Pitkin had 'helped him out' many a 
 time. In Asheville, N. C, Dr. Lawrence, of the 
 Normal school, said that Mr. Pitkin had at two 
 different times given him checks for $1,000, for 
 work among the negroes farther south. A pres- 
 ent of a cow and feed was sent to a struggling 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 21 
 
 New Hartford minister, who had complained to 
 Mr. Pitkin of the milkman's milk." 
 
 Horace Tracy Pitkin was born in Philadelphia, 
 at 1 824 De Lancey Place, on October 28, 1 869. His 
 two sisters were both older. His youngest sister 
 died in Philadelphia, in 1892. The other sister 
 was married to Charles Eliot, the son of President 
 Eliot, of Harvard, in 1888. President Eliot has 
 written the story of his son's life in Charles 
 Eliot, Landscape Architect. Mrs. Pitkin died in 
 July, 1 88 1, when Horace was eleven years of age. 
 The boy lived a wholesome, normal boy's life. 
 The few incidents that friends recall only illustrate 
 its natural and easy attractiveness and develop- 
 ment. One friend writes: 
 
 " In 1870, when Horace Tracy was only seven 
 months old, his father and mother went to Europe 
 and were gone five months. A relative (Miss 
 Nellie Holton) went to New Hartford and took 
 care of the baby during those months. 
 
 *M have often heard it said that little Horace 
 early showed signs of a very strong will and also 
 a quick temper. His mother used to tell of 
 Horace's first attempt at singing a tune. He was 
 about a year old and lying in his cradle, and he 
 was singing a church hymn, which he had un- 
 doubtedly heard his mother sing a great many 
 times as she sat and sewed or busied herself 
 around the room. The little fellow would hum 
 the tune correctly until he came to a high note 
 which he could not reach. His mother, thinking 
 to help him out, would strike the note for him. 
 But this displeased him very much and he would 
 begin at the very first again. Time after time he 
 
22 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 tried it without success, showing that he knew 
 just what the correct note was, but could not get 
 it. Each time he would go back to the beginning 
 with a good deal of patience and perseverance 
 for so young a child. At last, he sang it cor- 
 rectly and showed great pleasure at his success. 
 He had a very accurate ear and when quite a 
 young boy was able to sing a very good second. 
 The Pitkin family were very musical, and Horace's 
 father had a very good tenor voice. Horace W.'s 
 brothers all had very unusual tenor voices, so that 
 it was no wonder that Horace Tracy was so fond 
 of music, and able to sing and play, with so 
 much pleasure to himself and others. 
 
 " Every summer of Horace Tracy's life up to 
 the time of his going to China was spent at the 
 old Yale homestead at New Hartford. When a 
 child, he was sent with his nurse, early in the 
 spring, before his father and mother went. There 
 he lived out of doors, fishing, rowing, sailing, 
 driving — a healthy, active, strong boy. His 
 father's devotion to him (his only son) and his 
 interest in the boy's daily life and his guidance of 
 him (as Horace used to tell me of it) were most 
 beautiful. When he was a young lad, his father 
 bought him a set of tools, not a cheap set, that 
 would be mere toys, but a good set, parts of 
 which Horace still had in China and used fre- 
 quently. His father spent hours teaching him 
 how to use them and took great pleasure in his 
 progress. When about fourteen, he was greatly 
 interested in electricity, and his father allowed 
 him to wire the house with electric bells, teach- 
 ing him how to conceal the wires. All of these 
 things Horace enjoyed keenly. He was taken 
 when but six years old to the Centennial Build- 
 ings and remembered well his intense interest in 
 the machinery in Machinery Hall, and his father's 
 patience in explaining everything to him." 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 23 
 
 A cousin of Horace's, a daughter of the Rev. 
 Charles S. Sherman of Naugatuck, (who had gone 
 as a missionary to Jerusalem, with his friend, 
 Samuel J. Wolcott, D.D., of Cleveland, who was 
 a descendant of Simon Wolcott and Martha Pit- 
 kin), writes of her recollection: 
 
 "It is desirable to know the beginning of a 
 beautiful life. The first time 1 saw Horace was, 
 1 think, in the summer of '74, when with his 
 mother and father and nurse, he visited our 
 home. He was then a noble looking boy of five 
 in kilts. 1 remember he went to church for the 
 first time during this visit and was reported as a 
 
 * good boy.' It was the following three winters, 
 1 think, that I spent in that lovely home in Phila- 
 delphia, distinguished for its charity and devotion, 
 and its sunny atmosphere. Horace's mother was 
 a rare character. The springs of her life were 
 
 * hid with Christ in God.' She was one, who in 
 the smallest details of life made her requests 
 known to God and His peace was hers. De- 
 voted she was, indeed, first to God and then to 
 her family, her large circle of relatives, to her 
 church, and its benevolences. Society too re- 
 ceived her attention. She loved social life, con- 
 versation, study and travel. She believed in 
 being happy where God places one. 
 
 " The father was by inheritance of strong re- 
 ligious nature, 'given to hospitality.' His gen- 
 erosity was unbounded. Giving himself in early 
 life to missionary work among the Cherokee In- 
 dians, he felt later that his call was to support by 
 his means, the work which others were doing. 
 He dearly loved his children and took great de- 
 light in them, especially in the training of his son 
 for useful manhood. He was a good business 
 
24 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 man and prosperous. He had insight. He knew 
 men and loved to hold converse with all sorts 
 and conditions of men, to learn something from 
 them. Besides his duties as elder in the Church, 
 he gave Sunday afternoons to visiting the prisons, 
 giving helpful talks to the prisoners. Later, he 
 was greatly interested in political reform. 
 
 " I remember the morning prayers when all the 
 family joined in singing the hymn, often selected 
 by the children. And each said a verse. Horace's 
 favorite was, 'Study to be quiet and mind your 
 own business,' with emphasis on the latter por- 
 tion of the verse. I remember at the table when 
 the blessing was often sung, * Day by day the 
 manna fell, O to learn that lesson well,' in which 
 he always joined. His life was a song. I have 
 heard that he could sing before he could talk. I 
 recall the racing down-stairs of the children after 
 the New Year's reception was over, to eat up the 
 meringue. I remember Horace's peculiar expres- 
 sion of impatience to his sister, * Stop that, won't 
 you not?' He had quite a quick little temper, 
 over which he came to have splendid control. I 
 do not recall any punishments in the house or 
 need of any. I remember the Centennial and 
 what a keen interest the boy took in Machinery 
 Hall, and the morning hours of study in which 
 Horace learned to read and recite arithmetic 
 tables and several years later visiting in Philadel- 
 phia, when Horace was in the Latin School, his 
 great diligence in study. It was at that time, I 
 think, he had a telephone arrangement between 
 his room and that of a friend on the opposite side 
 of the street. I believe later they had a printing 
 press and got out a weekly paper. I remember 
 the Thanksgiving and other visits to the Connec- 
 ticut home during the Exeter and college days 
 and his jollity then. I rememiber the first time I 
 heard him pray in Christian Endeavor Society. 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 25 
 
 It was an earnest prayer, but stumbling and brief, 
 a cross which he bravely took up. I remember 
 also the last time when he so grandly filled the 
 pulpit and inspired his audience with his own 
 enthusiasm for the work to which God had 
 called him. I shall never forget his exquisite 
 sympathy and trustfulness." 
 
 Two other cousins write: 
 
 "As I remember, he was as a child only re- 
 markable for his excellent musical ear, being able 
 to sing a good second at a very early age. i 
 think his mother helped him; she had a beautiful 
 alto voice and he always sat next to her. He 
 always seemed to me to be perfectly normal and 
 what a child brought up under Christian influ- 
 ence, ought to be. He always liked to go to 
 church. When he was six or seven, he would 
 sit still as a mouse watching the minister, partly 
 to reproduce the minister's gestures, etc., for his 
 own congregation of sisters, dolls and pussy-cats 
 later in the day. He was very fond of fishing 
 and he was often taken to the pond when his 
 father and mine would go with Heber for the 
 day. He was very companionable. 1 do not 
 think that his mechanical bent was ever culti- 
 vated; like all of the family, he was skillful with 
 his hands and ingenious in tinkering old clocks 
 and mending frames or prolonging the life of de- 
 crepit machines. 
 
 "At the age of say six or seven years, a fa- 
 vorite Sunday amusement of his was conducting 
 services with as large a congregation of the 
 younger children as he could assemble. One af- 
 ternoon, he had Francine, Grace, Mary and their 
 nurse, Louise, in one room, while in the adjoin- 
 ing one, Marion, Susie Beadle, Florence and I 
 
26 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 were an unseen audience. After singing, he be- 
 gan his sermon thus: My text is: 'God made 
 everything.' Then the congregation evidently 
 falling short of his ideas as to church etiquette, 
 for his tone of reproof was very decided, ' Grace, 
 people do not stick their legs out in the aisle in 
 church-time.' After the discussion, which this 
 remark caused (for Grace resented the criticism 
 with some warmth) had ceased, he proceeded 
 with his sermon, ' My hearers, do you see the 
 blue sky above us ? God made the sky. Do you 
 see the beautiful green grass ? God made the 
 grass. Do you see those trees ? God made those 
 trees. Do you see that stone-wall beyond them ? 
 God made — no He didn't either, Ben made it; I 
 saw him myself.' This final peroration was too 
 much for his unseen audience and we withdrew, 
 lest our levity should hurt the feelings of preacher 
 and congregation, so we did not hear the end of 
 the services." 
 
 There is one innocent reminiscence of the boy's 
 experience at the Centennial Exposition in 1876: 
 
 " Horace's only remembrance, I think, of the 
 Centennial was his being lost in the crowd. He 
 was found crying bitterly but was able to give 
 his address, 1824 DeLancey Place, and was 
 brought home about five o'clock in the afternoon, 
 before his mother and I knew that he had been 
 lost. A policeman brought him home. Uncle 
 John (Yale) and his wife had taken Horace with 
 them. They had been there all day. They set 
 Horace down and told him not to' go away till 
 they came for him. They were away less than 
 ten minutes and to their consternation, he was 
 not where they had seated him. He became 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 27 
 
 frightened and wandered off; thought they were 
 not coming back for him." 
 
 Something has been said of his mechanical in- 
 genuity. He and another boy set up a telephone 
 system between their homes on DeLancey Place 
 and Spruce Street. They also printed, when he 
 was twelve years old, a newspaper, copies of 
 which Horace had with him in China. *' I recall," 
 writes one, ' ' his putting up in his father's bedroom, 
 a contrivance, by means of pulleys on the ceiling, 
 by which his father could unlock his door at a 
 certain hour in the morning, without getting out 
 of bed. This scheme was a surprise to his father 
 and pleased him very much. His education was 
 first through a nursery governess, later tutors and 
 Latm School and later still, Exeter where he pre- 
 pared for Yale. He was a good student and loved 
 to know things and was interested in everything. 
 He was very intense in everything he did and 
 used to work hard at his books. Another thing 
 which I recall was the father's gift of twenty-five 
 dollars at Christmas time to each child, with the 
 understanding that one-half of it was to be spent 
 for charitable purposes, thus early training them 
 into the joy and privilege of helping others and 
 of giving of their own." 
 
 So he lived his simple, sincere life in earnest- 
 ness and joy. "He had a healthy, happy boy- 
 hood," writes his aunt, **like most boys, there 
 was nothing remarkable. He was a straightfor- 
 ward, nice boy." ** Horace's boyhood was like 
 
28 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 that of many other boys," says Mr. Ellsworth, 
 President of the Cm/z/rv Company, **and there 
 was nothing about it which we can recall which 
 showed any special tendency, except that he was 
 always a good boy." And President Eliot writes, 
 "We retain only the general impression of his 
 sweet and sincere character and manner when a 
 boy." His father's business partner remembers 
 him as **a retiring child in his contact with older 
 people, so that," as he adds, "I saw but little of 
 him — in fact, he was so devoted to his mother 
 that he was not very much seen except in her 
 company until the time arrived for leaving home 
 for school, and after that, I saw him very in- 
 frequently. After his father's death, I saw more 
 of him and it goes without saying that I became 
 very much attached to him and grew to have a 
 high admiration for his sterling character and 
 manly ways, always modest and unassuming, but 
 plainly displaying the quiet and sterling charac- 
 teristics of his mother, who was, I think, one of 
 the most devoted and lovely women I have ever 
 known." 
 
 A fuller account of Horace's character as a boy, 
 running on however into his later life, is furnished 
 by his cousin the Rev. Heber H. Beadle of Bridge- 
 ton, New Jersey. Mr. Beadle's father, the Rev. 
 Elias R. Beadle, was a missionary to the Druses 
 in Syria from 1839 to 1842. War among the 
 Druses made work impossible, and he returned 
 to America and was for many years a Presbyterian 
 pastor first in Hartford and afterwards in Phila* 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 29 
 
 delphia. His home in Hartford constantly had 
 missionary guests in it and as Mr. Heber Bea- 
 dle's account indicates, it was some word of 
 his father's that led Horace into the deeper pur- 
 poses of his life: 
 
 '* From childhood, Horace was gifted with rare 
 graces and, without effort, he won the love of all 
 with whom he came into contact. As a boy, he 
 respected himself and seemed to know, instinc- 
 tively, what was right to do and knowing it, he 
 did it. I do not remember that in all of his boy- 
 hood he ever did anything that gained for him 
 serious rebuke, and yet he was a boy all over, just 
 like others, full to overflowing with appreciation 
 of fun and humor which made him the pleasant 
 companion he always was. He hated meanness 
 and everything that was underhanded and could 
 not understand how any one else could be mean. 
 He was apt to think that every one was as true 
 and open as himself. 
 
 *' He never was what could be called an intense 
 student. He did not love books for books' sake; 
 he never applied himself to learning because it 
 was a delight to him, but both as boy and man, 
 if there was anything that ought to be learned or 
 that he ought to learn, he set himself to work 
 with diligence and mastered it, but he was glad 
 when the task was done. 
 
 " He was a young man of strong convictions, 
 but very gentle in urging them upon others, win- 
 ning his way to the end he desired by quiet per- 
 sistence. 
 
 *'ltwas his ambition to take up for his life 
 work, the study of electricity and its application 
 to the needs of the times. He might have made 
 a great success of it, for he had an unusual apti- 
 
30 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 tude in that direction. Some words spoken to him 
 by his uncle, the Rev. Eiias R. Beadle, turned his 
 thoughts towards the ministry as being the high- 
 est calling to which any man could dare hope to 
 be called in this life, and it flashed over him that 
 it might be God's will that he should give up his 
 ambition and take up this work in God's service. 
 He gave the matter much thought and after many 
 questionings with himself and much prayer that 
 he might be guided to do just exactly what God 
 wanted of him in the matter, he came to the con- 
 clusion that he must enter the ministry. He, at 
 once, turned away from what had been the am- 
 bition of his life and began to prepare for preach- 
 ing Christ. 
 
 ''While engaged in his work of preparation, 
 some words unconsciously dropped from a cousin, 
 also a minister, turned his thoughts to the foreign 
 field as the place where his future work ought to 
 be laid out. That part of the field which seemed 
 to him the most urgent in its needs was Africa, 
 but he put himself in God's hands and held him- 
 self in readiness to go anywhere in all the world 
 where God wanted him. When the needs of the 
 China field were pressed upon him, he was as 
 willing to go to China as to Africa. 
 
 "It did not matter to him on what spot of the 
 earth God had need of his service, so only he 
 could do God's will and work. 
 
 "Many of his friends were opposed to his giv- 
 ing himself to foreign work and pleaded with 
 him to remain at home, giving many good reasons 
 for their pleas, but he was true to his convictions 
 and though knowing well the opposition and 
 what he was giving up, he kept quietly unmoved 
 in his determination to go. 
 
 " During his summer vacations spent at the old 
 family homestead in New Hartford, Conn., he 
 was accustomed to withdraw himself from the 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 31 
 
 groups of friends who always wanted him, for an 
 hour's study of the Bible and for thought and 
 prayer. The picture of him alone under the great 
 ash with his Bible in hand will be a living mem- 
 ory to us for many a year. 
 
 ** After this hour he would come back to us 
 with shining face and ready for anything required 
 of him, whether for a frolic or work on the farm. 
 He seemed to be always ready heart and will, for 
 any demand made upon him. He did much in 
 the way of driving over the hills of New Hart- 
 ford and arranging for Sabbath afternoon services 
 to be held under the maples or on a neighboring 
 farm, so that the many who never thought to go 
 to church in the valley might be allured to an out- 
 door service. He never tired of this and when he 
 spoke he compelled the attention and interest of 
 old and young as few of us seemed able to 
 do. 
 
 *' He was thoroughly in earnest in all he did, 
 whether it was the singing of a college song to 
 give us pleasure, who never grew weary of hear- 
 ing him, or the cutting out of the worms' nests 
 from the apple trees in the hot summer days. 
 
 " He was ready for everything, either work or 
 play, and was a thorough life-full boy, but as 
 thorough a Christian at the same time. With all 
 the ambitions and love of life and its pleasures 
 that other young men are born with, he was a 
 Christian in the highest and best sense and every 
 one knew it. 
 
 " Man and boy, he was sans peur et sans re- 
 proche. 
 
 "We, who so loved him, thank God for him, 
 for his glorious life and for his glorious death in 
 defense of helpless women. It was like him, 
 through and through, to give his life for them. 
 He counted it as nothing so long as he was 
 doing God's will, and he knew what he was 
 
32 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 doing was the will of God. We would not have 
 had him do otherwise." 
 
 This sketch of his boyhood character antici- 
 pates, however, the sober development of after 
 years. But there was no rupture in Horace's life. 
 
 " E'en as he trod that day to God so walked he from his birth 
 In simpleness and gentleness and honor and clean mirth." 
 
 When he began to go to school in Philadelphia, 
 he went to the Rugby Latin School. While still 
 in the school, he connected himself with the 
 Junior Department of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association at the Central Building, Chestnut and 
 Fifteenth Streets, where he is remembered as a 
 boy " full of fun and with generous impulses." 
 
 In the autumn of 1884 he entered Phillips Acad- 
 emy at Exeter, New Hampshire. The Rev. 
 George E. Street, pastor of the Phillips Church at 
 Exeter and formerly a member of the congrega- 
 tion of Horace's uncle, Mr. Sherman, at Nauga- 
 tuck, in a sermon preached at a memorial service 
 in Exeter in the fall of 1900, recalled the coming 
 of the boy to Exeter and his pronounced and 
 courageous Christian character. 
 
 ** Horace Tracy Pitkin was a dozen years ago a 
 boy in ' Phillips Exeter ' of high-bred, manly in- 
 stincts, brave and courageous, without thinking 
 of it, — popular in the best sense because he sin- 
 cerely loved his fellow-students and offered them 
 so much to love in his own transparent nature, 
 ready sympathy and winsome personality. One 
 read his character in his clear, open eye, entire 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 33 
 
 frankness of manner with the unconscious stamp 
 of culture and true nobility in his address. His 
 usually radiant face spoke of a happy disposition. 
 At times, he was the gayest of the gay, ready for 
 any innocent mirth or frolic. At other times, his 
 look was serious beyond his years, with an added 
 dreaminess of expression, as if his thoughts had 
 carried him wholly out of himself and his sur- 
 roundings into the realm of the ideal, where 
 every noble dreamer lives sometimes. He was 
 fond of music and a good musician. * A good 
 all round student ' was the rating the principal, 
 Dr. Scott, gave him in my hearing one day. Of 
 too slight a build for heavy athletics, he delighted 
 in tennis, and in it excelled. Possessing large 
 means, he squandered nothing on personal vices, 
 for he had none, while snobbishness was for- 
 eign to him. Our acquaintance began at the 
 opening of the school year in 1885. Glanc- 
 ing down at the new boys in the students' 
 pews in the old Second Church, one eager 
 face met mine, * Horace Pitkin ' I mentally ob- 
 served, meaning the father in Philadelphia 
 and not the boy whose face bore his stamp so 
 vividly. My surmise was correct; he was the 
 son of one I had occasionally met in my early 
 manhood while he was on visits to his brother- 
 in-law (Rev. Charles S. Sherman, of Naugatuck), 
 my own pastor in Connecticut. My interest in 
 this boy was met with a naturalness and cordial- 
 ity I wish was more ':ommon in boys coming 
 hither in their intercourse with their pastors. A 
 few Sundays later, as I was leaving church, this 
 boy leaned forward from the Students' Bible 
 Class to speak to me. * Would it be possible for 
 him to unite with the church at the communion 
 service that afternoon with those I had announced 
 as about to confess their faith ? ' I replied, ' It 
 was usual to have an examination beforehand by 
 
34 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 the Church Committee.' A shadow passed over 
 his face and he looked down in silence. Draw- 
 ing him apart into a pew by ourselves, 1 soon 
 learned that he had set his heart on beginning his 
 Exeter school life as an avowed Christian. With- 
 out further tests of his discipleship, and calling to 
 mind, as Paul did with Timothy, his pious lineage, 
 the unfeigned faith of his father and his sainted 
 mother, and of his grandfather, Deacon Pitkin, of 
 Manchester, Conn., of blessed memory, 1 felt con- 
 vinced that here was a child of many prayers 
 which have come to fruitage so early. He must 
 come into the church and he must come to-day. 
 " More impressive as to numbers admitted have 
 been other sacramental seasons, but none more 
 so as I think of the subjects themselves. For 
 between two aged men (Alfred Conner and Col. 
 Coggswell Green, seventy-two and seventy-eight 
 years of age) stood up this youth of sixteen to 
 assent to the ancient creed of the Church, and to 
 enter into covenant with it. So was fulfilled that 
 day the prophecy, ' I will pour out of My Spirit 
 and your young men shall see visions and your 
 old men shall dream dreams.' I am so circum- 
 stantial in this account because I deem it the crit- 
 ical period of his Christian experience. Had he 
 in coming to a great school like this, hidden as 
 some do, his light of previous religious convic- 
 tions and training under a bushel, it would have 
 only flickered, even if it did not go out. His was 
 put on a candlestick, and it gave light to all 
 around not only, but far onward over his own 
 great career. He was at once a revelation to me 
 how helpful a young Christian could be in a new 
 place. The Christian Endeavor movement soon 
 started in our church. He came into it as one of 
 its active members, and most heartily. It was a 
 joy to see him enter one of its meetings; not 
 slipping into a back seat, but coming to the front 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 35 
 
 with a nod and smile of greeting, and then mak- 
 ing it his business to see that every one had a 
 hymn book and was well seated. He naturally 
 became the first president. All the Young Peo- 
 ple's Societies of the town were then newly 
 tormed and aggressive. They joined in efforts 
 to banish the then existing saloons, and no pic- 
 ture comes to me more vividly than one of these 
 great gatherings filling a large church, with Pit- 
 kin as Chairman, presiding with the dignity of a 
 senator." 
 
 One of Pitkin's classmates recalled in a letter to 
 a friend after Horace's death, the outlines of his 
 course at Exeter: 
 
 " How very sad it is about Pitkin! It is almost 
 impossible for me to realize that I really shall 
 never more be able to talk with him. The first 
 year I was more intimate with him than any one 
 else, except possibly yourself and Blair. He used 
 to spend most of the time between recitations in 
 old No. 19 Abbott Hall, with H. P. Blair and me. 
 We used to lie on the bed and grind and jolly 
 each other day after day. He gave me a small 
 card photo of himself of that date, 1884, and 1 
 remember him better as he looked then, than at 
 the time of the class picture. 1 used to be noted 
 for my penmanship, you remember, so his print- 
 like vertical writing always filled me with envi- 
 ous admiration. 
 
 " He was long monitor at the Second Congre- 
 gational Church and for three years prominent in 
 Christian Fraternity matters, the senior year being 
 president. . . . His was a very wholesome 
 religious life at Exeter. There was no cant about 
 it. He was jolly as well as good. He seemed to 
 feel that his influence for Christ and the Church 
 
36 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 would be the greater if he were not ultra sancti- 
 monious. 1 feel sure he not only was a better 
 fellow as his course progressed, but that he 
 steadily advanced in popularity among us, his 
 classmates, who certainly at that time were not 
 as a mass especially characterized by our piety. 
 You will perhaps recall that at first we were in- 
 clined to class him with the '87' sanctissimi. 
 Of the Christian Fraternity fellows, I think Pitkin 
 was by far the most generally liked and respected. 
 He was for three years prominent in Golden 
 Branch affairs, the last term succeeding me as 
 President of the Society. Upon graduating, 
 therefore, he was President of the Golden Branch 
 and of the Christian Fraternity and possibly of the 
 Y. P. S. C. E. The only thing that I considered 
 ever reflected upon him was his intimacy with 
 old Scotty, with whom he used often to dine." 
 
 "Scotty" was Principal Scott of the academy 
 and this jocose criticism testifies to the boy's 
 gravity and reality of character in that he was on 
 such terms of respect and self-respect with the 
 head of the school. Indeed the friend to whom 
 these recollections were sent, remembers Pitkin's 
 standing with his teachers as well as with his 
 fellows with satisfaction: 
 
 " He was always an industrious and successful 
 student and throughout the course, stood fre- 
 quently among the first five scholars in his class, 
 and I think was never outside of the first ten. 
 He was one of the earliest men from his class 
 elected into the Golden Branch Literary Society, 
 the oldest established and best known literary 
 society in the academy. He was fond of music 
 — played both the piano and the organ and sang, 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 37 
 
 and for these reasons, as well as for his general 
 activity, he was always depended upon to take 
 a leading part in religious activities of student life. 
 He was never priggish, and had the sincere re- 
 spect and liking of his classmates. 
 
 "He was never particularly active in athletics 
 but played a very fair game of tennis and was 
 devoted to that sport. His rooms were in a 
 private house not far away from the academy 
 yard, and as he was always most hospitable, his 
 rooms were often the gathering place for many 
 of his friends between recitations, especially if 
 his friends lived at some distance. 
 
 "On the whole, his career at Exeter was not 
 brilliant but it was essentially steady and pro- 
 gressive. He made constant advance in develop- 
 ment of his own character and in the esteem of 
 the best men in his class and of the faculty." 
 
 Horace's life at Exeter gave him his first 
 stringent testing and discipline. There he was 
 thrown as he had not been before, with fellows 
 who smoked and drank and some whose talk 
 was not the talk of a gentleman and a Christian. 
 As his classmates have testified, he was no prig 
 and he wanted to go with other men and share 
 their ways. But he drew the line at habits of 
 which he did not approve, which he regarded 
 not as manly but as enslaving and he took his 
 stand good-naturedly but with characteristic 
 decision. He had grown up in cleanness and 
 honor. He simply acted according to his nature. 
 In one of his essays. Dr. Trumbull tells of an old 
 Connecticut farmer whose son was about to seek 
 his fortune in the city. The evening before he was 
 
38 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 to go, the father took him for a last walk and talk 
 over the place where the boy had spent his life. 
 They went over the familiar paths in silence, all 
 the memories of his past education in righteous- 
 ness and purity of soul sweeping in wave after 
 wave over the boy as he walked beside his fa- 
 ther, until at last they returned to the garden gate 
 again. Then the old man turned to his son, laid 
 his hand on his shoulder and said, "John, I have 
 only one thing to say to you. Always do as you 
 have a mind to." The boy needed no more. 
 His only peril lay in doing as others had a mind 
 for him. If he acted according to the integrity 
 and honor of his own mind, schooled under the 
 godly manliness of that old father, he was safe 
 and free. When he entered Exeter, Horace 
 Pitkin had his own mind and he did according to 
 it. Though of course, some sneered at his 
 '* goodness," he abode by his principles and in 
 the respect of right men. 
 
 The Christian Fraternity at Exeter was not 
 popular when Pitkin entered the academy but he 
 had the courage to identify himself with it and 
 to do what he could to make it popular in a right 
 sense and useful and influential in the school. 
 Towards the close of his stay at Exeter, he was 
 one of two delegates sent by the Fraternity to 
 visit the Society of Inquiry at Phillips Academy, 
 Andover. There was a good deal of bad feeling 
 between the two academies. Trouble had 
 arisen over athletics and the school papers were 
 busy scolding one another. The issue of the 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 39 
 
 Phillipian, the Andover paper, for Nov. 2, 1887, 
 which contains a friendly notice of the visit of 
 the delegation from Exeter, has also a two- 
 column editorial, beginning with the sentence: 
 "The Exonian comes up whining as usual after 
 defeat. Never in the history of the two schools 
 has Exeter been able to take defeat gracefully," 
 and closing, '* We feel that we have reached that 
 point where forbearance ceases to be a virtue 
 and if the Exonian wants a few cold facts con- 
 cerning the relative claims of Andover and Exeter 
 men to the title of gentleman, we think we have 
 them at our command and will be pleased to 
 produce them if the controversy is continued." 
 This will suffice to explain the tone of the 
 reference to this visit by an old Andover man, 
 whose acquaintance with Pitkin began at this 
 time and who became one of his classmates at 
 Yale: 
 
 " He was a senior at Exeter, and I a senior at 
 Andover. He was doing foreign missionary 
 work then, for at that time Exeter boys and 
 Andover boys regarded each other with some- 
 thing of the suspicion and hate that Boxer feels 
 for • foreign devils.' Before that time the boys 
 of the two schools came together only in annual 
 athletic contests, and rancor and bitterness were 
 frequently in evidence at these meets. The plan 
 for fellowship between the Christian students of 
 the two schools was receiving its first trial when 
 Pitkin and another member of the Christian 
 Fraternity in the Exeter Academy visited the 
 Andover Academy as guests of our Society of 
 
40 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Inquiry. Well I remember our curiosity. Two 
 live Exeter men who were not * muckers '! We 
 more than half suspected them. Society Hall 
 was crowded. I think all were impressed with 
 Pitkin's earnest, straightforward and simple 
 manliness — I know I was. From that time 
 Pitkin's life and mine have been curiously in- 
 tertwined." 
 
 Pitkin was always grateful for the discipline of 
 Exeter, the strengthening by temptation and op- 
 position and the help of sympathy and the encour- 
 agement of good friends. In 1895, he wrote to 
 the widow of his old Sunday-school teacher at 
 Exeter a note of condolence and appreciation: 
 
 "We were not very studious or patient lads. 
 He always was patient with us. To his influence 
 at that time, I owe much, for he found me at the 
 moulding period of a man's life. Never shall I 
 forget his plea after Mr. Mills's revival that we 
 should become Christians. I think that it was 
 just after that, I did join the church. On all sides 
 at my recent visit, did I hear of what a seemingly 
 irremediable loss his passing on was. God grant 
 another shall have his mantle fall upon him. Yet 
 his work — how much grander and more compre- 
 hensive must it be now with the Father than it 
 could be with us, for how otherwise could he 
 have been translated! In his going on before, 
 may we take of the influence of that life and 
 press on to follow such Christ-lived lives in our 
 turn— for his influence must not and cannot die." 
 
 Though Horace left Exeter in 1888, he revisited 
 
Ancestry and Boyhood 41 
 
 the place frequently during his college and semi- 
 nary course to deepen the Christian life of the 
 school and to kindle interest in missions. By his 
 life in the academy and by these visits, he left an 
 abiding impression. " Of all the young men 
 who have been under our church care here," 
 said the pastor of the Phillips Church, "I can 
 think of none who has been among us a more 
 beautiful and helpful presence." 
 
II 
 
 AT YALE 
 
 <* DEDICATED 
 To the beloved viemory 
 
 of 
 A Righteous Man 
 
 " Who loved God and truth above all things. 
 A man of untarnished honor — 
 Loyal and chivalrous — gentle and strong — 
 Modest and humble — tender and true — 
 Pitiful to the weak — yearning after the erring — 
 Stern to all forms of wrong and oppression, 
 Yet most stern towards himself — 
 "Who being angry yet sinned not, 
 "Whose highest virtues were known only 
 To his wife, his children, his servants and the poor, 
 "Who lived in the presence of God here. 
 And passing through the grave and gate of death 
 Now liveth unto God forevermore." 
 Dedication of the Life of Charles Kings ley, by his wife. 
 
 In the fall of 1888, Pitkin entered Yale. He 
 threw himself into the joys of his new life, and 
 entered at once actively into the Christian work 
 of the university. At the beginning of his course 
 he became a teacher in the Bethany Mission Sun- 
 day-school, and during his senior year he was 
 superintendent. His successor as superintend- 
 ent, Mr. Charles G. Trumbull, managing editor 
 
 42 
 
At Yale 43 
 
 of The Sunday-School Times, writes of Pitkin's 
 spirit of work in the school, and incidentally 
 brings out his growing positiveness, and even 
 insistence of character and conviction: 
 
 '* I rejoice that I had the privilege of working 
 with him in the Bethany Mission Sunday-school. 
 It was impossible not to be impressed there as 
 elsewhere with what 1 believe were the dominant 
 characteristics of the man, for he seemed a man 
 to me then, and far beyond me in maturity and 
 experience. It was easy to see his steady growth 
 in seriousness and earnestness and intensity in 
 what I believe was his passion for souls, as the 
 college years went on. , , , 
 
 ** He was a skillful worker with others. 1 re- 
 member the genuine, complete surprise that over- 
 came me when he suggested to me one day, 
 towards the close of my junior year— his senior 
 year at Yale, that he would like to see me suc- 
 ceed him as superintendent of the Bethany Mis- 
 sion. After he had once brought the matter 
 before me, however, I then realized for the first 
 time that for months past he had been quietly 
 but persistently ' working me in,' and famihariz- 
 ing me with the duties of the superintendency, 
 yet doing it so tactfully and naturally that I had 
 not suspected his real object until he finally men- 
 tioned it to me. . _, . . 
 
 ** With all his intensity of interest in Christian 
 work, he was a healthy, whole-souled being, 
 throwing himself heartily into whatever he was 
 doing at the time. His laugh was spontaneous 
 and irresistible. At the social gatherings of the 
 Sunday-school or of the teachers by themse ves, 
 he was the centre of merriment and good feehng. 
 There was nothing of the ascetic or hermit about 
 
44 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 him. He was liked by both men and women, 
 and respected by both." 
 
 Others were helped by Pitkin's devotion to his 
 Christian work. A classmate recalls as one of 
 the most impressive experiences of his course, a 
 sight into Pitkin's affection for a Sunday-school 
 class: 
 
 "A little incident which gives me the most 
 vivid recollection of him may be of interest. It 
 was during our last few days at Yale, that I met 
 him one Sunday afternoon on the campus, weep- 
 ing. 'Why, Pit, what's the matter.?'' 'O,' he 
 said, ' I have just been saying good-bye to my 
 
 class of boys at church. We have grown 
 
 so fond of each other that I can't bear to leave 
 them.' To me, in my selfish way, thinking of 
 myself alone, this was a revelation. Here this 
 man had sacrificed his time and energy to those 
 boys, and was weeping because he could not con- 
 tinue to do so. Did he wear an air of ' I'm doing 
 this thing for my reward in this world and the 
 next ' ? No indeed. You knew absolutely with 
 him that the guiding force was to do good from 
 pure love of his fellow-men, and to me, as I said, 
 it was a revelation, a startling proof of the good 
 of Christ's teaching. I know of nothing in all 
 my college course that did me half the good, 
 morally, that meeting Pit that Sunday afternoon 
 did." 
 
 It is significant of Pitkin's capacity for "tying 
 things up " and securing definiteness of purpose 
 that when he became superintendent of the Beth- 
 any school, there appears in the secretary's re- 
 port of the school for '91 and '92, in Pitkin's 
 
At Yale 45 
 
 handwriting, the following sentence, signed by 
 all the officers, no such entry appearing before: 
 
 "We, the undersigned officers and teachers 
 of Bethany Sabbath-school Society, hereby ex- 
 press our desire to support and further the inter- 
 ests of the school during the ensuing year to the 
 best of our ability, according to the- constitution 
 adopted June 27, 1863, and the amendments to 
 the same adopted October, 1887." 
 
 In addition to his work in the Bethany Sunday- 
 school, he was interested in the Grand Avenue 
 Mission, some of whose work included the effort 
 to reach ** drunkards and dead beats." "He 
 stands very vividly before me now," writes a 
 Yale man, " as he leads the poor fellows in singing 
 'Throw out the life line,' and I have reason to 
 know that by his earnest, personal efforts, some 
 of the men caught the life line which he flung 
 out to them." A student two years behind him 
 writes : 
 
 "I was always impressed with his great ear- 
 nestness and sincerity in Christian work. In our 
 prayer-meetings, preparatory to our ' little excur- 
 sion ' to that part of the city (Grand Street Mis- 
 sion, New Haven) and on his knees pleading for 
 and with those almost lost men, he showed the 
 same zeal for the Master's work. He was greatly 
 respected by his fellows because they believed 
 his interest was genuine. I recall one instance 
 when we had induced one poor fellow, who had 
 seen better days, to brace up and let liquor alone 
 and try to be a man again. He came on the 
 Campus and Horace kept him in his room a few 
 
46 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 nights on the window seat. Then he gave him 
 five dollars to buy some better clothes with and 
 try for a job." 
 
 Pitkin's roommate, for the latter half of his 
 course, was Mr. D. T. Huntington, now an or- 
 dained missionary of the American Episcopal 
 Church in Ichang, China. Mr. Huntington's rec- 
 ollections touch on Pitkin's Christian work in col- 
 lege, but cover also, sketched with loving discern- 
 ment, his influence and the growth of his char- 
 acter: 
 
 "My roommate left me at the end of the soph- 
 omore year and somewhat to my surprise, Pit- 
 kin asked me to room with him. I felt a little 
 doubt about it, but of all the blessings of my col- 
 lege course, I count my intimacy with him as by 
 far the greatest. 
 
 ** As a student, he was not remarkable, though 
 taking a stand, I think, somewhere in the first 
 quarter of the class. His genius did not lie in 
 that direction, and he was occupied with too 
 many other things. Neither was he an athlete. 
 He was strong and played a good game of ten- 
 nis. Football and baseball and rowing he was 
 moderately fond of and did moderately well. He 
 was fond of sailing and if I remember rightly, 
 learned to swim while he was in college. 
 
 "In music, he was much better. He had a 
 good tenor voice and sang with considerable feel- 
 ing. It was a real pleasure to hear him play on 
 the piano, and many a pleasant time we have had 
 listening to his music, and that of one or two 
 others, in spite of the occasional protests of other 
 men in the entry. 
 
At Yale 47 
 
 *'In the class prayer-meetings, he was one of 
 the organists and a leader in every way. I 
 should say that he was the best speaker among 
 us, for he had a good deal of the orator in him 
 and was on tire with the love of God, and all the 
 men knew that whatever he said, he meant from 
 the bottom of his heart. There was never the 
 least suspicion about his absolute sincerity. 
 
 "Another of his activities was the Bethany 
 Sunday-school, which has for a long time been 
 under the care of Yale students. I was not con- 
 nected with it, so cannot speak of it so well as 
 some others, but I occasionally took a class. 
 Horace was superintendent for two years, and 
 the school improved greatly during that time. 
 In the first place, a thorough canvass was made of 
 the neighborhood to secure some scholars, and 
 as a result the number was about doubled. Then 
 the discipline was considerably improved. Hor- 
 ace was a good disciplinarian, and I don't think 
 small boys liked to have him look at them hard. 
 In the classes the children were, of course, occa- 
 sionally refractory, but when the superintendent 
 was addressing the school, never. 
 
 "A work of which 1 had a more intimate 
 knowledge was the Grand Avenue Mission. 
 There for two years, nearly every Sunday night 
 and sometimes during the week, we went. Sun- 
 day nights, there were Evangelistic services in 
 charge of a classmate, Mr. A. F. Shaw, now a 
 missionary in Brazil. Horace usually played the 
 piano, and often spoke. In the after meetings, 
 he was always trying to show some poor drunk- 
 ard the Saviour. He and the rest of us were 
 taken in more or less by the cheats who frequent 
 such places, but what matter ? I know that some 
 of those men will thank God throughout eternity 
 that Horace Pitkin showed them the way to life. 
 
 " But the rnatter in which he was most inter^ 
 
48 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 ested, and to which he gave the most time and 
 thought outside the reguhir course of studies, was 
 foreign missions. The Yale Volunteer Band 
 was one of the most energetic organizations 
 I have ever known, and Horace was its lead- 
 ing spirit. There were the regular weekly meet- 
 ings for prayer and mission study. In these 
 meetings, which were not large (there were 
 twenty-one men in the band at first, and there 
 must have been an average attendance of fifteen), 
 there was an earnestness and devotion of spirit 
 which I have never seen surpassed. The prayers 
 for all lands were such as were certainly heard on 
 high, and they have left a lasting impression on 
 the minds of many. Mission study courses were 
 not then in existence, but much genuine, syste- 
 matic study was done, and our own zeal was 
 kindled. We were also prepared to give an in- 
 telligent answer to them that asked a reason of 
 the faith that was in us, 
 
 "A Bible training class was carried on con- 
 ducted by two future secretaries of the Volunteer 
 Movement — Keller and Eddy (not then a vol- 
 unteer) — and myself. Of this also Horace was 
 the guiding spirit. Special meetings for prayer 
 were held daily at certain critical times when we 
 poured out our souls for the heathen and for God's 
 servants who would not hear and obey His com- 
 mands. A number of volunteers, several of 
 whom are now among the heathen, resulted from 
 this. 
 
 "Meetings of the Young People's societies in 
 and near New Haven, were addressed by mem- 
 bers of the band. Horace originated and directed 
 this work, and was always the best speaker. 
 But I recall even more distinctly than these other 
 meetings, the meetings of the executive com- 
 mittee of three. These meetings were nearly al- 
 ways held in our room, and although I was not a 
 
At Yale 49 
 
 member, they gave me the privilege of sitting on 
 the committee, which privilege I frequently exer- 
 cised. 1 can see Billy Leverett and Billy Beard, 
 sitting on the window seat, while Horace and I 
 were contented with chairs. There we worked 
 out plans for band meetings and appointed lead- 
 ers, and made plans for the Bible Class and ar- 
 rangements for Young People's meetings and 
 talked over and prayed over men who were likely 
 to volunteer, and volunteers who were getting 
 cold. There humor and pathos and love and zeal 
 all shone out as nowhere else. 
 
 "And I must not forget Northfield. How we 
 planned and worked for those Northfield meet- 
 ings! And when we were there the fun and 
 the work! Everything from swimming in the 
 river and tennis and baseball and Fourth of July 
 celebrations, and a water fight with two young 
 freshmen who dared to disregard our seniority, 
 to the glorious meetings in the Hall or on Round 
 Top, and the little meetings for prayer in private 
 rooms or in the woods, and the personal work 
 for volunteers — all came to him naturally and 
 joyfully. 
 
 " But back of these somewhat vague reminis- 
 cences stands out a man whom I cannot draw — 
 straight, strong, with a clear eye and sensitive 
 mouth, whether in fun or in earnest, always 
 doing with his might what he had found to do. 
 Perhaps that was his most striking characteristic. 
 He was no faultless saint. I have known more 
 gentle, more lovable men, greater scholars, 
 deeper thinkers, but never have I known any one 
 with such power of translating faith into action. 
 With him to believe, was to do. The half be- 
 lief and quarter action which one sees and feels 
 daily were impossible for him. I do not think 
 he saw the way with as grand a vision as some 
 ipen, but none followed it more closely. There 
 
50 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 was a lack of shading in his character, especially 
 in his college days. We kept up a more or less 
 regular correspondence throughout his life, but 
 from 1895, when I sailed for China, I did not see 
 him again, until 1899, when 1 spent two weeks 
 with him and his wife and little son — one of the 
 finest boys that ever was and much what his fa- 
 ther must have been at his age. The shading 
 was beginning to appear. None of the strength 
 was gone, but there was a delicacy there which 
 had not always been his. If a man lives in ac- 
 cordance with his faith, it is only a question of 
 time when God will mold him into perfect like- 
 ness with Himself. 
 
 "Then came that awful summer of 1900 and 
 'he departed to be with Christ, which is far 
 better,' not the least among the many heroes 
 who laid down their lives for Christ and for 
 China." 
 
 These Northfield Conferences which have been 
 referred to, exerted a great influence on Pitkin's 
 life. He went as a freshman to the State Con- 
 vention of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciations and in the vacation at the end of 
 the freshman year, he went with the Yale 
 delegation to Northfield to attend the Stu- 
 dents' Conference held there at Mr. Moody's 
 invitation, to which from all the colleges in the 
 Eastern States, five hundred of the best men came 
 up for the study of the Bible, for athletic sports 
 and for an honest consideration of their duty to 
 live for others and to serve the world. 
 
 Almost every summer, thereafter, Pitkin at- 
 tended these Conferences. It was at the first 
 
At Yale 51 
 
 one he attended that his missionary purpose took 
 final shape, and expressed itself in his acceptance 
 of the declaration of the Student Volunteer 
 Movement, which at that time read: "I am 
 willing and desirous, God permitting, to be a 
 foreign missionary." How he came to take this 
 step, he explained later in an article which he 
 wrote for the Student Volunteer of February, 
 1896: 
 
 *'0n Round Top, at the Northfield Summer 
 School of 1889, I signed the declaration. For 
 two years a vague idea had possessed me that I 
 might possibly become a missionary. I had 
 learned much of the Volunteer Movement during 
 the Conference, but had not understood the 
 'card' until that evening when, after hearing a 
 careful explanation, I made the decision. Why 
 did I make it.? Simply because I could not see 
 why I shouldn't. The question came, not 'Why 
 purpose to go .? ' but ' Why not purpose to go } ' 
 The presumption is in favor of foreign missions. 
 As I saw nothing that stood in the way of my 
 accepting the challenge, I did accept it, believing 
 that God had used my reasoning powers to that 
 end. 
 
 " I had just finished my freshman year at Yale. 
 Of course at that time, I had no conception of 
 the great advantages of an early decision which 
 confront the student of to-day. My decision 
 meant to me that I had taken the stand and 
 would go if sent, not that I intended to move 
 forward, to equip myself spiritually and Intel- 
 
52 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 lectually, and to go unless the way should be 
 finally blocked. Multiplying my life by aiding 
 others to find the Lord's Will in conclusive 
 thinking, never entered into my head. Of 
 course, objections were to be expected from the 
 family, yet I was not sure but that an early, open 
 decision, and a life consonant with it, could be 
 used mightily in battering down this obstacle. 
 (1 am sure of it now.) So I allowed the months 
 to pass by before giving a hint at home. The 
 state of the Board's finances did not then demand 
 the early decision that it does now. Moreover, 
 my ideas of mission work were very vague and, 
 which was worse, no organization, such as now 
 exists, stood ready with pamphlets, books and 
 study classes to guide and fortify me, a new 
 volunteer. 
 
 **But thanks be unto God, in spite of all this 
 crudeness, He did use the decision so that, in my 
 senior year, Yale had, instead of one volunteer 
 and myself, a band of twenty-four; speaking 
 had been started in Christian Endeavor Societies, 
 and my own life, by prayer and reading, was 
 more true to the purpose which the Father had 
 implanted." 
 
 On returning to college in the autumn, he 
 threw himself with characteristic earnestness 
 into the work of interesting other men in the 
 missionary duty. He became at once active in 
 the work of the ** Volunteer Band" of which 
 Mr. Huntington has spoken and which was a 
 little company of men loyally devoted to the pur- 
 
At Yale 53 
 
 pose of the evangelization of the world. One of 
 Pitkin's classmates, N. C. Whittemore, now a 
 Presbyterian missionary in Syen-Chun, Korea, 
 writes with happy memory of the work of this 
 Band: 
 
 ** One of the strongest ways, if not the strong- 
 est way, in which he impressed me during the 
 eight years 1 knew him in America, was by his 
 spirit of prayer. Some of the pleasantest rec- 
 ollections I have of college are connected with 
 the Band meetings in the semicircular room in 
 Dwight Hall, especially when we met together 
 for prayer. Of these meetings, even in our 
 sophomore year, Pitkin was the heart and soul. 
 There we learned to pray for the work and for 
 one another as we went out to speak in the 
 churches in a way that most of us had never done 
 
 before. 
 
 "Before our Sophomore year (1889-1890) the 
 Volunteer Movement had had practically no ex- 
 istence in New Haven, but from the date of Pit- 
 kin's volunteering, it took on new life and al- 
 though I think not the Band's first leader, he was 
 always the leading spirit in its meetings and 
 work. His energy and enthusiasm caught at 
 Northfield were always an incentive to those of 
 us less on fire for the work, and led us to take up 
 the study of missions and the work of arousing 
 the interest in the churches, much earherthan we 
 otherwise would have done. He was naturally 
 an organizer, and fine executive, which qualities, 
 too-ether with his energy and enthusiasm, made 
 him a splendid leader, and under his lead the 
 Band did a very good work amongst the churches 
 of the vicinity. On these errands, we always 
 went out strong in the strength of the Lord, for 
 if near at hand, we went out direct from prayer- 
 
54 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 meeting, or if at a distance, we knew the Band 
 at New Haven was praying for us about the hour 
 of our meeting. 
 
 " I was with Pitkin too, in New York at Union, 
 but only for two years, as he stayed out a year to 
 travel in the interest of the Volunteer Movement. 
 There too, his indomitable energy and enthusiasm 
 made itself felt at once, and he became a power 
 in the missionary life of the seminary. 
 
 " During our last two years in college, a num- 
 ber of classmates were in the habit of gathering 
 around the old open fire in Tibbit's and my 
 room in the old Brick Row, of a Sunday evening, 
 and on those occasions, I remember he was 
 always especially welcome, for with all his se- 
 rious earnestness for the work, he was a bright, 
 genial companion, full of life and fun." 
 
 Another Yale man, who went out as a mission- 
 ary to India, and who was in the Yale Divinity 
 School during the latter part of Pitkin's college 
 course, writes: 
 
 " My first acquaintance with Pitkin was at the 
 time that the Student Volunteer Band was formed 
 at Yale in 1889. We soon found that he was one 
 of the most earnest and enthusiastic of our num- 
 ber. 1 remember especially the boyish simplicity 
 and directness of his prayers. Those little mis- 
 sion band meetings in the ' Semicircular Room ' 
 at Dwight Hall are among the brightest memories 
 of my life at Yale. Later, when 1 was in the 
 Divinity School, the mission bands had union 
 meetings, and Pitkin entered into them with the 
 same hearty earnestness and zeal which char- 
 acterized him elsewhere. It was there that he 
 first became acquainted with G. H. Ewing, with 
 whom he was afterwards associated, at Paoting- 
 
At Yale S5 
 
 fu. I believe that his joyous, consecrated life 
 quickened the missionary spirit of the theological 
 students. His religion was of the robust, hearty, 
 healthy, joyous and natural kind; the variety 
 which has the most influence on young men. 1 
 believe that all of us who knew Pitkin are better 
 men for it, and the news of his martyrdom in 
 China has increased our devotion to the cause to 
 which he gave his life so that * he being dead, yet 
 speaketh.' " 
 
 Among those who felt the influence of Pitkin 
 in the Band, was one now a Presbyterian mis- 
 sionary in Hwai Yuen, China, the Rev. E. C. 
 Lobenstine, who writes: 
 
 "As I had made up my mind long before I 
 entered college to be a missionary, I naturally on 
 hearing that there was such a thing as the S. V. 
 M. in existence, and that the volunteers were 
 meeting weekly in Dwight Hall, sought them out, 
 and my first recollections of Horace are as leader 
 of that Band. There were fifteen or twenty, 
 most of them seniors, and Horace was the centre 
 and soul of the group. His deep earnestness and 
 whole souled devotion to the great cause to which 
 he had given his life, impressed me powerfully. 
 I had never before met a young man whose con- 
 secration to the work of the Master was so entire. 
 He did not work for Christ and the heathen from 
 any sense of duty, but because he loved to. 
 Whatever the struggle through which he passed, 
 when he made his decision to be a missionary, 
 and it was not an easy one, he had passed out of 
 it into that fullness of joy that comes from know- 
 ing that one is doing God's will. 
 
 " It all came as a revelation to me of what col- 
 
56 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 lege Christianity could be, and from my first 
 acquaintance with Horace, I was attracted to him. 
 Something of the unbounded admiration and 
 reverence that the average freshman has for the 
 captain of the 'Varsity football team in the fall of 
 freshman year, I had for him; something of the 
 same pride at having him walk across the Cam- 
 pus with me, or invite me to his room. 1 used to 
 watch his life with careful scrutiny, and one little 
 incident from those days has always stuck in my 
 memory. It was then the custom for lady visi- 
 tors who wished to attend our College Chapel, to 
 sit in the back gallery. Whenever any of 
 these were present, the seniors, on rising to sing 
 the opening chant, would turn around in their 
 seats and stand with their backs to the pulpit. 
 From my position in the gallery I could see Hor- 
 ace, and 1 noticed that he did not turn around 
 with the rest, but joined with the choir in the 
 morning song of praise. He sang as though his 
 whole soul was in his voice, and as if therewith 
 he was really praising God. The attitude was 
 characteristic of his entire life. He put his whole 
 heart into his work, and God always seemed very 
 real to him. He lived in the consciousness of the 
 Divine Nearness. It was this that gave the tone 
 to his life. It kept him ever hopeful amid dis- 
 couragements, and never allowed the flame of 
 his enthusiasm to grow dim. During his college 
 life, it made him untiring in his zeal for awaken- 
 ing among his fellow-students a sense of their 
 responsibility to carry the blessings they had re- 
 ceived to the heathen world; and it sent him 
 forth as one of the pioneers in trying to bring a 
 similiar message to the young people of the 
 churches. He early caught the vision of the latent 
 power for missions there was in the great Chris- 
 tian Endeavor movement, and he spared no effort, 
 both among volunteers and among the lead- 
 
At Yale 57 
 
 ers of the Y. P. S. C. E., in bringing the two 
 organizations in closer touch. The past few 
 years have most amply proved the wisdom and 
 value of the work he thus inaugurated, and many 
 a person now looks back to him or to some 
 other volunteer delegate, as the one from whom 
 he first caught the Christ-view of the world." 
 
 Even while in college, as has been suggested, 
 just as more widely later in the seminary, he was 
 active in extending missionary interest among the 
 young people in the churches of the four counties 
 about New Haven. He was also one of the or- 
 ganizers of the Boys' Club, in New Haven, which, 
 during his freshman year, reached a membership 
 of one hundred, and has been handed down since 
 to the charge of each freshman class. 
 
 In February, 1891, he went to the first Student 
 Volunteer Convention in Cleveland, and was one 
 of the assistant secretaries of the Convention. 
 There were eleven delegates from Yale Uni- 
 versity, two of them from the Divinity School. 
 Of these eleven, five went to China, one to India, 
 one to Korea and one to Brazil. 
 
 Another classmate, the Rev. H. W. Luce, and 
 a fellow-missionary in China, though in another 
 province, and in connection with another church, 
 writes of Horace's college life : 
 
 " Immediately on entering college, he identified 
 himself with its religious interests. Not a few men 
 made shipwreck of their college Christian life, or 
 at least made it null and void of power, during 
 
58 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 those four precious college years, just because 
 they waited to see how things ' went ' rehgiously 
 in college, not realizing that the position one 
 takes the first few weeks will, in the majority 
 of cases, determine the religious trend of one's 
 whole college life. Not so Pitkin. He was 
 governed always by the inward principle and life, 
 and he must at once take his stand regardless of 
 any outward condition. Through all his course 
 from first to last, his fellow-students knew where 
 he stood, and all knew that for every Christian 
 service he could be counted on. 
 
 In later years he often spoke of the vagueness of 
 his early ideas regarding missions and of their re- 
 quirements. At first he thought a man need only 
 go for a limited time, and this mainly as a fine 
 preparation for becoming a useful mission pastor 
 at home. Later, when he began to realize the need 
 of the heathen world, he saw it demanded all of a 
 man's life. But it was this very memory that 
 later made him unwearyingly strive to let others 
 know what the claims and demands of the 
 heathen lands were on the lives of the followers 
 of Jesus. 
 
 " There was a period at Yale when the relig- 
 ious meetings about which the religious life cen- 
 tered (and possibly it was true also of the 
 religious life itself), were at a low ebb. But for 
 several years previous to Pitkin's entrance there 
 had been a gradual change until at the time of the 
 entrance of his class it became so honorable and 
 influential a thing to be officially connected with 
 the religious organization of the college, that 
 political methods for the first time entered into 
 the election of the class religious representatives, 
 though this was brought about by men who 
 were never seen at the religious meetings after 
 the elections. Notwithstanding that such a 
 change had taken place, there was little interest 
 
At Yale 59 
 
 in missions, and as little l^nowledge of them. It 
 was Pitkin's liope and prayer that this too might 
 be changed. He began by speaking to those 
 whom he knew best about his hopes and his 
 plans. He tried in every way to get men to go 
 to Northfield; daily he prayed for the men for 
 whom his heart longed, pleading that they might 
 be led to give their lives to God's service in the 
 dark places of the earth. Gradually, some men 
 yielded, other volunteers came in from other col- 
 leges and schools. This encouraged him. Vol- 
 unteer meetings were started. Missions were 
 studied by this little group of men. Frequently, 
 others added themselves to the group, until, at 
 the time of Pitkin's graduation, there were, I 
 think, twenty-four volunteers in Yale. But the 
 work went on and the graduating volunteers con- 
 tinued to pray with those still in college, that 
 even a greater and broader interest in missions 
 might be taken by the college which they loved so 
 much. Gradually, through much prayer, mission- 
 ary meetings were started in the various classes. 
 Yale volunteers returned to address the students 
 and to talk with them personally about the claims 
 of the missions. Finally, the large Sunday even- 
 ing university meeting was thrown open to such 
 a meeting. Missions came to be supported with 
 some liberality, and it might be said that Yale 
 could be counted among the Missionary Colleges. 
 This spirit has continued, and she has sent forth 
 from her midst the ' Yale Band ' ; a group of young 
 Yale students who were remarkably blessed in 
 some of our large cities in arousing a strong and 
 intelligent interest in Young People's Societies, 
 planting dozens of missionary libraries, and sug- 
 gesting many helpful methods of work. Of 
 course many have been at work bringing about 
 this result, but the initial impulse and the begin- 
 nings of the work may be traced to the decision 
 
6o A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 and conviction of Horace Pitkin in the first year 
 of his college course. 
 
 ''While in college, it often happened — perhaps 
 as often as once a week — that we could see him 
 going across the campus just as evening came 
 on; and those who were best acquainted with 
 him knew that he was going out to ' speak on 
 missions.' He firmly believed (and his whole 
 life was but an expression of his belief) that men 
 must give as well as go ; and so, whenever op- 
 portunity offered, he was found speaking, before 
 churches, Sabbath-schools and Young People's 
 Societies. It is believed that in this quiet way 
 during his college course, he was able to turn 
 some four or five thousand dollars into the treas- 
 uries of the Mission Boards; a fine record for any 
 college man; a remarkable one when we con- 
 sider that the development of student work for 
 missions had hardly begun." 
 
 In a somewhat similar vein, another classmate, 
 now at work in India, Mr. G. Sherwood Eddy 
 writes, speaking also of Pitkin's passion for 
 music: 
 
 " Even in freshman year, I remember him as one 
 of the most earnest men in the class. In his secret 
 life, in his daily walk with God, in devotional Bible 
 study, he was perhaps the most consecrated man 
 in the class. It was he, among the two thousand 
 then in the university, who was first ready to hear 
 God's call to the foreign field. The rest of us, I 
 think, were not within calling distance. Each 
 had his own ambitions and plans. He was the 
 first to be ambitious for God and for His King- 
 dom. And, having yielded his own life, he be- 
 came a tireless worker where he was. He did 
 not postpone his life, bijt lived then, Before 
 
At Yale 61 
 
 ever setting foot in China, he had raised up a 
 band of a dozen of the strongest men in Yale 
 (many of them followed him to China); he had 
 aroused missionary interest in Christian Endeavor 
 Societies throughout Connecticut; had raised 
 $5,000 for the Board and had planted the mis- 
 sionary interest so deeply in the religious life and 
 organization of Yale that it has never died out, 
 but even now, after ten years, is deepening, with 
 the promise of yet greater things. When we 
 came to college there was no missionary interest, 
 no volunteers, no missionary meetings and no 
 money given for missions. With Pitkin, the 
 present missionary interest in Yale began. His 
 interest may be farther reaching than that of any 
 man in a decade or more at Yale, for his works 
 have been made manifest that they were wrought 
 in God. Directly or indirectly, we may trace to 
 the influence of his life, or to the movement 
 which he began, the present and what we be- 
 lieve will be the permanent influence of Yale in 
 missions. 
 
 "In his sophomore year at college, his father 
 died. It was a real and deep sorrow in his life 
 and made him feel much alone. He was thrown 
 more than ever on God, and he was drawn into 
 yet closer communion and more complete sur- 
 render. During these days, his deep, sensitive 
 nature seemed to express itself and to find relief 
 in his piano. Not in set pieces but in the greater 
 freedom of improvising he poured out all the 
 sorrow and loneliness and longing of his heart." 
 
 Of his general standing in college Mr. Bronson 
 writes: 
 
 *' He excelled in all, for it was all part of his relig^ 
 ion. As 3 student he was good, missing i\ B, K, 
 
62 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 stand by but a small margin. He wrote fre- 
 quently for the college periodicals, and was an 
 editor of The Yale Courant. In athletics, as a 
 tennis player he excelled, and took an active in- 
 terest in football and rowing. Doubtless had he 
 been somewhat more mature physically in the 
 early part of his course, he would have taken a 
 prominent place in both of those sports. He was 
 physically strong and well developed, increas- 
 ingly so even after leaving college. Like Paul he 
 kept himself in training. His musical ability was 
 a great joy to himself and to his friends.' His 
 room always contained a piano, and many a jolly 
 song and good time did his friends have there. 
 During part of his course he was a member of 
 the University Glee Club. In addition to these 
 other manly traits, a happy buoyant spirit, a 
 sunny face and joyous disposition were always 
 characteristic of him. So proverbial was his suc- 
 cess in overcoming difficulties that a phrase con- 
 taining a very bad pun on his name, but many 
 times found to be true, became current among 
 his friends early in his course: * If anybody kin. 
 Pit-kin.' (He was usually called Pit by his class- 
 mates.)" 
 
 In his freshman year Pitkin began to contribute 
 to The Yale Courant. His first article appeared 
 in December, 1888, and was entitled, "An Episode 
 in High Life." Oddly enough it is a story about 
 the Chinese Emperor, and deals humorously with 
 his power over the lives of his people. '* 'Off 
 with his head,' roared the Emperor." The case 
 laid before the Emperor by his "Chancellor" 
 shows that Pitkin had already become familiar 
 with some idiosyncrasies of the Chinese mind: 
 
At Yale 63 
 
 **Two merchants, having attended a fair in 
 Hangchow, while returning home, found them- 
 selves in a region known to be infested by cut- 
 throats. They finally arrived at an inn, but were 
 refused admission, as men known to be robbers 
 had called for them a little while before; and 
 the proprietor said he was unable to drive them 
 off if they should scent the travellers. 
 
 ** However, he advised them to hasten to the 
 mandarin, who lived a small distance be- 
 yond. 
 
 " They were kindly received by this mandarin, 
 by name Loh. Preparation for resisting an at- 
 tack was made by fixing the gate, so that only 
 one person from outside could come in at a time. 
 
 "At midnight a band of men appeared and 
 demanded admission. It was given. But as a 
 rush was made to get in, one man succeeding at 
 a time was killed; and when three or four lay 
 dead then was the gate shut. 
 
 **The robbers waited some time; but finally 
 knocked and asked where their comrades were. 
 For answer the head of one was thrown over 
 the wall. 
 
 "The robbers seizing this, hastened to the 
 Justice in Hangchow, and accused Loh of attack- 
 ing them. But then Loh himself appeared and 
 told the true state of affairs. 
 
 " However, the Justice ordered both parties to 
 be confined until he could learn the exact state of 
 the case. This the robbers objected to, and 
 asked permission to return to get the bodies of 
 their comrades, or else they might be stolen. 
 
 "This seemed only just to the Justice, and 
 although Loh begged him not to grant it, saying 
 all his household would be murdered, he gave 
 them their liberty. 
 
 "The next day when Loh returned home, 
 since the Justice had found he had been misled, 
 
64 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 he found his whole family ruthlessly murdered, 
 — not a soul escaping. 
 
 " * And now,' ended Wee, 'what shall be done 
 to this recreant Justice?' 
 
 ''The Emperor thought and thought, knitted 
 his brows and unravelled them again, and finally 
 said: 'After due consideration, 1 think — 1 think 
 — he — ought — to — be— beheaded! ' ending with 
 such a jerk and ferocious expression, that Wee 
 could hardly persuade himself to remain long 
 enough to reply, ' Thus shall it be.' 
 
 " Then the Emperor smiled, and looking at his 
 pipe smiled still more, till his spirits rose to the 
 magnitude of his smile, and he began to hum, — 
 an unprecedented catastrophe, — 'beheaded! — be- 
 headed ! and so ' But here he stopped, for he 
 
 realized that the Emperor of China should have 
 nothing to do with the 'Mikado.' 
 
 "Then, laboring under the delusion that he 
 had made a ' merry jest,' he renewed the smiling 
 process, until falling back among the pillows, he 
 soon was lost in slumbers! " 
 
 During his junior and senior years Pitkin was 
 on the editorial board of The Courant, and he 
 contributed in all eleven stories, a descriptive 
 sketch of " A Sunset near the Matterhorn," and a 
 bit of verse: 
 
 " Why call that banjo ' piccolo ' 
 That to the upper scale doth go, 
 Methinks 'tis wrong to call it so ; " 
 Says she ! 
 *• When wrong was right, and all awry 
 They named it, — though it were a lie,— 
 A « piccolo for ♦ pick-a-high ; ' " 
 Says he. 
 
 Two of the stories relate to old negroes who 
 
At Yale 65 
 
 had been in slavery. They are evidently rem- 
 iniscent of that contact with the South and its 
 life which he gained through his father's southern 
 experiences, doubtless related to Horace as a 
 boy. There is a touch of pathetic interest in 
 both of these stories. A chief of police from 
 Ceylon, the Glencoe massacre and bull-fights in 
 Spain figure in two other stories. But, char- 
 acteristically, most of his stories deal with some 
 mechanical contrivance. One tells of a pro- 
 fessor's photographing a class without its knowl- 
 edge, while he had his back turned, catching in 
 the picture a member of the class purloining a 
 copy of the coming examination paper, which 
 he had seen in the professor's desk. Another 
 deals with a proposition to recite by a phono- 
 graph concealed on the person. "A Legend of 
 Zululand " tells a tale of the origin of the boome- 
 rang. Three are western stories, two of them 
 railroad tales. One brings in an ingenious con- 
 trivance for stealing money out of a ticket office 
 money drawer. And the other kills off the 
 villains by means of a pile driver, to the handle 
 of which the hero had been tied with the purpose 
 of having him run over by a railroad train cross- 
 ing a new bridge he had just built. ** E Pluribus 
 Unum" tells of a wife who secured the acquittal 
 of a husband accused of a murder which he had 
 not committed, the dead man having been killed 
 by a live wire which had struck him on the fore- 
 head, but in a way which no one could account 
 for or would believe possible until the ingenious 
 
66 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 wife discovered the secret. They are pleasant, 
 wholesome stories, revealing clearly the me- 
 chanical genius, healthy uprightness of mind, 
 bright wit, and kindly, cheerful hopefulness of 
 their writer. It is not hard to feel in them his 
 cleanness of principle, and his robust independ- 
 ence and integrity of life. 
 
 Pitkin did not regard himself as one of the 
 popular men. How he felt is indicated in a 
 letter from China in 1898, to Mr. Bronson, who 
 had written to him for a letter for the Sexennial 
 Reunion of the class: 
 
 **As for the reunion letter, I have written 
 none, because I have not been able to be assured 
 that missionary letters have a place in such a 
 gathering. It would be a different thing had I 
 been popular in the class; then would a letter be 
 of interest to all. And whatever of mission 
 interest there might be in the letter would be re- 
 ceived in a good spirit for the sake of the man. 
 Trummy could write such a letter. For me to 
 write one, would seem to be dragging mission 
 things in by the hair of the head. So I have not 
 written." 
 
 In this judgment, he did not do himself justice. 
 "It was exceedingly impressive to me to see at 
 our decennial dinner," writes one of his friends 
 of the class dinner in 1902, "the evident love 
 and reverence the men bore towards Pitkin. 
 One of the speakers said that we ought never to 
 meet as a class without paying tribute to the 
 memory of Horace Tracy Pitkin." 
 
At Yale 67 
 
 Probably the tragedy of his death had some- 
 thing to do with this mellow and reverent 
 tenderness of feeling. During his college course, 
 he was altogether too positive and pronounced a 
 character to purchase popularity by the least 
 abatement of principle or conviction. What his 
 position was and how his character affected his 
 relation to men and also much about his habits 
 and ways is set forth in the recollections of Mr. 
 Luce: 
 
 "From the very first entrance into college, he 
 took a firm moral and Christian stand. He never 
 drifted nor followed the crowd as many did, be- 
 cause it was the easiest or most popular thing to 
 do. Conscience was law to him; he was ruled 
 by principles within rather than by outside 
 forces. This was one of the reasons, perhaps 
 the main reason, why he was not widely 
 popular. He and the world were separate and 
 compromise of any form was a thing not to be 
 thought of. This spirit revealed itself in many 
 ways. For instance, it was the custom of an 
 outgoing Board of Editors of the college papers 
 to give a banquet to the incoming Board of 
 Editors. At these and various other banquets, 
 wine was used. Not a few earnest men felt 
 that it was sufficient to go, and manifest their 
 position by having their glasses turned down and 
 thus unfilled; but Pitkin could not look on it in 
 this light and so stayed away altogether. It cost 
 him much to do this as he was able to enter into 
 the other fun, the speeches and the songs, with 
 peculiar zest. But with him, the cost of a thing 
 was never considered in determining what was 
 right and wrong. But even if men did not 
 always agree with him, they always respected 
 
68 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 and honored him for the earnestness of his con- 
 victions and the courage he had to stand by 
 them. He was popular with the few who knew 
 him best, who saw his eagerness to help men, 
 his desire to minister and not to be ministered 
 unto; and who could see that the brusqueness 
 which was sometimes manifest, was only the 
 striving to keep under control his extreme 
 sensitiveness. In addition there was something 
 of loneliness in his nature; that loneliness which 
 causes every man, even the most frank and open 
 natures, to lead a more or less solitary life — but 
 it was much emphasized in Pitkin. We felt it 
 most when at evening time we gathered for a few 
 moments in his room before work began and he 
 would sit down to play at the piano, not from 
 notes, but as his spirit led him. Often at such a 
 time, Pitkin seemed to be far away, alone in an- 
 other world, feeling things and thinking things 
 which he would have been unable to share with 
 another. We always felt that it had grown out 
 of his sorrows connected with the death of his 
 parents and sister, though he never said so and 
 no one would have thought of asking him, or in 
 any way trying to penetrate this reserve place in 
 his nature. If he failed in being popular, it was 
 because of these things — the sternness of his con- 
 victions, the hypersensitiveness which was al- 
 ways his greatest cross, and the reserve in his 
 nature which was not shared by even his nearest 
 friends. I doubt if any one but Jesus ever pene- 
 trated this solitary place." 
 
 Mr. Trumbull, who has been already quoted, 
 writes: 
 
 **I shall never forget one night at Northfield 
 when we were together, and he pleaded with me 
 to enter the foreign missionary field to which he 
 
At Yale 69 
 
 had then pledged himself. The way was not at 
 all clear for me then to pledge myself to the 
 Student Volunteer Movement, and it was soon 
 after that the indications began to point towards 
 my coming into this work in The Sunday-School 
 Times, in which I have been now for ten 
 years. 
 
 "But it was not easy for Pitkin to brook the 
 suggestion that any man as free as I was then 
 from a definite call elsewhere, should not conse- 
 crate himself to the foreign missionary service. 
 I did not like then the intensity with which he 
 brushed aside any reasons that I gave for not 
 pledging myself to that service. But I realize 
 now, as I look back on his life and character and 
 work and death, that it was that very willingness 
 to see but one side of the cause for which he was 
 willing to live and to die, that must have been his 
 source of power. With what fervent earnestness 
 must that young soldier of Christ have pleaded 
 the Gospel to those who needed it in China! 
 The foreign field needs men as intense as Pitkin, 
 and I thank God now that I knew him, and had 
 the privilege of working with him." 
 
 Another classmate writes: 
 
 "In fact one of the chief features of my re- 
 membrance of our class prayer-meetings is of 
 Horace on the front row, often sitting by himself, 
 then standing to deliver his testimony in his own 
 earnest way. Such an one among young men 
 opens himself to criticism. Perhaps it was be- 
 cause of the very earnestness and strong decision 
 of his purpose. Doubtless, too, he felt that in a 
 world of open sin, compromise with evil, half- 
 hearted Christian service, there was need of being 
 out and out in one's influence and profession." 
 
70 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Mr. Eddy writes: 
 
 " He was not popular with the men outside of 
 the religious circle at Yale, for there was no man 
 in the college who took such a decided stand 
 against the worldliness which then pervaded col- 
 lege life, as did Pitkin. On the question of danc- 
 ing, cards, the theatre and similar amusements, 
 he took a stronger stand than any man in college. 
 In the matter of separation from the world, in 
 which American Christian college men are so far 
 behind the Christian men in the British Colleges, 
 he received his teaching directly from God, and, 
 independent of the opinions of men, he stood, if 
 need be, quite alone." 
 
 Still another classmate, the Rev. O. H. Bron- 
 son, writes: 
 
 " Perhaps he cared too little for a certain kind 
 of popularity. I know he was liked. As the 
 secretary of our class told me to-day, ' Everybody 
 liked him.' And everybody who knew him 
 loved him. Many of the strongest and finest 
 men in the class were among that number; and 
 their number grew. They were his true friends. " 
 
 Probably there is nothing contradictory in the 
 varying views of Pitkin's character and his posi- 
 tion in the class. To men of serious purpose and 
 high mindedness, his life appeared attractive and 
 strong. While doubtless with those of diverse 
 tastes and standards of life, he was not what 
 would be called popular, though he commanded 
 their respect and commands it the more now as 
 they look back upon his life and see that he was 
 
At Yale 71 
 
 completing the work and testimony of all the 
 years in the brief time given to him here. 
 
 Other men recall the elements which won for 
 Pitkin the abiding respect and affection of many. 
 Thus one says: 
 
 "I remember Pitkin well, having been a mem- 
 ber of the same eating-club for a large part of the 
 college course. I remember him as singularly 
 direct, cheerful, manly, courageous and positive. 
 He took for his ambition the ambition of St. Paul, 
 to be pleasing to his Heavenly Father. Horace 
 was blessed alike in his perfectly clear and deh- 
 nite conceptions of duty, and in the unflmchmg 
 courage with which he lived up to them. Exact- 
 ing as his ideas of duty were, I never discovered 
 that they engendered the least trace of sombre- 
 ness or gloom. He scarcely felt the 'weary 
 weight of this unintelligible world'; and 1 think 
 it was because of the childlike simplicity that 
 made him perfectly contented and happy in the 
 twofold blessing invoked by Chrysostom: ' In 
 this world, knowledge of Thy truth, and in the 
 world to come, life everlasting.' 
 
 •'Of Pitkin, if of anybody else in the class, it 
 'may be said that he was of the stuff of which 
 heroes are made. 1 do not believe that anybody 
 ever questioned the sincerity and purity of his 
 life. Above all petty antipathies or differences of 
 opinions, if we had any, 1 believe the whole class 
 feels a deep reverence for one who lived and died 
 as he did." 
 
 Another writes: 
 
 " Horace Pitkin, or * Tracy,' roomed just across 
 the hall from me in Lawrence, so that I often 
 heard his voice in the same entry, and listened to 
 
72 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 his playing the piano in his room, besides sharing 
 the same fare at at least three boarding houses 
 during different years of our course. He was a 
 good scholar, a 'good fellow,' interested in va- 
 rious features of college life. But he was pre- 
 eminently a religious man, not a recluse, not a 
 bigot, not a wiseacre, but on the contrary a 
 strong, cheery, heahhy fellow, fond of fun, op- 
 posed to affectation. He had his gibes like 
 others, poked his fun like others. He was pure 
 of speech, pure of habit. Once reference was 
 made to a classmate friend of his who was a 
 Student Volunteer, but who had the habit of 
 smoking. Horace expressed his regret at the 
 habit by saying: * But it's the influence upon his 
 character.' Nobody could attend the religious 
 meetings at Yale without being impressed with 
 Horace Pitkin's presence. His place was always 
 on the front seat and he made it his custom to let 
 his voice be heard for the cause to which he de- 
 voted his life, with manly bearing and earnest 
 words, addressing us as * fellows.' His was a 
 whole-hearted nature. His sincerity was shown 
 once, when, speaking of the cause to which he 
 gave his life, he said to me, *I would die for it.' 
 And how little 1 could comprehend then a Boxer 
 uprising, and his name among those who gained 
 a martyr's crown. And now as I look back I 
 regard Horace Pitkin as one of the most devot- 
 edly consecrated and heroic Christians I have 
 known." 
 
 Another of his classmates, the secretary of the 
 class, declares: 
 
 "The one thing that remains in my memory 
 most distinctly about him is his unfailing geniality 
 and love of good fellowship. He was essentially 
 
At Yale 73 
 
 a sunny tempered man and very fond of sociabil- 
 ity, and I am sure everybody in the class liked 
 him." 
 
 Mr. Luce writes: 
 
 ** There was a large social side to his nature, 
 which was always manifest to those nearest to 
 him, in whose presence he felt no restraint. How 
 he enjoyed a spread in his room, with what mer- 
 riment he would go to the piano and dash off a 
 rollicking humorous song, of which he had a 
 large number at instant command! Innocent 
 larks of every kind and practical jokes were en- 
 tered into with keen boyish interest. If there 
 was sorrow in his heart, it was not so great as to 
 overshadow the joy in his heart, nor his love of 
 fun." 
 
 And one of the men in his class, who as a 
 student at Andover had met him first in the old 
 "Mansion House," writes to confirm this view 
 of Pitkin and of other men's opinion of him: 
 
 " Please remember that Pitkin was not of a sol- 
 emn aspect. No more cheery and hearty greet- 
 ings did I ever receive from my fellows at Yale 
 than when Pitkin met me on the walks with a 
 bright smile and a ' Hello, Tuck, how are you ?' 
 If you were in Northfield in '89 when we dwelt 
 at Hillside cottage, the abode for that year of the 
 Yale delegation, you remember Pitkin in the gen- 
 eral meetings, also at the mission rallies on Round 
 Top, that is now not only hallowed as the resting- 
 place of the mortal remains of our beloved Mr. 
 Moody, but also as the spot from which Pitkin 
 learned to look not only across the Connecticut 
 flowing a few rods away to the beautiful hills 
 
74 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 beyond, but far, far away to the lands to which 
 he gave himself, and from which he looked 
 across the great river to the eternal hills of God 
 whose welcome he has received. 
 
 "At Northfield Pitkin was the life of the meet- 
 ings, and he could be the life of the students' frol- 
 ics — when at ten or eleven o'clock ghost-like fig- 
 ures and pillows went flying through the corridor 
 of our sleeping abode. 
 
 "1 thank God for the precious memories of 
 Northfield, a great chapter in my life. One spe- 
 cial act of personal kindness I must recall. Like 
 many a lad at Yale, I had to work my way. One 
 day my attention was called to an advertisement 
 in the Outlook — Christian Union then — Pitkin 
 had been quietly asking the world to supply me 
 with tutoring for the summer and was paying 
 the bill. Life is richer for having known him." 
 
 The summers of his college course were 
 spent as the summers of earlier years had been, 
 at New Hartford. They were wholesome, hearty 
 vacations in surroundings full of the best influ- 
 ences; the old atmosphere of the famous county 
 and some of the strength of its "age of home- 
 spun " as Bushnell expressed it, bathing and in- 
 terpenetrating him. " lam working very leisurely 
 in the study line," he writes in one vacation, "but 
 hard at exercise." In the vacation of the junior 
 year he writes in one note: 
 
 "Thanks for all the information, and now I 
 want all the names and addresses of the fellows 
 who signed at Northfield. Find out as soon as 
 possible from catalogue, etc., and let me know 
 so as to start a 'round robin.' I am off for 
 
At Yale 75 
 
 Canada on a 'Fresh Air' thing and expect a 
 
 circus." 
 
 The ''Fresh Air thing" was an expedition to 
 Canada with a company of poor children from 
 New York City, sent for an outing to the coun- 
 try. He was anxious to learn who of the Yale 
 delegation had volunteered at Northfield, that is, 
 had signed the declaration of the Student Volun- 
 teer Movement, expressing the purpose to be- 
 come a foreign missionary, so that he might fol- 
 low the men up. What Northfield had been to 
 him, it was to others also— the place where life 
 came to itself and set hard in the will to serve. 
 The spot where this purpose crystallized and 
 found expression became to him, as it is to many 
 students, the dearest spot in the world. To the 
 end, the memory of it never faded as he saw it 
 that evening when he finally made his decision 
 and gave open expression to it: the clump of pine 
 trees on the side of the hill and the little birches 
 on the top; the sun setting red and glorious on 
 the Berkshires; the Connecticut stretching like a 
 sinuous, silver cord up the valley; the lengthening 
 shadows across the new mown fields; the scent 
 of the clover and the green grass and the four 
 hundred men lying on the hillside and thinking 
 of the meaning and use of life, and of the light 
 falling softly on the purpose of it, from the ex- 
 ample of Him who nineteen centuries ago lay on 
 the hills of Galilee; who was among men as one 
 who serves, and who came not to do His own 
 will but the will of His Father who had sent 
 
76 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 him. Horace Pitkin had grown from his infancy 
 to love principle and abide by right and the 
 Northfield influence of reality and openness and 
 whole-heartedness and unselfishness fed all the 
 original purpose of his life, and nourished him 
 into maturity of religious character, and the will 
 to do at once a man's positive work in the 
 world. 
 
 As he left college, the qualities which he pos- 
 sessed were those of a definite and positive per- 
 sonality. "His energy was exhaustless," writes 
 one, ''and his earnestness in his chosen line of 
 work, remarkable." 
 
 Another speaks of his thoughtfulness and con- 
 siderate kindliness. **I recall," says Mr. W. L. 
 Thacher, "the cheerful and thoroughly devoted 
 way that he lived. His friendly unreserved greet- 
 ings made him noticeable. His common sense 
 and persistence and foresight impressed me. Few 
 men have made as much impression upon my life 
 as he did." 
 
 And above all he had learned the meaning and 
 the power of prayer. 
 
Ill 
 
 AT UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 Soul rule thyself. On passion, deed, desire lay thou the laws 
 
 of thy deliberate will 
 Stand at thy chosen post, faith's sentinel. Learn to endure. 
 Thine the reward of those who make living light their lord. 
 Clothed in celestial light, these walk secure, 
 
 Masters, not slaves. — Sy?nonds. 
 
 In one of his letters of the summer of 1892, 
 Pitkin reminds a friend of "our mottoes, old 
 man," referring to two Bible verses he had chosen 
 for the members of the Yale Volunteer Band: 
 
 1 Thess. 5:25, "Brethren, pray for us," and 
 
 2 Cor. 5: 14, " For the love of Christ constraineth 
 us, because we thus judge, that one died for all, 
 therefore all died." In the spirit of these " mot- 
 toes" he entered Union Theological Seminary, 
 New York City, in the fall of the year. 
 
 He laid himself out at once to deepen the mis- 
 sionary spirit in the seminary, with such success 
 that Eddy and Luce, classmates of his at Yale and 
 in the Seminary, both became "Volunteers" and 
 what he called a "mission revival" in a letter to 
 Mr. Bronson, developed. Mr. Bronson was at 
 the time teaching in the Thacher School in Cali- 
 fornia. This explains some of the allusions in 
 the letter: 
 
 77 
 
7 8 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 " I suppose that you have heard from Norman or 
 some one of our doings in these diggings, and so 
 I shall tell you but little. 
 
 " First of all, much obliged for the letter which 
 told me of the chance of Norman's being over- 
 come by the last one of yours, as it enabled me to 
 cheer him up a little with * cheer up, old man, the 
 worst is yet to come,' and that brightened him up 
 considerably. 1 suppose you are having a grand 
 loaf, superintending exams, and such chores, with 
 a day off to ride your pony — or mule, rather 
 . . . pardon me! But I tell you there is no 
 rest for the weary here as yet awhile, for I am 
 way behind in my work at the present time and 
 have no time to be foolmg in writing to you, but 
 I am putting it down as mission work. How- 
 ever, the work this term is not a circumstance to 
 the work last term, for the Hebrew is getting a 
 good deal easier and the other work is mostly in 
 getting hold of lectures and ' sich.' But then you 
 must count in also the mission speeches to be 
 made, yet, since the increase of available force in 
 that line, I have been enabled to put the re- 
 sponsibility off on Luce and Eddy, and so have 
 not made more than fifteen or twenty speeches 
 this year. 
 
 " But have you heard of our mission revival of 
 this term ? it was truly a work of God, and to 
 Him be all the praise and glory! It was simply 
 the fact of a volunteer's dying in our class that 
 brought the fellows together and broke the ice. 
 Of course, his connection with the movement 
 brought the same very prominently before the 
 eyes of the men and the question turned very 
 pertinently on a personal consecration of self to 
 the work. The evening after his death, we held 
 a class prayer-meeting, which was led by Eddy, 
 who had just signed. Of course, he led it in the 
 direction of missions and one and another got up 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 79 
 
 and stated their personal reasons for and against. 
 This broke the ice and every man in the class was 
 approached and talked to as the Master led us, 
 and we had daily prayer-meetings in the room 
 and had a list of men to pray for each day, and 
 at the end of the week we had scratched off' four 
 and they were with us praying for the rest. The 
 movement did not stop there, for the upper 
 classes have felt the stir, and two of the most 
 prominent men in the class are thinking very 
 earnestly about the subject. Besides this, we 
 have had a Foreign Missionary Day, which was 
 given up to papers and addresses on all sorts of 
 subjects, and this created more thought, but now 
 preeminently, the question is not talking to men 
 but praying for men, and so I write this letter as 
 a missionary letter, to get your prayers on the 
 other side of the continent, and just as at New 
 Haven, though separated, we can try to pray 
 together at the same time. We meet right after 
 lunch at half-past one each day! (i Thess. 5:25). 
 
 " If you come to the seminary next year, you 
 will have at least four volunteers to start in with, 
 and God only knows what grand things may be 
 accomplished by taking things in time and not 
 waiting as we did. 
 
 "May the Master be very near you is my 
 prayer. ... Be very strong, study very ear- 
 nestly missions now that you have a chance and 
 be a wondrous man in prayer, for this is the 
 kind of a man the seminary wants and the world 
 needs, and the Volunteer Movement too, and the 
 Master will wonderfully bless your efforts in His 
 cause. This is from my heart! " 
 
 Mr. Luce and Mr. Eddy certify to the leadership 
 of Pitkin in this revival, and to the intense char- 
 acter of his seminary life. Mr. Luce writes in 
 
8o A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 the third person as follows of the seminary 
 course: 
 
 ** The years in the seminary were happy ones. 
 Pitkin, Eddy and Luce were next door neighbors, 
 that is, they had rooms in the seminary closely 
 adjoining. When Luce was in college preparing 
 to enter the law, he always felt that Pitkin was 
 praying that he be led into missionary work. 
 The latter part of senior year, Luce decided to 
 enter the ministry, and the following vacation 
 wrote to Eddy, urging that he join him in going 
 up to the Union Seminary in the fall. Eddy had 
 just left the Y. M. C. A. work and was uncertain 
 what his future course would be. The fall found 
 these three friends and college classmates at 
 Union. There was Pitkin, with his constant 
 purpose and his quiet, steady influence for 
 missions, and to the two others, it seemed as if 
 the time for a frank and careful consideration of 
 the claims of missions on their lives had come. 
 Pitkin was applied to for ' missionary facts and 
 figures that one could absolutely rely on.' Daily, 
 after dinner, the matter was discussed in all its 
 bearings, but it was not in the discussions nor 
 through the facts that light came, but in the quiet 
 of the prayer time where the convictions were 
 born that led to action. In all this, the influence 
 of Pitkin's example had its work, but we always 
 felt his prayers had a greater part. We shall 
 never know the part that his prayers played in all 
 this, nor the greatness of his joy when these two 
 old friends were led to purpose, if God permit, 
 to go to the foreign field. From that day forth, 
 the prayer of the three men was like that of one 
 man. Once each day, and often several tinies a 
 day, we met to pray over the things pertaining to 
 our 'great purpose' as Neesima would have 
 called it. Other volunteers united, and together, 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 8l 
 
 two by two, we would go out to the various 
 churches in New York City and the surrounding 
 towns to speak on missions." 
 
 Mr. Eddy writes: 
 
 " In Union Seminary, his influence was always 
 stronger for missions than any man in the semi- 
 nary. He was busy day and night planning for 
 meetings in the seminary, itself, or the churches 
 in the city. During this time, I was not clear in 
 my own purpose to go to the foreign field. I 
 was interested in missions. 1 hoped to go, and I 
 thought probably I would do so, some day. But 
 while uncertain myself, I saw I was neither in- 
 fluencing other men to go nor working in the 
 churches to arouse interest and solicit funds. 
 But there was Pitkin working night and day, a 
 strong and positive influence for missions among 
 the men in the seminary, and pressing the claims 
 of the heathen before the churches all over the 
 city. It was this contrast between this wide 
 usefulness which was the result of his definite 
 purpose as a signed volunteer (ready to go and 
 crowding every moment full of work till he did 
 go) and my own inactivity and inefficiency from 
 a missionary point of view, which forced me to 
 seek the definite guidance of God. I saw it was 
 not only a future question of some day going to 
 the field, but a present question in that the prep- 
 aration to fit myself for the work and the oppor- 
 tunities for service called then and there for men 
 to * understand what the will of the Lord is,' and 
 to do it. God knew, then why should not I ? 
 Pitkin's life was to me the unanswerable proof 
 that God could guide and an example of the 
 possibilities of service open to any one who 
 knew God's will. 1 remember the night I went 
 up to Pitkin's room and told him I felt I must 
 
82 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 know God's will for my life. After prayer 
 together I went to my own room, and without 
 excitement or very much emotion, I waited 
 quietly and asked God to guide me surely and 
 unmistakably. He did. The simple conviction 
 came that it was His will to go. And from that 
 moment no shadow of a doubt ever came. 
 
 "As it had been with Pitkin, it became a great 
 power to string my life to one great purpose and 
 a motive to intense activity to fulfill it. That 
 week Luce and I decided or rather let God decide 
 for us — and from that time we three planned and 
 praved for the cause that became dearer than life 
 to all. 
 
 ** I remember as we went down for exercise in 
 the old gym. after grinding Hebrew and Greek 
 all day, how the missionary purpose gave zeal 
 even to our exercise and as we did our mile to- 
 gether or had a round or two of boxing, the 
 thought often was ' We must put on muscle for 
 China. We must train for something better than 
 the football game. This will carry the Gospel 
 many a mile.' How little we knew then that 
 for dear old Horace, the strongest of the three, 
 the race would be so short or the martyr crown 
 so near. Short as was his life, I never knew him 
 to waste a moment. A sentence in Mackay's 
 life impressed him much — ' 1 must be more ter- 
 ribly in earnest where I am, knowing that I must 
 so soon go elsewhere.' And more fully, perhaps, 
 than Mackay, before he sailed his own life ful- 
 filled these words. He might have sung even 
 had he never reached China: 'To-morrow do 
 thy worst, for 1 have lived to-day.' 
 
 ''During his first year in Union, his work was 
 chiefly amongst the churches. The second year, 
 Mott asked the three of us to visit the colleges of 
 New England and New York, going out each 
 Saturday and Sunday." 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 83 
 
 While loyally at work winning lives, Pitkin 
 was zealous in increasing the spirit of benefi- 
 cence. He, himself, had fine principles as to 
 giving and he consistently preached them. He 
 had done this in college. Mr. Luce speaks of 
 some instances of this during his college course: 
 
 ** Pitkin was blessed with a goodly share of 
 this world's goods, but he early learned the 
 lesson of Christian stewardship and the blessed- 
 ness of giving rather than receiving was often 
 his. I imagine that few, if any, knew how 
 much money he gave away, as it seemed to be 
 his delight not to let his right hand know what 
 his left hand did. Desiring that a certain student 
 be drawn towards missionary work, he quietly 
 arranges that the class shall add an extra delegate 
 to the Northfield Students' Conference, while he 
 will bear the expense. Another student needs 
 help and an advertisement is inserted in the 
 papers, unknown to the student, seeking a posi- 
 tion for summer vacation work. The little son 
 of the woman with whom he boards is in Buffalo 
 and the mother longs to see him, but there is no 
 money to make possible such a visit. The 
 mother is proud and Pitkin knows that if one of 
 her boarders were to give her the money, it 
 would wound her. But a goodly check is rhade 
 out, sent to a college classmate in Buffalo, and 
 the boy comes home, helped by an unknown 
 hand to enjoy a happy visit with his mother. 
 Little did they think that the man who sat daily 
 at their table, rejoicing in their joy, was the one 
 who had made it all possible." 
 
 And Mr. David McConaughy for thirteen years 
 a representative of the Young Men's Christian 
 
84 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Association in India, who had known Pitkin 
 from his boyhood, testifies to another striking 
 incident of his generosity and faithfulness: 
 
 "After entering Yale and coming under the 
 influence of the Student Volunteer Movement, he 
 caught the spirit of self-sacrifice and with two 
 of his classmates assumed my support as a sub- 
 stitute in India. I thus became linked with him 
 in a living partnership. The knowledge that he 
 and his colleagues at home were denying them- 
 selves in various ways, so as to be able thus to 
 keep their representative at the front, until they 
 could go themselves, was a real inspiration to 
 me." 
 
 What Pitkin's principles were, he set forth in 
 a careful paper, which he read at the Thirteenth 
 Annual Convention of the Inter-Seminary Mis- 
 sionary Alliance which met in Auburn, N. Y., in 
 1892, during his first year in the seminary. It 
 seems worth while to quote this paper in full, 
 both for the light it throws on Pitkin's character 
 and opinion and also for its own sake as an 
 appeal for sincere Christianity in the matter of 
 our relation to our money: 
 
 "Systematic Giving." 
 
 As the time is so short I am unable to treat of 
 this subject in all its phases, and therefore must 
 needs confine myself to one central line of argu- 
 ment, leading to a method of giving which seems 
 to me to be far superior to any other in bringing 
 the giver closer in sympathy with and love to the 
 Master, the first great Giver of all. 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 85 
 
 In this busy, bustling, business world of ours, 
 we are so much engaged with the words, buy, 
 sell and pay that when we come out on the 
 broader plane of the significance of the word 
 give, we seem introduced into a new world of 
 thought, and we must stop in wonder to examine 
 this interesting phenomenon of Christian giving, 
 wholly apart as it is from natural philanthropy 
 moved by pity or natural generosity. 
 
 Let us, therefore, consider the why, what, and 
 how of the subject; that is, 
 
 I. The motive of the giver. 
 II. The gift of self. 
 
 III. The gift of possessions, (a) How much? 
 
 Q?) How.? 
 
 IV. Some practical thoughts as to the collec- 
 
 tion of gifts given. 
 
 I. The motive of the giver. 
 
 We know well the word bargain, and how 
 we treasure for its intrinsic worth that thing 
 gained by the transaction, while the gift, if re- 
 ceived in a true sense, is of a value measured 
 only by the love towards us in the heart of the 
 person giving. And not one whit differently, 
 but with far more scrutiny, yet with how much 
 the greater love, does our Lord and Master, 
 Owner, yet sharer with us, of all things we hold 
 as stewards — does He who is omniscient and 
 omnipotent, look down into and pierce the hid- 
 den recesses of our hearts to find out — what? 
 The quantity or mere price of our gift ? No, no; 
 but the motive, — the motive underlying it all; 
 for 'Mf " the readiness (or willing mind) is there, 
 it is acceptable according as a man hath, not ac- 
 cording as he hath not. 
 
 A glorious thought it is, brothers, that we can 
 
86 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 go forth immediately to preach, first to ourselves, 
 then to others, that the Christian dispensation 
 includes in this phase of giving also the weak 
 and the poor and many ovv^ners of the widow's 
 mite; that a man may be poor in possessions, 
 and yet rich in God's sight, for would a man de- 
 sire greater wealth than God's love? Yet "God 
 loveth a cheerful (willing) giver." God grant, 
 then, that we may be ready to preach every- 
 where the crying need of a motive, — the best 
 and the only, — and forthwith to present that 
 alone matchless one, coming straight from the 
 word of God. 
 
 "For the love of Christ constraineth us." 
 "Give" has ever been the word in our Father's 
 house, and so "He gave His only begotten 
 Son;" and we come under the rule of grace by 
 which "we love Him because He first loved us." 
 So that it is because our hearts burn with the 
 sacrifice on Calvary, not because our ears tingle 
 with the command of Moses to give a tenth; be- 
 cause our desire is to offer thanksgiving and praise, 
 not because the law demands this or that. For 
 these reasons, then, our motive must be "the 
 love of Christ," loving not that we may live, but 
 living that we may love, — ay, loving even to 
 giving up of life. 
 
 With this motive burning fiercely in our 
 breasts, there is no chance of our giving because 
 the next neighbor does, because our father did 
 before us, or because we feel well, or feel 
 ashamed not to; indeed, "God is not mocked." 
 How mean and despicable these ways really 
 seem, and yet for many years many people, 
 Christians too, have so given and probably will 
 so give, unless we do our duty in enforcing the 
 highest of all motives, "Gift for gift, love for 
 love." 
 
 Then our first gift should be, 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 87 
 
 II. The gift of self. 2 Corinthians 8: 5 — 
 " First tliey gave their own selves to the Lord." 
 
 Suppose men say a man is a Christian. Is he 
 so nominally, or has he really, in the deepest, 
 widest, longest sense, given himself to the Lord, 
 — "bought with a price," yet accepted as a gift.^ 
 Press this question home prayerfully to ourselves, 
 and then to others; for surely in this we have 
 the solution of the giving problem, since if the 
 consecrating oil has touched ear, hand, and foot, 
 it must be but a small step from gift of self to 
 
 III. The gift of possessions. 
 (a) How much ? 
 
 "Not as little, but as much, as we can," must 
 be our motto. Remember, we are following our 
 motive, — "Love for Christ." If God gave this 
 unspeakable gift, how are we to do else than 
 give the largest amount of our possessions we 
 possibly can to Him ? I have seen it stated that 
 though we may not be bound rigidly by the 
 Jews' tenth, yet seeing they gave so much under 
 the light they had, we should give much more in 
 proportion to our greater light; that is, the more 
 as Moses is replaced by the Lamb of God, the 
 One whom they for so many years longed to see, 
 but whom we have seen; the more as the veiled 
 face of the glory that excelleth, — just so much 
 the more should our thanksgiving and praise 
 offering be. 
 
 On the one side we hear the subtle argument, 
 "If a man is a Christian, he does not need to be 
 preached to about giving." What a glorious 
 cloak for selfishness! Unfortunately this world 
 and ourselves are not ideal, and unless our walk 
 with God is very close and His Spirit finds our 
 consciences very susceptible to His slightest 
 touch, we do need "first to be taught," as Peter 
 puts it, and then stirred up "by way of remem- 
 brance." 
 
88 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 On the other side, however, how often we 
 hear from speakers of the crying need for money 
 in home, foreign, and city mission work, forced 
 as they are to put this forth, in all the vivid im- 
 agery at their command, as an argument to stir 
 hard hearts of men and soften stiffened wills that 
 may loosen purse strings, too many times hard- 
 knotted about well filled pouches, — whose gold, 
 by the way, does not belong to its seeming own- 
 ers, but to a Somebody else; that is to say, put- 
 ting forth as chief argument for any money at 
 all for anything, that which should be put in sec- 
 ond place as a guide to giving, not a motive, — 
 confounding propulsion with steering to such an 
 extent that men veer to all points of the compass 
 with their money until disgusted with this catch- 
 as-catch-can principle, they finally pocket it 
 again. 
 
 When will we get back to first principles, and 
 take unto ourselves the lesson of giving what we 
 have which Peter teaches in "Silver and gold 
 have I none; but such as I have," and so stir up 
 our friends to earnest giving in His name and for 
 His sake, even though the needs of the field were 
 never to reach their ears or affect their sympa- 
 thies ? We then have settled that just as much 
 as we can possibly spare shall be devoted to 
 God's work, because "the love of Christ con- 
 straineth us." 
 
 {b) How? 
 
 One caution: though we are saved by grace, 
 our minds and hearts, so long averse, perchance, 
 to giving in a truly Christian way, must not be 
 expected forthwith to become obedient to this 
 greatest of graces, but must be schooled until 
 "to give " becomes truly the most joyous part of 
 our worship. To this end must we work, and 
 the scheme which 1 bring forward, if it seems to 
 be the best for accomplishing this result, is the 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 89 
 
 scheme for us to adopt, however much of a 
 struggle it may cost us to break away from any 
 plan long practiced, but fraught with the danger 
 of serving God by the go-as-you-please method. 
 So may we sit at the feet of the Master, each one 
 trying to gain a new light, a new purpose as to 
 His own way of giving, that each one may be 
 assured that if he but follow the Master's desire, 
 as far as he is concerned, money shall not be 
 lacking for His kingdom in time to come. 
 
 How many times have we scanned i Corin- 
 thians 1 5 : 58 and 16 : 2,— it may be superciliously, 
 as something all well enough for the brethren of 
 Corinth to observe, something needful to meet 
 the exigencies of that time; but as for us at the 
 present day, with our entire difference of busi- 
 ness methods, though we may be ''steadfast, 
 unmovable," even ''abounding in the work of 
 the Lord,"—'* What appeal,"' say we, " is this for 
 us, * Upon the first day of the week let every 
 one of you lay by him in store, as God hath 
 prospered him ' ? " 
 
 One man may take up the Bible and prove by 
 proof texts that thus and thus is the correct 
 method of giving; while another points out that 
 with those two golden strands which run from 
 Genesis to Revelation, representing Christ and 
 missions respectively, there runs a third thread, 
 outcropping here and there more or less distinctly, 
 which brings to our eyes God's method for our 
 "giving"; and though a distinct picture of the 
 whole as a completed scheme is impossible, yet 
 proof texts in this or that place may be cited as 
 partial examples, although these texts in large 
 measure must not be taken as direct law for all 
 time. Such a passage is this one of Paul's. This 
 command was not, like some special instructions 
 as regarded customs given to particular churches 
 in such tremendously trying and critical moments 
 
go A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 as we can hardly understand, but it was the 
 method of giving recommended to a body of 
 Christians (the same method as that sent to Ga- 
 latia) who, as far as this phase of their Christian 
 life went, were in exactly the same position as 
 our churches are now, — appealed to in behalf of 
 the poor brethren in all parts of the world, wliom 
 now our mission boards can but meagrely help, 
 for the treasuries are well-nigh empty, — not much 
 meat in the Lord's house for Him to be proved 
 by. So that it were indeed necessary, seeing 
 circumstances fit over circumstances so neatly, 
 that we should take this instruction as a law to 
 ourselves and the Church we represent. 
 
 Men do this, but only partially, for they butcher 
 the text, making it read, " Upon the first day of 
 the week let every one of you lay by him in 
 store," forgetting all about the "as God hath 
 prospered him," which by the way is the more 
 important, as it is the re-echo of God's word, 
 spoken by His holy men, ringing down the ages, 
 and tersely summed up in "Freely ye have re- 
 ceived, freely give." 
 
 As an aside, do we notice Paul adds: "That 
 no collections be made when I come." Could 
 not this be because he wants their whole atten- 
 tion given to learning something new from him, 
 and themselves devoted to imparting it to others, 
 instead of occupying their minds with how much 
 they should begrudge him, even going to the 
 length of compelling him to stop teaching on 
 more important subjects to describe, and thus 
 arouse their sympathies for, the suffering of the 
 brethren in Jerusalem ? And with what far 
 keener zest and earnestness would men to-day go 
 to listen to a story of mission work if they knew 
 no collection was to be asked, — for this would be 
 useless if each were laying by himself in store as 
 God has prospered him, — and thus they would 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 91 
 
 rejoice in God's wonderful manifestations and 
 even decide to lay by a thank offering for very 
 joy at their participation in this work; but for the 
 speaker — what heart-deep pleasure to speak to an 
 audience of that caliber! 
 
 Shall we then make these verses a law unto 
 ourselves ? 
 
 Men practice three ways of giving: 
 
 1. Let us call it the '• hand-in-pocket " way; 
 that is, giving when and as we feel like it. 
 
 2. Systematic giving, literally, — if a cent in 
 youth, a cent in manhood, a cent in old age, 
 regularly, conscientiously, each week. 
 
 3. Systematic giving, broad sense; that is, 
 Christian giving. 
 
 (c7) Systematically, " Upon the first day . . . 
 lay by." 
 
 (b) Proportionately, "As God hath prospered 
 him." 
 
 (c) Administering this as a trust fund. 
 
 It should not require a very far-seeing mind to 
 discover the fallacy of the tlrst way. At each 
 Sunday service or at some urgent appeal we put 
 our hands into our pockets, pull out and select a 
 coin with hardly a thought or prayer, except per- 
 haps a hidden sorrow that it is not as small as we 
 would wish it; for we are not administering our 
 money as a trust fund now, but we allow our 
 selfish natures to have full sweep. You say, 
 " But giving in an impromptu fashion is more of 
 an instinctive thank offering." Is it? Does God 
 consider a gift given with very little thought — 
 except for the moment only — as full of praise to 
 Him as part of a portion of money dedicated to 
 Him with earnest prayer every time our books 
 are balanced and we put aside our proportionate 
 sum. for His fund ? I think not. So the first 
 way does not fulfill our motive, thanks to God 
 for Christ's love. 
 
92 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 "No," says the man with his thousands, "I 
 give systematically. I was taught as a boy to 
 put in the plate five cents a Sunday, and for my 
 father's sake and because I am used to it, 1 do the 
 same now." How would it be with our friend 
 if the thousands he possesses became hundreds 
 or tens or fives ? The same five cents ? I judge 
 not, for men of that stamp have rules that work 
 only one way. But it is wasting time to argue 
 for or against such a system, — dead, machine-like 
 grinding out; no heart, no thanks, no love, no 
 joy, — in fact, no Christianity. So we are shut 
 out from these two ways as unscriptural, com- 
 monly practiced though they may be, and are 
 forced to the last method. 
 
 "Better" is the implacable enemy of "best." 
 Many a soul has, perchance, been lost by choos- 
 ing a better course — better than the "worst" — 
 instead of the best. Many a life work has been 
 partially paralyzed from choosing, maybe from 
 selfishness or because of ignorance, the better 
 rather than the best work, and many a church 
 has been indelibly injured in its labors because of 
 the choice of the better mode of collecting 
 finances (seemingly easier, not easier in the end I 
 believe) rather than the best mode, which springs 
 from a self-denying prayerful giving. We tread 
 dangerous ground. A man is judged according 
 to the light he has, and it behooves us to think 
 carefully as we discuss, finally, systematic giving 
 on Christian lines. 
 
 (a) Systematically, — each week, each month, 
 or any other short period of time, but regularly. 
 There are two reasons for this: 
 
 1. The Bible says so. This much we are sure 
 of, that in every important passage relating to 
 giving to the Lord, regularity and system are in- 
 sisted upon. 
 
 2. It is businesslike. What man ever man- 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 93 
 
 aged his business unsystematically and suc- 
 ceeded ? When will men manage on business 
 principles the Lord's work,— including gifts to 
 Him ? Method brings joy,— a real joy, a glorious 
 satisfaction. A man in love with his business, 
 and thus attending to it carefully, usually suc- 
 ceeds; while one spasmodically attending to his 
 work just as his feelings go, ends m failure, and 
 has but a joyless past to look back upon into the 
 bargain. Of course, the strength of the chain is 
 in its weakest link, and if we are strong in all our 
 links of business in the Lord's work, except that 
 of ** giving," that one will be our hindrance. If 
 we use system in prayer, Bible study, and church 
 work, why not, in ''giving"? For he who 
 keeps indiscriminately the fifth, seventh, or 
 ninth day as his Sabbath soon observes no Sun- 
 day at all. So we must use common sense, 
 which will in due time lead us to systematic 
 giving; but with the guidance of His Spirit, and 
 " In His name," we shall also be led to a propor- 
 tionate, systematic giving. 
 
 {b) Proportionately. Shall we pay a tenth at 
 least, or proportionately to our income above or 
 below ? 
 
 The tithe existed long before the Jewish nation 
 and contemporaneously with it among outside 
 nations, and was claimed by God from Moses 
 some decades before the specific law in regard to 
 its Levitical introduction and use was expressed. 
 So it was adopted and continually referred to, 
 last by Malachi (3: 8-10), and side by side with 
 the Sabbath,— which institution seems to have 
 existed in crude form before the Jewish nation, — 
 without direct abrogation in the New Testament, 
 and it should continue to be a force to-day, while 
 in fact it was observed by the mass of the Chris- 
 tian Church up into the Dark Ages. Is there not 
 reason for keeping this idea now ? But in the 
 
94 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 case of the tithe's use, where does proportion 
 come in ? The tenth is the Lord's by debt, just 
 as any other debt, only this is a debt of love, 
 honoring the Lord with the first fruits. Then if 
 this amount is according to our income de- 
 termined before God in prayer, is it not propor- 
 tionate ? But suppose God prospers us beyond 
 expectation; since we have asked Him to bless 
 us, can we withhold our thanks and praise offer- 
 ing ? But this extra comes under the Jewish 
 category of freewill offerings, and much more 
 tallies with Paul's advice: "As the Lord hath 
 prospered him." " Freely ye have received, freely 
 give." 
 
 But many consider the tithe not binding at the 
 present time; so let us look at six reasons for 
 simply proportionate giving: 
 
 1. It is scriptural. It is the foundation of 
 God's word that gift must be made for gift, at least 
 so far as it is possible for us to do it. 
 
 2. It is recognizing God's hand in our want, 
 moderate living, or comfortable fortune, thus 
 bringing us closer to Him in love, warning us in 
 prosperity, and cheering us in depression. But I 
 believe that if a man gives his proportionate sum, 
 God will take care of the rest, and his income 
 minus the Lord's gift will accomplish more than 
 all if kept for his own use. It is simply faith 
 in God. He requires a seventh of our time, and 
 if we take that seventh away we suffer for it in 
 body, and just so much will we suffer in purse 
 and spiritual blessing by taking away our pro- 
 portion in money. 
 
 3. We give more for a fact. This is the 
 practical side of the question. A seminary man 
 is proverbially "strapped," and yet I am sure he 
 will be convinced that in the past he has been 
 giving far too little, when he comes to reckon it 
 up in the light of proportion. 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 95 
 
 4. Our hearts keep warm from not having to 
 refuse aid; our thought goes out with our treas- 
 ure, and comes into full sympathy with the aided 
 ones, for our heart is not touched as it might be 
 by "I wonder if I really could afford that." 
 Myers says: "There is a difference between 
 throwing money into a collection plate and put- 
 ting money into it. " The thoughtless giver gives, 
 and cares little for its destination; the prayer-con- 
 secrating giver has a decided interest in the use 
 his money is put to. 
 
 5. It keeps the dead hand from having all the 
 giving to do. All honor to those who have left 
 beautiful sums for grand purposes as they have 
 left this world; but a new generation is here, and 
 is it not more well pleasing in His sight to give 
 our share while we are living from day to day, 
 than to leave it all when we cannot possibly take 
 it away ? And besides, we may miss our calcu- 
 lations, and our untold sums slip from our fingers 
 before we depart from this life; and where then 
 will our gifts unto the Lord be ? A man wants 
 the blessing from bringing the tithes into the 
 storehouse to fall on his own head; but if he 
 does not have a chance to wait for it, what good 
 will all his money be to him ? 
 
 6. The settling once for all of a proportionate 
 sum saves wear and tear of deciding each time. 
 Why, we have covenanted with the Lord, and if 
 in a momentary evil hour we might not give as 
 much as as we should in a normal frame of 
 mind, this pledge would keep us strong and tide 
 us over the danger; for I do not think such 
 artificial bulwarks erected with due consideration 
 undermine, but rather strengthen, one's Christian 
 character. But more than all, a deciding on un- 
 biased lines is made possible; for, besides devot- 
 ing our money systematically and proportionately, 
 we must lay it aside as a trust fund. 
 
96 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 (c) Administering the money as a trust fund. 
 
 We pay our proportion regularly into a fund, 
 either in actual cash laid aside in a drawer, or as 
 a book account credited from our income or 
 expense account, — preferably the former; and as 
 we pay out the sums, we duly note them and 
 balance our Lord's books, thus keeping as strict 
 an account with Him as with ourselves. How 
 can we disburse this money in any but a judicial 
 way ? With what a broad and unconfmed gaze 
 may we sweep the horizon of distress and appeals 
 for aid! Gladly we give out what is especially 
 the Lord's, and many a time do we add to this a 
 thank offering. 
 
 This adds the capstone to our system. Brothers 
 in Christ, shall we then decide on a proportion 
 before God as a gift for a gift ? Shall we lay this 
 sum aside systematically ? And finally, shall we 
 disburse this fund as a trust fund in a business, 
 even more, in a prayerful way.? — money thor- 
 oughly consecrated beforehand, and at last 
 cheerfully given, for **God loveth a cheerful 
 giver." 
 
 Pitkin was very active in the work of present- 
 ing missions to churches and young peoples' 
 societies. For the first two years in the seminary, 
 he was at this constantly. Either he or Luce or 
 Eddy was out almost every evening, and some- 
 times all of them were out at the same time. 
 Some felt that he was overdoing it and that his 
 primary work of preparation for his missionary 
 life was neglected. In a note after his death, 
 Professor Palmer, of Yale, whose son and Pitkin 
 were out riding together in April, 1892, when 
 Alfred Palmer fell from his horse dead, from 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 97 
 
 heart failure, speaks of the feehng of disappoint- 
 ment with Pitkin's sacrifice of his studies, but in- 
 terprets it in the light of what happened: 
 
 " In my poor wisdom, I regretted that in his 
 seminary course he so sacrificed the opportunities 
 for solid acquirement and preparation for his 
 missionary work, in journeyings hither and 
 thither to make popular addresses and attend 
 religious gatherings. We can see now that it 
 made less difference than it then appeared to 
 make, in his ultimate usefulness, and that what 
 good he did then was clear gain. Yet 1 should 
 feel the same in regard to another man next year. 
 It is not wise to spend the seed-time of life in the 
 attempt to harvest something. But in the actual 
 plan of his life, which we did not know, doubt- 
 less that more miscellaneous activity had its place 
 and purpose. He was a fine fellow and he died 
 at his post like a man. It is not what we should 
 have chosen for him, but what his Master willed. 
 In the prayer-meeting in which my son and he 
 took part, the evening before my son's death, 
 Alfred first and Pitkin next, alluded to a text 
 which had been read 'Nevertheless, when the 
 Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the 
 earth?' They spoke of their idea of readiness 
 for the Son of Man's coming to every one in his 
 turn. Pitkin at least was ready for the fateful 
 hour and found faithful in it. ' U, si sic 
 omnes! ' " 
 
 It was well that Pitkin did his work without 
 waiting for the future, for the future stopped for 
 him as it began. And even if it had been other- 
 wise, while it is possible to err in the direction in 
 which some felt that he erred, it is better to err 
 
98 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 in that direction than in the other. While men 
 live, let them live without passing fruitless days in 
 the dream of fruitful days in some future time that 
 may never come. There is far more of this 
 among young men than of the intense fervent 
 zeal which burned in Pitkin, as it did in his 
 Master. The lesson of Bonar's hymn was ever 
 with him: 
 
 " Time worketh : 
 
 Let me work too. 
 Time undoeth : 
 
 Let me do, 
 Busy as time, my work I ply 
 Till I rest in the rest of eternity. 
 
 " Sin worketh, 
 
 Let me work too ; 
 Sin undoeth, 
 
 Let me do. 
 Busy as sin my work I ply 
 Till I rest in the rest of eternity. 
 
 " Death worketh. 
 
 Let me work too; 
 Death undoeth, 
 
 Let me do. 
 Busy as death my work I ply 
 Till I rest in the rest of eternity." 
 
 Something told his soul that he must work the 
 works of Him that sent him while it was day for 
 the night was coming when no man could work 
 any more. Mr. Lobenstine, who succeeded him 
 as President of the New York Volunteer Union, 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 99 
 
 remembers the way he made the doing of his 
 Father's will the meat and drink of his life: 
 
 "I followed him as president in the Union and 
 know the prayerful work he put into it and the 
 excellent spirit that prevailed amongst its mem- 
 bers. Here, as elsewhere, he lived for Christ. 
 His work was his all absorbing interest. Zeal 
 for missions consumed his life. His meat and 
 drink seemed to be to work for the heathen 
 world. We used to urge him to go out speaking 
 less and to spend more time over his books, but 
 he was deaf to our arguments. Did he know 
 that for him the night was coming soon, when 
 he must stop work? Probably not. Yet he 
 never doubted that he was led of God in the 
 course he pursued and that by following it, he 
 was doing His work. I was impressed that year 
 at Union — the year after he had travelled — with 
 the large ' back-correspondence ' he carried on, 
 and with the pains he always took to help every 
 one who applied to him or seemed in need of it, 
 though I think it must have been hard for him to 
 do so, as he was not naturally a good corre- 
 spondent, and we, his friends, often thought he 
 treated us badly enough in the letter writing line. 
 It was, however, but another instance of the way 
 he let his service of his Master control his life 
 and take the precedence over all other claims. 
 For myself, I know that I never fared so well 
 hearing from him as the year it must have been 
 hardest for him to find time to write, but that 
 year I was especially in need of his advice for the 
 work at Yale. 
 
 "Sometimes, as I think over his life, it seems 
 as though I knew but one side of it, for our in- 
 tercourse centred so largely about one thing. 
 Yet we have been together, on many different 
 
1 00 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 occasions, in many places. We have tramped and 
 sailed and fished together; we have camped out 
 together; we have visited in each other's homes; 
 we have been together in our recreation as well 
 as our work — still as I remember him on all those 
 happy days together, it seems as though the 
 Master and His service was never long absent 
 from his conversation and never from his mind. 
 It was not a part of his life, it was his life, and it 
 seems to me that his last message was its per- 
 fectly natural end. It was * just like Horace ' to 
 say that then. 
 
 "He did much for me and I have always 
 looked upon his friendship as one of my greatest 
 blessings. It would be hard for me to say how 
 much 1 owe to him; but I know he helped me 
 much and taught me among other things, that a 
 man does not have to wait until he is thoroughly 
 well equipped — until his preparation is completed 
 — before he can begin his life work and be of 
 real service to his fellow-men." 
 
 During his middle year, he and his associates 
 spent a good deal of time working up interest in 
 the Second Quadrennial Convention of the Stu- 
 dent Volunteer Movement held in Detroit, March, 
 1894. One of his characteristic letters to Hunt- 
 ington, who was in the Berkeley Divinity School 
 at Middletown, Conn., indicates his interest and 
 his breezy methods. He is writing in the interest 
 of the Inter-Seminary Alliance as well as of the 
 Volunteer Convention. 
 
 "Dear Trummy: Well how do you do? 
 Haven't heard from you in a dog's age, but I 
 suppose you are grinding harder than you were 
 
At Union Theological Seminary loi 
 
 the other year when your favorite trick was to 
 cut as many recitations as possible without get- 
 ting hauled up and allowed to attend the exami- 
 nations somewhere else. But don't you care, old 
 man, the goose hangs high and we' are all in it! 
 I send you this programme, and won't you see 
 what you can do about it? The seminary has 
 never been represented before and this is the 
 chance of your life. 1 suppose reduced rates may 
 be made, but I am not sure. We are making 
 efforts to get the General in and Scott of Virginia 
 has been tackling them. The Episc. haven't 
 been showing up in the past and now is the time 
 to start them off. 1 think it will be a bully con- 
 vention, such as these conventions are . . . 
 that is, to meet the other seminary men and get 
 a few pointers. But mostly to get together and 
 see each other and keep the seminaries in touch. 
 Then also for the untravelled ones, it is a capital 
 thing for them to see the city. But the thing we 
 want this year is to get as many seminaries to- 
 gether as we possibly can to make this year the 
 high water mark if possible. Of course, the 
 Volunteer Convention comes right after and if 
 you are going to that, why you won't want to 
 come to this, but that will not keep your semi- 
 nary from being represented as that will make it 
 all the better for sending down a substitute, who 
 besides will probably get a better waking up 
 than you would. Post the notice up or do any- 
 thing with it you want and let me know in the 
 sweet bye and bye. Work comes very hard 
 these days and there is a good deal of the out- 
 side speaking. Next term it will be mostly every 
 week among the colleges of New England and 
 New York under the Y. M. C. A. stirring up for 
 the convention at Detroit and for volunteers m 
 general. Eddy and Luce will be at the head of 
 the work and I will work in wherever I can. 
 
102 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 We have made twenty-three speeches thus far 
 this term, and one church gave the foreign board 
 the same evening that we spoke, I905, and so are 
 supporting a missionary. It got into some of the 
 papers and when I was in Philadelphia the other 
 day, they told me they had been reading about 
 the work. We have thus addressed about 4,000 
 people thus far, and this is only the beginning of 
 the winter work. But I suppose you are right in 
 the game also, only you are the lonesome to be 
 called on. 
 
 " Have seen ' Loke ' a number of times, and at 
 Thanksgiving Mac was down and we all took 
 dinner with him. Doug, vaccinated Eddy the 
 other week and he had a sweet time with the 
 taking thereof ... all right now! Exams, 
 come next week and then I fly to Boston. I was 
 at Hartford Thanksgiving and spent the night 
 there, on account of missing the train. 1 was 
 sorry not to know whether you were in town or 
 not, for I would have taken your little bed and 
 put you on the floor, but as it was, I stayed with 
 the Burrs on Main Street. 
 
 "My piano has come down and we have great 
 times in the early evenings getting Hal Tweedy 
 to beat the box ... he can do it some 
 
 tco. There is a man in our class, H , who 
 
 speaks of you once in a while. Pretty decent 
 sort of a chap! Nothing new under the sun has 
 sprung up, and when I see you again, next Feb- 
 ruary, either here or at Detroit, I'll have more to 
 tell. 
 
 " Keep a close grip on the Master in your 
 speaking, old man, and give God the glory right 
 along. That is the hardest lesson I think a man 
 has to learn. 
 
 '* Your wife, 
 
 ** Horace. 
 
At Union Theological Seminary lo^ 
 
 *'I can sign myself that way, seeing as how 
 you are to be a 'celebrate,' and so no future 
 damsel will mind reading this letter if she finds 
 it tucked away somewhere." 
 
 Mr. Tweedy, who was able to "beat the box," 
 recalls the breezy geniality of Pitkin, his at- 
 mosphere of candor and reality, as his dominant 
 qualities : 
 
 " No new stories, no special experiences occur 
 to me, but the truest impression remains of the 
 purest, truest and— if the adjective is rightly in- 
 terpreted—sweetest spirits I have ever known. 
 There was somethig so sunny, so sincere, so sim- 
 ple about him. Our dens were at one end 
 of the seminary hallway; and he was ever 
 bursting into my room with a laugh or a jovial 
 story, or dropping in for a quiet talk and 
 leaving behind him one of those benedictions 
 which drift from a man's soul into a fellow soul. 
 I do not remember ever hearing him say an un- 
 kind word to anybody. I cannot recall any 
 action of his which I felt that I would like to 
 change. There was about him an atmosphere of 
 religious manliness, of devoutness, without sanc- 
 timoniousness, and of piety, without a suspicion 
 of hypocrisy or cant. His was one of those rare 
 natui-es that" seem to have been born expressly to 
 live forth in their simple beauty the good tidings; 
 and somehow, being dead, he yet speaketh." 
 
 His effective work in the seminary and the suc- 
 cess of his work with Luce and Eddy in connec- 
 tion with the Detroit Convention led to his being 
 invited with his two friends to spend the year 
 1894-1895 in the travelling secretaryship of the 
 
104 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Student Volunteer Movement. He accepted this 
 call. It will be best to tell of the work of that 
 year in a separate chapter. At its close, after a 
 summer vacation beginning with Northfield and 
 ending with building a boat, he returned to Union 
 for the senior year. Luce and Eddy going for this 
 last year to Princeton Seminary. This year in 
 the seminary, he gave himself to his seminary 
 work. Invitations to speak came almost daily. 
 He refused practically all and gave himself to 
 study that year with persistence and success. 
 
 All through the seminary course, work had its 
 proper relief in play. Some of the play had its 
 distinctly useful side. Dr. W. S. Bainbridge, 
 who came into contact with Pitkin in the work 
 of the Students' Club in New York, an organiza- 
 tion under the direction of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, designed to furnish a relig- 
 ious centre to the work for students in New York, 
 recalls some of this play that was also work: 
 
 "While he was a student at Union Seminary 
 and 1 was on the staff of the Presbyterian Hos- 
 pital, I got to know a large number of the theo- 
 logical students. One day in the spring, I think 
 it was '94, Pitkin and McGill came to me and 
 asked if it would be possible for them to get 
 a few practical points before they should go to 
 the foreign fields. They said there were several 
 and mentioned Eddy and Luce who were going 
 far away from any physicians and some of them 
 were going to take wives with them, and they 
 felt the need of some information on certain defi- 
 nite subjects. I saw the need as they did, and 
 
At Union Theological Seminary 105 
 
 knowing what the foreign missionary work 
 really is from personal observation, I said I be- 
 lieved it could be arranged. I consulted with Dr. 
 Hayes, and we both agreed to give up for some 
 two months and a half, every free night that we 
 had for these men. The class was formed of Luce, 
 Eddy, Pitkin and McGill. They were given a 
 few books to study and every other evening they 
 would come to the Presbyterian Hospital, see a 
 few practical things in the line of accidents or 
 general medicine in the wards, and then for an 
 hour and a half, recite the lesson given to them 
 at the preceding meeting of the class. The nights 
 that I did not have these students, Dr. Hayes took 
 them. We went over a good deal of ground 
 which would be of practical value, and since 
 then, I have heard from practically all of these 
 noble fellows that they have had some use from 
 what we did together at that time. One evening 
 we came to the subject of poisons. They had all 
 had a good supper and it was a question as to 
 who was to lose the good food, for one of them 
 was to have his stomach washed out. They drew 
 lots and I must confess that it was the first time 
 in my life that I have seen theologues put up a 
 game literally on one of their own number. 
 They fixed it up that it would come to Pitkin, for 
 I was told he had put up some pranks on the 
 others and they thought it was justifiable retri- 
 bution. 
 
 "Pitkin was one of God's noblemen and his 
 memory and life must be to others as it has been 
 to me — an inspiration." 
 
 His seminary course gave Horace three happy 
 and useful years, happy because useful. He was 
 not postponing his life during these years; he 
 was living. He believed that the way he was 
 
io6 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkiii 
 
 distributing his time was in accordance with 
 duty and he had always rested easily in the con- 
 viction that doing the will of God, as Dante says, 
 is tranquillity. 
 
IV 
 
 AMONG THE COLLEGES OF THE WEST 
 
 " I have the lines drawn and the current flowing, and by 
 throwing my weight here now I can count for something. If I 
 make a long break or parenthesis to get strong I shall lose my 
 opportunity. No man is living a life worth living unless he is 
 willing, if need be, to die for somebody or something."— 5a/;«- 
 uel Bowles. 
 
 « I will most gladly spend and be spent out."—- 2 Cor. 12:13. 
 
 " In the summer of 1894," says Mr. D. Willard 
 Lyon, now one of the secretaries of the Young 
 Men's Christian Association in China, but then 
 representing the Theological Seminaries of the 
 United States and Canada on the Executive Com- 
 mittee of the Student Volunteer Movement, " I 
 attended the Students' Summer Conference at 
 Northfield, where I fully expected to see Mr. Pit- 
 kin,for his name was being considered in connec- 
 tion with the travelling secretaryship of the Stu- 
 dent Volunteer Movement. But in some way or 
 other, Mr. Pitkin had gotten an inkling of the fact 
 that his name might be proposed in this connec- 
 tion, so he deliberately stayed away. Before the 
 end of the Conference, it became more and more 
 evident that Mr. Pitkin was one of the men to 
 undertake the work of carrying the missionary 
 
 107 
 
io8 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 message to the colleges. A telegram brought 
 him to Northfield just as the Conference was 
 closing. With the same humility that had kept 
 him away from the Conference, he hesitated to 
 accept the invitation of the Executive Committee, 
 but when once his duty became clear to him, he 
 not only offered to work without any remunera- 
 tion whatever, but generously undertook to bear 
 all his own travelling expenses in addition." 
 
 Not only the work which Pitkin and Eddy and 
 Luce had done in arousing interest in the Detroit 
 Convention but also their work as Christian men 
 in College and as Volunteers since and their per- 
 sonal qualifications, marked them out as the ex- 
 ceptionally prepared men for the travelling Secre- 
 taryship of the Student Volunteer Movement, and 
 they agreed to accept the call. Pitkin spent the 
 summer in prayer and preparation. On August 
 i8th, he wrote from New Hartford to Hunting- 
 ton: 
 
 " 1 hope you will go out to the Episcopal sem- 
 inaries in the fall and stir them up. It may open 
 the way, too, for the secretary who will be up 
 in that region some time in the winter. 
 
 "I don't know whereabouts in China your 
 work will lie. I think that you can count on my 
 being in the region of Peking. I have sent in my 
 application to the American Board in order that 
 if they grant it soon, I can use it in my work dur- 
 ing the winter. Words from a man far enough 
 along to be accepted by a board will come with 
 more force than from a stripling who everybody 
 thinks will never get to the field in the end. 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 109 
 
 "Well I must stop. Pray for us as we for 
 you. 
 
 "Why not revive the old i Thess. 5: 25 ? 
 ** Yours in the grandest work in the world, 
 
 '*H. T. P." 
 
 Sickness prevented his attending a Conference at 
 Lake Mohonk as he had planned. But in October, 
 he began his work as secretary, making his first 
 visit to the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary at 
 Allegheny, Pa., on October 2. During the year, 
 he visited the important institutions in all the 
 states from Ohio to Colorado and from North 
 Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, 
 south to Kansas. Eddy and Luce agree in their 
 judgment as to the character and result of his 
 work. The former writes from India: 
 
 ** The Western colleges which have been the 
 strength of the missionary movement from 
 the beginning, fell to Pitkin. And it was 
 providential. He was able not only to secure 
 more volunteers than any of us, but also 
 to use his gift for organization in the field 
 which then most needed it and could best 
 carry out his methods and suggestions. During 
 the first half of the year, we separated and worked 
 apart. After Christmas, we came together again 
 for the campaigns in Chicago, New York and 
 Philadelphia. In neither of the former were we 
 able to accomplish much when working together. 
 Each was accustomed to his own methods. But 
 in Philadelphia, we prayed for a deeper unity and 
 greater power. On the morning of the last day, 
 I remember hearing the saintly Peter Scott, then 
 just returned from Africa, praying that Pitkin 
 
1 10 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 might be filled with the Spirit before he spoke that 
 night. We were all in need of deeper blessing. 
 I do not know how Pitkin spent the day. He 
 was alone in prayer and so were we. But 1 shall 
 not forget hearing him that night. It was evi- 
 dent that something had happened and that there 
 had been a definite transaction between his soul 
 and God. It was evident that the Spirit of God was 
 upon him by the presence of Jesus Himself in all he 
 said and did. It was a mass meeting of students 
 and though it was already late, he held the entire 
 audience with great power. Nor was the blessing 
 only temporary. From that time on, there was 
 more fruit in his work in the colleges. I remem- 
 ber his showing me a few months afterwards, 
 his note-book in which he had prayed for men 
 by name even in the colleges he had visited be- 
 fore he received this anointing of the Spirit. 
 Man after man had decided and given his life to 
 God and the mission field long after he had left 
 the college, yet as a direct result of his work and 
 prayer. It was a rebuke and a lesson to see the 
 power of his prayer life, in its capacity and wide 
 sympathy as he kept in his grasp his whole ' back 
 track,' and in its definiteness, persistence and 
 faith." 
 
 Mr. Luce writing from China, expressed the 
 same judgment : 
 
 "Pitkin took the field of the middle West, 
 where most of missionary interest had at that 
 time been awakened. Not a little work had 
 been done in creating and organizing the mis- 
 sionary life of the colleges, but it needed strength- 
 ening, unifying and more careful detailed organ- 
 ization. It was for this work that Pitkin was 
 especially fitted. He had a mind for minute 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 1 1 1 
 
 things, for working things out in detail and this 
 power together with his deep prayer life brought 
 to the work in the West, inspiration and increased 
 efficiency. In his letters how often he spoke of 
 praying for the 'back track' as he called the in- 
 stitutions which he had already visited. His 
 faithfulness in praying for that ' back track ' is 
 seen in the large numbers who volunteered after 
 he had left the institutions behind. 
 
 "As to methods of work, the secretaries for 
 the year worked in marked harmony because 
 they had long thought and prayed and talked 
 together about this work. In the matter of se- 
 curing volunteers, it was without doubt the most 
 conservative year up to that time. It was agreed 
 that no person should volunteer while the secre- 
 retary was in the institution, unless that person 
 had previously considered in a personal way the 
 matter of missions as a life-work. This prin- 
 ciple was faithfully adhered to, and we believe 
 with good results. It was estimated that at least 
 half of those who volunteered sent in their dec- 
 laration cards after the secretaries' visits. It was 
 for this * back track ' that Pitkin poured out his 
 heart to God without ceasing, and God heard and 
 answered abundantly." 
 
 From each college he visited, he sent back to 
 the office of the Volunteer Movement a careful 
 report. These reports are full of evidence of his 
 ability and painstaking care in looking after the 
 details of organization and counsel necessary to 
 insure permanency and they are interspersed with 
 shrewd observations and comments. He com- 
 mends a student in a theological school as "a 
 ' common sense piety ' sort of fellow who wiU 
 
1 12 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 make a good man — bound to get to the field 
 through any Board that will send him." He 
 frankly describes the faculty in another theological 
 school as " neutral as regards missions." He re- 
 joices in the fact that in another institution, a 
 certain energetic student would " be out a year — 
 better so, as he did all the work himself and 
 caused discontent. Now all will work together." 
 In a college in Wisconsin, he says the " S. V. M. 
 has a black eye by unworthy volunteers. Out 
 of forty, only two have reached the field." He 
 records his judgment that " only those practically 
 sure of further missionary study should be allowed 
 to sign (the Volunteer declaration). Ignoring 
 this in the past has been disastrous." He points 
 out the men who are leaders and those who are 
 likely to become so to the end that they may be 
 followed up and his reports of volunteers con- 
 tain the names of those who have since completed 
 their preparation and gone out to Korea, Persia, 
 Mexico, Syria and other lands. He was ever 
 careful to promote prayer as well as study and he 
 scattered leaflets on prayer wherever they would 
 do good. From the State University in North 
 Dakota, he reports: "Two 'Secret Prayers' 
 planted with strong suspicions of new prayer 
 life being developed"; from Yankton College, 
 ** Students very poor but one * Prayer set ' planted. 
 Others will follow"; from the South Dakota 
 State University at Vermillion, "Eight 'prayer 
 sets ' planted. . . . Means business. . . . 
 '.Prospects bright as the promises of God.' " From 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 113 
 
 the Nebraska Wesleyan Univfrsity, he writes in 
 the way of advice to the next secretary who may 
 visit the institution, "Push to conclusive think- 
 ing. They will give you enthusiastic turnouts, 
 particularly after-meetings. Use them — expect 
 great things." His advice for the next visitor to 
 the Normal School, Peru, Neb., whose president 
 he pronounced a "fine man" is: 
 
 '* To be broad and show how by facing this 
 question, as the Lord calls most of them to home 
 work, they will then stay to enter teaching as a 
 Christian occupation and try to instill into pupils 
 a practical (very important!) Christianity. There 
 is a tremendous field open for Christian teachers 
 who realize their opportunities in public schools." 
 
 Of the Normal School at Lincoln, he writes: 
 "A grand opening — not for volunteers, perhaps, 
 but for sending Christian teachers to home schools 
 to teach foreign missions." 
 
 Other bits of advice for future visits to insti- 
 tutions, which he had visited, are: 
 
 " Go in hot— all clear field. But don't urge to 
 too hasty decisions. Sow the seed — reap that of 
 last year's sowing. 
 
 "Doctor is head of faculty— but cranky. I 
 rubbed him wrong way. Look out! 
 
 " Urge one thing for Band, /. e., life! 
 
 "Go in and push to limit. There will be re- 
 bound enough. 
 
 " Tie to B , get the facts from him— but do 
 
 your own thinking and conclusions." 
 
 Of a visit in Colorado, he reports: 
 
114 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 " My work spoiled in part by insufficient warn- 
 ing. Ran into Booth, Gunsaulus and minstrel 
 show — so no opportunity except to try for picked 
 up meetings." 
 
 In the reports of the series of meetings which he 
 and Luce and Eddy held in the medical schools in 
 New York City and Philadelphia in January, he 
 calls the Hahnemann Medical College in Phila- 
 delphia, *'the strongest spiritual man's college," 
 noting specially the influence of Peter Scott who 
 led a prayer-meeting every morning with from 
 thirty-five to forty present. Bellevue Medical in 
 New York is pronounced the ''most godless in- 
 stitution in New York City." Of the Volunteer 
 Band in an Eastern theological school, he bluntly 
 reports that it is killed by its chairman, ** fresh 
 and useless." He often refers to "fighting- 
 question-men," that is men who are trying to 
 get away from the appeal of need and the 
 whispers of duty and will not face the issue 
 squarely. From a College in Illinois, he writes: 
 
 ''Meeting led to meeting. It was Washing- 
 ton's Birthday — so time was free. At each meet- 
 ing it was shown volunteering meant business. 
 Two girls their mothers wouldn't let come after 
 the first meeting. The best men and women 
 started thinking deeply. The last meeting was 
 memorable for the presence of Him. The whole 
 work is on a new plane. The literature will be 
 bought and read — a study class will be formed. 
 Prayer will be pursued. The nine and others 
 who met last will pray for each other. A revival 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 1 15 
 
 may be the result. The Y. M. & Y. W. work is 
 very low. Of ninety Christian men, fifty are 
 members of the Y. M. and of fifty Christian girls 
 twenty are members of the Y. W. This mis- 
 sionary interest will bring new life to the work- 
 ers. Oh, God has been good! " 
 
 From another institution in the same state he re- 
 ports: " A revival, of three weeks but not a sign 
 could I see of it." In another college he was 
 eager to get some good men interested. The 
 band was "just a little chumpy set." His last 
 report sent in closes with an appeal to rescue the 
 situation in a certain college in Ohio by prayer. 
 
 In addition to his reports, he wrote constantly 
 to the offices and his letters are marked by his 
 characteristic breeziness. In one, he apologizes 
 for a mistake that had been made: " I am regret- 
 ful—I was not omniscient, but tried to get at the 
 truth. Hurrah for me; I'm always a puttin' my 
 foot in it. . . . Be very patient (I expect 
 only God can give it to you) with me and my 
 mistakes." Again, he writes: ''Please always 
 send to me all cards (signed by Volunteers) sent 
 in from my back track to the office. We have 
 agreed on a system for sizing up the signers and 
 will use the backs of the cards for it." From a 
 college in Iowa, he writes: '* The Lord has been 
 blessing me richly thus far. The hearts of the 
 students have been opened by no power but that 
 from on High. Now I am in the hardest place in 
 the States. Oh, for a fullness! I am confident 
 He will not desert me. You know I have tried 
 
ii6 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Him too many times the last few months to be 
 afraid of His lack — but my lack; well may I be 
 kept weak as weak can be! " In the Dakotas he 
 writes a letter dated "En route — on cattle train. 
 Two miles an hour for Mitchell from Fargo. 
 Nov. 8th or 9th," closing, "Excuse me if I can't 
 write straight English, I am tired." 
 
 During the year, he contributed a number of 
 short articles to The Student Volunteer, the organ 
 of the movement, full of practical suggestions 
 for the better organization of the work. In the 
 "Secretaries' Corner" he says: 
 
 "For effectual work and prayer, a Band re- 
 quires a unity born of complete sympathy among 
 its members. This sympathy often is weakened 
 by unjust criticism resulting from an ignorance 
 and consequent misunderstanding of a fellow- 
 volunteer's motives. Does your Band know 
 itself ? Do all know why any one member lacks 
 time to work for missions or that another is tor- 
 tured by hindrances crowding in to keep him 
 from the field, while both fear being misunder- 
 stood ? Small attendance at the Band meeting 
 often is a symptom of such condition. Try a 
 testimony meeting, every volunteer telling his 
 reason for signing the declaration and his present 
 position. Speak freely, frankly and prayerfully. 
 Make the meeting deeply devotional and pray for 
 each other by name. Arrange lists for daily 
 prayer that definite obstacles be removed and 
 perfect sympathy and unity prevail. Great bless- 
 ing may result." 
 
 Again he urges upon volunteers their responsi- 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 117 
 
 bility for removing any financial impediment to 
 their acceptance by the Mission Boards: 
 
 ** The Volunteer Movement says : ' Recruit the 
 men, money will be forthcoming.' But this does 
 not mean that the money will appear without the 
 utmost exertions of the men. Fellow-volunteers, 
 as a Gideon's band, as men planning to go 
 abroad, if God permit, are we defeatmg the ac- 
 complishment of our aim by expecting Board 
 secretaries and missionary pastors to work their 
 life-blood out to make possible our saihng? The 
 Boards do not send us— Jesus Christ sends through 
 the Board. His money is in the Church. It is 
 not given because of lack of interest, of which 
 ignorance is at the root. Shall we dare to leave 
 school without every young people's society in 
 the vicinity having been educated and fired by 
 our words and by the exertions of missionary 
 committees enthused by our suggestions and the 
 books lent from the college library ? The Church 
 cannot withstand His appeals through us. Go, 
 expecting great and definite things; otherwise, 
 can we say to Him, if refused by the Boards for 
 lack of funds : ' I really planned to go ' ? " 
 
 In the same issue, March, 1895, he presents an 
 elaborate scheme for '' Band Correspondence and 
 Records " with a view to holding for the mis- 
 sionary work all volunteers who have left their 
 institutions. In the issue for May, 1895, he speaks 
 a word for that squareness and frankness which 
 he had always exemplified in himself: 
 
 " We volunteers need special guidance of the 
 Holy Spirit, when approaching our college com- 
 
Ii8 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 mencement. A volunteer has stood for years it 
 may be, as one planning to enter missionary 
 service, should God permit. Perhaps his educa- 
 tion is completed, yet family and financial reasons 
 must temporarily detain him at home. Maybe he 
 has some years still of graduate work on which 
 he cannot immediately enter because of finances. 
 Shall he boldly tell his fellow students his posi- 
 tion ? Here many a volunteer makes a mistake. 
 He simply says nothing and quietly slips away. 
 Silence suggests guilt. From that moment he 
 throws himself open to all manner of unjust 
 criticism, whereby in future years he and the 
 whole movement through him,' may be seriously 
 harmed. How much better, should every grad- 
 uating volunteer state plainly and frankly in one 
 of the final student meetings his present position 
 and future expectations, making full profession 
 of his fixed determination and ambition to enter 
 the foreign field whenever God would permit. 
 Supposing he be seriously hindered, such affirma- 
 tion may be used of God for others in mightily 
 strengthening weak decisions and in leading to 
 new formed purposes. Our last testimony! 
 Shall we not ring it out for His glory, every vol- 
 unteer who graduates this year! " 
 
 In the closing issue of the little magazine for 
 the college year, he urges some special sugges- 
 tions for the summer work of volunteers: 
 
 " I. See that all graduating volunteers give 
 their public testimony before leaving the college. 
 
 "2. Have every volunteer take at least two 
 missionary books from the library for the sum- 
 mer. If necessary, let the Band be responsible 
 to the librarian for their safe return. 
 
 "3. See that a prayer list for the summer is 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 1 19 
 
 made out for the Band, definite requests being 
 attached to each name. This could be done at 
 the last Band meeting. This season is the critical 
 one for many volunteers. Parents must be won 
 over, churches awakened, self conquered. Pray 
 one for another definitely. 
 
 "4. Press missionary speaking on the con- 
 science of each volunteer. Draw a few startling 
 facts from the table in The Student Volunteer, 
 Jan., '95. Burn in the imperative need of using 
 the opportunity of this summer. ' We are to be 
 missionaries now.' Remember: (i) If possi- 
 ble, always speak to introduce some scheme for 
 giving. (2) Keep account of increased gifts to 
 report next fall to the office." 
 
 He was ready to have his own sincerity tested 
 by the practice of his life, especially in the matter 
 of giving and he pressed this as a good test of 
 reality upon others. 
 
 This year in the Student Volunteer Movement 
 was a year of service almost limitless in its influ- 
 ence. In it, Pitkin left an ineffaceable imprint 
 upon scores and hundreds of students from New 
 England to the Rocky Mountains. He revealed 
 higher ideals and he brought more divine power 
 to many young men and women beginning their 
 serious living; and all over the world, at home 
 and abroad, are those who owe to him their 
 chief impulse to the wider service. " I don't think 
 we ever had a guest more zealous for God's serv- 
 ice," writes one in whose house he had been en- 
 tertained. **I can never forget," says another, 
 "the day Mr. Pitkin was at college, the first 
 
1 20 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 winter I was there. He spoke twice and the 
 texts which he used, I marked in my Bible. One 
 was 'The field is the world,' and the other, * As 
 Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so 1 send 
 them into the world.' I remember the first was 
 a very strong missionary appeal and coming from 
 one who was soon to go to the field, it was 
 doubly forceful." 
 
 Mr. H. W. Hicks, Assistant Secretary of the 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions, writes: 
 
 " It was through Mr. Pitkin that I first became 
 interested in foreign missions. It was on a Sun- 
 day night in connection with his visit at Cornell 
 University, somewhere in the neighborhood of 
 1894. He had addressed a meeting at my re- 
 quest, in the Congregational Young People's 
 Society of Christian Endeavor, and after the 
 meeting followed me to my room at about eleven 
 o'clock on the campus. He spent an hour with 
 me, presenting to me the claims of missions. 
 Although 1 did not become a student volunteer at 
 that time, I have always dated my positive inter- 
 est, which has led me to my present place, from 
 the hour of that interview. It is needless to say 
 that I rejoice very greatly over the results of his 
 work, which have raised up so many young men 
 to do the work for which he gave his life." 
 
 The work that Pitkin did was of the greatest 
 value to the Volunteer Movement. In some 
 institutions in the West, mistakes had been made 
 by his predecessors in the secretaryship. These 
 created a prejudice against the Movement, which 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 121 
 
 he had to overcome. In many cases, he did 
 overcome it, and everywhere by his care and 
 patience and progress, he strengthened the influ- 
 ence of the Movement and confirmed its mem- 
 bers. The Rev. Harlan P. Beach, Educational 
 Secretary of the Movement bears strong testi- 
 mony to the will and enduring character of his 
 work: "Perhaps his services," says Mr. Beach, 
 "rank only second among the scores of secre- 
 taries that have served the organization. Both in 
 the colleges and at the summer schools, his ear- 
 nestness, definiteness, enthusiasm and constant 
 prayerfulness, made contact with him a thing 
 long to be remembered." 
 
 Mr. D. Willard Lyon, who knew well what 
 Pitkin was doing and the method of his doing it, 
 says: 
 
 " During that year which he gave to the work 
 of the Student Volunteer, it was my privilege to 
 be quite intimately associated with him. The 
 correspondence from the colleges regarding his 
 visits and all his own reports passed through my 
 hands. There were four things which impressed 
 me very much in his work during that year. He 
 had great power in working with the select few. 
 It was his habit to search out in each college that 
 he visited, the few who had the missionary spirit, 
 and tie himself to these until he had gotten them 
 thoroughly committed to several definite lines of 
 action. In his public addresses, he could not be 
 weak, but he was particularly strong in personal 
 dealing and in work with the few. 
 
 "He was extremely practical. There was 
 scarcely a college that he visited where he did 
 
122 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 not start a missionary alcove in tlie library and 
 get the students pledged to raising some definite 
 sum towards the support of a foreign missionary. 
 He organized a Volunteer Band wherever there 
 were as many as two volunteers. He started 
 many students in the work of speaking on mis- 
 sions to the churches. He suggested feasible 
 methods for the awakening of a missionary inter- 
 est among the students of many a college, rie 
 did not live in the clouds, although he often stood 
 on the mountain-top where he could catch vi- 
 sions of the world-wide field and the God-planned 
 campaign. His strength lay in the fact that he 
 could translate his visions into practical lines of 
 action. 
 
 ** He was very thorough. It was not enough 
 with him to make suggestions. He saw to it 
 that the proper steps were taken to put the sug- 
 gestions into effect. He knew how to bring 
 things to pass. To his vigilance during the time 
 of a visit at a college, he added an effective use 
 of correspondence with the colleges on his 
 'back-track,' stirring them up to go on in the 
 good work they had begun. His own thorough- 
 ness did much to beget the spirit of thorough- 
 ness in those among whom he worked. 
 
 " He was most conscientious in fulfilling his 
 obligation to pray for the students. In the busy 
 rush of travelling life, he always found time to 
 pray for the colleges that he was yet to visit, that 
 the students might be prepared to hear God's 
 voice and obey it. In his memorandum book, 
 he kept full notes regarding each difficulty he 
 met with, either in the life of the college or in 
 the lives of individuals, that he might intelligently 
 intercede in their behalf when he was gone from 
 them. He loved especially to pray for those who 
 had poured out their hearts to him and had asked 
 for his prayers." 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 1 23 
 
 At the close of the year, Pitkin attended the 
 Summer Student Conferences, working especially 
 at the Young Women's Conferences at Lake 
 Geneva, Wisconsin, and at Northfield. Mr. Lyon's 
 sister, now Mrs. H. B. Sharman, who was also 
 one of the travelling secretaries for the year, was 
 present with him at Lake Geneva and remembers 
 the intense earnestness of the work he did there: 
 
 "How little I dreamed as I said good-bye to 
 Mr. Pitkin on the wharf at the Geneva Camp in 
 '95 that I should never see him again, and that 
 after a few brief years his life should be crowned 
 and completed by a martyr's death in China. 
 We had been comrades in the service of the Stu- 
 dent Volunteer Movement — he and I — and his 
 two true Yale friends, Mr. Eddy and Mr. Luce. 
 From the time we met at the 'setting-up confer- 
 ence' in September until our common work 
 closed, in the summer following, we were all 
 comrades in service. My memories of Mr. Pit- 
 kin and his two friends are of a pervading cour- 
 tesy and of sincere and open-hearted co-operation. 
 I remember the kindest of brotherly notes that 
 caught me on the wing and told me that Mr. Pit- 
 kin, who was passing from college to college in 
 the great central West, was remembering to 
 pray for me and sympathizing with me in the 
 difficulties 1 had to face. 
 
 ** But it was not until the Women's Conference 
 at Geneva, that I felt I had learned in a some- 
 what adequate degree to know Mr. Pitkin. I 
 had admired him before — one could not see his 
 strong face and not begin to admire him — at 
 Geneva I came to know him. He had been con- 
 ducting the missionary institute at the Men's 
 Conference which had just closed, and he stayed 
 
124 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 over to help me with the same work at the 
 Women's Conference, and to conduct a special 
 training conference for summer campaign speak- 
 ers. He entered most sympathetically into my 
 plans and gave me the benefit of his experience 
 and special knowledge of the colleges of the 
 West. He planned with me, counselled me and 
 worked his hardest for the development of the 
 missionary spirit of the gathering. Every day, 
 before the missionary institute hour, he came to 
 my tent and we sat under a tree and discussed 
 very frankly the plans for the day, and organized 
 the effort. In these consultations, he showed 
 himself clear-headed, thoroughly practical, wisely 
 balanced, stably enthusiastic and intensely in 
 earnest, it was a personal delight and inspira- 
 tion to me to be thus associated with him. My 
 point of view was such, that it is more difficult 
 for me to describe the effect Mr. Pitkin pro- 
 duced on that conference of several hundred col- 
 lege women. The effectiveness of the mission- 
 ary phase of it was certainly due in considerable 
 measure to him. There was a deep interest 
 manifest among the girls in regard to their per- 
 sonal responsibility to the foreign field. Many 
 of them came to us for personal interviews — to 
 Mr. Pitkin as well as to me, and they seemed to 
 talk with him as freely as to me. The meeting 
 which more than any other one aroused in the 
 girls this personal interest, was a life-work meet- 
 ing on the lake-front in the twilight — my most 
 precious memory picture of Mr. Pitkin is of that 
 meeting, at which he made the concluding ad- 
 dress and appeal. I had not seen anything of 
 him for several hours, for he had not appeared 
 at the supper-table. 1 knew he was outside the 
 camp, somewhere in the quiet woods, praying 
 about his message. He came seriously to the 
 meeting with bowed head and sat by a tree on 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 125 
 
 the outskirts of the company. When his turn 
 came, he rose with that majesty which conscious- 
 ness of a God-given message inspires one with, 
 and spoke out. It was an appeal to those who 
 knew not God; an appeal to those who knew 
 him to make Him known, even to the uttermost 
 parts of the earth. How many hearts that appeal 
 reached, none of us know. The sower had sown 
 the seed, and the exquisite parable of Jesus is 
 evermore true. Before the Conference closed, 
 Mr. Pitkin was obliged to leave. I felt the work 
 heavier when his work was withdrawn. 1 had 
 promised to write him fully about the closing 
 days of the Geneva Conference, and he was to 
 write me about the missionary department of 
 the Eastern College Women's Conference at 
 Northfield, which he had consented to conduct. 
 When his letter came, it was triumphant. He 
 wrote that it had been in every way the climax 
 of the year's work which he had been doing. 
 The interest in missions was vivid and growing. 
 Girls who had never thought of a personal duty 
 to the non-Christian people of the world were 
 awakened to serious thoughtfulness about it, and 
 by thinking of it were brought to a clearer reali- 
 zation of the spirit of obedience which Jesus ex- 
 pects of His disciples. Mr. Pitkin's letter did not 
 close without a rhapsody of thanksgiving that 
 the Conference had brought to himself the great- 
 est personal blessing of the year." 
 
 Regarding the Northfield Conference he wrote 
 to Mr. Bronson that the twenty-one volunteers at 
 the beginning grew to forty-three before the end. 
 A graduate of Smith College who was present 
 tells of his remarkable influence at this Confer- 
 ence: 
 
126 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 **The Missionary Institute at Northfield in 
 1895 was my first experience of a spiritual 
 science — if the term may be so used. The com- 
 bination of practical working method with con- 
 stant spiritual fire was a thing astonishing to me. 
 I have never seen it equalled in any religious 
 training class, and it still remains my ideal of 
 what such a class should be. Mr. Pitkin's open- 
 ing prayer seemed to set the tone of the day. 
 The deep sense of personal responsibility would 
 have been almost given without the tenderness 
 of yearning caught from the Father. Through- 
 out the list of suggestions for missionary meet- 
 ings, for libraries, for study, the means never 
 obscured the end in view. Almost the only out- 
 side speakers that year in the institute were vol- 
 unteers, giving to every session the personal 
 touch of a fresh consecration. And the volun- 
 teers grew as they have never done in a woman's 
 conference, before or since. The meetings of 
 the Volunteer Band in the late afternoons are as 
 vivid to me as if 1 were there this moment. I 
 was not a volunteer : Jesus was not my Master 
 even when I went to one. I sat on the stairs 
 outside the upper floor of Stone Hall at first in an 
 uncomfortable wonder that such prayers could 
 really be — and then in an increasing awe and 
 yearning to understand the fellowship which 
 made that upper room a holy place. Every day 
 more came, of those who were thinking seri- 
 ously, as well as of those who had already de- 
 cided. No one was urged to sign the card, but 
 every moment of the leader's time in the last part 
 of the conference was filled with personal inter- 
 views. They were often held of necessity in a 
 room where we passed through, and I was struck 
 by the impersonality of Mr. Pitkin's attitude, the 
 thought that he was always talking to God about 
 the questions, about the life which was before 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 127 
 
 him. The result was that girls were taught, al- 
 most unconsciously, to do the same thing for 
 themselves, to go before God alone with the 
 question of life-service. Through the summer 
 and the fall and winter the question was quietly 
 decided by many, who are now on the field, or 
 whose lives at home have steadily counted since 
 for 'the least of His brethren ' abroad. The last- 
 ing impression of his work because of the depth 
 of his own spiritual life, because of his tremen- 
 dous convictions was evident from the beginning. 
 The intensity of his purpose was in every line of 
 his face and I never saw it relaxed except under 
 the influence of music, and in greeting to older 
 speakers whom he admired and reverenced. 
 Then the sweetness was as evident as the con- 
 stant strength." 
 
 While he was working for others, his own soul 
 was expanding. This year was a year of strong 
 and steady development of his character and 
 spiritual power. In a letter to one of his rela- 
 tives, written in the middle of the year, and 
 replying to an inquiry, he says: 
 
 ** God knows 1 have pondered over the words 
 ' Baptized with the baptism '—Yes, it is a warn- 
 ing come in time, and yet I believe I am ready 
 for it, though there must come much before the 
 complete victory be obtained. But the past only 
 leads me to trust the future. To look at my life 
 two years ago and then at it now, makes me 
 praise God all day long. Still what illimitable 
 heights ahead! " 
 
 As he gave, he gained, and at the end of the 
 summer of 1895, he went back to the seminary 
 
1 28 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 for his final year, set fast in great qualities which 
 his last year of study confirmed and solidified. 
 Mr. Eddy testifies as to some of these: 
 
 ** He exemplified the four 'alls' of Eph. 6: 17 
 — all prayer, at all seasons, in all perseverance, 
 for all. He was already learning Paul's secret of 
 doing 'everything by prayer.' His prayers 
 were always beautiful. He came directly into 
 the very presence of God. He took God seri- 
 ously in prayer. There was a simplicity, a direct- 
 ness in his prayer that made one feel that he 
 knew God and knew he would get the answer. 
 There was too a tenderness and depth of affec- 
 tion in all he said, that showed how close he 
 lived to the Father's heart. He worked hard, but 
 he prayed harder. He knew where the power 
 lay and that it was not in him. Great as was his 
 success at times and much as he came before 
 large audiences, I never knew him by a word or 
 act to be puffed up. He was always humbly 
 dependent upon God. He always gave Him the 
 glory, when the work was done for he knew 
 who had done it. I never knew him to lose that 
 intense earnestness and strain of pathos as he 
 pleaded for the millions that were a burden upon 
 his own heart. 
 
 "His short life was an illustration of earnest 
 consecration and single devotion to one great 
 purpose. When God called, he did not seek to 
 evade that call like foolish Jonah nor like another 
 rich young man, did he fail God when his life 
 was put to the test. Like Timothy, he 'cared 
 truly' for the estate of those for whom Christ 
 died. Like Paul, he was ready not to be bound 
 only but to die for China, for he loved not his 
 life even unto death, and like Epaphroditus hav- 
 ing 'gambled' (Greek) with his life to supply 
 
Among the Colleges of the West 1 29 
 
 that which was lacking in the service of others; 
 he came not nigh to death only, but laid his life 
 down for Him whom having not seen he loved. 
 " When the news came of his message for his 
 little son — ^just when to human eye all looked 
 dark and hopeless, when his own life was cut off 
 almost before he had begun his work, when 
 China was murdering those who were trying to 
 give her life — 1 saw then that the old flame for mis- 
 sions and his Master had not died, but burned to 
 white heat to the last." 
 
 Horace knew now *'the most great peace" 
 of which Beha was so fond of speaking but 
 whose secret the Persian lacked, and he knew 
 also the source of power. Had not Jesus on the 
 last, the great day of the Feast of the Tabernacles 
 stood and cried saying, *Mf any man thirst (for 
 peace, for power) let him come unto Me " ? 
 
V 
 
 APPOINTMENT BY THE AMERICAN BOARD 
 
 " And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I 
 send and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I: 
 
 send me." — Isaiah 6:8. 
 
 " While vast continents are shrouded in almost utter dark- 
 ness and hundreds of millions suffer the horrors of heathenism 
 or Islam the burden of proof rests on you to show that the 
 circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by 
 Him to keep you out of the foreign field," — Farewell words of 
 Keith Falconer to the students of Edinburgh and Glasgow, 
 
 "\ WELL remember," says Dr. Palmer of Yale, 
 ''the hour in which he put his hand in mine at 
 Worcester in 1893 and said, ' This day has de- 
 cided me to give myself to the Board.' " He had 
 grown up in the Second Presbyterian Church of 
 Philadelphia, but his ancestral relations had been 
 with the Congregational Church and he, himself, 
 had been more directly connected with the Con- 
 gregational Church since he united with the Phil- 
 lips Church in Exeter at the age of seventeen in 
 1886. 
 
 The application to the Board was written at 
 New Hartford under date of August 12th, 1894, 
 as follows: 
 
 130 
 
Appointment by the American Board 131 
 
 '' New Hartford, Conn. 
 
 "August 1 2th, 1894. 
 ''To the Secretaries of the Amercan Board of 
 Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Boston, 
 Mass. 
 " Honored Sirs: 
 
 *'In accordance with the 'Manual,' I 
 wish to make application for foreign missionary 
 service under your Board, and would answer the 
 questions and suggestions contained in that 
 'Manual,' as follows: 
 
 "I. History of my life: — 
 
 "Being born in Philadelphia, Penna., Oct. 28, 
 1869, I am now twenty-four years and ten 
 months old. My father was the son of Deacon 
 Horace Pitkin of Manchester, Conn. I was edu- 
 cated in Phila. until the fall of 1885, when I 
 entered Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hamp- 
 shire, and graduating there I took the Academic 
 course at Yale, where I was graduated in 1892. 
 I then entered Union Theological Seminary, New 
 York City, and have now completed two years 
 of study there. 
 
 "2. My Religious Experience: — 
 
 "I was brought up under Christian influences, 
 wherefore there was no sudden change at the 
 time I became a Christian and joined the Church 
 (2d Cong. Exeter) in the spring of 1886. This 
 lack of apparent change was partly due to the 
 fact that I had been led to take a more active 
 course in the Christian Fraternity in the school 
 during the six months preceding my public con- 
 fession. Since that time I know that my Chris- 
 tian experience has been growing deeper every 
 year and that my desire to do better work for the 
 
132 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Master has constantly increased. Above all I 
 have had the witness of the Spirit in power 
 manifested in my own personal life and in the 
 active Christian work. 
 
 ♦*3. Health:— 
 
 " Though I was not in very good health as a 
 child in Philadelphia, as soon as 1 attended school 
 in the country, my condition was greatly im- 
 proved and ever smce that time I have enjoyed 
 the best of health. 1 am sure I have a sound 
 constitution. 
 
 "4. My Christian Work: — 
 
 " As to the work I have done for the Master, 
 I can only say that 1 have endeavored to be 
 actively at work ever since my conversion. I 
 had the delight of starting a Christian Endeavor 
 Society in the church at Exeter, and afterwards 
 of working actively in the Y. M. C. A. at college. 
 I spent six weeks in mission work in New York 
 City one summer, and for two winters had part 
 charge of a Rescue Mission in New Haven. Also, 
 1 was teacher and superintendent for three years 
 and a half in a mission Sunday-school at New 
 Haven. During my study in Union, beside the 
 work for foreign missions, I have devoted odd 
 times to the work in the hospital wards and in 
 Rescue Missions. 
 
 " God has used me in stirring up foreign 
 mission interest in the Church and Endeavor 
 Society in New Hartford, so that now they are 
 supporting in part a Japanese student (I believe) 
 and a Syrian student. 
 
 " But since my sophomore year in college this 
 work has been secondary to that of stirring up 
 my own interest and that of others in foreign 
 
Appointment by the American Board 133 
 
 missions. As a member of the Student Volunteer 
 Movement for Foreign Missions since the spring 
 of 1889 I have been definitely expecting and plan- 
 ning to become a foreign missionary unless the 
 Lord should prevent. Because of this aim I have 
 been able to arouse the interests of many other 
 men so that they have taken the same step, but 
 more to teach the Young People's Societies about 
 the great work, until God has had a chance to put 
 it into their hearts to give a number of thousand 
 dollars for the work of His kingdom out there. 
 For this reason I have been asked to take the 
 position of travelling secretary of the Volunteer 
 Movement for the coming year, and therefore I 
 shall be compelled to delay my seminary course 
 during that time while I spend it in visiting the 
 colleges in the interests of the movement. 
 
 " 5. My Call to Foreign Mission Work: — 
 
 *'The reasons for my decision to become a 
 foreign missionary, God permitting, are hard to 
 state. My father had been a home missionary 
 for some years, my nearest uncle, Rev. E. R. 
 Beadle, had been a missionary to the Druses, and 
 I had always heard much of foreign and home 
 missions until there was a vague impression 
 formed on my mind that some day I should be a 
 missionary. It was through the influence of facts 
 brought before me at the Northfield Summer 
 School, in 1889, that I could see no reason why 
 I should not turn my head and heart towards 
 foreign missionary work, with a purpose to do 
 that work unless the Lord prevented. I do not 
 thirik,llTa t__at that time I fully comp rehenSed t ne 
 mea ning oi tne w ulk as a li p e w u r tc t' liad-^ 
 -vagu ^lnotion ot ai ;ew_ xeari; Of sefVl^e, ptjlli ap's 
 withj_l ittle romance conn'ected with IT, 'AU d llieti 
 ai return to an active pastorate in this country. 
 
134 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Not until after some eight montlis was the con- 
 viction forced upon me as to what the foreign 
 service really meant. From that time on I have 
 tried to inform myself in regard to the work and 
 to help others over the hard places. 
 
 " From that indefinite idea of the character of 
 missionary service and the very indefinite call 
 received at Northfield (with the way blocked in 
 all human probability through the age of my 
 father and the sickness of my sister) by the end 
 of my college course I found that God has been 
 opening the way for me by taking both the 
 father and the sister to Himself. My study had 
 shown me the true depth and glorious possi- 
 bilities of the missionary service, and I knew 
 perfectly that God wanted me to work for Him 
 in the uttermost parts of the earth. There has 
 been no call from the clouds, but the facts of my 
 life and the result of study inspired by, and carried 
 on under God have been a sure and certain call 
 to His work in the waste places. 
 
 *'6. M^. Finance: — 
 
 " I am profoundly thankful to God that He has 
 given me so much of this world's goods that I 
 am able to offer myself to the Board as a self- 
 supporting worker. My plan now is to try To 
 persuade a chttfch or party of churches to sup- 
 port me through the Board, and then I shall give 
 to the Board for general work a sum equal to my 
 support. In this way a church or set of churches 
 will have a living link in the Field while I can 
 give money to the Board for forms of work 
 which are necessary, but not interesting for the 
 majority of the churches to support. But this 
 plan is only a plan, though God permitting, 1 
 shall be able to go free of all charge to the Board 
 in any case. 
 
Appointment by the American Board 135 
 
 " 7. Reasons for Entering the Ministry:— 
 '' I entered the ministry after carefully weigh- 
 ing the matter in the light of the work to be done 
 in the foreign field. For a year or two the ques- 
 tion between it and medicine was an open one, 
 but I decided to take up the theological pro- 
 fession in view of the talents God had given me 
 for ministerial and pastoral work, and because of 
 the greater need for that form of work in the 
 foreign field— greater not so much in the way 
 of immediate results as in the way of laying 
 a foundation which must be laid in any mission 
 field if any other form of work is to survive. 
 The ordained missionary seems to me to have 
 the more intimate connection with the evangel- 
 istic and educational work— these are primary, 
 not secondary, duties for him. 
 
 " In view of this I am preparing to go out as an 
 ordained missionary to preach Christ and Him 
 crucified, with as little as possible of what I think 
 about Him and with as much as possible of what 
 the Word of God says concerning His life and 
 work. 
 
 " 8. Preference for Field :— 
 
 " I have all along been drawn to work in the 
 Northern Mission in China. 
 
 *« First:— Because of the need for workers there 
 and the glorious possibilities in the work there 
 
 -Second:— Along with the study of the dif- 
 ferent fields has the conviction come that 1 should 
 avoid a tropic chmate. Experiment here has 
 shown that I am not able to stand a hot climate 
 or hot weather long continued. If Africa were 
 incomparably worse off for workers than China 
 this question would be of little importance for 
 as a matter of fact we have little chance for trial 
 of conditions here, but inasmuch as I realize the 
 
136 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 vast importance of the work in China, and the 
 immense need of workers there, 1 must prefer 
 to work in that country. I want to go just 
 where the Master can use" me best. So far I have 
 not had light otherwise than I have stated. Per- 
 haps in the future, circumstances will lead me to 
 alter my opinion. I have consulted Rev. H. P. 
 Beach of Springfield on the subject and he ad- 
 vised an early application to the Board, in order 
 that if it seemed at all best, proper measures 
 might be taken to insure the gratification of this 
 preference. I trust that you, sirs, will not mis- 
 understand me when I say frankly that as this 
 conviction has been laid so strongly on me that 
 from my present view-point (God only knows 
 what the future will bring forth) I might be 
 compelled to decline a designation, should it be 
 impossible at the time of my departure for you 
 to grant me under your Board work in this field. 
 At the same time 1 know that you will under- 
 stand that I do not wish in any way to use my 
 peculiarly fortunate position, in having my own 
 support, to influence your choice of the neediest 
 field for my work. To feel that you thought that 
 I felt that money would influence your decision 
 in regard to my future work and that I might 
 have my preferences regarded simply because I 
 was able to go self-supporting while another can- 
 didate less fortunate might be compelled contrary 
 to his preferences to accept any field that was 
 offered — this would be unbearable. I hope 
 the frankness you ask for in the 'Manual' 
 will be accepted in the spirit it is given. How- 
 ever, an understanding at this time will save pos- 
 sible difficulties. 
 
 ''However, I shall not be ready to be desig- 
 nated for two years and in that time conditions 
 rnay be changed. Of course in case of declina- 
 tion of designation, 1 should seek to go out under 
 
Appointment by the American Board 137 
 
 the Presbyterian or some other Board, until I was 
 led to see that the Lord of the Harvest wishes 
 me to work in some other part of the Foreign 
 Field. 
 
 " 9. My Early Application : — 
 
 "My reasons for early application therefore 
 are, first, to aid the Board in granting this pref- 
 erence (of course I mean the probability now of 
 its being granted then) and second, for the in- 
 fluence the fact of an appointment will have on 
 my work in the coming year. To go before the 
 College men and Church members in the position 
 of one so far along as to have been accepted by 
 the American Board will undoubtedly give weight 
 to my words, and I believe that we are justified 
 in using every proper means to break up the 
 prejudices of men that the Word of the Lord may 
 nave full course to the end that they may recog- 
 nize the imperative claims on them of the Foreign 
 work. 
 
 (Signed) "Horace Tracy Pitkin." 
 
 After writing this letter, he went off to the 
 Adirondacks but he was back in New Hartford 
 in September and on the eighteenth he wrote to 
 Dr. Daniels, " I send you the statement of Faith 
 that you desired. In this last, I have tried to be 
 frank in order that we may understand each 
 other at the outset." This was his statement: 
 
 '* I believe in the Trinity — Father, Son and Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 " I believe in one God, maker of Heaven and 
 Earth, our Father, who so loved the world that 
 He sent His Son Jesus Christ to live and die for it. 
 
 "1 believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten 
 
1 38 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Son of the Father, of the substance of the Father 
 yet a distinct person ; that He took on human 
 form and came into the world, lived a life like 
 ours, tempted in all points as we yet without 
 sin, died, rose and ascended into Heaven where 
 He ever lives with the Father; that He lived to 
 proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven, to teach us by 
 word and example as contained in the Gospels 
 how to live in that Kingdom, and that He died, 
 made to be sin, that full atonement might forever 
 be made for the sins of those who believe on 
 His Name; that now with the Father He ever 
 makes intercession on behalf of His believing 
 ones, and that He sends the Holy Spirit to those 
 who ask Him. 
 
 " I believe in the Holy Spirit, that He is a per- 
 son, that His presence is made possible by the 
 death of Jesus Christ; that He is the Convincer of 
 Sin, the Advocate, the Revealer of the Father, the 
 Interpreter of Christ's life and words, and the 
 Teacher of all things; that thus He is the Sancti- 
 fier of the soul and that through Him all our work 
 is to be performed. 
 
 "I believe that the Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments are a progressive revelation of 
 the Father culminating in the revelation of Jesus 
 Christ; that they were written by men peculiarly 
 under the influence of the Divine Spirit; that they 
 are the sufficient and only infallible rule of faith 
 and practice, and that they are the means of mak- 
 ing wise unto salvation. 
 
 " I believe that all men are sinners and that the 
 wages of sin is death ; that our Father * not wish- 
 ing that any man should perish' has provided a 
 way of escape by sending Jesus Christ into the 
 world to redeem ^the world; that this redemption 
 is, first, regeneration and justification, and then 
 growth in sanctification through communion 
 with the Father through prayer, "through fellow- 
 
Appointment by the American Board 139 
 
 ship with the Son and through the Spirit's aiding 
 us to follow the example and teaching of Jesus 
 Christ-thus to eternal life; that thus this 
 redemption is a gift from God and is made pos- 
 sible to all men, the worst and the best, through 
 their belief in Jesus Christ. 
 
 - However there have been, are and will be, 
 very many who having never heard of or had an 
 intelligent conception of Jesus Christ are neve - 
 tK striving to find God according o their 
 best light. I cannot but have a reasonable hope 
 that he great love of the Father will at sometime 
 and som^ehow guide these, souls to their ong- 
 wished-for goaL The Scriptures seem to me to 
 teach nothing definite on the subject. But ^h si 
 leave with God. Meanwhile I know that the 
 Kingdoms of this world shall become the King- 
 doms of His Christ; I have the command of 
 Christ to Goto work for this end; there are the 
 gigantic mountains of sin and suffering to De 
 lurmounted-all this is enough for me and 
 'hope' or ' no hope,' my Saviour has been too 
 much to me for me to hesitate to take Him to the 
 open sores of the world that I may help Him to 
 be the healing of the nations. . 
 
 *'I believe in the resurrection of the spiritual 
 body; that God and His Christ will come to 
 judge the world, with issues of eternal life and 
 eternal death." 
 
 In reply to other questions asked by the Board 
 
 he wrote: . 
 
 ♦M believe the Doctrines as set forth in the 
 
 Creed of 1883. 
 
 -I know that I am a Christian because my 
 whole life has been changed and day by day I 
 love less the things that the Father would not 
 
140 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 have me love, while I love more and more the 
 things that are well pleasing to Him. 
 
 "The Holy Spirit has worked in and through 
 me so that I cannot doubt but that I am a child of 
 God. 
 
 *' I am trying to help myself by picking up a 
 little medical knowledge. A very helpful series 
 of quizzes with two doctors for three weeks with 
 the practical work in the hospital and dispensary 
 during and for some time after, has given me a 
 basis on which to acquire constantly more knowl- 
 edge of how to take care of myself and others, 
 in emergencies where a doctor is not at hand." 
 
 As to his motive for desiring to be a missionary, 
 he replied: 
 
 '* As the Father hath sent me into the world, 
 so 1 send you into the world, ' For I am persuaded 
 that nothing shall be able to separate us from 
 the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,* 
 and that love is the love that constrains me. For 
 preparation 1 am trying to live closer to Him day 
 by day. It will be my life work, God will- 
 ing." 
 
 He stated he had been accustomed to study 
 eight hours a day or, with recitations, eleven or 
 twelve. As to his habits of exercise, he answered : 
 " During winter-work, running one-half to one 
 mile with ordinary • body setting up ' exercise 
 seems to suit me best — an hour a day." "1 am 
 learning day by day, I think," he said, "to bear 
 responsibilities calmly and cheerfully." 
 
 The Board of course sought testimonials from 
 
Appointment by the American Board 141 
 
 those who knew him. His cousin, the Rev. 
 Heber H. Beadle wrote: 
 
 "He meets the requirements as nearly as any 
 one I know. I know of no disquahfication in 
 his case." 
 
 The Rev. George E. Street, of Exeter, said: 
 
 "He was a happy, consistent member during 
 all his course at school, helped organize the 
 Society of Christian Endeavor, kept Christian boys 
 in the Academy up to their duties in their own 
 religious organization, the Christian Fraternity, 
 and after going to Yale, where he stood high in 
 rank as a scholar, he retained his interest in the 
 church and its institutions, usually coming to us 
 every year to encourage young Christians in their 
 work, and later on when the missionary spirit 
 had seized him, to impart his enthusiasm in that 
 great cause to us all. 
 
 "Of all the precious young men who have 
 been under our church care here, I can think of 
 none who has been among us a more beautiful 
 and helpful presence." 
 
 Dean Wright of Yale replied: 
 
 "In body, mind and character he is a strong 
 man. His intellectual qualifications are of a high 
 order and his work in college excellent. He did 
 a great amount of Christian work while a college 
 student and I once allowed him a two weeks' 
 leave of absence as a delegate on national Y. M. 
 C. A. business, because Mr. Morse assured me 
 he could not find elsewhere so good a represent- 
 ative. When he graduated, he had many calls 
 to Christian work in different lines, and I felt that 
 
142 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 his success was sure in any of them. His only 
 thought was to select the career in which he could 
 work for Christ. 
 
 "He has enthusiasm, perseverance, independ- 
 ence combined with respect for authority, capac- 
 ity to organize and direct, and is a ready and ef- 
 fective speaker. In my opinion, he is admirably 
 qualified for the foreign missionary service, and 
 I only regret that if he goes to a foreign field, 
 his service will be lost to his own country." 
 
 On behalf of the faculty of Union Seminary, 
 President Hastings said: 
 
 " He is a decidedly superior man in every way 
 and stands high in all departments. I am de- 
 lighted that he is going to the foreign field, 
 though he is the kind of man we need at home. 
 
 "In gentlemanly habits, in Christian zeal, in 
 scholarly attainments and in oratorical ability, 
 Mr. Pitkin ranks high in his class. 
 
 "I congratulate you that you can secure such 
 a young man for the great work." 
 
 The Rev. Harlan P. Beach with exceptional op- 
 portunities to know him, wrote with discrimina- 
 tion and earnestness: 
 
 "If ever a man trusted in God and was thor- 
 oughly consecrated to the work of missions, Pit- 
 kin is. The zeal of the Lord has eaten him up 
 in the matter of extending His Gospel to the 
 heathen nations. Missions is the atmosphere in 
 which he walks and which is his vital air. 
 
 "I know of only three or four men who are 
 such men of prayer as he is. Nothing is at- 
 
Appointment by the American Board 143 
 
 tempted without prayer and I have never slept in 
 a room which is more of a Bethel than his room 
 in Union Seminary. 
 
 **I am quite sure that he could work harmoni- 
 ously with others, though if stationed with men 
 who are inclined to be lazy and not thoroughly 
 interested in mission work, I fear he would chafe 
 much. There is danger that one who has made 
 such a thorough study of missions and who 
 really knows more by far of the broad work of 
 missions than most men on the field, would hold 
 strong views as to the possibilities of the service; 
 yet he probably would not do more than make a 
 strong appeal for progress and then if opposed, 
 pray the matter through. 
 
 "Few men have clung so persistently to his 
 purpose as Pitkin. Nothing less than a voice 
 from heaven could turn him aside from his desire 
 to preach the Gospel to perishing heathen. 
 
 " He is a man of some versatility. His knowl- 
 edge is broad and he has a taste for invention as 
 his room, rigged with various electrical appliances 
 devised by himself, shows. If he has not changed 
 his plan, he is studying elements of medicine 
 this summer, that he may be provided against 
 the time when his station physician leaves his 
 place and some one is needed to help out in an 
 emergency. Practical things needed on the field 
 he has eyes open to also, so that aside from a 
 theoretical fitness for the field, he has superadded 
 these more prosaic matters. 
 
 " Pitkin is in receipt of an income of $3,000 a 
 year or was when he last talked with me about 
 it. That money is the Lord's and will be used 
 mainly for the mission, at least that is the con- 
 clusion which he reached after a long consulta- 
 tion with me a year since. He would thus not 
 only be self-supporting, but pay a large portion 
 of the expense of the work. He would probably 
 
144 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 continue to support the work abroad which is al- 
 ready in his heart." 
 
 It is needless to say that the Board rejoiced to 
 appoint such a candidate and he was accepted on 
 Jan. 29, 1895, and assigned to the North China 
 Mission. He attended the annual meeting of the 
 Board in Madison, Wis., in October, 1894, and the 
 following year, he made a notable short address 
 at the meeting in Brooklyn in October, which 
 made a deep impression but was not reported. 
 A wise country minister in Connecticut recalls his 
 impression of this meeting and his recollection of 
 the strong young life, which he watched and 
 studied: 
 
 *' September 15, 1895, I preached in New Hart- 
 ford in exchange with the pastor. Immediately 
 after service, I was expected to go to the minis- 
 ter's rooms and meet his wife who would take 
 me to the hotel to dinner. She said to me, ' Mr. 
 Pitkin played the organ this morning.' I think 
 some of my people had spoken his name to me 
 before as if he was some one I would know well 
 and 1 (as 1 sometimes do) waited for information 
 to come in due course instead of asking who and 
 what is he ? So as the pastor's wife said, *Mr. 
 Pitkin,' it was something of a blank to me. She 
 told me farther that Mr.'Pitkin was to take charge 
 of an outdoor meeting that her husband had been 
 conducting through the summer at Stubb or 
 Maple Hollow (at least Pitkin was to speak of 
 foreign missions). The meeting was on my 
 road home and 1 went and then first met Pitkin. 
 He spoke on foreign missions. He had some il- 
 
Appointment by the American Board 145 
 
 lustrative material, such as is so often used so 
 cheaply as to make one feel ' That is cheap trash.' 
 It was not so with him ; he did not use it to show 
 how much he knew and as if it were all he knew 
 or nearly so. His mind was saturated with in- 
 formation and his heart was full of intense feel- 
 ing on missions and he wanted to make his 
 hearers see and feel. 
 
 "The next time I remember seeing him was 
 at the meeting of the A. B. C. F. M. in Brooklyn, 
 that same fall. 
 
 ** The Board gave an invitation to the C. E. 
 societies to be present in a body, giving them the 
 centre of the hall and sending the ministers to 
 the platform. Dr. Dunning of the Congrega- 
 tionalist made an address; I am not sure who 
 else spoke, but Pitkin was one speaker. It was, 
 of course, not the easiest place for a young man 
 but Pitkin did not seem to be awed by the oc- 
 casion. It was to him an opportunity to plead 
 for the cause he loved and he did it in a frank 
 and manly way. My verdict was * He has scored 
 another success.' A few weeks (perhaps only a 
 week or two after this) the Conn. C. E. Union 
 met at Middletown. I was visiting my father at 
 Ivoryton (in the town of Essex) and went up 
 just for the day. The president announced that 
 he had desired to have a missionary impulse 
 given to the meeting and looking around and in- 
 quiring, he was told that if he could secure 
 'Chaplain' (now Bishop) McCabe, he could be 
 sure of accomplishing his purpose. The Chap- 
 Iain spoke. Then he said that at the meetmg m 
 Brooklyn of the A. B. C. P. M. he had heard Pitkm 
 and had secured him and introduced him. Again 
 he was master of the occasion. He was the hero 
 of the missionary hour. It happened that his 
 train for New York and mine for Saybrook left 
 at about the same time and we had a few min- 
 
146 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 utes' conversation. I was again impressed with 
 the charm of the man. I am not easy to get 
 acquainted with; I am not (1 think) considered 
 social, but it was a privilege. 
 
 *' He was natural and 1 half think that many of 
 the people took him as a matter of course with- 
 out thinking how he impressed them or asking 
 how good or great he was." 
 
 To go out with Horace, the Board appointed 
 on May 12, 1896, Miss Letitia E. Thomas of Troy, 
 Ohio, who was a graduate of Mount Holyoke 
 and had been at the Young Women's Conference 
 at Northfield, in July, 1895, where she and Horace 
 met. They became engaged that winter. He 
 communicated this happy intelligence to Mr. 
 Bronson in this characteristic note: 
 
 " Dear Oliver: It's all broke out in the semi- 
 nary. Not the smallpox — oh, no, my son — but 
 the fact that I am engaged to Miss L. E. Thomas 
 of Troy, Ohio. Ml tell you all about her when I 
 see you — but let this cheer your heart and make 
 you well quick. See! 
 
 " In the seventh heaven, 
 
 ** Horace." 
 
 They were married October 6, 1896, Miss 
 Thomas having spent the preceding year, while 
 Pitkin was concluding his course in Union, at the 
 Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia, 
 
 The day after the wedding, they went to 
 Toledo to attend the annual meeting of the 
 American Board and in the evening of October 
 
Appointment by the American Board 147 
 
 8th, went on to Cleveland for his ordination 
 which took place in Pilgrim Church on October 
 9th. The Moderator was the Rev. H. M. Tenney, 
 D. D., of Oberlin; the Rev. James Brand, D. D., 
 of Oberlin, preached the sermon. The Rev. Jud- 
 son Smith, D. D., offered the ordaining prayer; 
 the Rev. Albert H. Plumb, D. D., gave a mis- 
 sionary charge to Mr. Pitkin and the Rev. H. A. 
 Schauffler, D. D., to the people, while Mr. Beach 
 made an address on '* The Right Hand of Fellow- 
 ship.'' 
 
 The relationship of Pilgrim Church to Mr. Pit- 
 kin's ordination was not accidental. How the 
 relationship between Pitkin and the Church be- 
 gan is indicated in the following letter which he 
 wrote to the pastor, the Rev. Charles S. Mills, 
 from Union Seminary, May 6, 1896: 
 
 ** It may seem somewhat strange to you to re- 
 ceive a letter from me. . . . The American 
 Board has appointed me to go to North Chma this 
 coming fall. ... I am just finishing my 
 course in Union Seminary this city and after some 
 work this summer shall expect to sail about Oc- 
 tober or November. . . . Now to the point. 
 The Lord has given me enough money to sup- 
 port myself through the Board on the field. But 
 I have no living church back of me as I go, and 
 on the other side, no body of people are to be 
 particularly influenced through my being on the 
 field It has been the conviction in my heart for 
 years that no one ought to go to the foreign lands 
 without leaving a society back of him which 
 
148 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 should be deeply interested in his work. But this 
 interest can only come in the fullest measure 
 when that society is helping in a very direct way 
 to support the said man. His interest in them 
 also is deepened largely from the fact that they 
 are supporting him. Since my visit to your 
 church last spring, the thought has often come to 
 my mind, would it not be possible for your so- 
 ciety to have such an interest in my work and in 
 me. My thought is simply this: Whatever 
 would be my regular salary would be paid by the 
 church here to the Board for me and I in turn 
 would give to the Board a similar amount for the 
 other expenses of the Board which are just as 
 necessary as salaries, yet which do not appeal to 
 the church as much as the support of workers 
 does. In that way I have a living link at home 
 and the church has its representative on the 
 field. But of course, this will mean giving an 
 extra amount to accomplish this. 
 
 " Perhaps the thought of this was started in my 
 mind from some remarks made by some of the 
 members of your Young People's Society at the 
 time of their banquet which I attended. These 
 were to the effect that they hoped they might 
 have a share in supporting me. If this spirit could 
 be carried into the church, I have no doubt but that 
 the work could be done. In my work among 
 the C. E. Societies and churches, I have become 
 convinced of the value of the representative on 
 the foreign field. At the same time, I have seen 
 where those representatives have made grave 
 
Appointment by the American Board 149 
 
 mistakes in the correspondence conducted with 
 the church supporting them. This education 
 may not come amiss in the coming time. 
 
 "I think that you see my point. I dislike 
 writing such a letter ... it would be ten- 
 fold easier for me to go out and support myself 
 and have nothing to do with the churches at 
 home. But the work of a missionary it seems 
 to me is twofold ... he has a duty to those 
 with whom he works and a duty to the con- 
 stituency at home and if he has no such con- 
 stituency it is only pleasing to the Master that he 
 can get one as soon as possible. It may be, 
 Mr. Mills, that you cannot see your way clear to 
 entertaining the thought, for your church, of car- 
 rying my whole probable salary . . . say 
 seven hundred dollars, yet you may see the way 
 open to accepting part of it, at least a half, we 
 might say. It might be possible for me to get 
 some other church to take the other half. To 
 you I have made the first appeal. With the 
 Board in the financial straits in which it finds 
 itself and with this scheme of relieving along 
 lines which are only to the advantage of both 
 parties in the highest degree, 1 ask you to con- 
 sider the question very seriously. I know that 
 you will all understand me when I say that 1 be- 
 lieve that my education, my experience in the 
 work among the colleges and churches — if you 
 wish, my wife from the state of Ohio — these 
 may appeal to your church for the sought-for 
 funds. 
 
150 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 " . . . Please write me frankly. . . . 
 I shall understand. In the meantime, I shall pray 
 that you may be guided into the will of the 
 Master." 
 
 This letter led to an arrangement by which 
 the Pilgrim Church was to support, through the 
 American Board, Mr. and Mrs. Pitkin as its mis- 
 sionary representatives in China. The Church 
 was to provide Mr. Pitkin's salary through the 
 Board, and the Women's Missionary Association 
 Mrs. Pitkin's through the Woman's Board, Pitkin 
 giving from his own funds, the amount of their 
 salary to the Board in lieu of supporting himself 
 as he would have done if this arrangement had 
 not been made with the Church. The farewell 
 meetings in the Church were held on October 24, 
 1896. Pitkin wrote of these to Dr. Smith on 
 October 29th: 
 
 "It will rejoice you to know of the very mani- 
 fest presence of the Spirit in our meeting with 
 Pilgrim Church Friday-Sunday. Mrs. Pitkin and 
 I managed to address or sing to almost every de- 
 partment of the Church's more strictly religious 
 organizations. . . . The Sunday services, 
 closing with a small farewell meeting in a side 
 room of those in the Church most deeply inter- 
 ested followed by the communion service, were 
 mightily used towards our being welded together 
 into one common interest and sympathy. It is a 
 matter of profoundest joy as I recall the depth and 
 richness of spiritual power in those meetings." 
 
 The Calendar of the Pilgrim Church for No- 
 vember 1st spoke with great enthusiasm: 
 
Appointment by the American Board 1 5 1 
 
 " Days OF Blessings. No pen can depict the 
 wonderful experiences connected with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Pitkin's visit a week ago. We can only 
 lift our hearts to God in gratitude for the mar- 
 vellous outpouring of His grace upon us and 
 upon those who go out as our messengers and 
 His servants. That the whole plan of our con- 
 nection with them is of divine design, that already 
 we have reaped from it a glorious harvest of 
 spiritual strength, and that it will bring untold 
 blessings to us all in future days, we all most 
 heartily and gratefully believe, and we pray that 
 we may be prepared to receive and employ the 
 grace of God which is so abundantly given in 
 response to our prayers and gifts." 
 
 In his memorial sermon of November, 1900, 
 Dr. Mills referred to this ''day of blessing": 
 "Was there ever a day that meant more ? How 
 deep the emotion at the farewell service, yet how 
 little we knew that we would see his face no 
 more! How the song Mrs. Pitkin sang at that 
 Friday service thrilled us all! 
 
 " « The Homeland ! O the Homeland ! The land of the free- 
 born ! , r J 1 
 
 There's no night in the Homeland, but aye the fadeless morn ; 
 I'm sighing for the Homeland, my heart is aching here ; 
 There is no pain in the Homeland, to which I'm drawmg 
 near. 
 
 « ' My Lord is in the Homeland, with angels bright and fair : 
 There's no sin in the Homeland, and no temptation there ; 
 The music of the Homeland is ringing in my ears ; ^ 
 
 And when I think of the Homeland, my eyes are filled with 
 tears ; 
 
 «* « My loved ones in the Homeland are waiting me to come, 
 While neither death nor sorrow invades their holy home ; 
 O, dear, dear native Country ! O rest and peace above ! ^ ^^ 
 Christ bring us all to the Homeland, of Thy redeeming love. 
 
VI 
 
 THE JOURNEY TO CHINA 
 
 I know not what the future hath 
 
 Of marvel or surprise, 
 Assured alone that life and death 
 
 His mercy underlies. 
 
 I know not where His islands lift 
 
 Their fronded palms in air; 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 
 Beyond His love and care. 
 
 — Whittier. 
 
 The new missionaries sailed from New York 
 on November ii, 1896, on the 5/. Paul, among 
 their most congenial fellow-passengers being Dr. 
 and Mrs. Jacob Chamberlain of India. They had 
 a quiet passage with seven hours of fog and 
 seventy steamer letters and reached London No- 
 vember 1 8th. They kept a journal of this trip, 
 as they expected to be six months on the way, 
 visiting Europe and Palestine, and the missions 
 in Egypt and India, and Pitkin wrote back letters 
 to friends and to the Pilgrim Church and to the 
 Board. Much that they saw is what all such trav- 
 ellers of earnest purpose and intelligent insight see, 
 but it will be well to quote some extracts from 
 his journal and letters to set forth his general 
 course and his judgments thereon, and to illus- 
 trate the character that was nearer its crown than 
 it dreamed. 
 
 152 
 
The Journey to China 153 
 
 They saw the Abbey and St. Paul's, of course. 
 Pitkin wrote to the Pilgrim Church from London 
 in his letter of November 24th, addressed to 
 " Dear Fellow-Pilgrims at Home": 
 
 *' Two places in that wonderful Cathedral held 
 our attention longest. One was m front of a 
 simple white marble slab set m the wall of one 
 of the aisles. The upper part was carved with 
 faces of full strength and purity. The lower 
 part showed in relief a man addressing an au- 
 dience from a platform. Two of three inscrip- 
 tions on the stone I remember-they were, The 
 world is my parish ' and ' God buries His work- 
 men, but carries on His work.' Can you guess 
 the names of such men ?-men who have been 
 thought worthy of a place among men of world- 
 fame ^ Every one has heard of Charles and 
 John Wesley. And of them, it is recorded in 
 imperishable marble, ' The world is my parish 
 O God grant that many a Pilgrim may count 
 it 'a thing most well-pleasing to God to con- 
 tinually say (and act in accordance with the say- 
 ing) 'The world is my parish too.' We have 
 started well— may we run so as to attain! 
 
 "The other place was before a brass slab let 
 into the floor of the nave. It recited in a few 
 words that here rested the body of one carried 
 from the centre of Africa, missionary, explorer, 
 philanthropist, who in his last words, penned in 
 his diary, breathed a blessing on any one who 
 would lift a finger to help in healing the open 
 sore of the world— do you know him ?— buried 
 with all the honor that Britain could give— a man 
 who following the Wesleys, took his parish to be 
 the world-David Livingstone, it was. Cannot 
 some one read his Life and learn of the life which 
 
154 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 so beautifully represented that of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ on earth ? 
 
 "Many other things have claimed our atten- 
 tion. The * Tower ' which has been fortress, 
 palace and prison in turn since the time of Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror — my! nearly 850 years ago. 
 The wonderful British Museum with the cases 
 packed with all the old relics of the world. Think 
 of seeing clay tablets written on in the time of 
 King Hezekiah and before him; or stones carved 
 in Pharaoh's time and even hundreds of years 
 before that! 
 
 "Then there was St. Paul's Cathedral with 
 monuments to noted men. Every Pilgrim boy 
 ought to be fired with a desire to emulate Gen- 
 eral Gordon who only served his Master, when 
 it is inscribed on his magnificent tomb, ' To 
 Major-General Charles Gordon . . . who at 
 all times and everywhere gave his strength to 
 the weak, his substance to the poor, his sym- 
 pathy to the suffering, his heart to God.' Who 
 will follow that—' Heart to God' ? " 
 
 On this Sunday in London, they heard two 
 sermons; one in the morning in Christ Church 
 from the Rev. F. B. Meyer on the Holy Spirit, 
 and one in the afternoon at St. Paul's on the 
 awakening of Great Britain to the fact that she is 
 disliked, the congregations differing as greatly as 
 the themes. 
 
 From London, they went to Paris for a week. 
 Of the McAll Mission he wrote to the Pilgrim 
 Church: 
 
 "... More and more these salons are be- 
 coming the outlet for the missionary activity de- 
 
The Journey to China 155 
 
 veloped in the young people of the regular Prot- 
 estant Churches of the city. So the McAIl 
 Mission accomplishes the twofold object of 
 saving and of helping others to save. Note 
 tv/o facts and see the need of work in France 
 and Paris — of 40,000,000 people, the Catholic 
 Church claims less than 3,000,000 as actual 
 adherents. The large portion of the remainder 
 are nothing in religion. Why in Italy, of the 
 30,000,000 people, less than 10,000,000 can be 
 counted as real members or adherents of the 
 Catholic Church. On the blanks of application 
 for Associate membership in the little Y. M. C. A. 
 in Rome, in the space opposite * Religion,' the 
 last three applicants, though nominal Catholics 
 had marked 'zero' — they had no religion. But 
 another fact — Paris is divided into twenty dis- 
 tricts. Each district has a public library. In at 
 least ten of these libraries there is not a Bible to 
 be found. Think of it! No wonder one of the 
 clerks in one of these institutions reported to an 
 inquirer for a Bible that the book was out of 
 print! At the largest salon. The Philadelphia, I 
 saw a most respectable audience gather for 
 Church service. Then we went to the slums, 
 where Mr. Grieg, President of the McAll Mission, 
 has his Sunday-school. Those bright-eyed boys 
 and girls in a low room back through a narrow 
 alley — boys and girls who could sing with a will 
 (they must have to patch the roof often) and 
 most wonderful of all — boys and girls who could 
 answer the questions like a flash — questions put 
 just as fast to them by Mr. Grieg. * This is the 
 strong point in French children,' he told me. 
 Why shouldn't it be with United States of 
 America children too ? 
 
 ** After the service, we went to the church 
 building of the salon and took supper with some 
 twenty of the young workers, girls and boys 
 
156 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 from the shops and factories, who used to be 
 helped in the Sunday-school and now are the 
 helpers. Then came church service, where I had 
 an opportunity of saying a few words through 
 Mr. Cluett as interpreter. Over each pulpit in the 
 salons is written * We preach Christ crucified ' — 
 so that was my text for them. For musical 
 instruments, they had the organ, violins, 'cello, 
 and two mandolins. Every one joined in right 
 heartily as they sang the Gospel Hymns in 
 French. At nine o'clock came the Christian En- 
 deavor meeting. There was consecration meet- 
 ing. They gathered — about twenty-five — in an 
 upper room and held a meeting just like ours at 
 home. The roll was called, each one answering 
 with a text. Then an opportunity was given 
 to say what this one or that one hoped to do 
 the coming month. One said ' Help trim the 
 Christmas Tree ' — another ' speak to the girls at 
 my counter' — these represent the types — com- 
 bining the practical and spiritual lend-a-hand 
 with material and spiritual bread. Then came 
 the Scripture discussion with a good deal of 
 animation. Finally, kneeling, all prayed, in the 
 midst arose the hymn, ' Shall We Gather at the 
 River,' which I recognized from the dear old 
 tune. At last came ' More holiness give me,' 
 and we arose from our knees to go out thanking 
 God for that saint Adam McAll, who was sent of 
 Him from Scotland to inaugurate this marvellous 
 work. I wish that all might see what I did of it. 
 No doubt but that Cleveland would lend even a 
 mightier helping hand in this warfare. 
 
 " One peculiar thing we notice on the tombs 
 of departed heroes and saints in the Catholic 
 Churches and that is the sentence * Orate nobis ' 
 — ' Pray for us' — that is for the dead. But we 
 take it, your fellow-pilgrims, and for us living, we 
 ask it of you ' Orate nobis ! ' * Orate nobis / ' " 
 
The Journey to China 157 
 
 The travelers went from Paris to Milan, Venice, 
 Florence, Rome, Naples and Pompeii and thence 
 from Brindisi to Greece. Of December 22d, in 
 Athens, Horace writes in the Journal: 
 
 **In the evening after writing the Journal, 
 about nine o'clock, we drove to the Acropolis in 
 the moonlight. The carriage left us (1 had a 
 revolver in my pocket) and the guard let us in 
 after examination of our permesso. Clouds 
 were in the sky but the alternate shadow and 
 brightness only increased the beauty. We 
 moved to all different points and finally at 10:30 
 turned regretfully homeward. Walked back in 
 the moonlight (two days after full moon) and 
 reached the hotel by 11:15. Glorious day 1 " 
 
 From Athens, he wrote to his "Fellow- 
 Pilgrims " in Cleveland: 
 
 " Six weeks day after to-morrow since we left 
 New York, — and how much has been packed 
 into those weeks. Many a time has the wish of 
 the farewell telegram you sent us been fulfilled 
 in these days. Amidst all the change of scene, — 
 with the thousand dangers around us, within 
 and without — 'The Lord be gracious unto thee 
 and give thee peace' has been our constant ex- 
 perience. We are sure you will all ask of Him to 
 make it even more an abiding reality to us as we 
 near the more definite mission fields where so 
 much lies to be seen and understood. This is 
 for us, but will you not add to it the prayer that 
 we may with the reception of such blessing be 
 the givers of even greater blessing to those 
 whom we touch in the many places of our 
 journey ?" 
 
158 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 On December 29th, he and Mrs. Pitkin touched 
 at Beirut and went on the next day to Jaffa on 
 the way to Jerusalem. Their letter to the 
 Church, descriptive of the Jerusalem visit, was 
 written from Benares on April 7th: 
 
 "Tuesday night we went aboard a small 
 steamer for Jaffa (Yaflfa, the old Joppa) the port 
 for Jerusalem. A storm came up and in the 
 morning, we anchored a mile off Jaffa, wonder- 
 ing if the boats from shore would dare come out 
 to us. Fortunately, they ventured and a boat 
 came tossing on the huge waves. As it was 
 made fast to our ship, one wave carried it down 
 level with our keel and another up almost even 
 with the deck, while the boatman skillfully 
 fended off and helped us along the steps which 
 were hung on the side of the ship. It was 
 rather dangerous. There sat Mrs. Pitkin on the 
 lowest step with the boat far below her. On a 
 wave the boat rose, two men seized her by the 
 arms and simply threw her into the boat, where 
 she was caught by the boatmen. I was treated 
 in the same way, luggage followed and the boat 
 shoved off. The nine rowers bent to their oars, 
 keeping time to an antiphonal chant between 
 them and the head rower praying to Allah for 
 help. Jaffa is a little, frightfully dirty place, so 
 we took the first train for Jerusalem, fifty miles 
 away. It seemed odd to see a railroad, but this 
 has been running only a few years, managed by 
 a French company. The locomotives are two 
 that were used between Chicago and the World's 
 Fair. 
 
 "Now came a week of sight-seeing that made 
 the Bible in its references to Jerusalem and vicin- 
 ity seem very real to us. One day was spent in 
 
The Journey to China 159 
 
 the city. We saw the Ecce Homo arch with the 
 adjoining pavement and the two stones between 
 which Pilate sat. We followed the Via Dolorosa, 
 the traditional path which Jesus took to the cross. 
 Along it, the Catholics have indicated stations 
 where He rested. But, of course, this street is at 
 least fifty feet above the original street as rubbish 
 has filled in the valley. So we passed to the most 
 remarkable building in Jerusalem, founded by 
 Queen Helena in the fourth century — the Church 
 of the Holy Sepulchre. It is a low stone build- 
 ing, covering about half an acre and containing 
 thirty-seven stations at which something con- 
 nected with the crucifixion is said to have taken 
 place. These the Greeks, Latins and Copts own, 
 sometimes commonly, sometimes separately. 
 You enter the door — in front of you is the slab on 
 which Christ was laid after the Descent. This, 
 all three of the sects own. To the left, is an iron 
 cage, indicating where Mary, the mother stood. 
 To the right, up several steps the cross was placed 
 and the hole leads down into a cave where they 
 show you the grave of Adam, so arranged that 
 the cross must have rested on his skull. Thus 
 they typify the washing out of sin. Around the 
 sides of the church are rock-hewn caves. As we 
 pass through them, we see here the tombs of 
 Joseph and Nicodemus; here the spot where 
 Christ appeared to Mary; here the column to 
 which He was bound; here the place where they 
 cast lots; here where they crowned Him; and in 
 a large cave, the spot where Helena found the 
 three crosses; the true one of which was proven 
 by its power to raise the dead. In the Greek 
 chapel at one side of the church, we were shown 
 the stone, which marks the centre of the earth. 
 From under this came the dust of which Adam 
 was formed. In the centre of the building is the 
 sepulchre; a small chapel of two rooms, one con- 
 
l6o A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 taining a piece of the stone which closed the 
 tomb, the other the tomb itself. To see all this 
 mass of superstition and tradition; to know that 
 only Turkish soldiers keep the three sects from 
 murdering each other, in their fanaticism; to hear 
 of the scenes of riot and even of death, when on 
 Easter Day the mob crowds in to light their can- 
 dles from the holy fire that priest-craft makes to 
 blaze from the tomb; all this makes one's heart 
 sick within him. 
 
 "Another day we spent in compassing the 
 walls. We saw the so-called 'tomb outside the 
 walls,' but one must confess that it has a remark- 
 able air of truthfulness. The hill near by, the 
 Jews call Golgotha and mock and spit at it to this 
 day. The tomb is an unfinished one as we would 
 expect. The groove, where a mighty stone must 
 have rolled, is plainly visible. Few tombs have 
 windows, but this one has an aperture, corre- 
 sponding to the Gospel narration. Having passed 
 the place of the stoning of Stephen, we crossed 
 the Brook Kedron and ascended the Mount of 
 Olives. Buildings have been erected on spots 
 where Christ is said to have ascended (the Latins 
 say one, the Greeks another), where they say He 
 taught His disciples to pray, and where the tra- 
 ditional tombs of Joseph and Mary are. A small 
 garden is shown as the site of the Garden of 
 Gethsemane. But in spite of these traditional ex- 
 cresences, when once on the Mount, we could 
 imagine ourselves back in the scenes of 1,900 
 years ago. The surrounding mountains and val- 
 leys, the far-off Dead Sea, with Pisgah beyond all, 
 lay just as they did when our Master walked here. 
 
 ** The site of the temple on Mount Moriah was 
 most interesting. No Christian is allowed in the 
 precincts unless with a pass and special Turkish 
 guard. The beautiful mosque of Omar, whose 
 foundation Mohammed is said to have laid, stands 
 
The Journey to China i6l 
 
 over the summit of the Mount, which the devout 
 Moslem believes even now to be suspended in the 
 air, having started to follow Mohammed to 
 heaven, but stopped by Gabriel, whose handprint 
 is shown to prove the story. 
 
 " On the side of the enclosure, facing the Mount 
 of Olives, is the Beautiful Gate. Until recently, a 
 Turkish guard was kept there day and night and 
 this for 600 years, because an old prophecy stated 
 that the Christians would one day recapture the 
 temple through that gate. We know that Chris- 
 tianity will win some day, but not by the sword 
 but by His spirit working in the hearts of men. 
 
 ** Our trip of a day and a half to the Jordan was 
 charming. Starting wrapped in thick rugs, we 
 gradually shed them as we descended the 3,900 
 feet to' modern Jericho in the Jordan plain. 
 Three miles away, a few sand mounds probably 
 mark ancient Jericho. The road is wild and the 
 scenery beautiful. Troops of wandering Bedouins 
 make it dangerous, but we had an escort to guard 
 us. One poor traveller whom we passed, with- 
 out an escort, was robbed an hour later. At this 
 season, the plain of the Jordan is sticky mud. 
 Our horses and mule struggled bravely and the 
 three miles to the Jordan were covered. As we 
 saw it— a very muddy and uninviting stream 
 about tlfty yards wide, flowing deep and swift. 
 We tried to follow it to the Dead Sea, but on ac- 
 count of the mud, were unable to go and had to 
 give it up. 
 
 " Another day was spent in driving to Hebron 
 and back, forty-eight miles in all. The mountains 
 rocky and bare now, but soon to be smothered m 
 tlowers. The valleys plowed or just turnmg 
 green, peasants and shepherds with their flocks, 
 all presented scenes of unparalleled interest. 
 
 "Tuesday was the Greek Christmas Eve and 
 on that day the patriarch entered Bethlehem in 
 
l62 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 state. The square in front of the little Church of 
 the Nativity, the oldest Christian church extant, 
 was thronged with the gaily dressed worship- 
 pers. Under the altar of the church is a rock- 
 hewn cave where worshippers kneel at the place 
 of Christ's birth, at the place where the cradle 
 stood and at the place where came the annuncia- 
 tion to Joseph. We attended one service, but 
 could not stop for the midnight service, when the 
 patriarch marches through the streets and three 
 times around the church, bearing an image of the 
 Christ-child in his arms. Hundreds of pilgrims 
 come to this celebration. 
 
 "Of mission work, we saw little as our time 
 was so short. The main effort is directed towards 
 Jews, Catholics and Armenians. Even societies 
 started for Mohammedans have turned to this 
 work for the moment, realizing that until after 
 the Turkish power is broken, and the nominal 
 Christians show a more evangelical spirit, there is 
 little to be expected from the Mohammedans. 
 
 ''Jerusalem is the most filthy city we have vis- 
 ited, and the Jew quarter is the worst of all. The 
 narrow streets with all the offal from butcher and 
 grocery shops as well as from the houses thrown 
 into them, and with the mangy dogs prowling 
 around, are simply indescribable. 
 
 " Thus ended our week in Jerusalem. Wednes- 
 day evening, January 6, 1897, we were once more 
 on the sea bound for Port Said." 
 
 The Egyptian section of the Journal is enter- 
 tainingly written, but it is descriptive of the 
 country rather than of Pitkin's character. Of 
 Sunday, January 17th, he writes at Assiout: 
 
 " This morning at nine, part of the crowd went 
 off on an excursion to be gone till noon. Mrs. 
 
The Journey to China 163 
 
 W. and Mrs. M., also Miss V., and we-uns 
 started for the American Mission service. After 
 a fairly long walk, we entered the courtyard 
 of the mission, went up some stairs, knocked, 
 were answered by a nicely-dressed girl, daughter 
 of the head missionary, who showed us into the 
 church. It was filled with young men and Herr 
 Missionary was preaching in Arabic, so we didn't 
 linger but walked up into the town and back to 
 the boat. This afternoon, we spent in Bible study 
 and this evening we tried a few songs, but too 
 many people are around, so it is unpleasant. The 
 boat has been going all afternoon, and if every- 
 thing keeps up, we shall sail on all of to-morrow 
 and hope to reach Denderah Tuesday noon. Mrs. 
 W. suggested I give a service on deck this after- 
 noon or evening, but we have kept out of the 
 way — for what reason ? — 1 don't know ! — only we 
 don't want to." 
 
 At Keneh, he says: 
 
 " We mounted and rode up a long avenue to 
 the town, quite a fine place, to all the pottery 
 works. But lo, we ran into the celebration of 
 the birthday of an Arab saint. Such a crowd in 
 the market-place! Camels in rich trappings with 
 rugs! — oh, oh! Just one for our floor in China, 
 please! Then other camels had big-covered 
 houses on their backs, concealing clothes, etc., 
 of the deceased. A brass band was blowing, 
 cannon were firing and a big crowd at one side 
 was watching races. We managed to get up 
 close and saw the finest Arab riders come dashing 
 down the line and rein up instanter, almost throw- 
 ing their horses, whose mouths were red with 
 blood. Altogether it was a most interesting 
 sight." 
 
164 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 On January 28lh they sailed for Ismailia on the 
 P. & O. boat Arcadia, and began to get insight 
 into the ways of life on the English ships in the 
 East. These are extracts from the Journal: 
 
 '* . . . The vessel is sailing free, so we 
 don't get much wind. They are busy with all 
 sorts of games on the Port Deck, which is the 
 cooler of the two. Bean-bags, which consist 
 of two crews passing five bags on a round trip 
 through five players, and having victory depend 
 on the speed of the trip, seem most exciting. 
 Then 'Shuffle-board,' 'Rings,' etc., all form a 
 constant fund of amusement. We sit and watch 
 as we are too weary to enter into the exercise. 
 They have asked us to do so at a shilling apiece, 
 but we are novices while they have been working 
 since Brindisi. No, sirree! But we get a back- 
 gammon board and are in the midst of that harm- 
 less game. 
 
 "Oh, Sunday after dinner, while playing the 
 piano during second dinner, the purser sent up 
 and asked me to cease. The reason 1 know not. 
 Sufficient was the sour. A Japanese nurse is on 
 board. Nice happy little woman with a big bow 
 for a bustle. There are four Chinese too, all in 
 one saloon cabin. The English you can watch all 
 day with never-ending amusement. The best 
 joke was this evening, when a gentleman at the 
 
 table with Mrs. F asked her if those young 
 
 couples were not very lonely and felt it badly 
 that the English would not speak to them. He 
 said that it was always so. For instance, as for 
 himself, he was an editor, a mercantile pursuit, 
 and so the three English at his table would never 
 speak to him. He must have been very self-de- 
 preciative. As for us, we were quite content to 
 be by ourselves. The only thing that does 
 
The Journey to China 165 
 
 trouble us is whether we have done all we could 
 for those about us by this line of conduct. The 
 captain, Loggin, is an earnest Christian, much in- 
 terested in Moody." 
 
 They landed at Colombo on February 7th. The 
 journal says: 
 
 *' Headache and mean feeling, so we rested till 
 four o'clock, when I discovered I had left my 
 New Testament on the steamer. She was due to 
 start at six, so I got a rickshaw and went out to 
 her in one of the catamarans, a curious boat made 
 of a long log on which two planks are nailed to 
 form sides. Then to keep it upright, two bent 
 poles are lashed to the top sides and extend some 
 ten feet to a smaller log sharpened and bent up at 
 each end, to which they are lashed again. Two 
 men row on the side away from the poles and to 
 counteract the side motion, the steersman rows 
 across the boat, so keeping her straight. There 
 is room for two passengers facing each other. 
 It was a novel experience and the sea was de- 
 cidedly rough. I found the book in the stateroom 
 and came up to look around. Everything was 
 black with coal-dust. The purser told me it 
 takes three washings really to get things clean 
 once more. This is one of the disagreeable fea- 
 tures of a six weeks' trip, necessitating two coal- 
 ings on the way. By six o'clock, I was back and 
 the trip had cost 100 cents (Ceylon) — a rupee, or 
 thirty-two cents in our money. Cheap!" 
 
 It was rather late in the cool season to visit 
 India and it soon grew very hot. On March 
 6th, Pitkin writes in the journal of the ride to 
 Sholapur: 
 
l66 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 "To-day has been the most trying in our 
 whole trip. No one warned us of the heat. 
 We had no water except in a small bottle. The 
 soda at stations is tasteless. The heat was ter- 
 rific and the dust awful. I was afraid Letty 
 would collapse. We couldn't stand the breeze 
 through the windows, it was like a furnace 
 heat. We had to wear our topis for fear of the 
 sun through the roof. But all bad things come 
 to an end, and after the ride through the desert 
 — for everything seemed a barren waste — Mr. 
 Edw. Fairbank met us at the station with his 
 little girl and we were soon in the tonga, driving 
 home. Everything is dried up here and not a 
 breath of wind stirring. It is hot, there's no 
 doubt of it. Mrs. Fairbank gave us a warm wel- 
 come and we had a little nap before dinner. 
 Beds looked too good to be resisted and we were 
 soon in them." 
 
 The good sense of his observations of the work 
 is illustrated by his account of the Sunday spent 
 at Sholapur: 
 
 "The night has been warm, but still we slept, 
 and at 9 a. m. we went off to the little Eurasian 
 service for the railroad people, that is nominally 
 under the Government Chaplain, but the mission- 
 aries take it for half the year. I took the service 
 entirely and preached, which was very pleasant as 
 the audience filled the building and were very at- 
 tentive. We were introduced to Dr. and Mrs. 
 Harding, the oldest missionaries in the Marathi 
 Mission. They seem like delightful people. He 
 is a large man with long beard, quiet, deep voice 
 and a man of executive ability. He is very fond 
 of music and has put many of the lyrics to 
 music. We came home and were about the 
 
The Journey to China 167 
 
 house till five o'clock, when the evening service 
 came at the mission church. In place of the 
 preacher, a Brahmin doctor in town preached. 
 He is said to be a great help to them, as he has 
 influence and money. The service was not as 
 orderly as the services down south. The boys of 
 the school were restless; the women did not 
 respond to the service and there was much going 
 out and coming in. One good thing was the 
 number of Hindus who stood in the doorways 
 and listened. As the church is right in the city, 
 while the mission compound is without the walls, 
 it makes the service able to reach a larger num- 
 ber of Hindus. In other missions they have 
 spoken of the difficulty resulting from a church 
 too secluded in a mission compound. This even- 
 ing, Mr. F. had the boys of his school on the 
 porch and with Mrs. F.'at the organ and baby 
 Adelaide between them in a high chair, they sang 
 hymns and lyrics, and then the boys divided into 
 two groups, those who had listened to the ser- 
 mon and those who had not. Then followed 
 questions on the sermon and the meeting was 
 closed with prayer. He is touching these boys 
 very closely. Hardly a boy leaves his school un- 
 converted. To the Hindus, to send a boy to 
 school means his conversion. In the evening. 
 Dr. and Mrs. Harding came over, and we had a 
 charming talk. Mrs. Harding was a Mount 
 Holyoke girl. Dr. Harding has had a very inter- 
 esting experience with a community which of 
 itself became Christians, and one of his helpers 
 went out to baptize them. They were perfectly 
 independent, but by and by, their boys going to 
 school learned what the mission was doing for 
 others; at mission meeting, delegates had their 
 eyes opened, and they asked for teachers sup- 
 ported by the mission. Dr. H. partially yielded; 
 now he is sorry he did. What might have hap- 
 
l68 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 pened is hard to say. Mr. Fairbank believes that 
 more responsibility ought to be put on the native 
 preachers. Mistakes will happen, but when will 
 anything be done towards independence, if a start 
 be not made soon." 
 
 After southern India, they visited Ahmednagar, 
 where they were greatly impressed by the work 
 of the Humes in the American Board Mission and 
 they then went on to visit Agra, Delhi, Lucknow, 
 Benares and Calcutta. At Lucknow, they saw 
 something of the Methodist work and Pitkin ob- 
 serves in his Journal: 
 
 ''They have had only one-tenth of the usual 
 baptisms this year, for two reasons — ist, they 
 are afraid of rice Christians, and 2d, they know 
 that famine relief is refused to Christians. When 
 asked about early baptism, Mansell said that 
 most baptisms took place after a good deal of 
 previous instruction and they were always fol- 
 lowed by much more of the same. In a word, 
 baptism seems to the Methodist a more formal 
 way of expressing what in the South is expressed 
 when a group of families ask for a school and 
 promise to give up idolatry, etc." 
 
 At Calcutta, he was impressed by the great 
 opportunity for work among students. Of the 
 building of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion for student work, he writes to the Pilgrim 
 Church: 
 
 " This building lies in the most unique student 
 centre in the world, ist, because within a ra- 
 dius of one-half a mile from this as centre, live 
 
The Journey to China 169 
 
 41,000 students in upper institutions of learning. 
 Take New York City — all her students, men and 
 women, in her higher institutions of learning, 
 amount to not more than 15,000 in number. But 
 here are 41,000 packed into small space, with 
 this building in the centre. 2d, because these 
 students are of many kinds of faith — Mohamme- 
 dans, Parsees (Indian fire-worshippers), Hindu 
 sects by the hundred, Jains, theosophists, sceptics 
 and atheists. 3d, because, of these, many have 
 heard little of Christianity, some nothing, more 
 enough intelligently to refuse it — while a very, 
 very few are Christians. What a work to be 
 done!" 
 
 On April 14th, they sailed from Calcutta on the 
 Aratoon Apcar for Singapore, and thence on 
 April 26th, on the P. & O. Rohilla. These are 
 the first entries in the Journal: 
 
 ** Sea calm. Flying fish around us. Checkers, 
 back-gammon, etc., to amuse. We heard so 
 
 much from the M s about disrespect shown 
 
 missionaries that we are on our good behavior. 
 Last night Letty slept on deck in her chair and I 
 on the berth mattress by her side. 
 
 "Sea beautiful all day. Met a Mrs. and Miss 
 S of England going on Round World Tick- 
 ets. A number are going in this way. One hun- 
 dred and fifty pounds from London. A man sitting 
 next me goes to Pekin to enter consular service — 
 five years at 1 1 ,000 — |2,ooo when he ends. Then 
 back for three years in England to be made a bar- 
 rister and then with increased salary, he comes 
 back. They allow with all travelling expenses, 
 eighty-seven cents a day for wines. Further down, 
 a man is going to superintend the construction of 
 the railroad from Tientsin. In the second cabin is 
 
170 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 an S. P. G. missionary from inland from Chefoo. 
 Of course, the usual chumps and snobs are on 
 board. But we are doing very well. Slept on 
 deck last night." 
 
 They reached Shanghai on May 7th, sailing on 
 the 1 2th on the El Dorado for Tientsin, where they 
 arrived on May 1 5th. On the way up from Shang- 
 hai he wrote a long letter to Luce, full of advice 
 about packing goods which were intended for 
 shipment to China. His counsel is worth quoting 
 for itself and also as illustrative of his exceed- 
 ingly practical turn of mind: 
 
 ". . . We had a short time in Shanghai 
 and so went around to see things. Certain 
 things you can get there cheaper or as cheap as 
 at home. But in this class are things that to hunt 
 out in the native shops would take a long time. 
 To get them at foreign shops might take away 
 their cheapness. Then too, many things can be 
 got in Chefoo. All steamers go through Shang- 
 hai, so allow some time for that place in your 
 itinerary. Now to details: I. All wicker-work; 
 rattan furniture, chairs or tables or stools, a 
 hamper, etc., get at Shanghai. Cheap. Say 
 $1.00 for what would be $5.00 at home. 11. 
 Sewing-machines are dirt cheap. Singer machine 
 is eighteen to twenty dollars; (fifty to sixty dol- 
 lars at home) same thing, — latest. III. Silk is 
 very cheap. Ribbon is about the same as home. 
 IV. Tinware, we expect is about the same as 
 home. Easier to bring out, as far as the mission- 
 aries' report to you allows. V. Iron bedsteads 
 are more expensive and of less value. Bring such 
 from home — and bring that — no wooden ones 
 will pay. VI. Rugs are best brought. VII. 
 
The Journey to China 171 
 
 Mosquito netting get at Shanghai through Mrs. 
 Evans — twenty-five cents (gold) a yard, twelve 
 yards to a double bed. VIII. Floor matting get 
 at Shanghai. Rolls of forty yards long and one 
 yard wide cost here $3.50 a roll. But if you stop 
 in Japan, get the matting there. It is of much 
 better make, so missionaries tell us. IX. Iron- 
 ware, such as stoves, bring from home. I un- 
 derstand that in your mission, every one uses a 
 range instead of a native cook-stove. But have 
 them crated heavily— not boxed— but have every 
 door and peg and unscrewable thing taken off 
 and packed inside the stove — that is if the open- 
 ing to them can be closed — or packed in a sep- 
 arate box. 
 
 ''This letter has long lain unfinished and now 
 as we are on our first house boat, bound up the 
 Peiho to Tungcho to the annual meeting of the 
 mission, I have a chance to finish it. Well! our 
 packages have arrived and most of them 
 are in good condition. But from some we 
 may learn some lessons, i. Have good 
 heavy boxes— don't be afraid of the weight. It 
 makes little difference in bulk and the latter is 
 what you have to pay for. 2. Have a lining of 
 waterproof cloth or tar-paper with heavy brown 
 paper inside. 3. Put at least four screws each 
 side of the box— countersink them and fill the 
 hole with sealing-wax. No board can then come 
 off without showing and the Oriental won't 
 tamper with wax. 4. Put around the ends of 
 the boxes iron straps, overlap the ends of same 
 well and fasten with good-sized nails. 5. Again, 
 don't be afraid of good boxes; the wood is use- 
 ful here and you won't have things wet or ab- 
 stracted. Insurance amounts to little, unless 
 everything is lost, and damages on weak parcels 
 are hard to collect. Care does pay. This water- 
 proof lining refers to books, dry-goods or pic- 
 
172 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 tures. 6. For pictures, leave plenty of space 
 between glass and boards, for "handle with care " 
 doesn't go out here so long as they don't break 
 the wood — therefore it may bend and spoil a pic- 
 ture. 7. For crockery, don't have it packed in 
 barrels but in boxes. The Oriental loves cups 
 and glasses, and to break in a stove or open a 
 head or slip a hoop — abstract the articles and close 
 everything up again — it is his delight. Even 
 heavy casks sometimes suffer. Bring all your 
 books, and as for furniture — well! They tell you 
 here that you can get fine furniture at little price. 
 It's true! But it is made of unseasoned wood 
 and if you could see the warps, and shrinks, etc., 
 etc., in some of the furniture, you would agree 
 with me that chairs (knocked down, of course — 
 so bring a pound or so of glue and glue-pot — 
 native glue is poor — also one-half dozen wooden or 
 iron clamps to hold the parts together in drying), 
 bedroom set or any furniture with many drawers, 
 should be brought from home. But bookcase 
 can be made here really cheaply and plenty good 
 enough. If a door sticks, you don't mind — but 
 to have a bureau or washstand, etc., with draw- 
 ers, cupboards, etc., sticking — it's a waste of good 
 patience! So don't bring bookcases. On the 
 glass of pictures, paste a large sheet of paper 
 with the white of an egg. Then if the glass 
 breaks, the pieces are held together and do not 
 scratch the picture. Don't trust to professional 
 packers. Be satisfied as to results only by per- 
 sonal supervision. Then you can blame none but 
 yourself if anything goes wrong. So much for 
 packing. . . ." 
 
 After a week in Tientsin, Mr. and Mrs. Pitkin 
 went on to Tungcho, where the annual meeting 
 of the mission was held, enabling them to meet 
 
The Journey to China 173 
 
 most of their fellow-missionaries. On Sunday 
 afternoon, Pitkin was asked to tell of the trip 
 through India, which he did, expecting to talk 
 about half an hour, **but one hour and twenty 
 minutes passed before he closed." After the 
 meeting, he made a hurried visit to Peking and 
 his future station Paotingfu. For the summer, 
 they went to Pei-tai-ho. As soon as they were 
 settled, Pitkin wrote to Luce, who was going to 
 China in the fall: 
 
 '* . . . We reached Tientsin May 15th, stop- 
 ping at Chefoo an hour or two to see your mis- 
 sion. After a week we took house boat for five 
 days up to Tungcho to annual mission meeting. 
 It was glorious. The sweetest, most devotional 
 spirit one could wish for! . . . Pei-tai-ho is 
 the finest spot on the Chinese coast. A high bluff. 
 Gigantic rocks— fine sand beach and simply ele- 
 gant bathing. Now different Boards in Tientsin, 
 Peking, Paotingfu, etc., etc., have large plots of 
 ground; an association has been formed and 
 cheap brick and stone houses— one story, three 
 rooms— put up. Some sixty missionaries are 
 here besides thirty to forty children and in this cool 
 invigorating spot you can imagine what a good 
 time we have. Haven't had a hot day yet— the 
 rainy season is setting in, but the sun shines be- 
 tween showers and the moon is getting full. The 
 sunsets over distant mountains are finer than any- 
 thing we have ever seen and the whole place is 
 an ideal one. Now we have three hours of 
 Chinese in the morning, two in the afternoon- 
 bathing, etc., takes an hour— bed at 9:30. 
 
 "... Chinese language is no snap. We 
 have a young fellow as teacher who has a Tungcho 
 
1 74 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 B. A. and goes to the Theological Seminary there 
 this fall. Nice as can be — though we have dif- 
 ficulty in understanding him in all that he says! 
 Also our tongues will get twisted around these 
 horrid syllables. In some ways, it is harder than 
 we expected, — in some ways it is easier. 
 
 **. . . By the way, be sure to see person- 
 ally to all the boxes packed. If they are crated, 
 see that the bars are close together and the main 
 ones, such as end and middle ones, reinforced with 
 iron straps. Take no one's word for how they are 
 packed. See them finally yourself and you will 
 be happy and bless me some months hence." 
 
 He wrote also from Pei-tai-ho on July 1 8th to 
 Dr. Smith of the Board in Boston, reporting their 
 arrival and giving some summary of their expe- 
 riences and of the results of the long and circui- 
 tous journey to their field : 
 
 *• We have at last reached China, and have had 
 our introduction to most of the fellow-mission- 
 aries at the Tungcho meeting. They suggested 
 that we spend the summer here and go into 
 Paotingfu in the fall. So we are here with Dr. 
 and Mrs. Shapleigh, in the best place in all China 
 for studying Chinese. Our teacher is a fine young 
 fellow, who has been teaching school a year in 
 Paotingfu and goes back this fall to Tungcho to 
 take up the theological v/ork under Dr. Goodrich. 
 We are taking our first dive into the waters. 
 They are not as cold in some ways as I had ex- 
 pected. Yet this does not imply that we think 
 the language anything but difficult. We cer- 
 tainly realize that fact, but we believe that the 
 Lord will ever keep before us the true purpose 
 with which we are studying this tongue — to 
 preach Christ crucified. 
 
The Journey to China 175 
 
 '*. . . A week in Jerusalem and vicinity 
 opened many pages of Scripture like a new 
 book. . . . We entered India February 9th, at 
 Tuticorin, spent a Sunday at the C. M. S. work 
 in Tinnevelly and went on to Madura. . . . 
 In order to see a little of the Arcot work of the 
 Dutch Reformed missionaries, we stopped at two 
 of their stations. It was peculiarly instructive to 
 catch the note of evangelistic work that has been 
 so prominent a feature of their work, and to see 
 how they have been led of the Lord to enter more 
 and more on educational work in order to save 
 the Christian communities and to raise up an 
 indigenous Church. They have also had thrown 
 on them in a most providential way, educational 
 work for a large number of Hindus. We shall 
 watch with interest to see how the intense 
 evangelistic spirit will affect the school of 800 
 pupils, only one hundred of whom are from 
 Christian parents. From there, we passed to 
 Sholapur for over Sunday. 
 
 '*. . . Ahmednagar was the next place, 
 and for two weeks we were with Dr. Robert 
 Hume. Fortunately for us, Edward Hume's 
 school was there at the time, so we caught a little 
 of the Bombay work that otherwise would have 
 been shut from us. It seemed like leaving home 
 when we started once more on our way north. 
 With all the knowledge that we gained in the 
 two weeks, we received a great blessing spirit- 
 ually from the lives of those about us. To have 
 such fellowship was a rare treat, and must be 
 to us an augury of the showers of blessing that 
 some day must water that Marathi work. 
 
 '*. . . We were then in the midst of the 
 famine district, and from actual observation, as 
 well as from the statement of the missionaries 
 who were almost swamped with the relief work, 
 we understood the bright and dark side of this 
 
176 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Government relief work. The mass of native 
 corruption in administration of famine funds is 
 appalling. Yet we could not but thank God that 
 so much after all was being done for the sufferers. 
 Britain has done all she can. It is only of the 
 necessity of things that corruption must be rife. 
 We were sorry not to see a little of the Presby- 
 terian work at Lahore, but the weather was 
 rapidly growing hot; in fact, by a remarkable 
 freak of weather, we had the most delicious cool 
 temperature at a time when under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, it ought to have been very oppressive 
 — especially so to travellers. 
 
 ". . . We left Calcutta April 14th, with the 
 weather very warm, and had a beautiful voyage 
 to Singapore, via Penang. Here we spent Sun- 
 day, in view of the need of changing steamers, 
 and were entertained by the American Methodists. 
 As in Calcutta to the students, so in Singapore to 
 members of the same class in the nigh largest 
 mission school in the world, I had the chance of 
 speaking English. This school is interesting from 
 three view-points: First. It is self-supporting, 
 even to foreign teachers, etc. Second. It is 
 made up of so-many-tongued lads, twelve I be- 
 lieve. Third. Contrary to M. E. policy, it was 
 started with the distinct understanding that no 
 Christianity should be taught — the teachers grad- 
 ually violated that until a crisis came last year that 
 nearly destroyed the school. A compromise was 
 adopted and the wedge of Christianity now 
 started will surely be pushed in. It opens up the 
 neutral school problem in a most interesting way. 
 
 ". . . Just a word in summary: 
 
 "I. Whatever our expectations were as to 
 our seeing mission work, they came far short of 
 reality. 
 
 "2. As for our touch with missionaries, we 
 have gained a knowledge of and love for them 
 
The Journey to China 177 
 
 such as will last for life; and be a glorious founda- 
 tion on which to build. 
 
 " 3. We are sure that their interest in us is, in 
 the majority of cases, deep and lasting. We be- 
 lieve that God blessed us with them. 
 
 "4. Pilgrim Church in Cleveland has been 
 helped by our experience in other lands. In one 
 case, a contribution to an important object was 
 saved by our report to them on it. 
 
 "5. We believe more than ever that our asso- 
 ciates in the work here are to have a share in our 
 blessing. At the annual meeting opportunity un- 
 solicited (in fact, at first repelled) was given us 
 to speak of our trip. Much kindly interest was 
 shown. 
 
 **6. From a financial view-point, we have 
 seen openings in other lands that will, we hope, 
 in time be filled by us. 
 
 " In all, we have been wonderfully guided and 
 kept by our Father. Our health amid changes of 
 climate and food has been remarkably good — and 
 for it all we thank Him and shall thank Him more 
 and more in the coming days." 
 
VII 
 
 LIFE AND WORK IN CHINA 
 
 So he died for his faith. That is fine — 
 
 More than most of us do. 
 But, say, can you add to that line. 
 
 That he lived for it, too ? 
 
 In his death, he bore witness at last 
 
 As a martyr to truth. 
 Did his life do the same in the past 
 
 From the days of his youth ? 
 
 It is easy to die. Men have died 
 
 For a wish or a whim — 
 From bravado, or passion or pride. 
 
 Was it harder for him ? 
 
 But to live — every day to live out 
 
 All the truth that he dreamt, 
 While his friends met his conduct with doubt 
 
 And the world with contempt ; 
 
 Was it thus that he plodded ahead, . .." 
 
 Never turning aside ? " :'* 
 
 Then we'll talk of the life that he led. 
 Never mmd how he died. 
 
 At the end of the summer, they went to the 
 station at Paotingfu. In an interesting letter to 
 the Pilgrim Church, Pitkin describes the location 
 of the station and the method of reaching it when 
 he and Mrs. Pitkin joined the mission, and tells 
 
 178 
 
Life and Work in China 179 
 
 something of his new surroundings. The rail- 
 road from Tientsin to Peking was opened in the 
 summer of 1897, but the road from Peking to 
 Paotingfu had not yet been completed, The old 
 river route, accordingly, was still in use. This 
 letter was dated at Paotingfu, January 5, 1898: 
 
 "You all know the relative positions of 
 Tientsin, Peking and Paotingfu, and you know 
 that the river, starting from Tientsin, forks a few 
 miles out, one branch called the Peiho gomg to 
 Peking, the other called the Clear River, coming 
 in a southwest direction down here. Everything 
 looks the same on the map. What a difference 
 here! The Peiho is a swift, muddy stream, with 
 great curves and wind-swept sand-banks, while 
 little vegetation is to be seen from the boat. The 
 Clear River for three-quarters of its length is 
 formed by a chain of lakes and only at this end 
 does it narrow down almost to a canal-like 
 stream, with a few locks to help navigation. At 
 Paotingfu navigation stops. And the river is 
 beautiful. The lakes are shallow, sometimes 
 stretching out into large expanses of water, but 
 most of the way they are filled with rushes, 
 towering twelve to fifteen feet high as they 
 l^ave a narrow winding channel for the boats. 
 In parts, the rushes seem divided off into huge 
 plots with lanes of water intersecting in every 
 direction. At other places, the plodding Chinaman 
 has dug mud out of the channel and is trying to 
 make ground for cultivation. Now and then 
 huge patches of enormous lotus leaves intervene. 
 Evidently swamp land separated the lakes at one 
 time, for between the lakes, the channel runs be- 
 tween mud dykes that are crowned each one by 
 a road, lined on either side by a row of trees and 
 
l8o A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 a row of graves, each of which is topped by a 
 huge earth mound, or finally, a small lake may be 
 cut off for cultivation purposes by a dyke running 
 along one side of it, leaving room for a deep 
 channel. Villages ar e nume rous, the channel 
 carries an immense "nfumber of boats; you are 
 never alone and out of sight when walking on 
 the bank; the rushes give shelter in the fall to 
 thousands of ducks and geese, that grow very 
 bold, through familiarity, while the number of 
 fhh&xm^ one sees ought to indicate a pretty 
 liberal fish diet for the surrounding population. 
 You can imagine how we enjoyed the trip. Give 
 us windmills and we could make ourselves think 
 of Holland. Naturally, the sunsets were glorious, 
 for besides this scenery of miles and miles of 
 waving green and brown rush-heads with the 
 paths and stretches of water, the mountains rose 
 to the northwest almost parallel to our course. 
 
 ** Two boats take us bag and baggage. If you 
 want to see the style of boat, look on page thirty 
 of Chinese Characteristics by A. H. Smith. One 
 boat has freight, with a huge piano box filled 
 with dry goods crowning the bow, and our boat 
 with its complement of freight stowed under 
 deck, with another huge piano box containing 
 our Steinway, acting as figure-head, carries our 
 cook, kitchen, bedroom, living-room, dining- 
 room and ourselves. Cook and kitchen took up 
 four by six of space, a lattice-door covered with 
 thin white paper led on to our bed, simply 
 woven wire springs placed on a broad wooden 
 shelf, called a *Kang.' Bedroom, etc., on close 
 examination materialized into a cabin ten by six, 
 which allowed us two chairs, a trunk and a 
 square table. Windows on the sides were lattice 
 with part paper, part glass covering, but if nec- 
 essary, the whole side of the cabin could easily 
 come out. The front was of boards matched 
 
Life and Work in China 181 
 
 and sliding in grooves. Our cook was a quiet 
 fellow who did his work well. Food had to be 
 brought along the narrow deck of the boat out- 
 side the cabin and passed in at the window. 
 One gets used to cockroaches on these boats. 
 The cabins are usually roughly papered and at 
 night the rustling of the multitudes is rather dis- 
 turbing at first. They say that if one finds many 
 of these friends aboard, it is a sure sign of the ab- 
 sence of worse things. So we can even rejoice 
 in the rustling! We were aboard by six in the 
 evening, Wednesday, September 23d, and after 
 an hour's going, we tied up for the night. At 
 3 A. M. the boatmen were at it, working till 
 about 10 A. M. when their first meal came. Off 
 again in an hour and steady work till seven, 
 when some large village would be reached and 
 our boat would tie up alongside a long line of 
 craft. * Work ? ' you say. ' How ? ' Every boat 
 has a mast. They run up a curious square sail 
 for a favoring breeze and with a wind further aft 
 than a beam, the men sit around and look at the 
 scenery. But most winds are head-winds — if 
 they are not at first, some bend in the river soon 
 brings them. Then it's * pole ' for the fellows, and 
 * pole ' they do, running at a jog along the narrow 
 ledge the length of the boat, keeping time with 
 their bare feet or cloth shoes. Or it's 'every 
 one out for a walk' — when they rig up a line 
 from the top of the mast and with a series of 
 loops fastened to boards running across their 
 chests, they turn into tow-mules. If an inter- 
 secting stream is met, they scramble on board, or 
 off with their clothes — all too light at the best — 
 they swim for it. So long as it doesn't rain or 
 isn't cold, these fellows are merry as children the 
 day long. Let the rain come and every China- 
 man wants to go home. The boatmen pull up 
 the deck-boards and climb into the stuffy hold or 
 
l82 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 crowd into the kitchen — maybe a piece of mat- 
 ting gives covering. But *work?' Not they. 
 They swim — they bathe — in fact they are an im- 
 provement along this hne over people in Pales- 
 tine and Egypt — but no work in the rain for 
 John ! Then there are bridges spanning the chan- 
 nel with a very sharp curve — usually made of 
 stone with stone railings surmounted by carved 
 dragons. They rest on piers of what look like 
 piled up, worn out grind stones, or on piers of 
 logs decayed and patched beyond description. 
 Down comes the mast for each one of these ob- 
 stacles. It is remarkable how quickly they do it. 
 Thus all Thursday we worked our way along. 
 Friday a breeze came up from behind and all day 
 we drove through the water, grazing the banks of 
 rushes, scaring the ducks, and losing most of the 
 things off of the table as the boat careened. 
 Saturday, we reached the canal part of the river 
 and with 'tracking' or 'towing' alternated with 
 spurts of sailing, we reached the lock three miles 
 from the city, where shallow water stopped us. 
 But Mr. Ewing was on hand to take us afoot, 
 with a few things aboard a cart, to our compound. 
 And w e were finally at h ome. Here is a com- 
 pound some 500 reet longirf 200 feet wide. At 
 the south end is the Girls' Boarding School with 
 twenty girls and matron, teacher, etc. Miss 
 Gould has charge of this work, the day-schools 
 jin the city and all woman's work. Her house 
 |is by the school — a house of one story, built for 
 two single women, the full complement of the 
 station. A walk runs down the centre of the 
 :ompound and at this north end on the west side 
 of the walk is Mr. Ewing's house, just being 
 completed, and the chapel. On the east side, 
 opposite, is Dr. Noble's house, part of which we 
 occupy. The extreme end of the compound has 
 the gate, stables. Boys' Boarding School with 
 
Life and Work in China 183 
 
 eighteen boarders, etc. A high mud wall sur- 
 rounds the compound, for there is no admittance, 
 except through the gate. In another small com- 
 pound close by, Dr. Noble has his dispensary 
 and hospital. We are on the boundary of the 
 south suburb of the city. Every city of any size 
 in China has its wall. Outside the north, east, 
 south and west gates, cluster suburbs. So we 
 are about one-fourth mile from the south wall, 
 directly south from the southeast corner of the 
 wall. Between us and the wall runs the river on 
 the opposite bank of which, a little east of us, is 
 the China Inland Mission, with one missionary in 
 charge. In the north suburb, a mile from the 
 city wall north, is the Presbyterian compound 
 with three missionaries ordained and one doctor. 
 So we are about three miles from them by the 
 road outside the city wall. These are our neigh- 
 bors and very delightful it is to have them in the 
 work, although our districts are entirely separate." 
 
 In a letter to his sister, written after a long si- 
 lence, he gives some further details of their life: 
 
 ** ' It's a long time between drinks! ' The cook 
 does all the planning for, buying of and prepar- 
 ing of the food. That is the way they have out 
 here, and a very varied menu he gets up. You 
 would die to see the little kitchen that he has fifty 
 feet away from the house. His implements are 
 few, and he has a brick range with two holes, 
 no pipe, no oven or anything. Over one hole, 
 he gets up the dinner. An iron bowl, like a 
 wash bowl is tipped over with the edge just 
 reaching over the edge of the hole, enough to 
 let heat in. That makes his oven. His nieats 
 are done to a turn, his bread and cake delicious. 
 Then around the hole (it is perhaps five inches in 
 
184 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 diameter) are grouped butter-tins with the edges 
 just projecting, so that three or four vegetables 
 are going at the same time. How he cooks, I 
 don't know. Still, there is another side to it. 
 Eve rything \ye have has to be lockgd np^ and 
 sugar, tiour, buttet, potatoes, etc!, doled out day 
 after day. That takes time. There is a reckon- 
 ing every other day, when he brings in a bill for 
 all the food bought. He can 'squeeze' within 
 limits — and how much goes into his pocket, no 
 one knows. There is a limit, but an artificial 
 one, for the other cooks are with him in stating a 
 certain price. Yet it is very little after all, that 
 he may get. Suppose meat is 140 cash a pound 
 —he may charge 145— that's one fourth of a cent 
 more. It will not ruin us — yet it is trying to 
 one's nerves to have to keep a watch out all the 
 time. 
 
 *'One evening Meng, the teacher, comes in 
 and with his visit manages to bestow some Chi- 
 nese upon our minds. He is a dear fellow — 
 beautiful face, fine carriage and as fine a Chris- 
 tian as one could wish to see. He is to be or- 
 dained some time this winter. With all his work 
 here as practical pastor of the station church, he 
 takes the main Chinese papers and keeps up with 
 the times. He knew where Connecticut was — 
 more than some Englishmen — and is interested 
 in everything that goes." 
 
 After his first experience of a Chinese New 
 Year season, he writes again to his sister: 
 
 " New Year for the Chinese has come— but not 
 gone. The 226. of January it came this year. 
 And what a time they have! It is strictly a holi- 
 day for one day and almost one for four more 
 days— then things begin to move, but the ma- 
 
Life and Work in China 185 
 
 chinery is not in working order till after the 15th 
 of the first month, when comes the Feast of 
 Lanterns. Ewing and I are going to see this 
 shindy next Saturday evening. We go in a cart 
 and liope to have our helper — Meng, along. I 
 will report of that later. Well, for the few days 
 before New Year, every one is paying up debts. 
 No debt can be carried over the New Year. That 
 means every one flocking to the city to sell things. 
 Then for four days at least every store is closed, 
 so every one has to buy in advance. Altogether, 
 it is a great time. We had to lay in provisions, 
 meat and all, for the time from Saturday till 
 Thursday. New Year's eve at midnight comes 
 the worshipping of the Old Year going out; J;he 
 P4£er Kitc hen God that is in every kitchen has 
 h is ^uulli "s n v^MM wrdr's ugar, so ItiaL he w ill 
 fell only good things al30ut the family to the new 
 god that is pasted up and to the gods beyond, 
 and finally he is burnt up. The new god is 
 pasted up — the lintels of the door are pasted over 
 with red paper sheets with one or more ' Happi- 
 ness ' characters printed thereon, and finally the 
 large paper gate gods pasted on the front gates 
 are torn down and new ones put up. Then 
 come feasting, drinking, etc. Bright and early 
 New Year's morning, the calling commences. 
 Every one turns out in their best. Any quantity 
 of people hire for an hour or a day rich silks and 
 furs to appear grand for once in their lives. Rela- 
 tives are visited first — then others, so that the 
 visiting lasts for several days. * Visiting ' means 
 real visiting, where the man comes in, 'makes 
 his manners ' (as we say) that is, places his closed 
 hands together, bows till they reach his knees — 
 then rises, lifting them in a circle to the level of 
 his forehead, where he shakes them up and down 
 a little, leaves his card, with ' A Happy New 
 Year ' and departs with ' see you again ' as a fare- 
 
1 86 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 well salutation. Or you can go in a cart and 
 your cart bearer presents your card to an attend- 
 ant at the gate. T h ;j t'<; th g jA^ay Doct or and 1 did on 
 the thiri 4^yr-^--W-e. v4siSa e^igm'^ri^ ^ 
 fiHMR2jti--th£_rity, at e^acj ] of the ' yam en ' gates 
 (oTfTcIal resjilet 'ices) ou rxS5i^_were presgTTtu± — O f 
 course iF~was a farce, for ar~ofrB" uiily'd'id they 
 raise the front curtains to the carts so that we 
 might be seen; at the others the carter did the 
 business — and at one only, did an attendant come 
 out and bow in a general way to each of the shut 
 up carts. Or you may send your card by a 
 servant. That's the least honorable way. Of 
 course, cards are returned. By the evening of 
 the day of our trip, every official had returned 
 his cards. Two came in person — the rest sent 
 cards. To have them send cards shows great 
 advance in treatment of foreigners. To have 
 them visit you, is decidedly friendly. Among 
 the Christians, the visiting and card passing is the 
 same. Our teachers, helpers and servants pre- 
 sent us their cards, but we send cards only to the 
 teachers and helpers. Women have no cards, 
 but they all pay their visits just the same. Early 
 Saturday a. m., a crowd of our teachers and 
 helpers were on the front porch to pay respects. 
 Then all day came women to greet Mrs. Pitkin 
 and men to greet both Mr. and Mrs. P. Men 
 ask for *T'ai T'ai ' (madam) as well as for 
 ' Moosher ' (shepherd) but women only for ' T'ai 
 T'ai.' The cash-shop keeper turned up. You 
 ought to have seen his * manners.' He almost 
 knelt towards the fireplace, and then with a 
 wave of his hands and a shake of his body to get 
 his garments into proper position, he made most 
 complete * manners ' to me. The same followed 
 for Letty. His son who had tried earlier in the 
 game to imitate his father then gave us two cards 
 — one the man's own — the other his shop's card. 
 
Life and Work in China 187 
 
 This extraordinary proceeding is rather common, 
 they say. So, though people can't buy and sell, 
 they can still advertise. 1 enclose my card. A 
 Chinaman has at least three names — his baby 
 name, or pet name; his school name, when he 
 goes to school and his grown-up name. His 
 school name must have three words, the first of 
 which is his family name. The grown-up name, 
 also of three or four words, follows in sentiment 
 somewhat the school name. Relatives address 
 him by the pet name, superiors by his school 
 name, inferiors by his grown-up name. There 
 are any quantities of modifications and uses, etc. 
 — no time to go into it now. This is the prin- 
 ciple. It's very funny sometimes. Take our 
 servants. Two of the three men are brothers. 
 The third is a coolie. I ask him to call the cook, 
 using the cook's school name without the family 
 word at the beginning — he, if he is new with us, is 
 stumped. He has called the cook (who in China 
 is head of servants), by his grown-up name; he 
 has heard the cook's brother use the family name 
 — what can this name I am giving him be ? Of 
 course, everything comes around in time — but this 
 illustrates a problem." 
 
 A full account of his acquisition of his own 
 Chinese name was written to the " Pilgrims at 
 home " in a letter of March i, 1898: 
 
 " ' What's in a name ? ' you often ask in fun. 
 But it's a serious business out here in China to 
 answer such a question. It's the question to be 
 solved in every man's life — not once but thrice. 
 Fortunately for us missionaries, it comes only 
 once. 
 
 " We send you cards for the ' Happy New 
 Year' — somewhat belated it is true. Can you 
 
i88 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 tell ' What's in this name ? ' In fact, can you 
 tell which end to hold the card by ? Then, too, 
 it isn't a card — it's simply a piece of red paper. 
 Still the size is just right and it is cut, not torn, so 
 it's the best and latest fashion. There's a fashion 
 out here in such things. You will note that we 
 are truly one in our cards, for the man's name 
 only is of consequence in the community. The 
 man out here certainly is the head of the woman. 
 Poor women! — sometimes they even don't know 
 their own by-marriage-acquired names. Not 
 long ago one of the doctors asked in the dispen- 
 sary a woman her name. She grew red and con- 
 fused — hesitated and said she didn't know. 
 'What? not know your own name?' said he. 
 In her distress she turned to one of the women 
 and said: 'You tell him. I have been married 
 only a month and I haven't learned my name 
 yet.' 
 
 "It was a solemn conclave of four that met in 
 our sitting-room one evening last December to 
 determine on our name. The result appears in 
 these cards: 
 
 "Every Chinaman has a family name. Then 
 at different periods in his life three other names 
 are added. It is lucky for the memories of the 
 community that these titles do not come all at 
 once. Finally, an intervening name is added in 
 many cases. Let us take up these in order, ist. 
 The family name — the 'hsing.' Every China- 
 man asks first of all — *Guei hsing' (Gway — ac- 
 cent on hsing) — 'your honorable name?' 
 When this important item is disposed of, conver- 
 sation can begin. By Chinese custom, there are 
 but loo monosyllables possible to be used for this 
 purpose. It is not uncommon to find infringe- 
 ments of the custom. Nevertheless, confusion 
 must reign supreme, were it not for the other 
 names. Only intimates address each other by 
 
Life and Work in China 189 
 
 anything else than the 'hsing.' Instead of say- 
 ing 'Mr. B.,' the Chinaman says ' B. Mr.' So 
 it is B. Hsien Sheng (e like 'u' in 'hung') 
 which means Mr. B. B. Tai Fu (dai foo) which 
 means Dr. B., or B. Mu Shih (moo shih) Shep- 
 herd B. Our ordained missionary's regular title 
 is 'Shepherd.' So it goes through all the titles 
 —and a man is very careful to get your title cor- 
 rect. 
 
 "2d. Comes the 'Hsiao Ming' (hsi-ao-ming) 
 or 'little name.' This is composed of two 
 words and is considered very carefully so as to 
 express some thought connected with the child. 
 Only family and verv dearest friends call the boy 
 and man by this name. The first part of his 
 school life and possibly all of it, he is known by 
 this name. In general, to use it to him in man- 
 hood shows close intimacy. Sometimes there 
 comes an intervening name— the ' Hsueh-ming 
 or ' school name.' This lasts only through school- 
 life and often is not given at all. 
 
 "3d. When a boy gets to the age of sa}; 
 twelve to fourteen, he receives his ' Ta ming ' 
 (da ming). This is the nearest to his true name. 
 It is of two words and is chosen to express some 
 thought, though entirely different from that of the 
 ' little name.' This is his popular name. When 
 intimacy breaks beyond the ' B. Mr.,' the next 
 question is 'your honorable ming'— only the 
 Chinaman doesn't ask it in that way— he must 
 needs ask for the fourth and highest name, the 
 *hao' (how). 'Your honorable hao '— to 
 which comes the humble self-depreciatory 
 answer, ' My despicable ming is so and so. 
 Thus they ask for bread, while wanting a stone 
 and they get a stone. Still, if they persist and 
 want bread, they may soon learn the third and 
 
 last name. , . , • .u «- • 1 
 
 " 4th. The ' Hao ' (how) which is the otticial 
 
igo A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 name, composed of two words, carries on the 
 thought of the * Ta ming ' and is used only in a 
 formal way. We then see the family name, the 
 little name, the possible school name, the big 
 name and the official name. 
 
 ** Now we missionaries have to take three of 
 the four names all in a bunch. We hardly need 
 the 'little name,' for our Chinese relatives are 
 not many. As to the ' Hsing ' or family name, 
 the foreigners as a rule try to choose this name 
 according to some resemblance to their own 
 name, either in sound or in sense. This gives a 
 clue as to who you are when another foreigner 
 hears your name. Dr^ Noble in this station ap - 
 p ^qrs. asi ' Pa p Tai Pu ' (bough dai to o) tor Pao 
 nieans^obleTMrrEwmg^ 
 rrtU shih'Xyu moo shih), yu beingthe nearest to 
 'BW.' Old D"ir~'6aotlTT^;:TC'T^^ 
 (foo) for *fu' means 1iappmess,"sTJdr"b^tn]g -the 
 result of possessing the qualities suggested in a 
 * Dr. Good-rich.' So we were dubbed Pi (bee) 
 as the nearest sound to ' Pi-t.' The meaning is 
 of no consequence — simply * end or final.' Now 
 look at the card. On the red side is our ' Hsing' 
 and * ming.' The top character is the * Pi ' (bee). 
 
 "The two next characters are our 'Ming.' 
 Foreigners try to choose a ' ming ' to represent 
 in sound (with or without the hsing) some one 
 of their own names, and also in sense to express 
 some proper thought. So our ming is, * Te 
 Ching,' — du (as in dull) jing — so near to Pe-ter- 
 kin— Pitkin! Oh, but that's not all! 'Te' 
 means virtue and ' Ching ' means Bible, so we 
 are supposed by this happy combination to 
 oossess the virtue that can come only from the 
 3ible. A right proper thought, we take it. 
 finally, as to our Hao (how). Turn over the card 
 and you will see it in red. It is of two characters 
 — ^Jung yi (joong yee) and this means *glo- 
 
Life and Work in China 191 
 
 rious.' In a word, the virtue obtained from the 
 Bible leads one on to a glorious condition. Then 
 to the * hao ' (how) on the card is appended 
 * Hang yi ' (hong yee) meaning * the first- 
 born.' 'Second or third born,' etc., would be 
 placed here to fit the condition, so we have it — 
 Pi (bee) with virtue from the Bible has become 
 glorious — he is the first-born." 
 
 The Pilgrim Church was taking deep interest 
 in its representatives. A missionary bulletin 
 board was placed by the Christian Endeavor So- 
 ciety in the lower hall of the Church. A map of 
 the Paotingfu Compound was placed here and 
 from time to time, photographs and portions of 
 letters and facts about the work were displayed. 
 The letters from Mr. Pitkin were most entertain- 
 ing and educative. On March 29, 1898, he sent 
 an account of a feast at the house of a Chinese 
 Mohammedan priest in Paotingfu: 
 
 *Mnst w^^^, I wns invited to a feast at th e 
 hqme ^of one of the _M Qhammedan Bl jests^n-the 
 city.~ Women invTte woTnen, and men, men; so 
 Mrs. Pitkin could not go. I went with Mr. 
 Ewing, our other ordained man here. I want to 
 describe the day's experiences, for * day ' it was, 
 as we left at half-past ten and did not return till 
 after four. Every gentleman rides in a cart when 
 out on social duties. The cart usually is hired, it 
 may be a tumbled down concern — no matter! it 
 is a cart, and Madam Grundy is satisfied. So we 
 took a cart. Look on page sixty of Chinese 
 Characteristics and you will see the genus cart. 
 With two passengers one man climbs inside and 
 sits on the hard cushioned fioor, leaning against 
 the back, and with arms akimbo keeps his head 
 
192 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 from being banged into jelly as ruts and stones 
 are encountered. (Incidentally, nothing is so 
 severe on one's temper as to have your head 
 come slap up against that hard wood frame.) 
 The other sits outside and hangs his feet over. 
 Back to back with him sits the driver on the other 
 side. Thus the procession started. You know we 
 are south of the southeast corner of the city wall, 
 and the river flows between. So we made for 
 the * Beggar Bridge,' spanning the river in front 
 of the South Gate of the city and then entered the 
 three-quarters of a mile square metropolis. Pe- 
 king gates are made in one fashion. Every city 
 in North China has gates of like style. At each 
 gate, the wall takes on a huge semicircular ex- 
 crescence, at one side of and into which is the 
 outer gate. Passing through this and turning at 
 right angles, you enter the city gate proper. 
 What massive gates — iron sheathed and iron 
 studded! But poor China! Forever fighting 
 well-armed foes with bamboo rods, as she did 
 the Japanese! The iron sheathing turns out to 
 be painted squares of tin from kerosene cans, and 
 the studs, gigantic headed tacks! The wood is 
 often rotten — the whole concern is dilapidated — 
 but all looks imposing! That's enough! Every 
 North China city has four main streets, leading 
 from the four gates of the city. ' East, West, 
 North, South Streets,' according to the Chinese 
 points of compass. The East and West Gates are 
 opposite each other; their streets are continuous. 
 You walk along the South Street, expecting to 
 enter the North Street and so reach the North 
 Gate, yet you find yourself lost. The wily China- 
 man knows that an army of evil spirits (or men) 
 could march from north to south and so capture 
 the city. He therefore puts the North Gate to 
 one side of the centre, runs the North Street into 
 another part of the East Street and is safe! Evil 
 
Life and Work in China 193 
 
 spirits never enter the East, West or South Gates. 
 They go for the North Gate and even after all 
 these centuries get fooled as badly as ever. 
 
 ** Paotingfu streets are quite decent in cold and 
 dry weather. In warm, the smell is unendurable, 
 in wet, they are a mass of mud, and clay mud, 
 at that! Imagine streets twelve to eighteen feet 
 wide with no especial foot or wagon paths; let 
 there be one-story buildings on each side, mostly 
 stores on the main streets; let each store have an 
 open front with counter running the length of 
 the store and all work and trade in full view; let 
 black sign-boards with gilt characters wave with 
 gay streamers in the breeze, hung from their 
 ends; add recesses here and there for wells 
 (covered) and cesspools (open); make some of 
 the narrower streets covered with bamboo poles 
 and matting; throw in a crowd everywhere and 
 have everybody looking at you — and you have 
 the streets that we went through. At last we 
 arrived at our destination, and were led through 
 the front gate into a small yard, which opened 
 into the main court of 20x40 feet. Here we 
 met the priest and * made our manners.' What's 
 that — you ask ? Well, an ordinary greeting in 
 China consists in shutting your own fists, putting 
 them together, bowing till they touch your knees, 
 straightening the body and lifting the fists to the 
 level of the face, where you shake them slightly, 
 meanwhile ejaculating a 'how' in a sweeping 
 tone, beginning low and ending high. That's 
 all. ' It's enough,' you say. And yet it is not at 
 all distant. One would at first prefer a hearty 
 handshake — but now we are quite wedded to 
 this form of greeting. It certainly is pleasanter 
 than either Hindu (touching fingers of one hand 
 to forehead) or Moslem (touching forehead and 
 breast) salutes. Then there's the 'greeting ex- 
 traordinary,' — but its modus operandi must be 
 
cV 
 
 194 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 reserved for another time. From the court we 
 were led into the house at once. Two rooms, 
 one large, one small is the regulation open part 
 of any house. The front door enters the large 
 room which is the public room. Opposite the 
 door is a table with straight back chairs on each 
 side. There the visitor sits and drinks tea. At 
 one side, a door enters the small room, and 
 \y^ thither invited guests usually are led. In this 
 
 ^ particular house, a brick bed across one side of 
 
 the room, a table and two chairs, a brick stove 
 for the hot water, a bench, a clock, a couple of 
 mirrors, a stack of books, a cupboard, one large 
 scroll of 'Allah,' furnished this yellowish-white 
 papered, brick-floored and paper-windowed 
 room. Three panes of glass were let into the 
 paper and these were quickly blocked by the 
 eyes of the curious crowd, as we took our seats 
 and were served with tea. Chinese tea is made 
 by dropping the leaves into the cup, adding 
 boiling water and putting a saucer on top. You 
 drink, taking up the cup in both hands and slip- 
 
 Eing the saucer enough to make a strainer of it. 
 oiling water is constantly added — two kettles 
 were going on the little brick stove — and the 
 amount one drinks unconsciously is amazing. 
 Immediately the regular quizzing began. * Your 
 honorable name.?' 'Your honorable age.?' 
 'Your wife's age?' Then came a comparison 
 of ages, interspersed by silences of silent soaking 
 into the brain for future reference. Next time 
 we meet, the same questions may be asked. It's 
 the polite thing! The priest had been joined by 
 another, — both of them were very wide-awake 
 for Chinamen. The door was crowded with 
 children. One or two older boys served us with 
 tea and sat at one side. In America, one often 
 wonders what we do at a feast. I am trying to 
 give an outline of proceedings. Our priest-friend 
 
Life and Work in China 195 
 
 amused himself awhile by asking Ewing what 
 State he belonged to and then trying to write it 
 in Arabic. Connecticut and Massachusetts were 
 pretty hard to pronounce. Ewing asked what 
 they thought of China's position. ' Oh, going to 
 the dogs,' they frankly admitted; vxhe__offkiaJs 
 are^Q-cai:aipt, ' 'How much do your "soldiers 
 get ? ' was their next question. We had to make 
 a guess (do any of you know ?) then retorted, 
 * How much do yours ?' * Two to three dollars 
 a month and food.' Hereupon, the elder priest 
 who wore a blue silk ulster lined with fur 
 over which was a sleeveless waistcoat of 
 brown corduroy with brass buttons started 
 to ask Ewing Bible questions, meanwhile, 
 showing him the Arabic Old Testament. 
 'The names of Jacob's sons?' 'The sons of 
 Ishmael?' 'How old was Ishmael when he 
 died?' etc., etc., etc. It was rather a ticklish 
 position to be in, but when he could get breath, 
 Ewing retorted by wishing to know ' how many 
 were the wives of Solomon?' to which our 
 friend, truthfully though somewhat evasively re- 
 plied, 'O, very many!' Finally, the conversation 
 turned; the children were sternly ordered to keep 
 back and Ewing began at one of the stock ques- 
 tions, 'How many children have you?' This 
 was the signal for three or four youths to come 
 in and make their manners. It was curious. One 
 youth had met us at the city gate, had ridden 
 and talked with us, but he must needs be pre- 
 sented and make his manners just the same. I 
 suggested I had my camera with me, so we went 
 out to see the buildings. In the court was the 
 bath house where every one bathes for each serv- 
 ice. These services number five a day, so the 
 priests at any rate keep clean— that is, hands and 
 feet. The end of the court was occupied by the 
 mosque. One half of it I send you in the en- 
 
I96 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 closed photograph. Note the many different 
 kinds of lamps — foreign and native — (kerosene 
 oil here is cheaper than in San Francisco) the 
 floor felts on which to kneel, the huge scrawl 
 which reads ' Mohammed is his prophet,' the 
 pulpit in the corner, the Arabic map on the wall 
 at the back of the recess or chancel, showing 
 Arabia at the centre of the world and the rest of 
 the countries grouped on the circumference. The 
 tablets on the wall we asked them to read, but 
 that was too hard a job. To their relief came a 
 sub-priest in the crowd and interpreted them. I 
 tried to have the priests in the picture, but they 
 declined, saying they had never had their pictures 
 taken for fear that the pictures might be wor- 
 shipped when the originals had passed away. 
 We returned to the little room and once more the 
 tea was started and E wing was duly instructed in a 
 few of the Arabic characters and then led into the 
 primer, which has its first sentence run * It is 
 wrong to wors hiB__Buddha.' Then our clothes 
 caught them and they^were pacified by the know- 
 ledge of the cost of our ulsters. ' O, do you know 
 who invented the photographic business .f^' asked 
 one of the priests. We tried to rack our brains — 
 German, English, French or further back ? * Well,' 
 said he, Mt was known to Adam and Eve, but 
 after the flood it was lost till Daniel's time.' We 
 questioned the accuracy, but he assured us that 
 their books taught that. What could we say ? 
 Finally, at 1:30 (we arrived at 11 a. m.) din- 
 ner was announced, served in the large room. 
 We took the two chairs of honor at a large round 
 black lacquer table. The others did the regular 
 thing of pushing, hauling, smiling, gesticulating, 
 striving that each should be better than himself. 
 A perfect farce — but polite, and at last the seven 
 were seated. At each place were ivory chop- 
 sticks laid on bits of brown paper, a saucer and a 
 
Life and Work in China 197 
 
 porcelain spoon (somewhat like a long-handled 
 medicine spoon) filled with thick Chinese vine- 
 gar. This is the universal condiment. All meats 
 are dipped in it— and it does serve the purpose of 
 neutralizing some flavors. Immediately were 
 brought in and placed on the table twelve saucers 
 filled with nuts, in the shell and candied, 
 almonds, stewed sweets, jelly, etc. Our dessert 
 always begins a feast. The nuts are left on 
 throughout. Convenient for stifling some tastes ! 
 At once the host rises, takes a handful of nuts 
 and places them before the invited guests. This 
 is the signal to fall to. Each one helps his neigh- 
 bor and himself in the same way. Dishes like 
 pieces of jelly, etc., are eaten by dipping into the 
 common dish with the chop-sticks. Each course 
 as it comes on is started in this way by the host. 
 He usually sits opposite and leans across the 
 table. The other priest in this feast sat next me 
 and assisted. Perhaps two dishes of a course 
 will be thus served to you. You are then ex- 
 pected to help yourself to the other dishes, or re- 
 plenish from the same ones. What is placed on 
 your saucer is expected to be at once removed. 
 When you help yourself, you convey directly 
 from the common dish to your mouth. Nut- 
 shells, fragments, chicken or fish bones, etc., are 
 dropped on the brick floor or simply left on the 
 table around the one dish that survives— your 
 saucer. One can imagine the litter. Without 
 disturbing the first course, the second course 
 came on— boiled meats and chopped vegetables, 
 all in convenient places for immediate transfer- 
 ence. These dishes were taken off, and a boiled 
 duck in a large bowl appeared. The meat was 
 tender enough to fall off with the chop-sticks' aid, 
 and a great piece, skin and all was deposited on 
 my plate. By this time, my saucer was full— I 
 couldn't begin to eat all that was piled thereon. 
 
198 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 So the host called for water and using one of the 
 bits of paper, he cleaned it out and started me off 
 once more. Then came four dishes of sweets, 
 let him who can, try to describe them! Even 
 the host had to consult his red paper menu to 
 discover their identity. Next, a boiled fish, head 
 and tail sticking out of the bowl, came on. Then 
 chicken stewed with onions. I had counted 
 twenty-three dishes. What more ? The crown 
 of the feast appeared — a pewter chafing dish, 
 with a meat and vegetable stew. My joy was 
 complete when this was cleared off, and the end 
 of the feast announced by the entrance of indi- 
 vidual rice-bowls, flanked by six dishes of various 
 stews, including one of sliced sheep intestines. I 
 did my best but could eat a very small part of 
 the rice. Of course, everything had been piled 
 in on top of the rice. Thirty dishes was the 
 count and 1 had made a try at twenty-five of 
 them. The satisfaction of the others in the rice 
 is equalled only by that of the small boy before a 
 huge dish of ice-cream. With one hand they 
 lifted the bowl and with the other shovelled the 
 rice in with the chop-sticks, meantime smacking 
 their lips in huge delight. Of what are their 
 stomachs made! With all this food went con- 
 versation, chief was concerning the eatables. 
 Everything was discussed, the host bringing in 
 his red paper for proof. Next, 1 looked up and 
 saw foreign lamps. ' What do you pay for oil ?' 
 was the result. Said one of them, ' How much 
 is your salary?' We escaped by saying it de- 
 pended upon the state of business at home. 
 Alas, that it does! Then we talked about their 
 adherents. In Paotingfu are t wo mosques, each 
 with some tirty tamihes." VVTien asked if their 
 religion was all over China, they replied that not 
 a province, county or district escaped them, 
 though the largest numbers were in south and 
 
Life and Work in China 199 
 
 southwest China. By the way, the Chinese say 
 for northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest- 
 east north, west north, east south, west south. 
 Then too, jokes about my eating were con- 
 stantly in order. Things grew personal when 
 one broke out with * Pi Mooshih is a very fine 
 looking man.' Curiously enough, they knew 
 about India and the Mogul Emperors. They 
 were much interested when 1 said that 1 had seen 
 the tomb of the most famous of these con- 
 querors. Where India was, they had no idea. 
 Never a map did they possess. Unconsciously, 
 one gave a prediction, however. Said he, 'Who 
 rules in India now ? Is it Jesus ? ' 
 
 " The feast over, we went to the door, took a 
 cup of water and washed out our mouths in the 
 yard, and adjourned to the small room for more 
 tea and talk. They said that all they taught in 
 their schools was Arabic from seven to ten each 
 day. They took the boys, and their wives, the 
 girls The rest of the schooling was in the Chi- 
 nese schools. As for foot-binding, to abohsh 
 that would keep their girls from marriage, so 
 they said nothing, though they did not approve 
 of the custom. Moslems refuse to touch wine. 
 Said they, * We are further advanced than you. 
 You will not drink it; we will not even touch it. 
 'What is yeast?' they asked. 'Isn't it intoxi- 
 cating?' 'What does it taste like?' 'Sour? 
 ' Does it make the bread sour ? ' 
 
 " In a word then, what do the Moslems do for 
 China ? They try to put down idolatry; they do 
 make for a little cleanliness; they war against 
 drink, and they teach Arabic Bible. On the other 
 side, they have no world knowledge and cannot 
 give any. They bring people to a sealed bible— 
 not the open Bible to the people. They change 
 the lives but little, for little is done against evil 
 practices and superstitions. Above all, they 
 
200 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 bring, teach and live the early dawn of the Old 
 Testament instead of the full sunshine of the com- 
 plete revelation in Jesus Christ. Here in Paotingfu, 
 it is not an evangelizing force. It is a family that 
 grows mainly as the generations come and go. 
 With many * hows,' we took our leave about five 
 o'clock and jolted back to our compound. 
 
 "This letter was being written Tuesday evening, 
 March 29, 1898, when it was interrupted by the 
 arrival of Horace Collins Pitkin! As it could not 
 be completed for the mail which went that night, 
 it has had to lie over until this courier — two 
 weeks' delay. Under the circumstances, we are 
 sure that you will excuse the lapse from a 
 monthly letter." 
 
 To his sister, he writes on May 9 of his at- 
 tempts at furniture-making and of his garden: 
 
 *• I have had two carpenters at work for three 
 weeks. They first made axefrigjoratoiLin a week 
 and a half. Then a serving table — then odd jobs 
 — and now they are deep in making a travelling 
 bureau in two parts, two drawers in each part, 
 with a sliding cover, which may be used for a 
 writing desk — of my own design. They come 
 at 6:30 — work till nine. Have breakfast till ten 
 — work till one — go to sleep till four and work 
 till 6:30. Their tools are primitive, but their 
 dove-tailing work is very pretty. But they have 
 to be watched — every nail and screw counted 
 out. Their tea-drinking is constant — so one's 
 presence in their vicinity is a discourager to lazi- 
 ness—though it takes much of your time. Bad 
 wood goes in if you are not on the watch. 
 Speaking of tools. They had to cut some 
 
Life and Work in China 20 i 
 
 grooves. I found them working with a tool 
 which turned out to be one of my steel wire 
 nails, hammered flat, bent up and sharpened into 
 a very respectable gouge. But their jig saw is 
 the funniest. A strip of bamboo bent round to 
 give a handle and spring. A bent nail through 
 one end for a hook and a piece of brass wire 
 thereto attached and drawn tight around the 
 other end. Then with a chisel, nicks are cut in 
 the front of the stretched wire, and the saw is 
 done. It does very good work. With soft iron 
 tools, you can imagine the hours of sharpening 
 required. All at ten cents a day. Then for 
 boards. To get an inch strip, they brmg a one 
 and one-half inch piece that is warped lengthwise 
 and proceed to plane the curve off, so getting a 
 straight inch piece. Of course, this probably 
 warps again, but that is no matter, for the table 
 is made. None of their wood is well seasoned. 
 Their poplar wood works up beautifully with a 
 grain like maple. They have very hard walnut, 
 a hard but coarse grain elm and the soft pine. 
 My work is being done in maple. 
 
 "Then there is our garden. We have peas, 
 early corn, cucumbers and-T^ishes up. Early 
 limas had worms in them. Late limas, corn, 
 etc., will be planted soon. A lot of squash is m. 
 You see we want to get some peas and beans be- 
 fore we go to the shore. Then we don't want 
 anything till we return in September. To run a 
 garden on such a basis is difficult. The ground 
 is ridged at three feet intervals and drills are run 
 between the ridges. Then irrigation goes on 
 from the well every day. That's part of the 
 work of our coolie, who has thus turned gar- 
 dener. , , . 
 
 "Had a thunder-storm yesterday and it was 
 very refreshing. Rather remarkable for this time 
 of year. The weather is decidedly warm in the 
 
202 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 day though the nights are beautifully cool. The 
 mornings with the birds chirping around in the 
 honeysuckle and in the fruit treeSj the roses just 
 beginning to bloom, and a curious pseudo-damp- 
 ness in the air, carries me back to New Hartford. 
 A gorgeous bush of lilac has passed, the peach 
 trees have lost their blossoms, the grapes have 
 large leaves, a yellow, scentless rose is crammed 
 with blossoms, a lovely red native rose is just 
 opening its buds, — everything looks like the 
 United States — except no grass, to speak of — 
 only weeds. No daisies— no buttercups — dande- 
 lions though." 
 
 Lest any should think the new home was in a 
 wilderness, he wrote to the Pilgrim Church in the 
 spring of 1898: 
 
 " The country around about is not a vast, tree- 
 less plain. Everywhere are scattered small mud 
 villages and these have their quota of trees, — 
 mostly mulberry and locust. Also, plenty of 
 family walled burying grounds fill the landscape. 
 These always have a grove of coniferous trees. 
 In fact, if you see in the distance the tops of 
 trees, it's ninety-nine chances that under them 
 repose generations of dead. So, though the 
 plain may have long ranges of treeless expanse, 
 yet the horizon and much of the foreground is 
 well broken up with the green trees. In winter, 
 we go walking outside of our compound. Don't 
 take the roads, for their age has depressed most 
 of them far below the fields. On all sides, the 
 ground is one vast garden, broken up by innum- 
 erable ditches and ridges, for irrigating use from 
 the wells scattered about. The larch and cedar 
 trees are still green. Even other trees hold their 
 leaves till very late fall. On all sides, wheat just 
 
Life and Work in China 203 
 
 springing up keeps a slight trace of green. Few 
 people are around — they are trying to keep warm. 
 The air is bracing — the sun delicious. In March, 
 you begin to hear the well-windlasses going. 
 That means spring. It is just as beautiful out- 
 doors as at home — only no grass. The long 
 views are soon cut off, for all hands turn out 
 from every mud hut, — wadded garments vanish, 
 and in many cases, nature's garments are the only 
 visible ones remaining, while all turn to at setting 
 long lake rushes in the ground, making lofty 
 wind breaks, or weaving them together in regular 
 patterns, quickly marking out boundary lines 
 with such fences. The transformation is com- 
 plete — rapidly under irrigation, the wheat and 
 garden vegetables, peas, beans, beets, onions, 
 radishes, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, etc., etc., 
 spring up, until it is delightful to walk about, for 
 there is such a contrast to winter. One wonders 
 where so many people could possibly have hiber- 
 nated. So in spite of drought — now this is a pic- 
 ture of what you see all around the Compound. 
 Inside our walls, our three vegetable gardens are 
 thriving — roses are in bloom — especially a native 
 monthly red rose that is simply luxuriant, bloom- 
 ing from May until November or December. 
 Stretches of grass plots are more weeds than 
 anything, but out from these bloom forth morn- 
 ing-glories galore and various varieties of wild 
 flowers. So you see we are not in a desolate 
 region." 
 
 In the summer the family went to Pei-tai-ho 
 again. The language study could be continued 
 there and the place, which was on the seacoast, 
 sixty miles north of Tientsin, was a source of 
 new life to the tired workers, who were able to 
 
204 ^ Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 gather there for a few weeks in the summer. 
 Pitkin wrote gratefully of the blessing of Pei- 
 tai-ho in this respect: 
 
 " But what does Pei-tai-ho mean to the North 
 China missionary community ? It means bodily 
 vigor. For years, the only sanitarium in North 
 China has been the Western Hills, twelve miles 
 west of Peking. But comparatively few could 
 go there, except from Peking and Tungcho. 
 And imagine! One Sunday this year, the ther- 
 mometer there was 109 in the shade — in the house 
 — 119 on the porch and 146 in the sun — and this 
 is a summer sanitarium! Naturally when Rocky 
 Point was found, swept by sea breezes, free from 
 all disease and cool all summer, every one who 
 could borrow or steal enough to put up a house 
 has hastened so to do, and sends at least the wives 
 and children every summer. With the bathing, 
 lovely hills not far off, green grass, flowers and 
 freedom, Pei-tai-ho means heaUh of body and 
 saving of many a missionary's life. It is true 
 economy to spend money at Pei-tai-ho. 
 
 " Yet with this comes the recuperation of men- 
 tal and spiritual power. Consider many a mis- 
 sionary child growing up in a far interior station 
 with one or two children — sometimes none — for 
 companionship, dwarfed thereby into maturity 
 when only a child. From one year's end to 
 another, just the same! Imagine that child spend- 
 ing every summer with eighty to one hundred 
 children, attending kindergarten and deriving 
 enough comradeship-ozone to last through the 
 winter months!" 
 
 Of the spiritual value of this gathering of mis- 
 sionaries from isolated and lonely stations, he 
 
Life and Work in China 205 
 
 wrote to Dr. Smith, just before leaving in the late 
 summer for Paotingfu: 
 
 ''While Pei-tai-ho has increased her numbers 
 this summer, for, counting all settlements, at least 
 250 adults must have been here, besides children 
 innumerable — more definite action has been taken 
 to make of use the extraordinarily unique situa- 
 tion. Missionaries from six weeks south of 
 Tientsin in Honan, from three weeks north of 
 Peking in Mongolia, are here, while every spot 
 between these extremes is pretty sure to be rep- 
 resented. For three days, morning and after- 
 noon, a conference was held on mission meth- 
 ods. The broadest and deepest problems were 
 taken up, opened by two leaders and then thor- 
 oughly discussed. The sessions were of intense 
 interest and of great value. The result undoubt- 
 edly will be that more definite plans will event- 
 ually mature, until in years to come, a regular 
 'Northfield' will be an annual feature of Pei- 
 tai-ho. Another step in a right direction was 
 taken when one day was set aside as a ' Quiet 
 Day ' with sessions, morning, afternoon and even- 
 ing. To many, it brought a great blessing. We 
 have suffered thus far in a little cornstalk-roofed 
 hut, using such humble means for purposes of 
 worship. To have 150 people packed into such 
 a mud-walled affair has presented its ridiculous 
 side to comparatively well-housed people. With 
 a subscription list already touching 1,500 taels, 
 the Executive Committee will put up a thoroughly 
 first-class building to be used as an Assembly 
 Hall, Church, Kindergarten room, etc. The proba- 
 ble cost will not be under 2,500 taels. This will 
 be used by the Chinese as well for their services. 
 . . . A fleet of British gunboats has been off 
 shore the past two days. Now the boats have 
 
2o6 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 started northward. Every one is in the dark as 
 to what it is all about. The Chinese, of course, 
 are immensely excited. My man even asked me 
 if there was war. . . ." 
 
 The first letter in the fall to the '* Pilgrims at 
 home" dealt with the collapse of the Reform 
 Movement and the return to active authority of 
 the Dowager Empress: 
 
 "Before we left the shore, we had served up 
 to us the first act of the tragico-comedy of the 
 Emperor of China's death. On a Friday morn- 
 ing we heard by wire that the Emperor had been 
 poisoned by the Dowager. All rail and wire con- 
 nection between Peking and Tientsin had been 
 closed since Thursday morning. That is all that 
 we heard. We kept quiet, but in the afternoon, 
 the servants heard the news and were badly 
 scared. As I was rushing into the dining-room 
 in the evening to get a book, to my surprise I 
 found servants and teacher lined up waiting for 
 a *talky-talk' with me. They anxiously asked 
 what we had heard and suggested speedy depar- 
 ture for Tientsin, lest the soldiers should come 
 and kill us all. They said that even if a foreign 
 boat should come and take us away, they would 
 be left to be killed. Their anxiety for our safety 
 was easily explained. And such fear for them- 
 selves was not groundless. Chinese soldiers are 
 little better than a mob, and the Chinese have a 
 hard time when they come around. However, 
 in time of trouble, the shore would be very safe, 
 for the railroad is five miles away and all troops 
 would pass through without stopping. j \s for 
 
 the peapkijinjhe viiicigp^^^T221iLii5-'^^^^^"g '^^' 
 that wouldl-bil^ilitBzexcipIiMal^^ one 
 
 has said, let them have enough to eat and they 
 
Life and Work in China 207 
 
 care_naL:wJi£ther an African savage sits on the 
 Jhrone,„, Asfor~a~"changg~D f -Tiyii a sly , ma ybe ~at 
 some distant time tliey would hear of it. -Except 
 when incited by rulers, p riests or love of loot, the 
 t"ountrv~p^o pfe'^e no^ tat 'ait-t foubl c som c. — ^fhe^ 
 Chinese soloier is the^rtirie~ffem'^w4Tit±-to run 
 away. Well, we waited in some suspense, for 
 the gates of Peking were locked and none knew 
 what was going on there. Both the British and 
 the German ministers, who were at Pei-tai-ho, 
 started at once for the capital. It would have to 
 be a horseback ride from Tientsin. Later reports 
 show that but for the absence of the English min- 
 ister, the whole crisis would have been tided 
 over. Saturday evening, some one from Tientsin 
 brought the news that the Emperor was alive, 
 but that the Dowager had seized the reins of 
 government. As for the closing of gates, stop- 
 ping of railroad and telegraph, these were to 
 effect the capture of the head adviser of the Em- 
 peror. He ran for his life, however, and saved 
 his head. Of course, you have read all about this 
 in the newspapers — in fact, know far more than 
 we of the complicated situation. Still, our point 
 of view may be interesting. 
 
 "The next week, we saw that everything was 
 quiet, so went up to Peking. Our road from the 
 station to the compound in the centre of the city, 
 was at least six miles. For some two miles of it, 
 we passed through an immense crowd, making 
 us feel as one supposes the President of the 
 United States on Inauguration Day feels. The 
 road was thoroughly policed, however, by men 
 in citizens' clothes, with long whips up their 
 loose sleeves. We spent a few days in Peking, 
 and then went to Tungcho — twelve miles. Mrs. 
 Pitkin and baby took a sedan-chair and I rode a 
 donkey. Our object in going was but partly ac- 
 complished, for instead of us both taking our 
 
2o8 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 first examination in Chinese before the Commit- 
 tee there, I only could do it, as baby caught the 
 grip and Mrs. Pitkin was occupied with him at 
 the hour of the examination. On our return, we 
 came back over the famous * stone ro'ad ' — twelve 
 miles long, made from twenty to thirty feet wide, 
 built of stones tlve or six feet long, two feet wide 
 and a foot or more thick. Considering the dis- 
 tance that the stone must have come, the age of 
 the road and the tremendous traffic it has had 
 pass over it, the building stands out certainly as 
 a wonder. Tungcho is at the head of naviga- 
 tion of the Peiho River, so from the first every- 
 thing has come from Tientsin to Peking via the 
 river, Tungcho and the road. Alas, now for 
 Tungcho. The railroad at first planned to make 
 it the terminus, instead of Peking. All surveys 
 were made — when suddenly the boatmen arose 
 and compelled the city fathers to revoke every- 
 thing. Consequently the railroad went by another 
 way to Peking, and now hundreds of boats lie 
 idle while Tungcho with all its trade departed is 
 on the verge of depopulation. 'Those who will 
 not move with progress, must be crushed,' ap- 
 plies here in China even, on very few but refresh- 
 ing occasions." 
 
 Little did Pitkin and his friends realize what 
 this political overturning would mean to him, 
 and to scores of other missionaries and thousands 
 of the Chinese Christians. 
 
 In December, 1898, he took his first country trip 
 with Mr. Ewing and one of the native preachers, 
 regarding which he wrote to the Pilgrim Church : 
 
 "A few weeks ago, I took a trip around our 
 part of the Chinese field and visited eight of our 
 
Life and Work in China 209 
 
 ten outstations, and as I came to have my first 
 glimpse of our friends, I want to give you all a 
 first glimpse too. When you knov/ them, you 
 can more easily pray for them. This time, let 
 me give a very general preface to my trip. Our 
 next letter ought to give details in daily form. 
 Mr. Ewing, Meng (our younger pastor), and I 
 started Saturday morning, December 3d and 
 reached home after our circuit, Saturday evening, 
 December 17th. This meant a circle of some 
 200 miles in length, but as a Chinese cart makes 
 at the best no more than thirty-five miles a day, 
 200 miles assume an importance not known of in 
 the States. Let me take up the different general 
 points. 
 
 ** ist. The scenery. The gamut was run from 
 low level prairie-like plains, miles in extent, to 
 high mountains with villages nestling at their 
 base. Hamlets, with mud-walled houses and 
 mud roofs predominated. Yet in the mountains, 
 stone houses with high battlements, cement 
 roofs and red painted projecting window and 
 door verandas and stone gargoyles, took one 
 back to Palestine or Switzerland. Level plains 
 gave way to rocky paths and fiat streets to stony, 
 crooked up and down, old Boston-like lanes. In 
 places, we passed through miles of pear and per- 
 simmon orchards, or crossed rivers whose high 
 tide beds in their sweep and destructiveness, 
 have a parallel in the Missouri River. People, 
 also differed. The slow, languid plain people — 
 the dark, sturdy, quick foot-hill people and the 
 eager, curious crowd of the market town. Only 
 a few miles in all from Paotingfu, yet to the 
 country people, it was unfortunate that we spoke 
 a 'city' and not their little district dialect. 
 Travelled townsmen who had gone to the Fu 
 city (Paotingfu) understood us well — the others 
 with difficulty. 
 
210 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 "2d. Our stopping places. At our outsta- 
 tions, we had either chapels or homes of the 
 Christians in which to stay. But often on the 
 road, we must needs stop at inns, and these ran 
 from the palatial with brick tloors and papered 
 walls to places that a man in the United Mates 
 wouldn't put his horse in. One place had had 
 lately a foot of water on its floors; the bricks of 
 the bed were reeking, and the mud walls were 
 mildewed. It was rather hard on one of our 
 Christian families to make its members crowd 
 into one room in order to give us the other, es- 
 pecially as the family consisted of two brothers, 
 their wives and children; a large number for one 
 small brick bed. Oh, but 
 
 ' ' 3d. The Church members. God only knows 
 how these have come into the light. As I looked 
 at the heathen crowds about us, I kept asking 
 myself, ' Have our Christians come from this ma- 
 terial ? ' They surely have, and only by the 
 power of the Holy Ghost could such a thing be. 
 With almost nothing worldly to gain, with per- 
 secution awaiting them, little groups here and 
 there stand for Jesus to-day. One man alone in 
 a yard with twenty-one relatives all hating the 
 doctrine; a family alone in a village, yet by their 
 joy and love attracting men from all around to 
 come and ask about the doctrine; another man 
 giving up in a village a lucrative business — in 
 incense selling, now to be rapidly becoming a 
 pauper. So it goes — these dear Church members, 
 our friends, — friends in fellowship with Pilgrim 
 Church. 
 
 "4th. One of our reasons for going out was 
 to ordain deacons at a number of the outstations. 
 This is the first time that such men have been 
 appointed. And these men ? The old man who 
 still has a fierce temper, that gets him into 
 trouble; the young man with wealth, but n^ar to 
 
Life and Work in China 21 1 
 
 being like Martha, the strong man who at a crisis 
 in our talking with his fellows, steps in and says 
 ' opportunity makes the man and man makes the 
 opportunity;' the fearful saint who blurts out 
 after the words to deacons are given ' I can't do 
 it — choose another,' and can hardly be brought 
 back; the man, German in look, with a carriage 
 like a Scottish reformer, silent but forceful — 
 these are the leaders of the little flocks put under 
 their care. Pray for their anointing for the work. 
 "5th. Another reason for our going was to 
 join in the Lord's Supper with these brethren. 
 And what diverse conditions were we in. Here 
 in a nice, clean chapel with a little Christian 
 group of some twelve, while three men sat on a 
 bench — three who had never before seen a for- 
 eigner. There in a little private room of the 
 house, the women sitting on the brick bed; the 
 Church members quietly sitting assembled in the 
 next room, while under the flickering candle over 
 the table at our side were the bread and wine — 
 the bread on a saucer, the wine in a Chinese tea- 
 cup — but the same, dear friends, for a' that. Or, 
 again, we were sitting out in a yard, the elements 
 on a little table at our feet. Christian members at 
 each side on benches, while from sixty to eighty 
 Chinese men, women and children completed the 
 circle in front, sitting on the ground or on corn 
 bundles, and on the roofs of houses or over gar- 
 den walls curious persons found solace. Amidst 
 all the noise and confusion, the elements were 
 passed. Or lastly, it was in a room with two old 
 people as partakers while a crowd of heathen 
 quietly watched the solemn spectacle." 
 
 This was not the last experience which 
 Pitkin and Meng were to share and it will be 
 well to quote from the first letter of 1899 to the 
 
212 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Church, Pitkin's reference to Meng's ordina- 
 tion: 
 
 " The first missionary to travel through these 
 parts was W. C. Burns — an English Presbyterian 
 — who died in 1867. He stopped at a little town 
 fifty miles south of here to sell books. His 
 reception was not very cordial, though some 
 volumes were bought. A few years later, Mr. 
 Isaac Pierson of our Board came to Paotingfu and 
 really opened permanent work. One day, one 
 of the helpers happened to meet a man who evi- 
 dently was travelling north. On inquiry, the 
 man said he was going to Peking to buy some 
 books like those which they at his home had 
 some years before bought, bearing the Peking 
 Congregational Press imprint. Great was his 
 surprise when informed that those same books 
 could be got in Paotingfu. The man was brought 
 to Mr. Pierson and turned out to be the head 
 Christian at this little town visited by Mr. Burns. 
 That man was Meng's father, who, a staunch 
 Christian, though an ignorant man and poor, for 
 he was nothing but an itinerant barber, brought 
 up these boys who now are two of our strongest 
 men in the whole mission. What hath God 
 wrought! As for this particular Meng. He is 
 deeply spiritual. He believes in prayer. One 
 ought to hear him tell of his being lost in the 
 mountains and of his belief that rescue came 
 through prayer. Mr. Ewing started out with 
 him to buy some garments and he said to Mr. 
 Ewing's surprise, * A moment, please — let us 
 have a word of prayer.' He is a brainy man. 
 Mr. H. P. Beach, who taught him at Tungcho, 
 says he would be among the first two or three 
 scholars in any class of a college in the United 
 States. He is well informed in world affairs and 
 
Life and Work in China 213 
 
 as for his religious training, his knowledge of the 
 English Bible is superb. He has a rare woman 
 for a wife — one who was almost a daughter to 
 Mrs. Sheffield in Tungcho and is a great excep- 
 tion to most of our helpers' wive^. who have had 
 a general school training, but not the life in a for- 
 eign home that implants in them what we esteem 
 the necessities of decent Christian living. Now 
 look at the first picture, it was taken last winter 
 in front of Meng's two rooms. The baby is 
 
 * Mu ti ' (moo dee, accent on second syllable) 
 
 * love God,' named after D. L. Moody." 
 
 In the spring, the railroad came to Paotingfu, 
 but even in advance of the railroad the spirit of 
 progress which the reactionary purposes of the 
 Empress had not checked, and with which it 
 may be believed within rather narrow Chinese 
 limits, she at first tepidly sympathized, led to a 
 great improvement of the mail service. Pitkin 
 writes in a personal letter to Dr. Mills on March 
 3d: 
 
 '* Here goes the first letter via rapid transit to 
 Pilgrim Church, and it is to fall into your hands 
 — in fact, it is to be a personal letter entirely. 
 You have been seeing the public epistles all 
 along, but we have not had a chance before this 
 to answer your letter of October 13, 1898. So 
 we take this opportunity just when we are feel- 
 ing so proud over this new connection with the 
 outside world. We were informed yesterday 
 that mail will be carried daily between Peking 
 and here, Tientsin and here. We had hoped for 
 a weekly service — but a daily quite dazzles us. 
 You really don't know what it means — to be 
 suddenly transferred from a three days' journey 
 
214 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 to a short trip of eight and one-half hours. We 
 certainly are pretty closely attached to civilization. 
 The railroad runs down here from a point on the 
 main line between Peking and Tientsin — the point 
 being the station next to Peking. From Tientsin 
 to that point is about eighty miles — from there to 
 Paotingfu is about loo miles — so it is i8o miles 
 by rail from here to Tientsin. The Paotingfu line is 
 as yet in the hands of the engineer department, 
 but they run a combination train each way once 
 a day. The station is west of the city, some two 
 miles from us. We went to Tientsin week be- 
 fore last to have some dentistry done and find a 
 servant. It was rising at 4 a. m., starting at five, 
 and feeling our way to the station. At 1 1 : 1 5 we 
 were at the main line, were soon aboard a fast 
 train and were in Tientsin at 2:45. Coming 
 back it is a seven to six trip, — long for a small 
 boy, when the cars are unheated and have only 
 the crudest conveniences. We can, though, get 
 warmed up in the brake van, where the train 
 hands have a stove. From here, the work is 
 being rapidly pushed southward, and they hope 
 to complete the 1,000 miles to Hankow in two 
 years. This then will form the trunk line of 
 China. We are really very glad that we have 
 had a year or more of the stage-coach (or some- 
 thing slower) for now rapid transit will mean so 
 much more to us. No more a six weeks' mail to 
 come in a batch — deluging you in one fell swoop, 
 followed up by a very Sahara of absent letters 
 another six weeks. We will at least halve the 
 time required to get an answer from Pang 
 Chuang, only 200 miles south of us, for it used 
 to take three to five days to Tientsin, then a wait 
 for a courier to Pang Chuang, then five days 
 there — another wait — a reply written — return 
 trip; just about a month for a reply from a point 
 200 miles away. Now it will be two weeks. 
 
Life and Work in China 215 
 
 " Photos also are in process of printing. You 
 can imagine how much it means when we had to 
 print ourselves more than 150 copies in connec- 
 tion with the ' Ordination series.' Still, we think 
 it is truly work for the Lord. 
 
 ** Although the Empress issues her edicts of 
 toleration, etc., still we keep having cases of per- 
 secution. Just now a rather serious one has 
 broken out in Chi Chi, and our elder pastor has 
 gone down with our visiting cards (in China, 
 signs of attorneyship) to see to the matter." 
 
 A letter of the day preceding to Dr. Smith 
 refers to the railroad: 
 
 " The world does move and Paotingfu with it. 
 We have been holding ourselves in with joy at the 
 thought of a weekly mail via the new railroad— a 
 mail in eight and one-half hours to Tientsin 
 versus three days by boat or on foot. The news 
 came the other day that we were to have a daily 
 service. It seems too good to be true. But to- 
 day as we came out of prayer-meeting the post- 
 ofihce coolie, one of our Church members, came 
 and told us that the first bag goes out to-morrow 
 morning. He was in a hurry to take it to the 
 post-office, but as Mr. Ewing and Miss Gould 
 wanted to write a 'first letter,' he agreed to 
 wait half an hour. So this hasty scrawl to you 
 announcing the glad event of our release into 
 civilization. We are proud of and as happy over 
 it as though it were a first baby; yet it is merely 
 a first mail. It means for us no more batches of 
 six weeks' mail coming in one lump— a combina- 
 tion that happens not more than once in a year. 
 We are glad to have had a year and a half of the 
 'three days" regime, but we know now how to 
 appreciate Western methods. The Chinese prov- 
 
2i6 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 erb for slow but sure is ' pu pa man, chih pa 
 chan ' — * fear not to go slowly, only fear to stand 
 still.' It has been a slow traveller, this railroad, 
 but 'tis sure, and we are sure of it also." 
 
 And several days later, a longer letter to Dr. 
 Smith deals with his country trip, the railroad, 
 and also the signs of disturbance which were 
 troubling the missionaries, far more, alas, than 
 they troubled the over-confident diplomats in 
 Peking: 
 
 " The winter has been a peculiar one for us in 
 many respects. We reached home the first week 
 in November, but found that our building took 
 us into December, the cold weather hindering 
 considerably. Then Mr. Ewing, Meng II, Mu 
 Shih and I went into the country for fifteen days, 
 managing to visit eight of the eleven outstations 
 and explore new territory to the south with a 
 view to opening up new work as soon as money 
 could be obtained. The trip was a grand success 
 and enabled Mr. Ewing, as well as myself to gain 
 under the tuition of our valued co-laborer, a bird's- 
 eye view of the Paotingfu out-work. In addition, 
 it has put me in touch with a very large proportion 
 of our Church members. . . . Though I had 
 a little foreign food along as a safeguard, I found 
 the Chinese food agreed with me very well and I 
 managed to hobble along by the carts for fairly 
 long distances. . . . Our work the last 
 month or two has been rather broken up by 
 reason of the difficulty of obtaining competent 
 help. The railroad's arrival changed the situation 
 and two weeks ago, urged on by needed den- 
 tistry, we took a flying trip to Tientsin and 
 secured sufficient help to tide us over. You 
 
Life and Work in China 217 
 
 might have enjoyed seeing me previously bend- 
 ing over the washtub, while Mrs. Pitkin posed as 
 lady-ironer! After three weeks of it, we made 
 up our minds, the railroad came and we went. 
 Everything comes to a missionary. At Tung- 
 cho, last autumn, I took my first examination 
 under the care of Dr. Sheffield and Miss Miner. 
 
 *'. . . Word comes from one of our best 
 stations, Chi Chi, that much opposition has 
 broken out and that the lives of our student 
 helper there and of prominent members, like- 
 wise, have been seriously threatened. Meng I 
 has gone to investigate. 
 
 **. . . You may be interested to see some 
 of the pictures taken at the time of the ordination 
 of Meng II. The set forms a series of scenes in the 
 never to be forgotten gathering. I have num- 
 bered them in order. They come rather late in the 
 day, but it was impossible to finish pictures at 
 Pei-tai-ho because of the dampness. To be really 
 satisfactory, all preparing of pictures must be done 
 by one's self, for the Treaty Port photographers 
 are but poor workmen. You may be interested 
 to know that these form part of a batch of over 
 150 pictures that Mrs. Pitkin and l.were atone 
 time this winter working over. It is missionary 
 work — we enjoy it and rejoice in it. We only 
 hope that visitors to 14 Beacon Street, who may 
 be interested in North China, may be helped by 
 seeing these scenes and hearing of them from an 
 eyewitness. Mr Lowrie, of the North Suburb, 
 and Mr. Whiting, of Peking, in February, made a 
 trip of 600 li to Shun Te Fu, south by southwest 
 from here, with an eye to opening a new Presby- 
 terian station. No one has much hope that such 
 expectation will be soon realized. We hear 
 from Pilgrim Church, Cleveland, of the blessed 
 winter of work they are having. Would that 
 every missionary might have the privilege of such 
 
2i8 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 a Church back of them! I am informed that this 
 railroad expects to reach Hankow, i,ooo miles 
 from Peking, in two years and a half. No matter 
 what lines may be built direct from Tientsin to 
 Shanghai and to East Shantung, this Peking- 
 Paotingfu-Hankow line will be the trunk line for 
 North China. We are glad that we had a year's 
 experience of the, so to speak, stage-coach 
 regime. Possibly, you may rejoice that your lot 
 was not that which will be sure to fall to future 
 visitors of North China work — that of sitting 
 prosaically in a rapid transit apparatus. A litter, 
 or cart trip, is really worth the remembrance — 
 likewise a boat journey." 
 
 This reference to his appreciation of the value 
 of his relationship to the Pilgrim Church was not 
 perfunctory. The Church calendar for April 9, 
 1899, contains the note: 
 
 "Mr. and Mrs. Pitkin in a letter received last 
 week, enclosed four pledge cards, two for be- 
 nevolence and two for the support of the Church, 
 with checks in payment of the pledges in full for 
 this year, the pledges aggregating over $200. 
 It is our custom to send to our missionaries all our 
 printed matter, and these pledges came as a re- 
 sponse to the reception of the pledge cards. Are 
 there not some members of the Church nearer to 
 it than China who have received pledge cards 
 without responding ? " 
 
 At times, doubtless, it was difficult to keep up 
 the correspondence necessary to make such a re- 
 lationship between a missionary and a church a 
 real success, but in the spring and summer of 
 1899, he wrote in three letters a small volume on 
 
Life and Work in China 219 
 
 the country trip he had made in the preceding 
 December. These letters are models of their kind 
 and they give a vivid picture of missionary itin- 
 erating work: 
 
 " Paotingfu, April 20, i8pp. 
 
 " It is a long lane that has no turning! In this 
 case, the bend has come at last, and you are to 
 have a portion of the long promised account of 
 my trip into the country districts south of Pao- 
 tingfu. As we have said in the letter of January 
 2d, it was a trip of 200 miles and occupied two 
 weeks. Perhaps one week's reminiscences will 
 be sufficient for this letter. . 
 
 " Mr. Ewing, Meng Mu Shih and 1 left Paotingfu 
 at 10:30, bound for Hsiao Hsin Chuang. We had 
 two carts, for each of which we paid thirty-five 
 cents a day and found the food for animals and 
 drivers. This arrangement was necessary as we 
 were going to httle villages where they would be 
 dependent on the courtesy of our friends. Two 
 carts were enough, for one of us would almost 
 always be walking and if all three wanted to ride, 
 a seat inside and one on the shafts would solve 
 the problem. We walked and talked, rode and 
 slept for twenty miles, when at five o'clock, we 
 reached a little inn where we had to spend the 
 
 night. 
 
 ''Cart travelling has serious inconveniences. 
 The roads are divided up into unequal stages. 
 As inns are small and accommodations limited, 
 the day's stop must be made early, or you will 
 find yourself crowded out. Any delay on the 
 road makes reaching the desired destination a se- 
 rious matter. You must either stop very early at 
 a point some distance from the destination, or go 
 on and take the chances that come with lateness. 
 The inn proved to be fair. We had two rooms, 
 
220 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 brick floored and paper ceiled, each with a brick 
 platform, or kang, the Chinese bed. My supper 
 was kua mien — a sort of macaroni, boiled in 
 water with a little cabbage, and a trifle of soup 
 stock, but with no seasoning. One big bowl 
 was sufficient. The inn waiter is called a ' pao 
 tang dy' or * gallop-soup man.' Tang 'soup' 
 seems to be a favorite appendix. The rich 
 mud in deep road ruts is called * mud soup' and 
 so on ad infinitum. Then came our preparations 
 for bed. Every traveller in China carries his small 
 single mattress done up in a canvas case. The 
 mattress may be but a thin quilt or even a fur rug 
 — it is a mattress and has a case. This last is 
 sewed all around, but in the middle on one side 
 from edge to edge a cut is made with overlapping 
 edges so as to close with strings. Through this 
 slit the mattress is pushed, first one end and then 
 the other. Then follow the folded bed coverings 
 and all extra clothing. Sometimes, pockets in 
 the canvas carry the odds and ends. The bundle 
 is then doubled over with the slit inside, a rope is 
 passed around and you are ready for travelling. 
 If it be by donkey, the load is put atop, untied, 
 and you climb on. If it be by cart, half the 
 bundle (untied) is made to serve as a seat, while 
 the other is propped against boxes and serves as 
 a back. To pack the bundle so as to make a per- 
 fect seat and back is quite an art. 'My,' says 
 my journal, 'but the floors are cold.' That's a 
 fact. One does not realize how cold it is travel- 
 ling, even in mild weather. The houses are like 
 cellars and the inns even worse. The only chance 
 for heat is to have a pan of charcoal brought in — 
 that's of little use — or to have the kang fired; 
 this means that the common fuel in North China 
 — stubble — is brought in and pushed into a small 
 square opening under your kang. When lighted, 
 it quickly burns up and needs replenishing until 
 
Life and Work in China 221 
 
 through brick flues that run around under the top 
 of the kang, the bed is warmed and the room is 
 jammed with smoke that is identical with that 
 from burning leaves at home — you can imagine 
 it! If they have a chimney, the flue is made 
 small to save the heat, or as in one inn, I have 
 heard of the chimney opened directly into the 
 room so that all the heat (and other things) was 
 completely conserved. The country kangs are 
 made of dirt entirely, with brick flues and front. 
 The dirt is frozen so that to light a fire for a guest 
 is unfortunate, as the dirt turns to mud. Many 
 rooms face north, so all winter they get no sun. 
 A cellar is comfortable, compared with some of 
 them. I had provided myself with a very con- 
 venient oil stove so as my feet were aching, even 
 with arctics on, I toasted them a while, and then 
 'piled in,' sweater and all on, with the heavy 
 ulster on top of the pile. Outside, we could hear 
 a troupe of singing girls, but they soon ceased. 
 We must go thirty li (lee) (ten miles) to-morrow 
 morning to our destination. Carts go ten li an 
 hour, so it will be three hours for us. 
 
 " Sunday, December 4th. — We were up early— 
 not very cold out, according to the thermometer, 
 but by one's feelings, the cold soon began to 
 creep in. I had taken along a food box with its 
 compartments filled with canned goods, and its 
 drawers with flour, towels and toilet articles. 
 This was a precautionary measure for fear I should 
 be unable to stomach Chinese food. Many mis- 
 sionaries have to carry such a box on all their 
 trips; others find they thrive on Chinese food. 
 For myself, I found it not absolutely necessary, 
 but extremely convenient. For a week's trip, it 
 would not be necessary in any such elaborate 
 form, a jar or two of beef extract, salt, a can or 
 twoof salmon, would be sufficient. The Chinese 
 practice of eating about eleven in the morning is 
 
222 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 very trying to the stomach, as the long walk with 
 nothing to back it, rapidly fatigues. So my beef 
 tea was a regular thing before we started out. 
 Washing apparatus is crude in the inns. Perhaps 
 they furnish you two bowls of iron ware or tin 
 for three persons, more often only one bowl. 
 There is boiling water enough, if you keep ask- 
 ing for it. The Chinese think nothing of wash- 
 ing all in the same water, and constantly our 
 pastor would follow Ewing or myself without 
 bothering to change. Ewing was wearing outer 
 garments of Chinese fashion — even to cap and 
 shoes — heavy stuff things. It was ridiculous to 
 watch him dress. It would be, * Oh, there I've 
 forgotten my sash — say help me, put it on under 
 all these clothes ' — or ' pshaw, that waistcoat 
 ought to be underneath, I've got to try again.' 
 Button-holes under the arms were taxing on one's 
 agility. By the end of the trip, he seemed some- 
 what expert, but the buttons were never mas- 
 tered! 
 
 ** At 8 p. M. we were finally started. The sun 
 and exercise soon turned us into fairly warm be- 
 ings. For thirty li (lee) we plodded on through 
 a flat country with sparsely scattered trees. The 
 mud villages that we passed seemed to be under 
 a grove of trees. The ploughed fields had few. 
 Dirt in this section is not loam — it's gray clay — 
 very dusty when dry and very sticky when wet. 
 Anywhere the farmers can mix up some mud and 
 mold comparatively decent sun dried brick. The 
 sight is a common one, — that of circles six feet 
 high and eight feet in diameter built up loosely of 
 drying brick, placed anywhere most convenient 
 in the fields. In America, I often read of mis- 
 sionaries doing so much work while walking 
 along with chance strangers, meeting them on 
 the roads. It seemed to me to show a high order 
 of courage, thus to do personal work. We are 
 
Life and Work in China 223 
 
 able to do so little of the kind in America. Well, 
 when you get here, it is different. In America, 
 every one is in a rush. Here every one walks or 
 rides slowly. Time is nothing. Something 
 amusing is everything. It is no courageous 
 thing to do personal work in China; "You are 
 expected to speak to every one you meet on the 
 country roads (mark this does not apply to towns 
 and cities) and they ask .^i^ij^fe^you-^are going 
 and what you are going to do, for all the world 
 like small boys and girls, a thousand times a day 
 questioning fathers and uncles, and every one 
 else. China is full of societies. * Oh, this is the 
 Jesus society, is it?' 'What's that.?' 'Why, 
 we believe in one God and don't worship idols! ' 
 Then follows an explanation of how idols can't 
 hear, smell, talk — exactly the argument of a sa- 
 cred writer hundreds of years ago. ' Have you a 
 book ? ' — Every society has some publication — 
 *0h, yes,' we answer. So it goes. Perhaps the 
 man has been in Paotingfu and knows the doc- 
 tors, etc. There is no trouble to find an audience 
 — so long^as you have clothes for them to feel of 
 or curious words for them to hear. All along 
 the roads, are little mud rest-houses, usually 
 where animals may drink, and the invitation is 
 unanimous, 'Come in and rest a bit.' On this 
 morning we met a man and Ewing asked him 
 how far hje thought the sun was — * 1,000 li?' 'Yes.' 
 — *io,ooo li?' 'Well, I hardly dare say.' At 
 11:30, we reached Hsiao Hsin Chuang (little 
 heart village). The chapel is in a large court, 
 and as we entered, the church gathering was 
 kneeling in the last prayer. They were delighted 
 to see us, — at none of the places had notice been 
 given of our coming— and set to work clearing 
 out for our reception. The building was put up 
 some years ago — costing $75 gold — one-half of 
 which was given by the natives. There was a 
 
224 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 large room for meetings and a small one for the 
 visiting helper. Each had a brick bed. For or- 
 dinary women in our section, the rule is to squat 
 Turkish fashion on a kang, so a meeting-place 
 must have such a bed for their use. Men occupy 
 chairs and benches, the women never. Of 
 course, if you are in a Chinaman's private room, he 
 will sit on the kang — on the edge of it, except at 
 meals when he bends his legs — but when women 
 are present at our gatherings in the country, the 
 kang is reserved for them. All these remarks 
 are intended to cover country customs. Our 
 compound customs in Paotingfu are somewhat 
 westernized. For the noon meal (our first that 
 day) it was kua mien (macaroni) and cabbage. 
 Then I prepared some fresh grape wine and at 
 3 p. M. we had our service — with ten or twelve 
 present — six church members. The-igflOfarrce-of 
 the Qlhersricari be imagined when Ewing tried 
 without success rto explain that the world is 
 roun_d. On the railroad question, Ewing made 
 the statement that in the United States trains 
 went 1,000 li {^}) miles) a day. 1 said ' You put 
 that pretty low.' 'Never mind,' he replied, ' it's 
 bad enough for them.' After the preaching, one 
 of the members was ordained deacon and then 
 we joined in the Lord's Supper. The utensils for 
 the latter were simple enough. A cup for the 
 bread, a white enamel pitcher and Chinese cup 
 for the wine. After meeting, Ewing and I went 
 for a long walk out towards the mountains that 
 separate Chih-li from Shan-si. They were exqui- 
 site with the setting sun. From 5 130 to seven, 
 Ewing sat in the room and talked to all comers 
 on everything under the sun. Then came our 
 second meal — 'bo-bos' (like 'saw') — thin pieces 
 of dough pinched up into a ball with chopped 
 pork and various vegetables inside and then 
 steamed. You eat them with Chinese vinegar — 
 
Life and Work in China 225 
 
 not at all like ours — catching them in your chop- 
 sticks, dipping them in the vinegar and either 
 disposing of the whole at a mouthful, or grad- 
 ually working your way along, — that is if the 
 stuff doesn't slip out from your sticks in the 
 process. I finished twenty — that was the meal. 
 I wasn't absolutely sure of after effects. Strange 
 to say, no harm resulted. Then came a prayer- 
 meeting with seventeen present, one little candle 
 lighting up the table and speaker, while the 
 others were in darkness! Pastor Meng talked of 
 God's leading him when lost in the mountains 
 some time ago. The audience soon departed at 
 the close and after evening prayers, we pulled 
 out our bedding and crawled in. I had a thick 
 cotton mattress, but, oh, the bricks were hard, 
 and my pillow would slip down on the dirty 
 mud floor. Still, the 'bo-bos' gave no signal of 
 distress, so the night soon passed. This will 
 give you some idea of our plan of work: In a 
 day's visit at a place, there would be the gather- 
 ing of the curious to see us and the general talk 
 with them; then a meeting, where, after the ser- 
 mon, the message of Christian organization 
 would be given, deacons ordained and the Lord's 
 Supper partaken of; then an evening meeting 
 beginning informally and gradually becoming 
 more direct, until as the outsiders left, a group of 
 the true disciples would be left to talk together till a 
 late hour of the things of the kingdom. The in- 
 terstices of the day were filled with as much talk 
 as we could stand, until Ewing and I would slip 
 away and walk, to rest a little. Some time ago, 
 I promised you a word on Christian organization. 
 It might be well to put it m right here. The 
 church members of Paotingfu station, up till last 
 year, had no church organization. All members 
 in the country had their names in the books at 
 Paotingfu and were kept in touch by visitation. 
 
226 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 The missionary was in charge of everything and 
 no^naTTve— not even a pastor — was on a par with 
 him, except by privilege. As we ordained an- 
 other pastor, the question came to the front. 
 The pastors were unwilling to occupy such an 
 uncertain position. The members were many — 
 local bodies of members wanted representation, 
 and if ever a self-propagating church was to be 
 established, it was time to begin the work. A 
 principle is recognized the world over in such a 
 situation. Foreign funds are to be entirely under 
 the ^control of foreigners, — no matter how much 
 controT of affairs is given to the native Church, 
 the Board's money must be in the hands of the 
 missionaries, who alone are responsible to the 
 Board. Without going into the steps that led to 
 the plan, the organization that we now have is as 
 follows: 
 
 "It is more Presbyterian in form thaniJongce- 
 gational, though we still maintain the Congrega- 
 tionaT^polity by submitting much to the action of 
 the Church as a whole. It is true that the Epis- 
 copal form of government is better suited than 
 any other to the mission Church. But as we be- 
 lieve in Congregational polity, we are trying 
 gradually to rise to such a height — it will be a 
 long time, though. Qne a t Jiomje can't under- 
 stand h^w 4Jie. laimly-Fektion dominates every- 
 thing here,- how, unless in the case of a re- 
 markable Christian, a son couldn't vote against 
 his father, or a younger brother versus an older. 
 One illustration will show it. My teacher was 
 attacked by an amateur virago. She pulled him 
 around, but he couldn't strike back. Why ? Be- 
 cause his mother years ago had adopted in a loose 
 Chinese fashion a son of a man, the brother of 
 this woman. So she was sort of an aunt to him, 
 and as she was older than he, he couldn't touch 
 her. Imagine cases of discipline coming up in 
 
Life and Work in China 227 
 
 the Church or even questions regarding entrance 
 into Church, unless the case were absolutely 
 proven and was the worst type, what hope 
 would one have of getting a right vote out of 
 friends and relatives of such accused! That's 
 why an Episcopal form of government is neces- 
 sary as yet. 
 
 " So we have an * Yee Shih Huei ' — or Congre- 
 gational Association, that is practically a session. 
 It is composed of missionaries and helpers and 
 Pa otingfu Ch urch deacons, — all having equal 
 vote, — three "foreigners and seven natives. We 
 can trust these men's votes, — though with them 
 some cases have been a very hard test, and the 
 day has been won by the acknowledged principle 
 that they will not vote over us for a thing that we 
 solidly oppose and we won't press a thing that 
 they solidly oppose. Such matters are quietly 
 shelved. This Association meets twice a year 
 and has its various committees — preaching, 
 school, matrimony, ad interim, etc. It tries 
 cases of discipline and as a whole or through 
 the pastors, examines for probation and for mem- 
 bership. In fact, it has direct control of every- 
 thing connected with the Church, having in some 
 cases advisory power — nothing more — of how 
 foreign money may be expended, such as for 
 salaries, school-work, etc. The missionary re- 
 mains the pastor of the Church. Native pastors 
 and helpers are stationed every six months in 
 charge of sections of outstations, so that the 
 whole field is covered. The Congregational 
 polity comes in in the fact that admission of 
 members and any special actions are laid before 
 the Church for action. Other decisions of the 
 Yee Shih Huei are simply read out for informa- 
 tion. Paotingfu— Ghiirch is made up of some 
 250 -mernbers — most of whom are scattered over 
 an area of 50x130 miles. The head Church con- 
 
228 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 gregation at Paotingfu is a small part of the 
 whole. They occupy the position, however, of 
 the parent Church and the little groups in the 
 country are, in Chinese, * branch churches ' (same 
 word as vine and branches) occupying in an em- 
 bryonic way a position of a mission church in 
 United States large cities with the parent church. 
 It was to establish this arrangement that we took 
 the trip. Up to that time, there had been no 
 definite policy — pastors would go out and bring 
 a string of names of those admitted to the 
 Church, some on very little evidence of conver- 
 sion, not one of whom the heads of the Church 
 here would know. They were bound to the 
 Paotingfu local congregation in no way, they 
 practically acknowledged no bond. It was a 
 curious state of affairs. Congregationalism gone 
 mad. This, then, was the relation established: 
 
 ** I. A branch church must have at least ten 
 members. 2. It must have regular Sunday serv- 
 ices. 3. It must have at least one deacon, ap- 
 pointed and ordained by the Yee Shih Huei. 4. 
 It must have regular weekly collections for its 
 maintenance, and half-yearly offerings for the 
 parent Church at Paotingfu, which shall go to- 
 wards the support of one of the pastors. 5. It 
 must have a church attendance record and a regu- 
 lar system of Bible study. These are the condi- 
 tions and ten out of eleven of our Christian 
 groups can fulfill them. Beside the helpers, sta- 
 tioned for a month or two at each place at a 
 time, one of the pastors makes a semiannual 
 round to visit all and administer the communion. 
 Also one pastor is steward and makes a semi- 
 annual round to collect the contributions for the 
 parent church. By means of helpers, church 
 records, etc., we can keep a fairly close survey of 
 the field. Our rules for church membership are 
 much more strict now than a year ago. All must 
 
Life and Work in China 229 
 
 first be probationers for at least six months. To 
 be probationers, besides character, etc., they 
 must be able to read one of three small books, 
 catechism-like. After six months— if the church 
 members agree and the helper assents, they may 
 come to Paotingfu, unless because of age, etc., 
 and be examined on two of the three books, and 
 if character, etc., be worthy, they are admitted 
 at Paotingfu— the local church assenting. ' The 
 literary requirements are little,' you say. True, 
 but where a man bright as a trap in his business, 
 can't learn six characters in an evening and the 
 proportion of our communicants are over fifty 
 years without having learned a character until 
 they begin to read these books, you may see that 
 the standard is high. Of course, for a few who 
 have been to Chinese schools when young, we 
 put the wall higher. This, then, is our plan, 
 with a native force of two pastors and three 
 helpers. Twice a year at the meeting of the 
 Yee Shih Huei, we have ' a big meeting '—so- 
 called. The last one was last week, where there 
 were seventy-nine delegates from one to four 
 days' journey distant." 
 
 " Paotingfu, June, 73, iS^p. 
 "Our last letter to you all left me on my 
 winter tour at the village of Hsiao Hsin Chuang. 
 We had wandered in our talk together into the 
 region of Church polity— a very perplexing sub- 
 ject out here— and we were foot sore from our 
 journey of twenty-five to thirty miles. So we 
 had to rest. Now we are all— as the Chinese say 
 —'ping an'— that is 'at peace,' and so we are 
 going on once more. By the way, 'Ping an' is 
 a very common expression for our Christians. 
 You meet one and it is—' Is your family— are you 
 —at peace ? '—and it is ' yee lu ping an,' ' all your 
 
230 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 journey peace!' It is too long ago to remember 
 exactly, but probably with this same expression 
 the village members of Hsiao Hsin Chuang bade 
 us farewell on Monday morning, December 5th. 
 I had had my beef tea and crackers and we all 
 had joined in a breakfast of kua mien or maca- 
 roni. The members had been assembling and 
 escorted us to the edge of the village, where 
 with many * tsai chien's' (again see) 'don't ac- 
 company me's ' — ' ping an's,' we left them and 
 started off in a northwestern direction towards 
 the mountains. These latter were beautiful in 
 brown and reddish tints. A cool wind was 
 blowing — the sky was absolutely clear — a deli- 
 cious day for walking. In four hours we reached 
 Tang Hsien — quite an important hsien or district 
 city — walled, of course. In the suburbs, we ate 
 our lunch in an inn. The room was small and as 
 prospects for something appetizing to eat were 
 meager, I indulged in stewed chipped beef and 
 toast of my own making. The crowd was 
 rather obstreperous and finally to keep them 
 quiet, Ewing went out to talk to them. It was 
 of little use and we were glad to get our carts 
 started once more. The dilapidated walls were 
 soon left behind and we entered a loess valley — 
 like an ancient river-bed of reddish clay. The 
 loess foundation is very common in Western 
 Chih-li and in Shan-si. It is the peculiar clay soil 
 that readily cleaves perpendicularly, as though 
 cut by a knife — thus making most interesting 
 canons and plateaus. Our transitions from plain 
 mud to this red clay were very satisfactory, and, 
 after passing through a narrow defile made by 
 carts in the clay and sandstone of a high plateau, 
 we were prepared for our entrance into a new 
 world of rock and hill. A short climb up a steep, 
 rocky road landed us in the ' Yellow Head Horse ' 
 village — Ma Huang Tou. As I wrote you some time 
 
Life and Work in China 23I 
 
 ago, it was as though we had suddenly been set 
 down in an Alpine village. The place is well- 
 to-do, for the villages round about are rich in 
 walnuts, persimmons, dates and wheat. The 
 streets go up and down and all around— stone 
 paved. The houses are stone— some two storied, 
 with battlements and curious gargoyles. Little 
 wood roofs, painted red, over doors and windows, 
 set off the gray stone. The town has an air of 
 ancient respectability. From the mountains runs 
 a brawling stream with pebbles and shining sand 
 —just as in New England; and all the fences are 
 stone walls— a sight to see! The people, too, are 
 different from those in the plains. Darker, 
 sturdier— and very hospitable. Church members 
 came from all sides to meet us and carried our 
 things up a steep walk to the chapel. It is quite 
 common for the majority of the people in any 
 village to have a common family name. Here it 
 is 'Rang.' So it was a Rang Lao Hsuan, who 
 last year gave this building to the church— lend- 
 ing It indefinitely— after having at his own ex- 
 pense fully repaired it. Other buildings in the 
 yard, he used for grain, etc., and as the side runs 
 into a side hill— large caves cut in the clay, facing 
 south, make excellent storehouses. We sat 
 around in the yard and were properly introduced 
 to Rang this and Rang that. My n^e-book 
 seemed to get into inextricable confusion. As 
 darkness came on, we had dinner of boiled 
 millet straight— no salt— no sugar, and then the 
 meeting began— some sixteen being present. By 
 10 p. M. we were in bed— side by side— three on 
 the brick bed. The two rooms— one large one 
 and one small, are very neat. Papered walls and 
 ceiling and cement floor (no pounded dirt), n 
 the small room is a fanning machine— exactly 
 like a home one, except for the absence of sieves 
 —using instead troughs into which the grain of 
 
232 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 varying weight drops until the residue and chaff 
 are blown out at the rear. I could hardly believe 
 that this was not a copy of a western machine. 
 This, and the harness used with the carts, I can't 
 understand. The harness has been used for cen- 
 turies, yet were it to be seen with a dump cart in 
 Cleveland, I doubt if it would attract the least 
 attention. Have we copied them or they us ? 
 On the walls are maps — one of Jerusalem — one of 
 China. Also calendars for '97 and for '98. These 
 are seen in almost every Christian home — at least 
 in the more important ones, or in chapels. In the 
 centre are the Chinese dates upon which the Sun- 
 days fall. Otherwise none would know when to 
 keep Sunday, for the Chinese reckoning is only 
 by months — not by weeks. On the sides are 
 wood cuts of the Prodigal Son, of the Lost Sheep 
 — even a diagram of the muscles of the eye — 
 while at the bottom are the east and west con- 
 tinents, Mercator's Projection — the whole com- 
 pleted by a description of the wood cuts. 
 
 " Tuesday, December 6th. — People were around 
 us before we were dressed — or rather washed — 
 for it was too cold to do much undressing or 
 dressing. Breakfast was kua mien and boiled 
 cabbage, and we had a quiet time till service at 
 II A. M., where among the sixteen sat three — on 
 a carpenter's horse together — who had never seen 
 a foreigner before. They used their eyes and 
 ears well. We took dinner at the house of the 
 rich young man of the village. He has had op- 
 portunities for study at Tungcho, but his affairs 
 are keeping him away from as active a Christian 
 life as we could wish. When I asked our pastor, 
 Meng, who was with us, about him he said, 
 ' He is a Martha — we only wish he were a Mary.' 
 Imagine the dinner — big flapjacks of sodden 
 buckwheat — flour strings boiled hard in a little 
 weak soup and some curds made of fermented 
 
Life and Work in China 233 
 
 beans. I am afraid I ate rather sparingly. Prob- 
 ably, it was his regular food. 
 
 " In the afternoon, we ordained two deacons. 
 The service was hardly to western ideas in 
 decency and good order. The two men stood 
 before us — one the lender of the building, very 
 bashful and uneasy, the other, the rich young 
 man, looking at the ceiling in a most foolish fash- 
 ion. In the midst of the talk, two strangers came 
 in, whereupon the younger man turned, greeted 
 them most effusively, gave them seats and re- 
 sumed his position. At the close of the talk, the 
 older man protested — said he couldn't read — was 
 not fit to be a deacon, and was with difficulty 
 kept from walking into the next room. It was 
 certainly a worthy modesty, but Meng stated in 
 somewhat Papal-Bull fashion that his appoint- 
 ment had been made in Paotingfu, there was no 
 way out of it. After the ordination came the 
 Lord's Supper — then a walk out on the hills, so 
 like those about Jerusalem. More kua mien for 
 supper. A crowd came in the evening, but by 
 ten we were in bed. 
 
 ''Wednesday, December 7th. — This morning 
 after a hearty breakfast of millet and rice mixed, 
 supplemented by a bowl of kua mien (I was 
 hungry, you see) we had a little farewell meet- 
 ing, and then turned to the southeast, back to 
 Tang Hsien, The village turned out in strong 
 force to see us go, and the elders of the church 
 accompanied us quite a distance. It seemed so 
 much like the care that the elders of Miletus and 
 the Christians of Tyre had for Paul as he journeyed 
 to Rome. On our way across the fields, I asked 
 Meng of what use we foreigners were here now, 
 for I had seen how he could get into the hearts 
 where we touch the outside only. He dodged 
 the question. Chinaman like, and replied: Mf a 
 man be not filled with God, he is useless any- 
 
^34 ^ Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 where.' It was only a few li to the * Big-Temple- 
 City-between '-village. We stopped in to see an 
 old Christian with his wife, also a Christian. 
 Their house was scrupulously clean. As we 
 talked, heathen came in till the room was full. 
 The son wished to enter the church, but we 
 made him wait. Then we had a little service, 
 followed by the Lord's Supper — for just us five, 
 no o#^er-ChrislJ an being in the village. It was a 
 typical scene — the two Christians and the son — 
 while all around sat those, many of whom had 
 never before heard a connected statement of 
 Christ's sacrifice. At the end, books were sold 
 for one-tenth, one-fifth or one-third of a cent 
 apiece. By noon we were on our way once 
 more, passed Tang Hsien, and twenty-five li 
 further arrived in Chieh Tang. Here is the court 
 of 'the happy family' — as I call them. The 
 father with the mother and two sons fitted up an 
 end room and have given it to the church for 
 services this year. He entered the Christian 
 church last year, and in this short time has 
 gathered many about him through his sunshiny 
 life. His brother's family and his son's family, 
 all live in the one court. We sat out in the yard 
 drinking tea and visiting with all comers. One 
 little fellow, looking over my shoulder as I wrote, 
 said, ' Devil's pencil.' I turned and asked him — 
 ' What's this ? '— ' Pencil '— * What pencil ? '— 
 'Devil's pencil!' It was perfectly innocent — it 
 simply showed that all strange things, including 
 foreigners, were to be considered of the devil. 
 Dinner was — guess! — kua mien. Then came a 
 service, with mostly heathen present. At 9 p. M., 
 when all were gone — the four Christians and two 
 babies, Paul and John, with two interested friends, 
 gathered for the Lord's Supper. It was a family 
 service — one unique for a westerner — a family 
 prayer service, — as the little John prattled on, 
 
Life and Work in China 235 
 
 just waked up from his evening nap — and we all 
 joined in this loving fellowship service. As we 
 made ready for sleep, they tried to warm the 
 bed, but only succeeded m filling the room with 
 smoke. It was very cold. 
 
 ** Tuesday, December 8th.— A perfect day— but 
 cold. A meal of rice and kua mien and we were 
 ready for visitors— a number came, all of whom 
 had been touched by this one light in the dark- 
 ness—the family of Chang Lao Chuang. Fmally, 
 after singing, 'Till we meet agam,' we were 
 off. Reached Ching Feng Tien— a busy market 
 town— where we sold a few books from the 
 cart. We learned here of the honesty of the 
 Chinaman in buying these books. No matter at 
 how much trouble, he would always be careful 
 to return the book that he had been inspecting. 
 By noon, we reached Tung Fang, where in the 
 open court of the inn, surrounded by at least 200 
 interested spectators, we ate our bowls of flour 
 strings and cabbage. This is a great cotton 
 centre. Liu To we reached at 5 : 30, after passmg 
 through a plain of prairie-like extent, the ground 
 slightly alkali, followed by an orchard of pear and 
 date frees, simply miles in area. It must be a 
 beautiful spot in the spring. We found a little 
 tumble-down inn with a small room, whose door 
 was fast going to the bad. We were tired of 
 Chinese food, so Ewing and I had a feast of 
 canned salmon, toasted crackers and cocoa, end- 
 ino- with doughnuts. We slept the sleep of the 
 just on the narrow kang. It was too cold for 
 fleas or worse creatures. . . 
 
 ''Friday, December 9th.— This morning in the 
 dark, we got the carts started. It was seven 
 miles to breakfast at Ta Wang Li. The orchard 
 gave place to ploughed plain, with circles of mud- 
 brick drying, scattered all around. When we 
 reached about 9 a. m. Ta Wang Li, the house of 
 
236 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 thfi_anl^Christian in the town was quickly sur- 
 rounded and to keep property from being hurt — 
 as the place is notorious for bad treatment of 
 foreigners — we went outside to preach. Table 
 and chairs were brought out, and as we sat or 
 talked, the crowd was kept busy until breakfast 
 time, when by making rapid tracks, we reached 
 an inn and the door was bolted behind us. The 
 crowd protested, but finally melted away, only to 
 reassemble, when having finished flour strings, 
 we once more put in an appearance. Seeing no 
 chance for quiet, we ordered our carts and pushed 
 on to a little village nearby, Tung Wang Li. We 
 stopped a few minutes to chat with a very nice 
 Christian family — one of the important bits of 
 leaven in China — and went on again to Ti Chuan 
 — arriving about 4 p. M. We stopped with a 
 family of cotton spinners, in whose yard is the 
 new chapel, just being completed at the cost of 
 nearly |ioo, gold. This amount has almost en- 
 tirely come from the Christian members and rep- 
 resents cost of stuff, for the labor (except some 
 little by skilled workmen) was given freely by 
 the members. That is Christianity! In the 
 house, one family had to move out of a room and 
 give it to us. We carefully avoided looking at 
 things too closely. In the main room or kitchen, 
 was a stall for a cow. But the Christianity of the 
 people— of that I must write. Everything was 
 so quiet, so joyful — in such order. As we sat in 
 the yard to greet visitors — in the house at meals, 
 at the service, in the leave-taking — all was the 
 same. I remember how the next morning as we 
 parted from the final prayer-meeting in the yard, 
 and started for the road, one of the Christians 
 caught up his basket, which he used in gathering 
 manure on the roads, and laughingly went on 
 with us — the humblest disciple, in the poorest of 
 occupations, but with the spirit of Christianity 
 
Life and Work in China 237 
 
 in his heart. That_group of disciples runs the 
 gamutirom this lowly fitan to the children of the 
 fead man of the village. Of the evening service 
 I have written. A quiet, solemn service — we in 
 the little room with the women and the new dea- 
 cons on the kang in front of us, — the elements on 
 a table under a flickering candle at our side — and 
 the men outside in a larger room. After the serv- 
 ice, as the men gathered to discuss the money 
 still owing on the chapel, it was one of the new 
 deacons who bravely said: * It is the opportunity 
 that makes the man.' Of such stuff are these 
 twenty odd disciples in Ti Chuan. 
 
 "Saturday, December loth. — After flour strings 
 this morning, we held our farewell prayer-meet- 
 ing in the yard and were soon on our way to Chi 
 Chou — twenty-five li away. Here we caught our 
 first bad crowd. Before we reached the inn, the 
 streets were filled, and as they came flocking into 
 the yard, we knew we were in for it. There was 
 a big fair on and the country folk were in for fun. 
 We escaped them in the confusion and got into a 
 room, but they scented us and began to break 
 down the door and pull the paper off the win- 
 dows. A crowd in China while happy is all 
 right, but patience does not last forever, and we 
 were afraid to try them too far, so we went out 
 and as I sat on a cart, Ewing tried to preach. It 
 was little use. Fortunately, dinner was soon 
 ready and we ate the pork * bo-bos ' with great 
 relish while the crowd gazed. The last * bo-bo,' 
 we offered to the children, but never a one would 
 touch it— afraid of the devil. An old beggar 
 finally dared. It was hard work sitting on an empty 
 cart, while Ewing stood between the shafts and 
 preached. Scores of children were on the hind 
 end of the cart, and there was no telling when 
 the nicely adjusted balancing of parts might be 
 overturned, and 1— well, there would be a limit 
 
238 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 to upward flight. The crowd got saucy, some 
 toughs came in and tried to snatch things — and 
 we were glad to get away. For a long distance 
 the jeering rabble followed us. I had on foreign 
 clothes, while Ewing wore Chinese garments. 1 
 began to wish I had done likewise. It was a long 
 forty-five li to Chi Chi, our next point, so we 
 made for a little village, Tzu Wei, by name. It 
 was dark before we arrived, and we were provi- 
 dentially guided at more than one point. One, 1 
 remember, particularly — at a crossroad, where we 
 had already turned in a wrong direction when a 
 man came along — the only man we met after- 
 wards. Had we missed the road, it would have 
 meant many a li, for we were searching for the 
 only bridge in miles across the river. We found 
 a little inn that was not full, but no separate 
 rooms were to be had. So we camped out in the 
 kitchen on the brick bed that took seven persons. 
 Here we ate our flour strings that we saw, and 
 felt (for the smoke was suffocating) being made, 
 and then waiting for the tavern loafers to get out, 
 we dragged out many weary minutes. Such a 
 ' gang ' is unreachable by a foreigner. A China- 
 man whom they can understand can do some- 
 thing. A bully came in and tried to ' play horse.' 
 Ewing beat him off at the game; and at last in 
 despair of getting any rest in such a place, we 
 went out and crawled into our two carts — sort of 
 doubled up and got to sleep. Fortunately, clouds 
 had come up and the warmest night of our trip 
 was the result. This only kept us from freez- 
 ing. Meng talked till after midnight with the 
 crowd in the kitchen and managed to sell some 
 books. 
 
 "Last letter left me in Hsaio Hsin Chuang. 
 This one leaves us asleep in the carts in the little 
 inn of Tzu Wei. 
 
Life and Work in China 239 
 
 "Now a word on the happenings of the last six 
 weeks. The main event has been our Annual 
 Meeting at Tungcho, where we renewed our ex- 
 periences of two years ago, a few weeks after 
 our arrival in China. All the seven stations were 
 represented from Kalgan in the north to Ling 
 Ching in the south. This jear^ Paotingfu was 
 added-4o^- the Hst of ea^^TTy accessible places, but 
 Kalgan is still a week away, and Ling Ching 
 two at least. There were thirty-nine adults and 
 the children brought it well up towards sixty. 
 Previous to our meetings, the Chinese helpers had 
 had a sort of summer school of two weeks. 
 Then on Sunday came the two annual ser- 
 mons, the English_one, preached by me and the 
 Chinese by Mr. Ewing. Monday, Tuesday and 
 Wednesday were filled with Chinese debates and 
 discussions as well as reports from all the work 
 — ending with a session for Chinamen only. 
 Thursday began our business sessions which 
 were carried through Tuesday of the next week. 
 Two business sessions each day with a prayer- 
 meeting each evening, except one on which the 
 annual essay is read and discussion takes place, 
 and one on which the musical entertainment and 
 general good time have full swing. The business 
 of these sessions is to learn of the work of the 
 stations, transact business connected with the 
 mission as a whole, and prepare the financial 
 estimates for the coming year, which are to be 
 presented to the Prudential Committee of the 
 Board." 
 
 " Pei-tai-ho, September 11, i8gg. 
 ** . . . As I remember it, you left me or I 
 left you — which was it ? — at the little village of 
 Tzu Wei, doubled up in the carts out in the court of 
 the inn. The sky was clouded and this kept us 
 from freezing. Meng, our pastor, was able to en- 
 
240 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 dure seven on one bed, plus other things; so he 
 stayed in the kitchen. It was Saturday night, and 
 we were close to our Sunday stop — Chi Chi (you 
 can discover the place on the map, pronounced 
 ' Chee jee'). We knew we should have to be 
 up bright and early the next morning, if we were 
 to escape the crowd which would be sure to 
 gather. But we were not quick enough — any 
 kind of news without regard for quality, travels 
 fast in China. We ate our flour strings in the 
 kitchen, while the landlord good-naturedly kept 
 the crowd from~^artnnily running over us by 
 liberal sprays of water ^otl hot and cold. _ Many 
 a tPireate ned outbreak in China has been pre- 
 vent^jd and^many a missionary life saved by a 
 providential rain. No Chinaman can screw up 
 his courage to stick out in the rain. In like man- 
 ner.our^peace of mind was preserved by that im- 
 provised rajn^n that Sunday, December 11, 1898. 
 "We were soon off amid cheers, jeers and 
 laughter, and reached Chi Chi about 10:30. The 
 chapel is in a court of a fine young fellow — one 
 of the two who afterwards were ordained dea- 
 cons. One of our helpers from Paotingfu was 
 living there for the three months of his stay. 
 Our five helpers have to keep moving around in 
 order to hold our eleven outstations. This man, 
 Chao by name, had books and rather primitive 
 maps with him, so that in daily evening classes, 
 he was gradually teaching the Christians the 
 great truths. The throng crowded the room so 
 that we adjourned to a neighboring yard for serv- 
 ice. Some sixty were gathered around on piles 
 of fodder and any old benches available. After 
 service every one wanted to see everything one 
 possessed, so we escaped to the room where our 
 meal was ready. Only by dint of positive force 
 could the room be cleared and we be left in 
 peace. At 3:30 came our main meeting in the 
 
Life and Work in China 241 
 
 court. It's pretty certain none of you ever saw 
 one like it. We four sat up against the house in 
 the sun. Then the yard was filled with the 
 crowd. On our right were the few men Chris- 
 tians — on the left, the women — in front men, 
 women, children, chickens, dogs, etc., etc. Even 
 the fences were picketed — and it was a gala day 
 for some women drying grain on the top of a 
 house near by. At our feet was a low table, 
 holding the elements for our communion feast. 
 The crowd, constantly changing, stayed by till 
 dusk, when we closed. Beside the service, we 
 ordained two deacons, one the young man re- 
 ferred to above, and the other, an older and even 
 more striking man with iron gray hair, fuzzy 
 beard, erect, silent, speaking low when he ut- 
 tered his few words. He seemed to me the 
 type of an old western reformer — he didn't look 
 like a celestial of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 "A hen came too near and had to be chased 
 away — the pigs began to squeal, but a small boy 
 fixed them. One little youngster went fast 
 asleep sitting upright. That was 'nuts' for the 
 others. They poked until he got mad and hit 
 back. When the elder deacon passed the bread, 
 he really didn't know what to do, so he helped 
 himself and passed it back. With proper coach- 
 ing he learned rapidly. But in spite of it all, as 
 the shadows came on, the ceremony was com- 
 pleted and the members of the Church of Christ 
 — ^just a little knot of them way in the centre of 
 heathen China — joined together in holding once 
 more the Lord in memory till He come. 
 
 "After supper, the crowd was upon us. To 
 have any quiet time with our members, we had 
 to walk out of town, wait till all was quiet and 
 then steal carefully back. Our little service was 
 prolonged till eleven o'clock. One old woman 
 with happy face brought in eggs and potatoes. 
 
242 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Then came peanuts. Of course, lots of hot 
 water was made on the Httle stove, and every 
 one took some. Many problems, such as admis- 
 sion of certain persons to the Church, were dis- 
 cussed and all were exhorted, sung with and 
 prayed with. Finally, Ewing and I were left 
 alone and prepared for a night on the brick bed. 
 
 "Monday, December 12, 1898. — At 4:30, the 
 carters shook open the door and came in to 
 escape the fierce wind and snow. We slept on 
 till breakfast, ate our kua mien (macaroni) and 
 started off with everything we possessed on our 
 backs for the wind was frightful from the north- 
 west. Luckily, we went southeast so were 
 saved from much of the cold. On our way, we 
 stopped _a_jfew moments at the house of an old 
 church memT3er, whose whole family has bitterly 
 opposed him. Curiously enough, he is a coward, 
 while his wife is a regular virago. She used to 
 come after him when he was at meetings and 
 I pull him through the streets, cursing him all the 
 ' way. Once she dragged him by his hair. The 
 son stood by the mother. But something reached 
 the old woman and she allowed the man to come 
 to our meetings — in fact, to invite us to stop at 
 the house. The son came with him, also, and 
 attended the first meeting of his life. So we 
 stopped at the house with one of the deacons — 
 had lunch and then held a little service, soon de- 
 parting. This spring, at our semi-annual confer- 
 ence at Paotingfu, the son came up to be received 
 on probation into the church. The father came 
 with him, a picture of joy. So we travelled the 
 day long — the wind getting colder each hour. 
 The country was like our western prairies— 
 sparsely settled, though evidently rich agricul- 
 turally. For noon, we stopped at a market town 
 where they were expecting a fair. To avoid 
 trouble, as we were in territory where perhaps a 
 
Life and Work in China 243 
 
 foreigner had never been seen — we put down the 
 front curtains and rode unnoticed into tlie inn- 
 yard. The landlord was polite and showed us 
 into his own apartments, so we rested undis- 
 turbed. The afternoon's ride led us into sandy 
 and less fertile country until after twenty-five 
 miles for the day, we reached our southernmost 
 point, the old city of Shu-lu. The new one is 
 ten miles beyond. Tired and cold, we crawled 
 upon the brick bed of a barn-like room, dirty as 
 could be, and dropped into a sound sleep. 
 
 " Tuesday, December 13th. — Our work here 
 was to see about opening a street chapel. No 
 work had ever been done here, but this is one of 
 the southern points of our 'sphere of influence' 
 so we wished to occupy it. After a breakfast of 
 cereal and cocoa, the men began to arrive — nice 
 fellows, whom the innkeeper sent in after inter- 
 esting them in some books Meng had given him 
 the night before. Then Meng hunted up a fel- 
 low — an old Christian, somewhat cold-hearted — 
 who might help us a little. The three started off 
 to see a Christian three miles away, while 1 kept 
 the fort. Some tables in the room made me a 
 counter across the room, and men soon began to 
 pour in. They were simply a curious lot, but 
 many could not be so impolite as not to buy a 
 book. So as the fifty or more kept coming in 
 and going out, chaffing, laughing and asking 
 questions, 1 tried to keep their minds on the fact 
 that here were books — catechism, three-word 
 classic and lots of others — all going for from one- 
 fifth of a cent to one cent apiece. The melee 
 lasted till six o'clock and in the end, 1 had sold 
 many books amounting to the huge sum of ten 
 cents. This was my first experience at book- 
 selling in China. They said it was pretty good 
 for a new place and in an inn-yard. At any 
 rate, my throat was tired and my body decidedly 
 
244 ^ Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 weary. In the evening, I set my kerosene stove 
 under me, and managed to keep comfortable, 
 while we held conference as to the opening of a 
 chapel. (After seven months, I have heard that 
 property now is rented. Of this later.) 
 
 "Wednesday, December 14th. — While eating 
 breakfast, we were raided by the Chinese and 
 with difficulty we got the coast clear. It was 
 apparent now that I must wear Chinese clothes. 
 Meng had bought a fur outer coat and had a 
 wind-hat, wadded. With an outer sleeveless 
 vest and a sash, I was soon rigged out. The 
 coat was short — my trousers and foreign shoes 
 were conspicuous — but when I got in the cart 
 and pulled the blanket up, I was safe. The fair 
 was on (they have one every two days) so the 
 inn-yard was full of bullock carts. Bullocks are 
 rare at Paotingfu where we have mostly mules. 
 The streets were thronged. At one point, we 
 stopped a moment, but the crowds were so de- 
 termined to see us and were so obstreperous, 
 that we hastened on. Near Tang Feng, our des- 
 tination, we stopped to eat with Meng's uncle. 
 For the first time, I was unconspicuous, and we 
 could eat and talk without every one looking at our 
 clothes. There was no shrieking crowd of chil- 
 dren on the streets as you walked. Why, even 
 in the country, I had persons stop and ask what 
 my coat was made of — wool is never used by 
 them for clothing. It is invariably cotton for 
 summer and cotton wadding for winter. At 
 Tang Feng, we found a village famous before 
 the T'ai P'ing rebellion, but now gone to ruin. 
 The inn was a mud brick concern whose floor 
 had been two weeks before many inches under 
 water. In this damp and unwholesome place, 
 we camped out for the night. A Chinaman sel- 
 dom talks to you of his wife — especially of any 
 affection for her. I said to Meng, whose family 
 
Life and Work in China 245 
 
 life is an ideal Christian one — ' I know-three per- 
 sons who will be glad -whfin we get home to 
 Paotingfu.' - .'No,' said he, 'two — there is Pi Tai 
 Tai- (Mrs. P.) and Yu Tai Tai (Mrs. Ewing).' 
 I could get him no further. The church here is 
 badly split up. There are twelve members — but 
 feuds have come in. The consequence is that 
 everything is very dead. With the ruin of the 
 place seems to be a ruin in warm hearts. Few 
 men came in, as we all wore Chinese clothes and 
 there was little for them to see. 
 
 ** Thursday, December 15th.— A brick bed, per- 
 fectly flat is bad enough. Add some holes and 
 it is abominable. Our bed had holes. By this 
 time we had reached a spot where food was 
 hard to find. Kua mien had also palled when 
 eaten thrice a day. So our food box was being 
 esteemed more and more highly. After a break- 
 fast out of it, we started for the house of the best 
 of the church members. Evefythmg was deso- 
 latsdiyi-the water. The people had not only lost 
 their year's beans, but had seen the plants and all 
 buried beneath the mud brought down by the 
 river. 
 
 * * The service was very quiet. Before the Lord's 
 Supper, Meng baptized two children. As the 
 little girl went out, I saw her stop in the door- 
 way to explain to a little friend all about it. The 
 friend was anxiously scrutinizing her forehead to 
 see if any marks were left there from this won- 
 derful performance. Ewing's talk was an 
 'Awake'— how much they all needed it! For 
 Tang Feng, you will perhaps pray— and many 
 times you will hear from me about it. 
 
 "At noon, we were on the road for i5oli — 
 fifty miles to our next point of attack. That 
 afternoon we could go only to An Ping, where 
 we found a most sumptuous inn, for An Ping is 
 on the main road from Paotingfu, southeast. 
 
246 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 We ate heartily, enjoyed a good wash up and 
 went to bed in great peace of mind. The 
 scenery thus far is like the prairie-land of — say — 
 Illinois. Trees scattered everywhere — little ham- 
 lets, one and a half to two miles apart — re- 
 minded me of home. Deep furrows show the 
 divisions of countless little holdings. Pigs are 
 everywhere, rooting for stray peanuts, for the 
 country furnishes huge crops of that nut. 
 
 " Friday, December i6th. — We were up before 
 six this morning for 100 li (thirty-three miles) is 
 a long trip for China in the short days of the 
 year. Inns in our part of the world furnish no 
 early breakfast, so we did as every one else 
 did and went without. On the way there were 
 a few cakes to buy, but it was eighteen miles on 
 an empty stomach before we stopped at Cow's 
 Head village. We were too tired to see any one 
 — so locked ourselves in the room. Still, we 
 were not alone, for in one corner a donkey was 
 taking his meal. We ate flour strings and some 
 bread — not much for the rest of the day! In the 
 distance as we started, we caught the western 
 mountains, west of Paotingfu. The country 
 grew flat, and while crossing a river, wild geese 
 were all about us in the wheat, eating the green 
 sprouts of winter wheat. Just after sunset, we 
 reached Chang Teng, found a comfortable inn 
 and sat ourselves down to a good dinner. 
 
 "Saturday, December 17th. — It had been our 
 plan to visit both stations — Ch'ing Liang Ch'eng 
 and Tien Ke Chuang — but in the morning, we 
 heard that a theatre festival was to begin at the 
 first place and we knew that every one's relatives 
 would flock in and expect board, so that our 
 presence would be rather unpopular. Accord- 
 ingly, we started — twenty li — to Tien Ke Chuang 
 — and arrived about noon. This station is in a 
 very bad way, for the oldest Christian and his 
 
Life and Work in China 247 
 
 family have been shown to be in the church 
 from mercenary motives. His attitude has been 
 very repellent, and though we led in the Lord's 
 Supper at his house, it was woefully chilly, and 
 we were only too glad to depart on our ten mile 
 jaunt for Paotingfu and home. About 5 p. M. 
 we reached the compound and our journey was 
 done. 
 
 "Now, dear friends, you have patiently passed 
 over the tour with us. It is for you as it was for 
 us — just a glimpse. I suppose you will never 
 again be called on to take such a trip. Hereafter, 
 one spot or two places will be studied more in 
 detail — and as the little stones shall be fitted in to 
 fill the huge gaps between the skeleton frame- 
 work now constructed, we shall hope, with you 
 to see the building rising into true and just pro- 
 portions — beautiful as the day. Until such time, 
 we must patiently watch, study and pray. Facts 
 will be hard for you to make real to yourselves. 
 We will help you all we can. Success is sure 
 and the reward beyond computation." 
 
 He felt that some apology was called for by 
 this serial and after the last installment had gone 
 off, he wrote to Dr. Mills: 
 
 "As I said to Mrs. Pitkin when I finished the 
 last letter to the church, 'I am glad that "tour" 
 is finished.' We suppose you will utter the same 
 sentiment. My idea, however, was that so 
 many things have come in between the beginning 
 and end of the recital that often it was hard to 
 'stick to the text' and not leave you all flounder- 
 ing in a town far away from Paotingfu. To 
 know that you are all safely back, and that I 
 could persist in a plan to the end were my rea- 
 sons for joy. Likewise, that the church would 
 
248 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 not be further bored. Seriously — I think it is a 
 mistake to drag a thing out that way. It may 
 have been necessary this one time in order con- 
 secutively to place the whole (or practically so) 
 field before the church. Hereafter, ' continued 
 in our next ' articles will be rigorously opposed, 
 unless an exception may be made for some very 
 important two letter subject." 
 
 ''Some very important two letter subject!" — 
 He wrote but two more letters to the Pilgrim 
 Church before the end. 
 
VIII 
 
 «THE GOLDEN EVENING BRIGHTENS IN THE 
 ^ WEST" 
 
 For all the saints who from their labors rest, 
 Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, 
 Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blest. 
 Alleluia ! Alleluia ! 
 
 Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might; 
 Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight ; 
 Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light. 
 Alleluia ! Alleluia ! 
 
 O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, 
 Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, 
 And win with them the victor's crown of gold. 
 Alleluia ! Alleluia ! 
 
 And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, 
 Steals on the ear the distant triumph-song. 
 And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. 
 Alleluia I Alleluia ! 
 
 The golden evening brightens in the west ; 
 Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest; 
 Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest. 
 Alleluia ! Alleluia ! 
 
 — How. 
 
 *'I SHALL take my second language examina- 
 tion the coming May," wrote Pitkin in his first 
 church letter of 1900. '' It is a weary trudge- 
 
 249 
 
250 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 and the end seems far away." But it did not 
 tarry as long as he supposed. In six months he 
 was beyond the *' weary trudge" of Chinese 
 study, beyond all weariness, in the land where 
 rest and work are one, where those who have 
 been wearied here 
 
 " Shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all." 
 
 But his road thither led up a dizzy steep, through 
 peril, toil and pain. 
 
 In the same letter, Horace gives some account 
 of the "annual big meeting," and also of the 
 Boxer cloud that was fast overspreading the 
 sky: 
 
 "Around Christmas time, we held the semi- 
 annual 'big meeting' — when delegates from the 
 outstations came up for a three days' convention. 
 When the area of one's parish is equal to Con- 
 necticut, Delaware and Rhode Island — or to 
 Massachusetts — or more than New Jersey — why, 
 it is necessary to encourage the flock to see each 
 other's faces once every six months. When I 
 am able to do more, we hope to have the family 
 gathering every four months. Then, too, our 
 helpers are so few and we are able to be out in 
 the country so little, it is doubly important to 
 have those who are fit to be received on proba- 
 tion or from probation wish to enter the church, 
 come together that they may be examined by us 
 all, and if fit, take the steps before a representa- 
 tive body of our church members. Finally, we 
 precede the convention by a three days' meeting 
 of the * Discuss Affairs Society ' — or Board of 
 Deacons — or more exactly — Session — and after a 
 
"The Golden Evening Brightens" 251 
 
 full discussion of the coming six months' work, 
 appointment of committees and arrangement of 
 posts for the helpers, we give the convention a 
 resume of the actions taken, ask for ratification 
 of the same and finally discuss with them trouble- 
 some points. Some sixty-five delegates attended 
 — a large showing for cold winter. Three were 
 from our southern outpost — four days' walk 
 away. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday meetings 
 were held morning, afternoon and evening. In 
 between times, the helpers and Mr. Ewing and 1 
 were examining candidates for probation and 
 church membership. The church members — 
 eleven in number — were received on Sunday, and 
 I, for the first time in China, read the form of 
 doctrine, baptized them and assisted at the Lord's 
 Supper. Wednesday, some twenty were re- 
 ceived to probation — and two who were delayed 
 for further examination entered the church. 
 What a contrast in those who stood on the 
 platform before an audience of some four hun- 
 dred that Sunday noon! There was an old 
 woman, who eight years ago cursing and reviling 
 would turn her back in disgust on Miss Morrill 
 as she entered her home in the country. Here 
 was a lad of fourteen, bright as a steel trap, 
 already prepared for Tungcho, brought up in 
 our elder pastor's family, away from heathenism 
 and is the product of second generation Chris- 
 tianity. And between them! — the range of once 
 heathen hearts, now more or less lit by the rays 
 of Christian truth, — but all young and old, facing 
 the world of sin and persecution in their villages 
 in defense of Him, the one Lord and Master — of 
 Pilgrim Church, of China — of the world! 
 
 " In the discussion on Self-Support, ouryounger 
 pastor said: 'I imagine a mule and cart going 
 along a hilly road, while the driver and friends 
 help by pushing the cart from behind. Progress 
 
252 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 is slow but steady. Suddenly a steep pitch is 
 reached. The cart is stuck — the mule can do 
 nothing, strain as he may, and the men — what of 
 them ? In desperation do they push the harder? 
 Oh, no! They as one man pile into the cart and 
 urge the mule by blows and shouts to move on. 
 So it is with the church members of China. The 
 cart is the church, the mule is the foreign mis- 
 sionaries and the ones behind are the members. 
 They do valiant work at pushing while things 
 move. But let there come a time of want — a 
 time when after full discussion of the needs of 
 the mission is completed and $1.00 is asked from 
 the churches of America with an answer of sixty 
 cents — when the hill has been reached — then! 
 then the members scramble in on the church and 
 say to the mule " pull us! pull us! " ' This may 
 give a hint of how nail heads were hit in the 
 discussions. 
 
 *'The one absorbing topic up here in north 
 China is the 'Boxer' question. Of course you 
 have seen full accounts in the papers about the 
 troubles, yet a word or two on them may be of 
 interest. 
 
 "China is full ofspfret pocjptips under varif^ns 
 nam ^s.^ They ui^^^ ^^i&t entirely of a political 
 nat Jfe^^ Uesinng t^start_a__reyxLLattoti for further- 
 in gnnT5tr'-tywft--?mterby some pretext or other, 
 perhaps simulating great patriotism, they attack 
 missionaries and the converts, the result of the 
 hated 'foreign devils'' religion. Not daring to 
 attack the missionary, perhaps, they wreak venge- 
 ance on his converts. Such was the massacre 
 of the English missionaries on or near the coast 
 in the south some years ago; such was the great 
 rebellion of the Yang Tse Kiang before that time, 
 and such is the cause of the wide-spread troubles 
 near here to-day. The banners of the 'Boxer' 
 and * Big Sword ' societies are inscribed with 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 253 
 
 ' Defense of the present Dynasty '; * Death to the 
 Foreigners'; 'Extermination of Foreign Relig- 
 ions.' These two societies have been spreading 
 through Shan-tung (province south of us) and 
 somewhat through the south of our province, 
 Chih-li. The members claim supernatural power 
 granted by their divinity, who lives in a mountain 
 southeast somewhere. By this power, they are 
 rendered invulnerable and to their leaders is given 
 power to raise the dead. They go through gym- 
 nastir.^gjL gfc^ses and pr gbahly'ttrr Ihrow Ttrgm- 
 selves into some sort of trance. "By these' powers, 
 a man~Wttl~liuld uuL his aim, any one may strike 
 it with a sword, but the arm is uninjured, in 
 past affairs with soldiers, where some were 
 killed, the story goes that by a few passes in 
 the air, the leaders raised the dead to life. The 
 curious thing a b pnt th o R n x r r and Ri g S ^ ^ ^ o r? ^ 
 Societies is tnat the scene of their a ctions is_ right 
 
 ITTe not 11 ke 
 
 bandits coming down on forays. Each village 
 has its own branch. The societies have been 
 growing for years — secretly, without disturbance. 
 Suddenly, last fall, they were heard from, intend- 
 ing to attack the large station of our Board at 
 Pang Chuang, where are Drs. Smith, Potter, Peck, 
 the Misses Porter and Wyckoff and a large sta- 
 tion plant. That the uprising was fostered from 
 Peking is more than probable. That the oppor- 
 tunity was excellent because of failure of crops 
 and great drought is very apparent. The com- 
 m on peop le flocke djto the standards, and whereas^ 
 the_societies_may_have at first had a true motive, 
 that was^sbqnobscj^iredrhThe torrent of seekgrs 
 aTtW^'^pTulTdeFjnd pilTagenthat^ lnmp pniipng in . 
 By^rompt action of the Consul at Tientsin, 
 soldiers were sent and the threatened attack 
 averted. Howeyer^-the Christians began to suf- 
 fer. Families had either to pay heavy ransoms 
 
254 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 orbfi--pilIagecl__Rai'ely-wasany violence done to 
 persons. Again, strange to say Roman Catholics 
 and Protestants have suffered alike. In the past, 
 usually, Roman Catholics have had the harder 
 time, for the priests take up and prosecute law 
 cases for their converts. This creates great 
 enmity and when occasion offers, the return 
 blow is given with great severity. But now 
 neither one nor the other was spared. The Pek- 
 ing officials did no more than they were com- 
 pelled to do. They changed governors but the 
 new one is as bad as the old. The missionaries 
 have been toiling day and night at Pang Chuang, 
 writing innumerable letters to officials every- 
 where, begging for soldiers and demanding help, 
 hearing the tales of refugees, and keeping our 
 Minister Conger at Peking fully informed. He, 
 alas! hoodwinked by the Chinese reports, is 
 growing weary over the full details sent by 
 Arthur H. Smith and expresses himself in Peking 
 as 'bored' by the verboseness of the reports! 
 Thus, from a small uprising, the riot has spread 
 until all western Shan-tung is involved. And 
 not only that, but into Chih-li it has come, until 
 societies are being formed within twenty-five 
 miles of us to the south, and encircling the city, 
 the plague has spread to the north of us. * They 
 say ' that the members are in Paotingfu city itself 
 and report had it that our compound and the 
 Presbyterian compound were to be wiped out 
 the eighth or eighteenth of this month. To-day 
 is the ninth so I guess we shall survive the eight- 
 eenth as well! What can the government do? 
 Granting it is not in league with the leaders, it is 
 doubtful if the soldiers would successfully re- 
 sist the societies. They are too much of the 
 same mind. However, as often happens, the 
 societies have overstepped the mark. Sidney 
 Brooks of the English society in southwest Shan- 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 255 
 
 tung while returning from Christmas with his 
 sister, just out from home and newly married to 
 his colleague, was attacked, brutally treated, such 
 as having a rope passed through his nose and 
 being led around the city for hours, and finally 
 killed. This incident was too much even for the 
 foreign ministers. Let the Chinese be plmidered 
 —even killed! what m^ISrrn^nrWTirgl^gr-itish 
 suMec f is in m der^dT^eaJiiaugli-Bdiaiii^ 
 x\rvw\l[uTg-tu-go-lTr^^ it, she will make pro- 
 test errwgh to h^.v.£^-ft-dectdedly deterrent effect 
 on the Boxers and their friends at Court in Pek- 
 ing. Consequently, the fire has been put under 
 hatches and is at present merely smouldering. 
 In the meantime. South Chih-li has been entered, 
 and one of the best outstations of the Pang 
 Chuang station has been sacked. The_pastor 
 and family were in hiding, having received pre- 
 viouT'warning, but the chapel and school were 
 completely wrecked and the pastor's all was lost, 
 windows and doors even being carried off while 
 casings were afterwards dug out. Ia_spite of 
 threats to kill him at sight, he and his family 
 finaIT}ran-ived here and have settled down with 
 us to waitTor peace. Up to two months ago, the 
 statistics were that in Shan-tung over 300 villages 
 had been sacked or made to pay ransom and in 
 Chih-li, some seventy-five or more. Affairs have 
 reached such a pass that rich heathen are treated 
 as the Christians are— the robbers' cupidity stands 
 back for nothing. Proceedings are ahke in most 
 cases. Warnings are served on individuals or 
 villages. It is either ransom (say I300 for a 
 small village) or plunder or both. If plunder, 
 everything is taken and sold at any price to the 
 bidders standing around. A cart worth ^30 gold 
 for ninety cents; grain worth three or four dollars 
 for so many cents. A mule for twenty cents. 
 Windows, doors, casings, even thatches of roofs— 
 
256 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 everything is sold and carried off. And in many 
 cases bedding and all extra clothing, etc., all are 
 gone and that with the thermometer at zero and 
 the coldest winter known for years. The onl y 
 thingdon£j2^Llb£-afGaals is to keep quiet, or go 
 te-TTTeet the robbers and give them a feast in re- 
 turn for which, temporarily, they move to the 
 next county, giving the official chance to report 
 that either he has pacified the villains or that there 
 have never been any Boxers at all in his circuit. 
 To verify such reports, many times officials have 
 passed from village to village gravely taking the 
 affidavits of the Boxer leaders that no Boxers 
 exist in the district. And the end ? These re- 
 ports are shown our Minister Conger at Peking, 
 and as they don't tally with Arthur H. Smith's 
 {Chinese Characteristics) tales, he grows weary 
 of said Arthur H. Smith's reports, calls them 
 verbose, is afraid the writer may be a little turned 
 in the head, and seems to agree with those who 
 would say the missionaries are timid folk, listen- 
 ers to idle tales and general mischief-makers. 
 Just lately has come confirmation of belief that 
 Peking has been at the bottom of this. The late 
 edict of the Empress Dowager in which she 
 covertly espouses the Boxers' cause and warns 
 officials to discriminate between Boxers and 
 ruffians (which means 'count all as Boxers') is 
 the most dangerous paper against missions that 
 has appeared for a long time. Following on its 
 heels appears the authentic news that the new 
 governor of Shan-tung, though supplied with 
 sufficient troops, was warned from the begin- 
 ning by a secret edict to be careful about arrests. 
 This he told the missionaries after the publication 
 of the public edict. Such a warning in the East 
 means 'no arrests! '—and that is just what has 
 happened. For the moment, the fire is out of 
 sight— when it will again appear, we know not." 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 257 
 
 He takes up the same subject in his " Round 
 Robin " letter to the Yale men of his time who 
 were in the missionary work in Asia. There 
 were shadows enough over his heart but he 
 smiled above them and wrote in his old playful 
 vein : 
 
 *'Five sheets (and no pillow-case). 
 
 ''Paotingfu, April 2y, 1900. 
 
 "Well you fellows may think I am not worth 
 keeping on the list of respectability— and per- 
 haps I am not. What are two months though— 
 when you are busy getting ready to send off to 
 America the liveliest letter you ever did see— with 
 a postscript tacked on— for it's true, Mrs. Pitkm 
 and Horace have gone off and left me here for 
 seven months. I took them down to Shanghai 
 to sail April 7th, and had no time to run up to 
 see Loby, for in six hours after they left, I left 
 also on a homeward-bound boat. Now, the 
 house is immense and 1 don't like it one bit, but 
 don't you care, think of the poor ' celebrates ' who 
 don't have seven months hence to look forward 
 to. My colleague here, Ewing, goes off for the 
 summer to the shore, so I must take my turn and 
 look after things here. It doesn't pay to have a 
 child here through the heated season and as Pei- 
 tai-ho is pretty hard pickings for one woman 
 alone, it seemed wise for Mrs. P. to take a 
 chance for passes via Southern Pacific Rail- 
 road and go East to let them see the finest baby 
 goinff. (Did any one speak .J^) The Galleys (Y. 
 M. C. A. Secretary of Tientsin) will have our 
 house and if I get a few weeks, I'll board with 
 them Dr. Hodge, of Philadelphia, and Mrs. 
 Hodge (nee Sinclair) will be right next door— so 
 we shall have a merry party. 
 
258 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 "We're getting the rumors of war here all 
 right. You know these wretched 'Boxer' or 
 'Big Sword Society' troubles in Shan-tung have 
 been making life miserable all winter. The so- 
 ciety has a fixed purpose to root out all foreign 
 devils and exterminate their religion and con- 
 verts. From plundering Christians, they ad- 
 vanced to whole villages or even single rich 
 heathen, demanding ransom or utter wiping out. 
 The usual proceeding was a complete plundering 
 — most things taken and sold to bystanders on 
 the spot — carts worth $30, for twenty cents, rice, 
 everything, even door frames and roofs, com- 
 plete ruin. Not many Christians lost their lives 
 — but in this severest winter in years, to lose 
 bedclothes and everything in this world is not 
 easy. ^ Our stations in Shan-tung at times have 
 been in hourly peril, but now the worst is over 
 and in the ' unquiet quiet ' they are trying to start 
 their station schools again. The whole thing has 
 been under secret patronage from Peking — using 
 the Boxers as catspaws. But when the claw 
 got an English missionary, and brutally mur- 
 dered him, the cat had to go — temporarily — into 
 retirement. Lately, the movement has been 
 spreading up into our province until we are sur- 
 rounded and even districts north of Peking are 
 infested. The basis of the power lies in a claim 
 to supernatural leading by which they are ren- 
 dered invulnerable. This is a proof of their 
 destiny. Sword-cuts on the arms are repelled — 
 running on planted spears is only to rebound again 
 — 'drive the foreigners into the sea!' Soldiers 
 are scattered along in the south, so that is quiet. 
 IBut near here, the Boxers and Roman Catholics 
 have fought and managed to kill some thirty 
 Boxers and one Catholic before the soldiers ar- 
 rived. Now, only fifteen miles from here, Box- 
 ers are assembling in great numbers and though 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 259 
 
 watched by a handful of troops, are bound to 
 sack a big Roman Catholic station near by— then 
 another and then Paotingfu. Where we come in 
 on this deal is not easy to see. At present, the 
 city sends us fifteen soldiers a night for our guard. 
 Warships are at Tientsin— but if any troops 
 should be landed, it would be too hot for us here 
 at once. Present status is probably best. LnOhe 
 Chinese-Japanese war, when the Japs sunk the 
 Chinese men-of-war, the Provincial Warrior here 
 called arithe other officials in and suggested 
 stirring up the populace to exterminate the for- 
 eigners here as a little ' give face' act to the Chi- 
 nese. The others dissuaded the old blood-thirsty 
 futlow by telling him we were not Japs— but 
 members of a friendly nation. Still, now we are 
 only 200 miles from the coast by railroad if haste 
 should be necessary. I'm awfully sorry I haven't 
 got time to tack valuable and instructive notes, 
 annotations, etc., on the backs of you fellows' 
 letters. I must leave that to one worthier than 
 I. Ah, well, I remember that expressive gesture 
 each time the cap of the ubiquitous fountain pen 
 came off. It was a shame— that typewriter— to 
 spoil the temper of one—' Don't bother me, Harry 
 —can't you see I am writing a Bible Reading on 
 "peace"?' You ought to have seen 'whiskers' 
 this summer— sitting on our porch at Pei-tai-ho— 
 drinking tea, cracking stories and singing the 
 same weird melodies as of yore! 1 hope to see 
 Loby this summer— and the rest of you ?— as you 
 please! Now for our work. Language still— 
 and yet not so very— it won't down— an ever 
 
 present ' poor ' Oh, to be in India a Y. M. C. 
 
 A.ing ! I have the boys' boarding-school— twenty 
 boys— to run and though I haven't preached yet, 
 I've helped in communion services and baptisms. 
 Things move along in about the same way. No 
 touring has been possible because of the disturbed 
 
26o A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 condition of the country. The most marked 
 thing in our work this winter has been a few 
 days' blessing for the more active Christians 
 here. At Peking, a very strong revival swept the 
 Methodist College. Then at our College at 
 Tungcho was a tremendous awakening — exer- 
 cises all abandoned for three weeks — and finally 
 to let the men down to their studies, they were 
 sent to the other stations for a few days' visit. 
 Three came here and we had certainly a blessed 
 time. 
 
 " Here — here — I must stop — it's after midnight 
 and I may have some of my sentences sent ring- 
 ing down the ages with blue underlining. 
 'What lady done that?' 
 
 ''The Lord be with you all, boys. He has 
 been very good to me— and I thank Him." 
 
 One of the shadows of the spring whose ra- 
 diant lining he saw before the end was the de- 
 parture of Mrs. Pitkin and the little boy for 
 America, referred to in the above letter. The 
 reasons for this step were given in his last letter 
 to the Pilgrim Church, dated May 7, 1900: 
 
 " A month ago, I sent to you all one of the 
 liveliest, fullest of news and most up-to-date letters 
 ever despatched to you by us. There was a 
 'P. S.' attached containing a world of interest. 
 It is true that the letter, plus the postscript, may 
 be delayed in reaching you, but sooner or later 
 you ought to receive with glad welcome, Mrs. 
 Pitkin and Horace, mailed via Vancouver with 
 Paotingfu's compliments. What a time we did 
 have deciding whether Mrs. Pitkin had best go. 
 We left Paotingfu, March 30th, and I escorted 
 them to Shanghai, they sailing thence at mid- 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 261 
 
 night, April 8th, while I returned northward a 
 few hours later. So here is one Pilgrim abroad, 
 alone in solitary grandeur! The house, let me 
 add, is just about ten times too big and very 
 vacant in its stare. But Mrs. Pitkin promises to 
 come back in October. Our cramped quarters 
 and other conditions have told on Mrs. Pitkin s 
 health to such an extent that we feel only the rest 
 of some months in Ohio will completely restore 
 her. ' An ounce of prevention '—this is— and we 
 thank the good Lord for providing it. We be- 
 lieve the renewed strength will render large in- 
 terest on the investment of time and money. 
 And won't it make China seem near to you all! 
 And America to us! There's only one objection 
 to it— it will take away from our heads the haios 
 that some of you have persisted in placing there 
 and vou will be disappointed in finding us to be 
 ' iust like common folks.' ' Huh ! nothing partic- 
 ularly like martyrdom in this foreign work! you 
 will say. And you're right! We have been try- 
 ing to tell you that right along, and we are send- 
 in! this said letter and postscript home direct, and 
 not through some dead letter office because we 
 don't believe in martyrs either! We I, perhaps 
 all this will come rather late in the day-I do not 
 know exactly Mrs. Pitkin's plans. However, it 
 is official authorization-and as such may go on 
 
 record." 
 
 The anticipation of trouble and danger did not 
 enter into Pitkin's mind in arranging for the re- 
 turn of Mrs. Pitkin and little Horace. The mis- 
 sionaries in North China knew that a storm was 
 brewing but they did not anticipate any unusual 
 personal peril. Mrs. Pitkin's health and the con- 
 dition of the work which would keep Pitkin at 
 
262 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 the station all summer, an arrangement not desir- 
 able for Mrs. Pitkin and the boy, were the de- 
 termining elements. After she left in April, and 
 Mr. Ewing in May, the only members of the 
 Congregational Mission in Paotingfu were Mr. 
 Pitkin and Miss Morrill and Miss Gould, so that 
 his hands were full of work, "in the fall of 
 1899," writes Mrs. Pitkin, "he took over the en- 
 tire control of the Boys' Boarding School, and took 
 the responsibility of running. church accounts, ar- 
 ranging for prayer-meeting topics, leaders, etc. — 
 took a Sunday-school class — Sunday afternoon he 
 spent with his boys — talking to them and pray- 
 ing and singing — a meeting much enjoyed by him 
 and of great help to them. Friday evening he 
 spent with them, and he also had the charge 
 of their morning devotions each day. After 
 Mr. Ewing left in May, he took over all the 
 work and he was very happy in it. My very 
 last letter told of his leading prayer-meeting 
 and how easily his tongue formed the words 
 he wanted. He was planning to preach his first 
 sermon the next Sabbath, and I believe God 
 gave him that privilege before he laid down his 
 life." 
 
 Yet though he went back from saying good- 
 bye with no anticipation of unusual peril, he went 
 with an undersense of expectation. Mr. R. R. 
 Gailey of the Y. M. C. A. work in China, an old 
 Princeton football man, writes in some remin- 
 iscences of his friend, of his perception of this in 
 Pitkin: 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 263 
 
 "I distinctly remember when talking over the 
 problem of investing our time and talents for God 
 in China, his saying, ' 1 tell you, Gailey, I haven t 
 becrun to work out here yet.' He was a man, 
 who when home, was accustomed to movmg 
 fast at whatever he was engaged and I am sure it 
 was a great trial to his soul, as it is to many an 
 one like him, to have to wait years before being 
 able to be free to take up his work with his usual 
 energy and spirit. ... The summer of 99. 
 we had the privilege of spending together at the 
 shore, but it was much broken into so far as free- 
 dom for visiting and hours of conversation and 
 walks were concerned, as I was much occupied 
 with the care of our little baby and his mother 
 The new constant cares together with a hard 
 year's work were too much for my strong consti- 
 tution to bear and October, '99, and a week of 
 November was spent in bed with typhoid fever. 
 How was I to be looked after in such circum- 
 stances ? One day, without a word of notice to 
 us Horace bounced into the room with his suit- 
 case and said he had come down to take care of 
 me for a while and give Mrs. Gailey a rest. He 
 nut her and the baby off in another room and he 
 iust stayed by me for a solid week at the time 
 when I was needing attention the most. How 
 we enjoyed him and often we had many a good 
 lauo-h that did more good than the medicine, lam 
 sure Now, we were not so much surprised at 
 seeing this expression of his kindness and friend- 
 ship as we were impressed with the spirit of un- 
 failing loyalty to his friends and his willingness 
 to leave his family, his work and studies to come 
 and look after me when sick. We did not need 
 any further evidence but after that we felt abso- 
 lutely sure of our relationship. . . • ^ 
 1900, he was very naturally feeling the separa- 
 tion from his wife but I hope 1 will not be intau- 
 
264 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 tious if I say that there was more than the ordi- 
 nary far-away look in his eyes as we saw him for 
 what proved the last time. He was quiet and 
 thoughtful and the laugh was more or less me- 
 chanical. It was so noticeable in him for he was 
 always just the opposite, but we tried to make 
 his call as free as possible from the thoughts that 
 were taking fuller possession of his mind every 
 hour and mile that separated him from those who 
 were more than hfe itself to him. It was unmis- 
 takable that the responsibilities as well as the 
 possibilities of what was awaiting him in Pao- 
 tingfu were weighing on his mind then, but there 
 was nothing but clear obedience to his duty. Be- 
 fore leaving my house for the train for Paotingfu, 
 we were talking of the blessings of home out 
 here in China and the suffering when those we 
 love have for one reason and another to be sepa- 
 rated from us. He felt it doubly. He relieved 
 his struggling spirit somewhat by telling me of 
 the last moments with Mrs. Pitkin and the very 
 last sight he had of her and the little boy's sweet, 
 serious face which followed and comforted him 
 to his last moments. He spoke of his standing 
 on the tender watching the receding lights of the 
 steamer, at last more clear in mind than in sight, 
 and then loath to give up or take his eyes off the 
 most powerful imaginary spot that it is the ex- 
 perience of the human mind to know or see, he 
 was standing with arms folded and fixed moist- 
 ened eyes looking, looking, when some one at 
 his side broke the spell by saying, * Pretty hard, 
 old man, I know how you feel; I've just passed 
 through the same experience within a week!' 
 and they fell to conversation about things in gen- 
 eral. He hurried up from Shanghai and he was 
 with us only over night, leaving in the early 
 morning. I had one or possibly two short notes 
 from him after he reached Paotingfu and we were 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 265 
 
 soon cut off entirely. There is one other thing 
 which I would like to mention in connection 
 with Tracy and that is his really wonderful ability 
 in music. The time when 1 especially enjoyed 
 him was when he was improvising. He was fine 
 in his interpretation of his choice scores, but 1 al- 
 ways felt that he was pouring out his grand soul 
 for music in those sudden inspirations. I liked 
 him best at the organ, and we often remarked 
 what a treat it would be to hear him at a big 
 organ." 
 
 Even if Horace had foreseen that he was going 
 back to Paotingfu to his death, he would not have 
 hesitated an instant if he had perceived it to be 
 his duty. "I have always felt a trust and con- 
 fidence in his goodness and uprightness," says 
 one of his cousins who had known him all his 
 life. "He was single-eyed, and I always felt 
 sure that when he saw a duty, nothing could 
 swerve him from his purpose. He never dis- 
 appointed me." As to the political situation 
 about Paotingfu, when he returned to the station, 
 he wrote at length in his last letter to the Pilgrim 
 Church, May 9, 1900, already quoted: 
 
 "What of our situation here! You might 
 describe it as a 'deadlock.' The Boxers (the 
 society of which I wrote in my last) have been 
 gradually creeping northward from Shan-tung, 
 the province south of us. While there, since the 
 murder of Mr. Brooks, their doings have been 
 more and more under the surface, until now there 
 is an 'unquiet quiet' in those parts — here in 
 Chih-li, the movement has been growing bolder. 
 Boxers openly practice their incantations, dancing 
 
266 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 and sword practice, even as far north as Tungcho 
 and even in the very city of Peking. Some 
 weeks ago, the four nations demanded from 
 China the complete suppression of the move- 
 ment. Edicts were issued — but who ever saw 
 them ? — except in the large cities! and even then, 
 here in Paotingfu one recently appeared a month 
 old. The nations backed up the demand with a 
 few warships, but being assured that everything 
 was quiet, they withdrew them. Quiet .^ Yes, 
 very! On my return from Shanghai, I found oui 
 premises guarded at night by a small handful of 
 soldiers sent by the magistrate in the city. Be- 
 cause everything was quiet! Then a few days 
 afterwards, the Boxers assembled in large force 
 fifteen miles south of us and attacked a Roman 
 Catholic village. The Riunan^Catholics mounted 
 the Jionsetops and managed to shoot thirty 
 Boxers, with a loss of one on their side. Thus 
 was frustrated the plan to sack that Roman 
 Catholic place, sack another and then come to 
 Paotingfu to pillage the cathedral, hnmediately, 
 soldiers were sent to 'talk peace' — but week on 
 week has gone by and they won't talk. The 
 soldiers sympathize with the Boxers, for they all 
 have a grudge against the Catholics. The Chinese 
 like nothing better than a lawsuit — and when a 
 Roman Catholic gets into one, the Church backs 
 him up, threatens the judge and wins the case for 
 him. You can see how the Church will grow 
 under such circumstances and also what a burden 
 of grudges will rest upon it. In addition, the 
 Roman Catholics a while ago obtained by an un- 
 fair scheme, property in the city here for a 
 cathedral. They had been refused for years a 
 foothold in the city. To force the officials to 
 give it to them, laid up a mint of hate against 
 them. This is one side of the question. But 
 judging from Shan-tung and from the Boxer 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 267 
 
 threats everywhere in posters, etc., we must 
 believe thatjiatred of Protestants lies down below 
 somewhere in the universal hate of foreigners. 
 That Boxer versus Roman Catholic has just here 
 come to the fore is a local complication. Let 
 things get started once and Protestants will be 
 lumped in with the Roman Catholics. In Shan- 
 tung, they started with robbing Christians, but 
 ended with plundering any rich heathen they 
 could get hold of. How much more likely is it 
 that we shall be pulled in after the Roman 
 Catholics! To the west of us, things are quieter, 
 so one helper works there. For the rest of the 
 stations, and for any country work close at hand, 
 the time is not yet. The wildest rumors are all 
 afloat — no one would listen to the doctrine — 
 attendance at our chapel has fallen off — little day 
 schools shut up — and foreigners cannot think of 
 doing country work. Of course, the unprece- 
 dented drought adds fuel to the hate against 
 those who bring this curse on China. Just now 
 we are haying a heavy shower. That may relieve 
 affairs. But things are at a deadlock. Soldiers 
 won't really move against the Boxers — in fact, 
 they can't — until they see the Boxers really fight- 
 ing; for one of the Empress Dowager's edicts 
 calls the Boxers only patriotic sons, drilling for 
 self-defense and demands that they be protected. 
 This is one of the sample edicts that laugh at the 
 Great Nations' representatives in Peking. On the 
 other hand, the Boxers are not sure whether the 
 soldiers would really prevent them from fighting, 
 so the excitement keeps up. God only knows 
 the end! Here is a sample of the placards that 
 are scattered from end to end of this province of 
 Chih-li. Imagine how they appeal to an ignorant 
 and superstitious people! — (Translation.) 
 "The Gods assist the Boxers. 
 The Patriotic Harmonious Corps! 
 
268 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 It is because the Foreign Devils disturb the 
 * Middle Kingdom,' urging the people to join 
 their religion, 
 
 To turn their backs on Heaven, 
 
 Venerate not the Gods and forget the ances- 
 tors. 
 
 Men violate the human obligations. 
 
 Women commit adultery. 
 
 Foreign Devils are not produced by mankind. 
 
 If you do not believe, 
 
 Look at them carefully. 
 
 The eyes of all the Foreign Devils are blueish. 
 
 No rain falls, 
 
 The earth is getting dry. 
 
 This is because the Churches stop Heaven. 
 
 The Gods are angry. 
 
 The Genii are vexed. 
 
 Both come down from the mountains to de- 
 liver the doctrine. 
 
 Thjsisno hearsay. 
 
 The practice of boxing will not be in vain. 
 
 Reciting incantations and pronouncing magic 
 words, 
 
 Burn up yellow written prayers, 
 
 Light incense sticks, 
 
 To invite the Gods and Genii of all the grot- 
 toes. 
 
 When all the military accomplishments or 
 tactics are fully learned, 
 
 It will not be difficult to exterminate the Foreign 
 Devils then. 
 
 Push aside the railroad tracks. 
 
 Pull out the telegraph poles. 
 
 Immediately after this destroy the steamers. 
 
 The great France 
 
 Will grow cold in her heart and downhearted, 
 
 The English and Russians will certainly dis- 
 perse. 
 
 Let the various Foreign Devils all be killed. 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 269 
 
 May the whole elegant Empire of the Great 
 
 Ching 
 Dynasty be ever prosperous! " 
 "The poem is in three line couplets with a 
 swing like this (first three lines), 
 
 " * Shen'chu ch«uan (boxer) 
 Yi Ho Tuan 
 Chih Yin Kuei tzu Nao Chung yuen.' 
 
 You can see how it would catch and stick in the 
 heads of old and young. 
 
 ** A capital incident, connected with the noble 
 guard that comes and sleeps here, supposed to be 
 a protection (it may be until there is trouble)! 
 It illustrates the general equipment of the Chinese 
 military force. They brought their guns with them 
 and we were rejoicing in the display. But one 
 evening the elder pastor suggested to Ewingthat 
 it might be well for them to fire a salute at the 
 closing of our gate — 9 p. m. The Chinese, then, 
 would know that we were guarded. Ewing 
 asked the pastor to speak to them, which he did. 
 * But w ^Jhave-JiQ. powder,' wailed they. Sure 
 enough! So Ewing had to write to the military 
 official in the city to request him to furnish pow- 
 der with the guns. A day or two afterwards, 
 we had the first of the salutes and since then, 
 come nine o'clock, the house fairly rocks with 
 the racket down there in the yard. I write this, 
 not to say that we are in danger for I don't be- 
 lieve we are — but only to ask you to pray that the 
 door of escape may soon be opened and our 
 work go on in quietness once more. Perhaps 
 this is the best way out of the dilemma. Were 
 the Powers to become impatient and land troops, 
 we couldn't possibly stay here and everything 
 would be wrecked. Come rain and good crops 
 — and perhaps things will subside. . . . 
 
270 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Thank you all, dear friends, for your many re- 
 membrances — and above all for your constant 
 prayers for us. His Kingdom come — on earth as 
 it is in Heaven! Many, many times we have 
 thought of you all as you drew near to and 
 reached the glorious communion season of Easter 
 Day. We believe very many gainid the fellow- 
 ship of our church on that day. May the Spirit's 
 gifts of the Lenten season paint more and more 
 deeply in our hearts the Life Portrait of the Son 
 of God I 
 
 ** Your friend and fellow-worker, 
 ** The Pilgrim abroad, 
 
 " Horace Tracy Pitkin." 
 
 The rapid development of affairs in Paotingfu 
 during May can be best set forth in quotations 
 from Horace's letters to Mrs. Pitkin: — 
 
 " May 15th. — I noticed by the paper that Tsun 
 Hua has cavalry force. There is said to have 
 been a fight at Ting Hsing between the Roman 
 Catholics and Boxers all day long, Saturday. 
 Nothing more, so I think it did not amount to 
 much. Yesterday, a gang came from a near by 
 village and brought in a man accused of boy 
 stealing. They were going to bury him alive, 
 but his friends here in the south suburb rescued 
 him. 
 
 "May i6th. — ^^Our soldiers have been changed 
 because the cavairy"°or^tiich they are a part, 
 were~orHei^ed" away. So foot soldiers have come 
 instead. They are all Paotingfu men and will 
 stay in the compound here night and day, going 
 in"§^quads to their homes for their meals. That 
 makes it more bothersome for us but safer. The 
 fight at the village a few miles from the village 
 of Ting Hsing was told me to-day. 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 271 
 
 " It seems that in the moonlight of Saturday 
 night, the Boxers came down on the village, sur- 
 rounded the houses of the Roman Catholics as 
 they were pointed out to them and then robbed 
 them, allowing no one to escape. Finally, they 
 fired the houses and as the people rushed out 
 from the flames, they were killed and thrown 
 back into the fire. Only one man escaped and 
 they pursued him. He jumped into a well and 
 so they fired their guns into the well and threw 
 down bricks, until thinking him dead, they left. 
 He managed to get out and started for Paotingfu, 
 told the Roman Catholics and they waited all day 
 for other survivors to come. As none came, on 
 Monday, they saw the provincial judge and he 
 sent soldiers, but they could find nothing. The 
 Roman Catholics were absolutely wiped out, 
 thirty or more. Everywhere we hear they are 
 not interfering with or molesting the Protestants. 
 It is paying off old scores against the Catholics. 
 The Boxers have it arranged that a part of the 
 family till the ground, while the others drill and 
 plunder. The Roman Catholics being few in 
 number stay on guard, in consequence their fields 
 are untilled and idle now. It will mean great 
 distress for them later. . . . Miss Gould has 
 made her plans to go to the annual meeting at 
 Tungcho. If this trouble keeps on. I may not 
 go until next Thursday or Friday, when one of 
 the native pastors will be back. I do not like to 
 leave the compound without a man here. In the 
 present state of affairs, I think I shall favor giving 
 up the July meeting here. 
 
 **May i8th. — The Boxers were having a fine 
 time in the city drilling to-day. The official or- 
 dered them to stop but they wouldn't. As most 
 of them were Manchus, he called the leaders of 
 the Boxers together and told them he would dock 
 the -pay of every Manchu who drilled against his 
 
272 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 orders. We shall see by to-morrow what effect 
 that threat will have upon them. Out at Wan 
 Hsin last week, they sent word to Mr. Simcox 
 not to come there but he went. Just after he ar- 
 rived there, a lot of roughs, not necessarily Box- 
 ers, broke into the room and grabbed an inquirer 
 and dragged him out and beat him into insensi- 
 bility. Mr. Simcox got up on the roof with his 
 assistant and waited for the official. When that 
 worthy came, Simcox pointed out to him one 
 rough who had come at him with a club and had 
 him arrested. The official talked peace and went 
 off. When Mr. Simcox had got the inquirer into 
 the room again, the rioting broke out afresh and 
 at 2 p. M. he sent the inquirer home, afraid that 
 he would die. Mr. Simcox and the helper then 
 started for Paotingfu. Evidently^ they vented 
 their spite upon the natives, they didn't have 
 courage against the foreigner. Everything is 
 quiet here down our way. 
 
 **May 24th. — News came yesterday of a Chi- 
 nese military official, with thirty men, all on 
 horses, being surrounded by Boxers, north of 
 Ting Hsing. His horse was killed, his men fled 
 and he was murdered. That ought to stir up the 
 Dowager Empress against these 'children' of 
 hers. Also, in a London Mission station, south- 
 east of Cho Chou, a teacher and a gatekeeper 
 have been killed by the Boxers. Finally, a letter 
 came last evening from Chi Chi, speaking of the 
 terror that exists down there. One church mem- 
 ber, now in hiding, is being hunted. A note 
 from Dr. Goodrich, to-night, says that the French 
 Admiral is now in Peking, and the American 
 Admiral is expected there soon. Also, all the 
 foreign ministers, for the first time in many 
 years, have met together to consider the present 
 condition of affairs. Some 750 soldiers from 
 K'ai P'ing near T'ang Shan, came in on a special 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 273 
 
 train, night before last. Others came before from 
 Peking. I hear the train whistle this evening that 
 seems to bespeak more are coming. These men 
 wear straw hats and foreign boots. I think they 
 are from Yuan Shih K'ai's troops. It is said they 
 make a very fine appearance. . . . 
 
 " There is a three days' fair in progress at the 
 temple towards the east, which we used to pass 
 in our walks. So the soldier guards sit at our 
 gates now, and according to custom, hang their 
 red garments on each gate post. Every one duly 
 takes warning. It is a good thing that the official 
 seems so friendly. There are five soldiers at the 
 China Inland Mission compound, three at the 
 hospital compound and nine here in our com- 
 pound. There was good attendance at prayer- 
 meeting this afternoon. Miss Morrill is working 
 hard to keep them up in attendance. Mr. Sim- 
 cox of the Presbyterian Mission will preach on 
 Sunday. . . . 
 
 " May 25th. — Pastor Meng came in to say that 
 one of the four officials appointed to watch the 
 city gates was here to see me. So I had tea made 
 and he soon came in. We talked a little, I 
 showed him the piano and then he left. He said 
 that there are about three thousand soldiers here. 
 The fair over at the temple has been going on all 
 day and now they are fairly making Rome howl. 
 The soldiers are very respectable they say, not 
 like the Kan Su at the fair. There was a small 
 fight over at the fair. The soldiers quietly inter- 
 fered and marched the gang to the official, to 
 whom they knocked their heads in great shape. 
 There was no noise or fuss about it. It is said 
 that the soldiers pay for things they get at the 
 shops. Our guards are cooking their own food 
 here now, as their homes are too far away to go 
 back and forth to their meals. We think it an- 
 swers just as well. This evening, the weather 
 
274 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 was so hot that we held the Y. M. C. A. meeting 
 in the chapel. Miss Gould gave a talk on Mi- 
 cronesia. All listened attentively. The wind is 
 coming up a bit but the thermometer here in the 
 room stands at ninety degrees. I guess we shall 
 put off Children's Day to the last Sunday before 
 the school closes, and have a union meeting of the 
 children and a farewell service combined. . . . 
 " May 27th. — Had a big rain this morning and 
 teacher Li came in late. At chapel service this 
 morning, the girls did not come on account of the 
 rain and Ch'ing T'ang, who was to act as leader 
 did not come, so 1 led instead. Weather cold 
 and really damp after the rain. Mr. Simcox 
 preached to-day to a very good audience. He 
 gave a fine sermon on * Persecution used of God.' 
 It was just the thing for this time. This evening, 
 teacher Li came in and said that the rails of the 
 railway had been torn up on the other side of 
 Kao Pei Tien, just after the train from Feng T'ai 
 had passed, but the train to Feng T'ai had been 
 stopped in time and it had returned here. I hope 
 they will get things fixed up before next Tuesday 
 so that Miss Gould can go to Tungcho for the 
 annual meeting. I have decided not to go. I do 
 not think I should be justified in absenting myself 
 from here just now. . . . The official who 
 saw me on Friday came here Saturday to join the 
 soldiers in the compound. His business now is 
 to watch over us in the compound. He can re- 
 port affairs direct to the Hsieh T'ai, the military 
 governor in the city, and will probably keep the 
 men under him in better trim while they remain 
 on guard." 
 
 The last letter from Horace was to his Ameri- 
 can associates in Peking. It was written on 
 the morning of June 2d, 1900, and was car- 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 275 
 
 ried by a Chinese runner, who got through the 
 Boxer lines. 
 
 *' Saturday evening. — Meng I came in this noon 
 and told us something of outside affairs. One 
 thousand foreign soldiers in Peking, etc. Also 
 that Meng II with family was expecting to come 
 up by boat. As no boats, Chinese or foreign, 
 can pass up the river without being searched, 
 Meng would stand no chance at all. So we have 
 wired to Tientsin to intercept him. Also have 
 sent two men to try to find him and turn him 
 back. The Presbyterians have sent a man to try 
 to catch Lowrie, who left Tientsin, or expected 
 to leave, yesterday. The fate of the French party 
 seems uncertain. They left in spite of the pro- 
 test of the officials — thirty in all, eleven boats 
 with three soldiers to a boat. About 160 li from 
 here, they were incautious and were seen by 
 Boxers on the way to sack a Catholic church. 
 Surrounded in shallow water, they used all of 
 their ammunition — killed a great many, were 
 finally overpowered and all massacred. As to 
 whether the women killed themselves is not cer- 
 tain. Some boats, three interpreters and soldiers 
 (some wounded) have come back. 
 
 " It may be the beginning of the end. God 
 rules and somehow His Kingdom must be 
 brought about in China. 
 
 " Of course, the soldiers here are no use. Some 
 days ago, our friend, in the city, Wu Ta Jen, 
 suggested all going, but even if we ever should 
 come to that state, the way is blocked by river 
 and train. Trains still run to Kao Pei Tien, 160 
 li, free passage, for no foreigners run them. 
 Then no more road until Feng T'ai is reached. 
 We have the old wire to Tientsin, which when 
 the railway put up its wire, was turned to official 
 
276 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 use only. Now it is open once more. The rail- 
 way to the south is broken — sixty li and ninety 
 li south of here — two stations and bridges burned 
 and wires cut. Also wire into Shan-si is cut. 
 Letter just in from Davis at Jen T'sun, says all is 
 quiet there. We did have two or three thousand 
 soldiers here (imperial troops) but a lot have gone 
 north to Ting Hsing, so not many left. Spme 
 are from K'ai P'ing (T'ong Shang), wear straw 
 hats. Boxers hate them and say they are hired 
 by foreigners. So now north of us 160 li is one 
 band of plunderers; east 160 li on the river an- 
 other; south fifty li another, but more bent on 
 local ravage; southwest fifty li, another, pillaging 
 railway. As for Paotingfu, Boxers drill in tem- 
 ples in the city and officials are powerless. What 
 our chances are, it is hard to tell. All along, the 
 officials have sent us a small guard, but they, al- 
 though nice fellows enough, will be of no use. 
 Whether the local Boxers will have tan tzu 
 (courage) enough to attack, don't know. But a 
 firebrand from north, east, south or west will be 
 sufficient, that's sure. So we send this note to 
 you. What Minister Conger will do, we have 
 no idea. Will Peking and Tientsin demand so 
 many foreign troops, that nothing will be done 
 for small Tungcho or Paotingfu ? One town, 
 •thirty, li south of us, where the Catholics have re- 
 canted in a EoHy—firecrackers and great rejoic- 
 ing, but Protestant natives are not touched. 
 Everybody has been saying that * Jesus Church ' 
 is all right. Only want Catholics. All agreed 
 that if the Catholics should be massacred, no 
 telling whether the above pretensions would hold 
 water. Fear they would not. Whether this 
 trouble on the river will be an incentive to local 
 talent, don't know. If it was premeditated, it 
 may; if an accidental meeting, nothing may 
 come of it save the awful pressure brought to 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 277 
 
 bear at Peking when the world nations have 
 heard of it. In the meantime, we may not be 
 left to see the end. It's a grand cause to die in. 
 Jesus shall reign, but we do hope a long life may 
 be for us in this work. 
 
 "We write this to give you the facts, inasmuch 
 as you may have no authentic information. The 
 telegram Ewing sent us from Peking or Tungcho 
 never arrived. Meng I told us of the sending. 
 What an escape for Deacon Liu of Cho Choul 
 God's preservation. 
 
 ** Our affectionate greeting to you all, 
 "In His service, 
 
 *' Horace Tracy Pitkin. 
 
 "Advice from north suburb is that they have 
 difficulty in keeping servants. Yao Yen (rumors) 
 increasing in the city, said now, to-morrow or 
 next day, the Roman Catholic church in Nan 
 Chuang, thirty li south, will be burned; then the 
 cathedral here and then we come last — Protestants 
 and Catholics alike. Dry as powder — oppressive 
 dust-storm. God give us rain! That should 
 quiet things for the moment. Will you not press 
 Minister Conger about things } We need a guard 
 of 300 or 500 soldiers here at once. I had fainted 
 unless I had believed to see the goodness of the 
 Lord in the land of the living. I know I shall up 
 there. Down here, may He help me also to see 
 it. The moon gets brighter every night — and — 
 what — then! God leads — thank God, He does! 
 We can't go out to fight — we have no soldiers to 
 trust — a guard of ten or so, who will vanish as 
 the mist — we must sit still, do our work, and 
 take quietly whatever is sent us. And it will be 
 but a short time before we can know definitely 
 v/hether we can serve Him better above or not. 
 1 hear Miss Newton has had trouble. Perhaps 
 
278 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 you are all in great distress. But make one more 
 appeal to Conger for Paotingfu. 
 
 "Asking for faitii and strength, 
 
 " Horace Tracy Pitkin. 
 
 " P. S. Boxers who have been breaking up the 
 railway have no arms to amount to anything. 
 The Boxers on the river used 'duck guns.' Sol- 
 diers can come to Kao Pei Tien or Ting Hsing and 
 catch a train there, 140 ii from here. Two high- 
 est officials here, it is said, are on opposite sides 
 of the fence. One to attack Boxers, the other 
 not until definite orders from Peking are received 
 to protect foreigners at any cost — otherwise they 
 will be held responsible. We cannot be sure of 
 a single day's life. Work and pray for us. Pray 
 for rain. 
 
 " Horace Tracy Pitkin." 
 
 The attack on the Belgian engineering party 
 (called French in the letter) which tried to escape 
 by river showed that all hope was cut off in that 
 direction. The possibility of flight overland to 
 the south was too doubtful to be considered for 
 a moment. The experiences of many interior 
 missionaries showed afterwards that it might 
 have succeeded, but it would have been deemed 
 madness at the time. The only hope lay in 
 relief from Peking, where the legations were not 
 yet beseiged. On June 6th Pitkin sent a telegram 
 to Minister Conger, in Dr. Taylor's name, as fol- 
 lows: ** Viceroy's orders received. Officials de- 
 clare local troops insufficient guard compound. 
 Nieh's troops not arrived. Situation still dan- 
 gerous." The original of this telegram was 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 279 
 
 recovered from the telegraph office in Paotingfu 
 when the military expedition reached the city in 
 October. How the telegram came to be sent 
 and what it meant, the Rev. J. Walter Lowrie, 
 of the Presbyterian Mission, explains: 
 
 " One can almost with certainty supply the 
 circumstances under which it was written. The 
 6th of June was the loth of the fifth moon 
 (Chinese calendar) and Dr. Taylor's dispensary 
 day in the city. The murderous attack upon the 
 Belgian engineers five days before had alarmed all 
 the friends of the Paotingfu workers, and Mr. 
 Conger had wired to learn of their welfare. The 
 telegram reached Dr. Taylor while in his dis- 
 pensary, and Mr. Pitkin was there making one of 
 those cheering calls which he continued to make 
 even more frequently than ever after his house 
 had become lonely. They talked over the word- 
 ing of a reply, and Mr. Pitkin, probably on his 
 wheel, but possibly walking, bore the telegram 
 to the office and sent it in Dr. Taylor's name, 
 thence returning to his home. The viceroy was 
 secretly, but bitterly opposed to foreigners — a 
 fact not known then to even the consuls in 
 Tientsin. The reference to the officials seems to 
 imply that they had called on or been called uporv 
 by the officials that day. General Nieh was 
 known to be intelligent and pro-foreign. Some 
 troops of his were sent for a time, but withdrawn 
 again after the siege of the foreign community in 
 Tientsin began, in order to aid in the capture 
 there. I was in Tientsin, and between the second 
 and seventeenth of June (when the first shell 
 boomed over Tzu chu lin) I made every effort to 
 induce a foreign relief force to march to Paotingfu. 
 But the reply always came that the force (Ameri- 
 can) was too small, and moreover, that it was 
 
28o A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 sent to protect the legation and could not be 
 diverted to any other object. It is a question 
 whether 150 men could have reached Paotingfu 
 safely, for the military, which up to that time 
 had been neutral, might have become alarmed at 
 the entrance of a foreign force into the interior 
 and might have attacked them. The Boxers 
 alone could, I think, have been held off by such a 
 force." 
 
 The original copy of the last message which 
 reached the outside world from Paotingfu was 
 also recovered from the telegraph office. It was 
 sent by Pitkin on June nth, in Latin to Mr. 
 Lowrie, then at Tientsin: 
 
 * ' Quaestor Province nonvult protegere. Ceteri 
 volunt. Solum spes yoreciv statim wiper at Nieh 
 mittere milites. Sex mille pugiles ad orientem liu 
 ohsidentes Romanos. Hodie volunt pugnare. Si 
 vincant pervement. Immanuel. 
 
 "Pitkin." 
 
 Which translated was: 
 
 " The provincial treasurer not willing to pro- 
 tect. Others are. Our only hope is that the 
 viceroy orders General Nieh to send soldiers. 
 Six thousand Boxers are at the village of Tung 
 Lu beseiging the Roman Catholics. They wish 
 to fight to-day. If they conquer they will come 
 over (against us). Immanuel. 
 
 "Pitkin." 
 
 Of the receipt of this message, Mr. Lowrie 
 writes: 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 281 
 
 "The last telegram sent me in Latin, five days 
 later, reveals the danger they apprehended. They 
 had learned that the Fan Tai was bent on their 
 destruction. Nieh's soldiers had not arrived and 
 their safety hung upon the issue of the Boxer 
 attack upon the village of Tung Lu. As a matter 
 of fact, Tung Lii successfully resisted thirty attacks 
 of Boxers and Imperial troops. And at last those 
 who wrought their wicked will on our loved ones 
 were from the city of Paotingfu itself. How 
 beautifully the word Immanuel shines from the 
 background of carnage and hate. He was their 
 stay through that month of deepening danger, 
 and evidently was with Mr. Pitkin on the night 
 before he was translated. On receiving this tele- 
 gram, Mr. Mills, of the China Inland Mission, and 
 1 visited our respective consuls and urged them 
 to bring every pressure to bear on the viceroy, 
 which I believe they did, but six days after this 
 (Monday) the fight was on and foreign Tientsin 
 was struggling for existence. The telegraph 
 lines were broken and mended several times 
 during the days preceding the 17th of June. We 
 could neither send nor receive messages every 
 day. In one of my last, I urged Dr. Taylor to 
 urge all to flee to the southwest (Cheng Ting fu) 
 region, and they did think of escaping in that 
 direction, but it seemed too precarious a venture. 
 Then, too, it was practically impossible to find 
 any conveyance. All carters were terrorized. I 
 do not know that there has yet been found any 
 writing later than this from our loved ones. It 
 was a lying telegram from the viceroy to the 
 throne, claiming a great victory at Tientsin, that 
 is thought to have inspired the edict of the 23d of 
 June, which resulted in the murder of the for- 
 eigners in North China. He and his brother and 
 nephew all perished within three months, and 
 the family is said to be extinct. Some of the 
 
282 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 judgments of the Lord we can seem to under- 
 stand; but for others of His ways, we can only 
 say, *It is the Lord. Though He slay me, yet 
 will I trust in Him.'" 
 
 What followed the telegram of June nth has 
 been learned, of course, only from Chinese wit- 
 nesses, but Mr. Lowrie, one of the ablest and 
 most devoted missionaries in China, who ac- 
 companied, as interpreter, the military expedition 
 when it came to Paotingfu, sifted all the testi- 
 mony and wrote out a trustworthy account of 
 the last days: 
 
 "In the spring of 1900 there were some 
 thirty-two Protestant missionaries, including chil- 
 dren, residing in Paotingfu, distributed in three 
 compounds. Two of these, the American Con- 
 gregational and the China Inland Mission, were 
 south of the city and distant from the city gate 
 half a mile or more, and from each other less than 
 a quarter of a mile. The third was located north 
 of the city about one mile, the American Presby- 
 terian Mission. The Roman Catholics had a fine 
 church building, valued at thirty thousand or 
 more taels, besides priests' residences and school 
 buildings in the heart of the city. By the ist of 
 June, for one cause or another, many of these 
 missionaries were absent from home, some in the 
 United States and some elsewhere in China, 
 leaving fourteen adults and children and one 
 visitor from Shanghai, returning from a mission- 
 ary trip to Shansi, Mr. Wm. Cooper, making a 
 total of fifteen persons, eleven adults, five of 
 whom were women, and four children. In the 
 American Presbyterian Mission, north of the city, 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 283 
 
 were Dr. Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Simcox and three 
 children, and Dr. and Mrs. Hodge, hi the 
 American Board Mission were Mr. Pitkin, Miss 
 Morrill and Miss Gould. In the China Inland 
 Mission were Mr. and Mrs. Bagnall and their 
 little girl Gladys, and Mr. Cooper. 
 
 **All communication by rail was destroyed 
 before June 8th, but protection was promised 
 them by the authorities. The Boxers too often 
 said that they had no ill will to the Protestant 
 missionaries. 
 
 ** Still, they grew more violent in the country 
 round about, and the missionaries telegraphed 
 frequently to Tientsin and to Peking for military 
 protection. This the viceroy, Yu Lu, repeatedly 
 promised, and some soldiers were despatched as 
 a guard, but were again withdrawn. Mean- 
 while, the river route to Tientsin was attempted 
 by the fleeing Belgian engineers, who were 
 attacked midway between Paotingi'u and Tien- 
 tsin, driven from their boats with loss of life, 
 compelled to make a desperate march to Tientsin 
 through the midst of their foes. They were well 
 armed, and after some days of fighting, hunger 
 and fatigue, the survivors reached Tientsin. The 
 scantily armed missionaries could not venture on 
 this route. As the storm became more threaten- 
 ing, the city authorities suggested to the mis- 
 sionaries to come within the walls and occupy a 
 rented house within the city. But the mis- 
 sionaries very reasonably (as the fate of the 
 Tai yuen-fu missionaries who were within the 
 walls attests) argued that if they abandoned their 
 houses and the mob should destroy them, they 
 would be inflamed to murder the missionaries 
 themselves. But if the authorities sent a suffi- 
 cient force of soldiers, they could protect mis- 
 sionaries and property without difficulty. The 
 missionaries were advised to put in large letters 
 
284 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 on their doorway the words * Protestant Mission,' 
 which they did. The natives began to be much 
 alarmed, and after June 24th many of the servants 
 and teachers fled from the premises, but some 
 with splendid fidelity remained to the end and 
 perished with their foreign friends. On the 24th 
 of June appeared the ferocious edict, fuming with 
 hate, calling for the extinction of foreigners and 
 demolition of their property, and with it the 
 Boxers received the last impulse to their hellish 
 purpose. 
 
 "On the afternoon of Thursday 28th of June 
 while Pastor Meng of the Congregational Mission 
 was packing the books in the street chapel within 
 the city, preparatory to removing everything and 
 sealing up the premises,' he was suddenly seized, 
 bound and carried off to the temple occupied by 
 the Boxers. Mr. Pitkin sent his card to the police 
 court to secure his release, but in vain. And 
 after a night of suffering, he was beheaded and 
 buried behind the temple in a ditch. In the 
 month of December his body was reverently re- 
 moved from this burial place and coffmed. The 
 hands, still bound behind the back, were re- 
 leased, and the head laid in its proper place by 
 the younger brother of the deceased, and by the 
 Christians some thirty in number who were 
 present. On the day of Pastor Meng's arrest, 
 Dr. Taylor had made his regular visit to the city 
 d'spensary on the north street. Some native 
 college men, frequent patients of his, came in a 
 body and with weeping eyes confessed their in- 
 ability to help him. They themselves narrowly 
 escaped death later on at the hands of the Boxers. 
 Dr. Taylor shed tears with them for a moment, 
 then recovering himself, bade them good-bye, 
 closed the dispensary door with his accustomed 
 self-control and returned with peaceful counte- 
 nance to sustain the hearts of the younger mis- 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 285 
 
 sionaries at his home. He never betrayed the 
 slightest fear during those trying days, but with 
 amazing cheerfulness refreshed and diverted the 
 minds of the two ladies and strengthened the 
 courage of his two male comrades. They 
 seemed to have thought of fleeing southward by 
 cart, and drew all their silver from the native 
 bank and hired carts or endeavored to hire them 
 with that intent. Some say that no cart could be 
 induced to risk the journey. On the morning of 
 the 29th of June, an officer came to Dr. Taylor, 
 asking him to give the keys of his city dispensary 
 so that the medicines and furniture might be re- 
 moved to a safe place ere the Boxers looted it. 
 These he gave and to the officer's suggestion 
 that he should appeal to some of his gentry 
 friends for protection, he replied with a sigh, 
 * My gentry friends are only friends in the dis- 
 pensary. They will do nothing for me now. 
 My only real friend is President Wu-ru-sun, and 
 16 can with difficulty preserve his own life.' 
 ^resident Wu had fled alone and in disguise from 
 the city that very morning. The dispensary fur- 
 niture was removed, the Chinese attendants flee- 
 ing to the country that day, but they returned to 
 the mission compound the following day and 
 met their death there. One escaped southward 
 with a little boy, the son of a relative, who had 
 been entrusted to his care. He could not save 
 two boys, and after a mental conflict, he con- 
 cluded to leave his own son with friends, but 
 take his trust southward to his home, where he 
 arrived safely in due time. On the afternoon of 
 the 30th of June, a mob, composed of about 
 twenty Boxers and a disorderly rabble, bent on 
 pillage, came by a circuitous route from the city, 
 to the American Presbyterian Mission premises. 
 They piled cornstalks against the doors of the 
 compound and soon had them in flames. They 
 
286 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 then looted the hospital and chapel and Mr. Mil- 
 ler's residence and those of Mrs. Lowrie and Dr. 
 Hodge, setting fire to each before the contents 
 were entirely removed. The natives in the com- 
 pound, two faithful doorkeepers, some servants, 
 and two old women and children were either 
 killed or driven to leap into a well, while the 
 foreigners with a rifle and a shotgun held the 
 crowd at bay from the windows of the house of 
 Mr. Simcox, where they had fled together. The 
 leading Boxer was killed, but finally the crowd 
 succeeded in firing the house itself and all the in- 
 mates perished in the flames, Mr. Simcox being 
 seen hand in hand with his two little sons walk- 
 ing to and fro as the flames enveloped them. 
 Dr. Taylor had remonstrated with the crowd 
 from the window, pleading the deeds of kind- 
 ness that they had all wrought so fully for the 
 people, but it was unavailing and the party 
 passed together from their far-away funeral pyre 
 up into the reward of those who have left houses 
 and lands for His sake and the Gospel's. Dr. 
 Taylor's faithful attendant had received travelling 
 expenses from his master previously, but had re- 
 mained and succeeded in outrunning his pur- 
 suers, when he was waylaid by a dastardly 
 wretch who held him, tooK his money and gave 
 him over to his enemies, who despatched him 
 and buried him still moving in the shallow soil. 
 Harrowing as is the thought of the fate of the 
 missionaries, one cannot but be thankful that 
 they were spared the brutalities of that devilish 
 crowd. The report of this foul deed flew over 
 the city like wildfire and the workers south of 
 the city could but prepare for the worst. Mr. 
 Pitkin prayed with the Chinese teacher of the 
 girls' school, then wrote a letter to his wife, one 
 to the soldiers, who he rightly believed would 
 eventually come to avenge the deed and one to 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 287 
 
 his missionary brethren, and with a faithful at- 
 tendant, not a professing Christian but a Chris- 
 tian in heart, buried these letters in two places in 
 the outhouses behind his residence. He then re- 
 turned to the house, prayed with Lao-man the 
 faithful and left him one parting word, ' Lao- 
 man,' said he, ' tell the mother of little Horace to 
 tell Horace that his father's last wish was that 
 when he is twenty-five years of age, he should 
 come to China as a missionary.' Lao-man re- 
 ported this to the writer on our first meeting 
 after reaching Paotingfu. Lao-man at Mr. Pit- 
 kin's wish then leaped over the wall and escaped 
 through the night. Next morning, early, on the 
 ist of July through a pouring rain, their com- 
 pound was attacked front and back, and Miss 
 Morrill and Miss Gould, who lived in the rear, 
 fled forward to the chapel, a large building ne^r 
 the house occupied by Mr. Pitkin. He bravely 
 went out and endeavored to intimidate the crowd 
 with firing his revolver, but they burst in the 
 gate very soon and as seems true, aided by the 
 Imperial soldiery, pursued him towards the 
 chapel, whither he retired with Miss Morrill and 
 Miss Gould. Through the windows of this 
 building, he held the crowd at bay until ammu- 
 nition was exhausted, then they leaped through 
 a rear window of the church into the school yard 
 and took refuge in a small room there. From 
 this room, Mr. Pitkin and the two ladies were 
 taken and there he suffered death by the sword, 
 which severed his head from his body. There is 
 a slight divergence in the stories as to just where 
 and how he met his death; another narrator say- 
 ing that he was wounded at the head of the stone 
 steps where he first held the crowd at bay and 
 falling there, was beheaded on the spot, but the 
 writer inclines to the former statement. He had 
 with Christian chivalry and loyalty done his ut- 
 
288 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 most for the ladies committed as it were to his 
 care and for the church of which he was the 
 only foreign protector, and died as any hero 
 might be proud to die. The young ladies were 
 rudely seized by the brutal crowd. Miss Morrill 
 by the hair, which was loosened and flowing; 
 Miss Gould became powerless with excitement 
 and fell motionless to the ground. There her 
 hands were bound together and her feet in front 
 of her body and a pole thrust through between 
 her face and the bound hands and feet, upon 
 which she was slung and borne into the city to 
 the temple Chi-sheng-an, since blown up by the 
 foreign powers. Their clothes were not re- 
 moved from their persons then or at any time so 
 far as the writer can learn; but the brutal mode 
 of conveyance was sufficiently diabolical. Miss 
 Morrill exhorted the people as she walked along 
 and even gave some silver to a poor ceature in 
 the crowd; her ruling passion, sympathy, and 
 her ruling trait, self-effacement, strong in these 
 final hours. Mr. Pitkin's head seems to have 
 been taken into the city to the Nieh-tai's (or pro- 
 vincial judge's) yamen by the Imperial soldiers, 
 but afterwards was probably given to the Box- 
 ers, who are said to have offered it at the shrine 
 of their god. But the most persistent inquiry 
 does not disclose its final resting place. Glorified 
 and spiritual and radiant is he now in Paradise 
 and so will his heavenly form appear when the 
 dead in Christ shall rise first. What took place 
 between the Boxer rabble and the missionary 
 women in the temple is not now known, but 
 while they were held there, Mr. and Mrs. Bag- 
 nail with little Gladys, and Mr. Wm. Cooper 
 were brought to the same temple. It seems that 
 they (hearing and seeing what was going on in 
 the Congregational compound only half a mile 
 away) had collected a few valuables and some 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 289 
 
 money and fled towards Tientsin to the Imperial 
 military camp near their dwelling, hoping that 
 the soldiers would at least allow them to pass on, 
 but the Colonel Wong Chan-kuei, since publicly 
 beheaded for his crimes, received them, took all 
 their valuables and then turned them over to the 
 provincial judge and thence to the Boxers, who 
 after keeping the party until afternoon in the 
 temple, led them outside the city gate and along 
 the city wall, eastward to the southeast corner of 
 the wall. They were led by the Boxers, who 
 grasped a rope that was passed and knotted 
 around the clasped and uplifted hands of Mr. 
 Bagnall, thence around his neck, and thence sim- 
 ilarly about the hands and neck of each other 
 member of the party, except the little girl, who 
 was permitted to walk freely at their side. 
 Guns were fired and demonstrations made until 
 they reached a large grave mound at the corner 
 of the wall, said to be the grave of a Boxer killed 
 sometime previous in one of the many attacks 
 upon the native Christians made at that time. 
 There, their precious lives were poured out, the 
 little girl being thrust through with a spear, the 
 others beheaded and buried in a shallow pit. On 
 the arrival of the foreign soldiers three and a half 
 months later, these remains had been much dis- 
 turbed and were indistinguishable, and poor but 
 kindly neighbors had on more than one occasion 
 reburied them as they became exposed to view. 
 Mr. Pitkin's body was buried with those of a 
 number of native Christians, children and adults, 
 who perished on the fatal day, but has since been 
 removed in the presence of the Christians and 
 with reverent and solemn affection been recof- 
 fined and placed in safe keeping until word shall 
 come from his nearest ones what shall be its final 
 resting place. The letters written by him and 
 perhaps by others and buried with such care were 
 
290 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 dug up by greedy Chinese bent on plunder and 
 up to this date, although they have been adver- 
 tised for and a reward offered for them, they 
 have not been heard of. Such is the brief record 
 of those fatal days. The city has since been 
 punished, the provincial judge or Nieh-tai be- 
 headed, the Manchu commandant and the das- 
 tardly colonel also. The gate towers and the 
 corner wall towers and a portion of the wall have 
 been blown up, the Boxer temples destroyed, and 
 the Gentry fined one hundred thousand taels. 
 By a striking coincidence, the Nieh-tai and com- 
 mandant and colonel were imprisoned in the very 
 rooms where Dr. Taylor, their victim, had for 
 years relieved the sickness of the citizens of Pao- 
 tingfu and where the Gospel had been preached 
 continuously for six or seven years. This was 
 the mission chapel of the American Presbyterian 
 Mission on the north street which the foreign 
 commandants, finding empty and comparatively 
 clean on their arrival, not knowing its previous 
 history, appropriated as an international prison. 
 Though this crime was wrought with such con- 
 spicuous brutality, there were many in the city 
 who truly mourned and beat their breasts, es- 
 pecially at the fate of Dr. Taylor and Miss Mor- 
 rill, who had been longest resident and were 
 conspicuous for their good works. The wife of 
 the Mohammedan mollah wore mourning for 
 some time for Miss Morrill and not a few pre- 
 dicted some condign punishment upon the city 
 for the crime of slaying Dr. Taylor. 
 
 " * What I do thou knowest not now, but thou 
 shalt know hereafter.' There is yet hope for 
 Paotingfu. The very consciousness of this crime 
 may work a spirit of penitence which it has al- 
 ways been impossible by common means to pro- 
 duce. At all events, the prayers of God's true 
 people must have as a key-note the Redeemer'? 
 
"The Golden Evening Brightens" 291 
 
 prayer, ' Father forgive them, for they know not 
 what they do.' " 
 
 When Mr. Pitkin's body was recovered, it was 
 found in a pit with nine others, bodies of Chinese 
 whom he had loved. Seven were children of 
 the Meng brothers and of their sister, one a 
 Shan-si pupil and the ninth Meng's sister, her- 
 self. Pitkin's hands were not bound but uplifted 
 as if in prayer, in which position they became 
 rigid. The character of the life had set in per- 
 manence. Mr. Lowrie was there. 
 
 ** Reverently," he says, "the form was placed 
 in the coffin, which the Christians had neatly 
 lined, and over it was spread a red flannel cover- 
 ing. Then they sang, * Precious Name, O how 
 sweet,' and * When He cometh to make up His 
 jewels.' I spoke to them from Jesus' words to 
 those on His right hand, * Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it unto the least of these,' referring to his 
 interest in the native Christians' children and 
 others. The younger Meng led in prayer. There 
 were no dry eyes. Even the hardened old ' To 
 fang' wept; but the tears of the Christians were 
 not of those who have no hope. The coffin was 
 placed in a shed together with that of the elder 
 Meng and some others, and bricked in to await 
 final interment as loved ones shall indicate later 
 on. And in all the completed beauty of his 
 glorified spirit, he sees the face of his Redeemer." 
 
 Before the final burial, described in the next 
 chapter, Horace's head was found buried under 
 the ruins of the southeast tower of the city wall 
 
292 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 and was laid away with the body in its final rest- 
 ing place on March 24, 1901. 
 
 The recollections of two faithful Chinese of 
 the last terrible hours should be given in their en- 
 tirety. Kuo Lao-man was the old letter-carrier 
 and general servant. Of an interview with him, 
 Miss Mary Porter wrote: 
 
 "I think he must be the one, of all who sur- 
 vive, last with Mr. Pitkin and to him were en- 
 trusted his final requests and messages. Let me 
 write as nearly as I can in the good man's words. 
 After answering my questions as to his relations 
 with the missionaries there and to the safety of 
 his wife and child, I asked him to tell me what 
 he remembered of the hours before he stole away 
 from the compound, when Mr. Pitkin had given 
 up hope of rescue or appeal to the authorities, 
 and was awaiting the attack which he felt sure 
 would not be long delayed. It was the evening 
 of June 30th. The friends already knew that the 
 Presbyterian missionaries had all been killed and 
 their houses destroyed. Mr. Kuo had brought 
 shoes for two of the girls who bound their feet 
 and were taken away, leaving, he thinks, but two 
 of the pupils with Misses Morrill and Gould. 
 Nearly all the Christian natives, too, were gone, 
 but Mrs. Tu and her family remained. All were 
 calm and quiet, not knowing when the fanatics 
 might enter the compound. Mr. Kuo said: 'I 
 saw Miss Morrill last in the chapel with Mrs. Tu. 
 She said, "Now we can only wait. Our lives 
 are in God's keeping. He may ask us to lay them 
 down very soon." I did not see Miss Morrill or 
 Miss Gould afterwards, but went to Mrs. Tu's 
 door just before I left. She did not open it as 
 she was in bed with her children, but said good- 
 
" The Golden Evening Brightens " 293 
 
 bye cheerfully and told me not to delay and im- 
 peril my own life as there was nothing I could do 
 for them. I was a long time with Pastor Pitkin. 
 He was composed and calm. He told me of 
 some things the schoolboys had buried, hoping 
 to save them, and then took out a letter he had 
 just written to Pi Tai Tai and his camera and 
 said: "You go with me and we will bury these 
 things in the ground under the dove-cote, so 
 when all is over you will know where to fmd 
 them. Send or take them to the soldiers from 
 the west, or whoever comes with them, so that 
 my wife may be sure to receive them." We 
 went out, dug quite a deep hole and put them 
 carefully in, wrapped in water-proof covers. 
 Then we went back to the pastor's room and 
 talked till after midnight. We knew little of the 
 fate of the Presbyterian friends, but were sure 
 that none were living. At last, Mr. Pitkin said, 
 "Do not risk your life any longer, but get over 
 the wall in some place as retired as may be and 
 get into hiding before dawn. My letter may be 
 found and destroyed. If you learn that it is, send 
 word to Pi Tai Tai that God was with me and 
 His peace was my consolation. Tell her that 
 when Horace is twenty-five years old, I hope he 
 will come to China to preach the Gospel in my 
 place." Then we knelt down and prayed to- 
 gether and he sent me away. About the next 
 day, I do not know very much. The pastor was 
 killed in the compound but the ladies were taken 
 to the Boxer headquarters. I have not dared to 
 go back, but others have been there and they say 
 the dove-cote ground has been dug over and 
 nothing left of the buried articles.'" 
 
 Miss Nellie Russell writes of the testimony of 
 Yang Hsien Sheng: 
 
294 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 "Yang Hsien Sheng said that a few days be- 
 fore the end came, Mr. Pitkin said to him, * We 
 are not reading anything but the Bible these 
 days, and are giving ourselves much to prayer. 
 We are not talking "hsien hua" either, but mak- 
 ing all our plans for heaven.' To another he 
 said, 'You hurry and hide away in the country; 
 we cannot escape — if God will we go to Him, it 
 is well.' To another, who urged going to the 
 hills, he said, * It is no use for us to plan, we are 
 all in God's hand. He will do what is best' 
 The day Meng Mu Shih was killed, he said, 'It 
 will not be long now.' Some of the women said 
 that Saturday evening after he heard of the terri- 
 ble calamity at Pei Kuan, he went out into the 
 yard, watered the flowers, pulled up some weeds 
 and seemed very calm and quiet. Lao-man said 
 that he built the fire for Mr. Pitkin, but he got 
 his own supper." 
 
 " My sword I give to him that shall succeed me 
 in my pilgrimage," said Valiant-for-Truth, "and 
 my courage and skill to him that can get it. My 
 marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness 
 for me, that I have fought His battles, who now 
 shall be my rewarder. . . . So he passed 
 over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on 
 the other side." 
 
IX 
 
 IN MEMORIAM 
 
 " Poor fellow ! I wonder if he has entered upon the * larger 
 sphere of action ' which he told me was reserved for him in 
 case of such a trifling accident as death. Of all the people 
 whom I have met with in my life, he and Darwin are the two 
 in whom I have found something bigger than ordinary human- 
 ity — an unequalled simplicity and directness of purpose — a sub- 
 lime unselfishness. Horrible as it is to us, I imagine that the 
 manner of his death was not unwelcome to himself. Better 
 wear out than rust out and better break than wear out. The 
 pity is that he could not have known the feeling of his country- 
 men about him." — Huxley on " Chinese'''' Gordon. 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES GEORGE GORDON, C. B. 
 
 Who at all times and everywhere gave his strength to the 
 weak, his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the suffering, 
 his heart to God. 
 
 Born at Woolwich, 28 January, 1833. 
 Died at Khartoum, 26 January, 1885. 
 
 He saved an empire by his warlike genius, he ruled vast 
 provinces with justice, wisdom and power and lastly obedient 
 to his sovereign's command he died in the heroic attempt to save 
 men, women and children from imminent and deadly peril. 
 
 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his 
 life for his friends. — Gordon's epitaph in St. PauPs. 
 
 There were memorial services in many com- 
 munities, at New Hartford and Exeter and Yale 
 
 295 
 
296 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 and Cleveland, but the most impressive of all 
 was in the city where he died. There, on Sun- 
 day, March 24, 1901, in a great open yard, was 
 held a unique international funeral. Miss Miner 
 writes of that strange service and of the service 
 of the preceding day at the Presbyterian com- 
 pound: 
 
 '* Saturday morning, we went to the north 
 suburb at eleven o'clock, to unite with our Pres- 
 byterian friends in the memorial service for Mr. 
 and Mrs. Simcox and three children, Dr. and Mrs. 
 Hodge and Dr. Taylor, besides thirty-four of 
 their Chinese. What a scene of desolation! 
 There are hardly enough broken bricks left on 
 the place to mark the site of the house. There, 
 late in the afternoon of the day before our mis- 
 sion was attacked, our eight friends perished in 
 the flames of the Simcox house. Surely, their 
 sacrifice was a whole burnt-offering. May it in- 
 spire us, who remain, to present our bodies, a 
 living sacrifice, wholly acceptable! There were 
 no coffins in the mat booth, where the service 
 was held, but in a shrine made beautiful with 
 flowers, the names of the missionary martyrs 
 were written in Chinese and there were many 
 scrolls presented by Chinese officials, gentry and 
 merchants in honor of those who had laid down 
 their lives for the faith. The highest Chinese 
 officials in the city attended the service, including 
 the provincial judge, the prefect, the district 
 magistrate and the department magistrate. Also, 
 General Von Kettler, in command of the German 
 forces here, with many other German and French 
 officers. The German band played three times, 
 one piece, ' A Mighty Fortress is our God,' seem- 
 ing especially appropriate. Mr. Lowrie's collec- 
 
In Memoriam 297 
 
 tion of Scripture passages was wonderfully full 
 of comfort and meaning. Dr. Wherry paid a 
 tribute to the dead. Mr. Lowrie made a brief 
 address in Chinese and one Chinese hymn was 
 sung. In English, we sang 'Asleep in Jesus,' 
 and the last verse brought tears to my eyes: 
 
 " * Asleep in Jesus, far from thee, 
 
 Thy kindred and their graves may be, 
 But thine is still a blessed sleep 
 From which none ever wake to weep.' 
 
 "Sunday at eleven o'clock the service at our 
 own compound was held. In a great matting 
 booth were twenty-six coffins marked with the 
 names of Mr. Pitkin, Miss Morrill, Miss Gould, 
 Mr. Cooper, Mr. and Mrs. Bagnall and Gladys, 
 Pastor Meng and all of his children, except Titus, 
 Pastor Meng's sister and her children, the Bible 
 woman, Mrs. Chang (Ch'ing Hsiang's mother), 
 the Bible woman Mrs. Kao and her daughter, 
 Jessica, and others less well known. On the 
 banner in front of the coffins were inscribed the 
 names of forty-three Chinese martyrs, all killed 
 by the Boxers, except three or four who died as 
 the result of imprisonment, or exposure and 
 starvation in their hiding-places. These were all 
 of our own mission. On this same banner were 
 the Cross and Crown and the motto, ' Joyfully 
 bearing the bitter cross ' (Le pei k'u chia). There 
 were wreaths of evergreen, and a few flowers 
 on the coffins and pots of flowers, some of 
 which were sent by the Catholic priest with a 
 beautiful letter of sympathy, were arranged in 
 front. The schoolgirls with loving fingers had 
 lined the coffins of Miss Morrill and Miss Gould 
 with white. 
 
 "On two sides of the court where the service 
 
298 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 was held (the booth with the coffins occupying 
 the third side) were booths hung with thirty-four 
 banners on which were written testimonials to 
 the martyrs with the names of the donors. 
 ' They offered their bodies as a sacrifice for truth.' 
 'Martyrs for Righteousness.' 'Fragrance flows 
 from the Cross,' were some of the sentiments ex- 
 pressed. Most of these banners were presented 
 by outsiders but there was one from the school- 
 girls for Miss Morrill and Miss Gould. To honor 
 the memory of our American, English and Chi- 
 nese martyrs, there assembled all the Chinese 
 and foreign officials, who had attended Saturday's 
 service and many others. There were five bands, 
 the German, French and three Chinese. The 
 great crowd was wonderfully quiet; a solemn 
 hush was in the air. The services were all in 
 Chinese, except a short address by Dr. Smith and 
 a few words of thanks to those who attended by 
 Dr. Peck; Dr. Sheffield and Pastor Wu of P'ang 
 Chuang made the addresses in Chinese. According 
 to the Chinese date, this beautiful Sabbath morn- 
 ing was exactly nine months after that other Sab- 
 bath morning when the blow fell on our mission. 
 Dr. Smith referred to Mr. Pitkin's last touching 
 message to his wife, expressing the desire that 
 when little Horace had grown to manhood, he 
 would come back and take up his father's work 
 in China. The old servant who had taken this 
 oral message was with us that day. He had 
 helped Mr. Pitkin to bury the letter to his wife in 
 the dove-cote, but the Boxers dug it up. Mr. 
 Pitkin died like a brave, young soldier. He and 
 Miss Gould would have been in Tungcho for 
 mission meeting and would have been saved 
 with us in the British legation, but for their un- 
 willingness to leave the Christians in their trouble. 
 These memories thronged over us and made that 
 service very tender and solemn. Each of the 
 
In Memoriam 299 
 
 foreign bands played twice. The dirge played 
 by the French band was especially beautiful. At 
 the close of the formal service the Chinese offi- 
 cials, then hundreds of others, came forward and 
 made a low bow before the coffins. Then the 
 Chinese bands played. 
 
 **The new cemetery for the martyrs is on a 
 large piece of ground, recently purchased by Dr. 
 Peck, between the ruins of our two mission com- 
 pounds. The long procession would have cov- 
 ered the distance from Dr. Peck's to this cemetery 
 several times over. So it made a circuit travelling 
 the length of the principal street of the south 
 suburb, then going back of our compounds and 
 coming up from the east. In front, were borne 
 the thirty-four banners as well as the silk um- 
 brellas, etc., which usually accompany a great 
 funeral. There were six catafalques, all the city 
 afforded, with their gay embroideries, each bear- 
 ing two coffins. The other coffins were taken 
 directly to the cemetery. The men walked near 
 the coffins, most of them dressed in mourning. 
 Twenty or thirty carts, containing women, 
 brought up the rear. The road from Dr. Peck's 
 door to the end of the principal street was sim- 
 ply packed with people. The pageant cannot 
 have failed to have left an impression on the 
 wicked city, and while caring little for externals 
 ourselves, we can rejoice that our dear ones have 
 been honored in the eyes of those to whom the 
 outward tokens of regard mean so much. We 
 stood in the cemetery until the twenty-six coffins 
 had been lowered into the graves. We faced 
 the city wall with its ruined towers. Only the 
 houses of the village concealed the spot where 
 for months six of the martyrs lay in a common 
 grave. Mr. Pitkin's first nameless grave was 
 hardly a stone's throw away. We sang in 
 Chinese: 
 
300 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 " * Light after darkness, gain after loss, 
 
 Strength after weakness, Crown after Cross. 
 Sweet after bitter, hope after fears, 
 Home after wandering, praise after tears. 
 
 " * Sheaves after sowing, sun after rain, 
 
 Sight after mystery, peace after pain. 
 Joy after sorrow, calm after blast, 
 Rest after weariness, sweet rest at last. 
 
 « ' Near after distant, gleam after gloom, 
 Love after loneliness, life after tomb, 
 After long agony, rapture of bliss, 
 Right was the pathway leading to this.' 
 
 After prayer and benediction, each threw a hand- 
 ful of earth on the coffins and we left the spot, 
 which like that other grave outside the city wall, 
 will ever be holy ground, God's Acre. It is not 
 expected that other Chinese will ever be buried 
 there. A monument on which are carved the 
 names of these martyrs of three nations will 
 sometime mark the spot." 
 
 But as ever, the enduring inscription will be in 
 life and not on stone. One of the fathers of his 
 mission, the Rev. Chauncey Goodrich, bears 
 testimony for many to the strength, the devotion 
 of the dear life that was lived for God and given 
 for men: 
 
 " If I were asked to give my estimate of Mr. 
 Pitkin in a word, I should say that he was a block 
 of granite covered with flowers. He impressed 
 me as having a bed-rock of firmness and strength, 
 united with remarkable gentleness, sweetness and 
 sensitiveness. What a warm love he gave to 
 helpers and others who were true and faithful! 
 
In Memorlam 301 
 
 But he demanded sincerity and faithfulness and 
 faithful dealing with any who seemed to him 
 parasites and hypocrites. From the first, I was 
 greatly drawn to him. I never ventured to reckon 
 myself among his intimate friends, and yet I 
 learned to love him as 1 love few men. How he 
 played the piano or organ! No man ever moved 
 me so with his playing. All his soul seemed to 
 go into the instrument! It was so with his mis- 
 sionary work. He seemed to have given China 
 his best and his all. I did not guess the strength 
 of his love for the work and the completeness of 
 his consecration, until those last months, when 
 he braved the separation from all the world held 
 dearest, and finally set himself to watch over the 
 Paotingfu station during those days which ended 
 in the terrible cataclysm. God's way is in the 
 sea. 1 do not understand the strange providence 
 which took this blessed brother from us. But I 
 think that on the other side of the planet, there 
 must be men ready to spring forward into his 
 place. He who carries in His hands the print of 
 the nails, and in His heart an everlasting love, can 
 never forget His work. 
 
 " Oh! my blessed brother! I could hardly have 
 it so, that you should receive the fiery baptism 
 and be caught away, when so in love with life, 
 and with your great life-work, but beginning — 
 and now as I sit half dumb, I wonder if some 
 other sons of wealth may catch your spirit of 
 sacrifice, and with hearts that leap with joy at the 
 privilege, make a like consecration of time, and 
 strength and money, and all, to the highest, the 
 most difficult and the most blessed work on the 
 planet." 
 
 Dr. W. C. Noble writes: 
 
 " He lived in the same house with me at 
 
302 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 Paotingfu for two and a half years, and I am, 
 therefore, in a position to know something of the 
 man and his characteristics. In his home life, he 
 was a beautiful character, the embodiment of 
 everything grand and, ennobling. He possessed 
 a strong and striking personality — and impressed 
 me as a man remarkably well equipped for the 
 work to which he had given himself, in his 
 dealings with the Chinese he was firm, tactful, 
 yet always loving and kind, and I believe 
 possessed their love and respect. To us, his life 
 seems prematurely closed, but God, who sees so 
 much clearer, has doubtless taken him at the very 
 moment when he was ripe for glory." 
 
 And Mr. Lowrie says: 
 
 '*The three things that most impressed me in 
 Mr. Pitkin were his uniform and uncommon 
 cheerfulness, his love of music, which penetrated 
 his very being, and his desire to plant missionary 
 work on the most solid foundations. He used to 
 spin over to our mission on his wheel and go 
 from house to house with a fund of good spirits, 
 that always refreshed us, one and all. His keen 
 interest in everything that arose for discussion in 
 all matters from the homeland, in the incidents 
 of missionary every-day life, his hearty laugh and 
 fine manly bearing left upon us in the north 
 suburb mission the impression that one of the 
 strong ones had been among us, — an impression 
 that was intensified when the angel-faced little 
 son and his radiant mother made a group of three 
 visitants who were always so welcome and 
 helpful. 
 
 " The music in his soul was perhaps secretly a 
 source of the, bright, hopeful temperament that 
 made him so welcome a visitor and companion. 
 
In Memoriam 303 
 
 No doubt, heredity and the faith of the Lord and 
 Redeemer were the chief sources. But when his 
 hands touched an instrument — piano or organ — 
 music seemed to be generated as naturally as 
 fragrance from an open flower by sun and spring 
 breezes. He lost himself in the strains of melody, 
 whether joining with his own beautiful tenor 
 voice or accompanying the accomplished singing 
 of the equally gifted songstress of his home. 
 One of the never-to-be-forgotten memories of 
 one's lifetime is that of summer Sunday evenings 
 by the sea at Pei-tai-ho, when the lovers of song 
 would gather on the veranda surrounding his 
 house, himself presiding at the little organ, and 
 sing that deeply plaintive, yet hope-inspiring 
 song, 'Some time we'll understand.' How 
 little did we realize that its pathetic sentiment 
 would be so soon the burden of our own daily 
 thinking. He needs to sing it no more; but the 
 soul that so revelled in harmonies of sound here 
 below, must be feasting upon those infinitely 
 more satisfying melodies with which the heavenly 
 world resounds in the presence of the Lamb that 
 was slain. Then to offset as it were this more 
 artistic talent of our translated friend, there ever 
 appeared in his conversation and his actual 
 practice the clear conviction that missionary con- 
 verts and pupils should be educated into habits of 
 self-reliance and thrifty activity. This general 
 truth every intelligent missionary recognizes as a 
 fundamental one, but not every one has the 
 courage to face and modify the actual mission 
 practice which sometimes tends to deny the 
 principle. The application of the principle in- 
 volves great exercise of wisdom and determi- 
 nation, and is safer in the hands of an experi- 
 enced missionary than of a newcomer. Though 
 holding the principle very enthusiastically, he 
 seems not to have pressed it in the earlier years 
 
304 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 of his missionary life, but was gradually intro- 
 ducing it as he grew into the work. Since the 
 writer did not enjoy the pleasure of membership 
 in the same mission with Mr. Pitkin, he has not 
 the means of knowing the spirit in which the 
 changes in the interest of self-support which he 
 with his colleagues introduced into the boys' 
 school, were received. The changes were not of 
 so radical a nature as to provoke bitterness of 
 feeling. And the knowledge which the Chris- 
 tians had that he was of an opulent family and 
 beneficient and charitable, forestalled any sus- 
 picions of selfish or harsh motives that might 
 otherwise have risen up in their minds. His 
 work was laid down almost as soon as taken up. 
 The ways of Jehovah are high as heaven above 
 our ways. We are dumb with amazement, but 
 dare not entertain the shadow of a question that 
 all the ways of the Lord are just and wise, and 
 loving too. Eternity must present the solution to 
 this as it will to countless heart-breaking riddles 
 that baffle the best thoughts of God's children. 
 One thing is certain, he never regretted his choice 
 of the missionary career, though he gave up a 
 much more congenial one in the homeland. His 
 last words eloquently declare that he loved China 
 with the love that brought the Redeemer to the 
 Cross, and that his last thought was that those 
 whom he could influence might give themselves 
 as he had done, for her redemption. To the 
 college men of the United States, his example 
 must speak in no whispered tone — ' He that loseth 
 his life for My sake and the Gospel's, the same 
 shall save it.' " 
 
 One other memorial must be added. It is a 
 translation of the loving testimony of Mr. Meng, 
 pastor of the Congregational Church in Paotingfu. 
 
In Memoriam 305 
 
 *' Pastor Pitkin was an American of means, of 
 great learning and noble character. The name of 
 his wife was Thomas. His son's name was 
 Horace. Formerly he was a leader in the Y. M. 
 C. A.; his heart was such that he constantly ex- 
 horted men to do good deeds, but it was his joy 
 to unwearyingly preach the Gospel. He went 
 everywhere through the colleges and did not hesi- 
 tate to spend himself in journeying over moun- 
 tains and rivers. In furthering the interests of 
 the Gospel of good tidings and of truth, he was 
 ever willing to give of his substance. The service 
 which he rendered unto the Lord was from a 
 heart filled with sincerity. Because of all this, 
 many men were inspired by him either them- 
 selves to go to foreign lands to preach or to pour 
 out money from their purses to help in every 
 good work. The number of these men is so 
 great that time would fail us to make mention of 
 them all. 
 
 "Our pastor (shepherd) visited Palestine and 
 Egypt and saw the place where our Saviour Jesus 
 lived. In the twenty-second year of the Emperor 
 Kwang Shu, he came to North China and in a 
 short time came to Paotingfu. No matter when 
 we heard him preach, the heart of the writer 
 went out to him in lasting affection. On Sabbath 
 evenings, when there was leisure, we used to 
 talk heart to heart, and he was always free from 
 any overbearing manner, so sincerely did he love. 
 His wife at first did not understand the language, 
 but the writer's wife taught her and in a few 
 months, she understood not a little. 
 
 **The writer, with Pastor Pitkin and Pastor 
 Ewing, went to examine the churches and to 
 visit the Christians, in order to observe the Lord's 
 Supper with them, and to select deacons. Into 
 all these things, our pastor threw his whole heart. 
 The atmosphere of his household was strict and 
 
306 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 reverent, and his little son was taught righteous- 
 ness. In praising the Lord, he sang most beauti- 
 fully and at his leisure moments, his heart was 
 made glad by playing on the piano. If the in- 
 strument was at all out of order he was able to 
 detect it and repair it. If the clocks of his friends 
 got out of order, he could quickly mend them. 
 He was skilled in taking photographs and once 
 when the pastors, evangelists and Christians 
 were met together, he photographed them in a 
 group and did it so well that even to the present 
 time the picture is distinct in every detail. (Lit- 
 erally: hair, beard and every feature.) Only to 
 see this picture now causes me sorrow of heart; 
 for my brothers and their sons, six in all, are 
 gone. My heart is not stone or wood. How 
 would it be possible not to sorrow ? He also 
 photographed his son and the writer's son to- 
 gether and the writer, pointing to the picture of 
 child Horace, said to his son, ' This is your dear 
 and intimate friend. Later you two children, 
 bound together with one heart, will work to- 
 gether in the holy service of the Gospel.' 
 
 " In building the church, he willingly and 
 freely contributed, and in helping poor people, 
 he gave with largest liberality. In preaching or 
 explaining the Scripture, he was extremely dili- 
 gent and earnest. Among men there are good 
 and bad. The latter, though he exhorted them 
 earnestly and with sorrow of heart, did not sym- 
 pathize with this spirit. After speaking with 
 men, as they were about to leave, he always 
 knelt with them in prayer. He loved others as 
 he loved himself, and in this, did he not imitate 
 the example of Christ.^ That the writer escaped 
 meeting destruction is due to his pastor. In the 
 fourth moon, the writer with his brother, Ki 
 Hien, went to Tungcho for the annual mission 
 meeting. On the second of the fifth moon, the 
 
In Memoriam 307 
 
 railroad from Lu Ko K'aio to Paotingfu was de- 
 stroyed by the Boxers. As soon as we heard of 
 it, my brother wished to return home and started 
 on the following day. On the afternoon of the 
 third, the annual meeting closed. At dawn on the 
 fourth, I with my family, and many others who 
 had been attending the annual meeting, went on 
 board a river boat and on the seventh arrived at 
 Tientsin. As soon as I arrived at Tientsin. 1 im- 
 mediately considered the question of returning to 
 Paotingfu; but just at this time, we heard that 
 many railroad employees had been massacred and 
 I was in a quandary what to do. While I was in 
 the midst of my questionings, Pastor Pitkin sent 
 me a telegram, urging me to stay in Tientsin and 
 not to return. At this time, the Paotingfu church 
 was destroyed and many Christians killed. I es- 
 caped because of my pastor's thoughtfulness. If 
 he did not love men, would he have acted thus.^* 
 Fortunately, his wife and little son Horace re- 
 turned to the home country for a visit during the 
 hot season, just before the Boxer troubles broke 
 out. On the fourth of the sixth moon, the 
 church was burned and the smoke ascended to 
 heaven. The Christians were all in fear, only our 
 pastor was quiet and calm as usual. In the house, 
 the tables and chairs were dusted as was the daily 
 custom and the garden and flowers watered as in 
 peaceful times. We know all this from the ser- 
 vants who later fled from the house. On the ap- 
 proach of danger, he did not fear but in every- 
 thing manifested a brave heart. In preaching the 
 Gospel, in helping men, he manifested a love for 
 men. He was characterized by bravery and 
 benevolence, but it was fated that he should not 
 escape the hand of the murderous Boxers. On 
 the fifth of the sixth moon, he left us. In the 
 latter part of the eighth moon, I went with the 
 foreign soldiers to Paotingfu. On arrival, I care- 
 
3o8 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 fully inquired about Pastor Pitkin and all that had 
 happened to him from first to last. The church 
 had been surrounded by the Boxers; they used 
 large guns and shot him down on the steps of the 
 church. Afterwards, they beheaded him and left 
 his body there. Later some petty officials buried 
 him. The writer afterwards sought out his grave 
 where he was buried with nine others. All were 
 taken up and put in coffins. On the fifth of the 
 second moon of this year, friends were invited 
 to come together to condole with the bereaved. 
 Those who had died at the hands of the Boxers 
 were over twenty in number, including Chinese 
 and foreigners, men and women, old and young. 
 On the day of the funeral, the generals of the 
 German and French army were present, together 
 with soldiers and the military bands. The high 
 officials of the city and several groups of Chinese 
 musicians came to act as escort through the city 
 streets. It was a beautiful day and multitudes 
 came to see, thronging the streets. Thus God 
 recompensed these good people who had died. 
 Only I, reflecting on the good I received from 
 him during the years of our fellowship in service 
 together, could not but be stirred in my heart and 
 grieved. I urge myself out of a broken heart to 
 write these words concerning him that we may 
 not forget." 
 
 "That we may not forget," writes good Pastor 
 Meng. Forget what ? The great truth that love 
 and duty are the great sovereignties of life, that 
 what men ought, they ought, and that the great- 
 est glory is the glory of the Son of Man whom 
 love made the servant of the world. 
 
 The Yale Alumni Weekly, for November 28, 
 1900, which published the account of the Pitkin 
 
In Memoriam 
 
 309 
 
 Memorial Service in Dwight Hall, contained also 
 the report of the Yale-Harvard football game and 
 an editorial on the "Football Season," which 
 made no mention of Pitkin, but in these words 
 did unconsciously describe the spirit of his fear- 
 less and unhesitating life: 
 
 "A great many things are impossible in life, 
 but the man who spends much time in thinking 
 about the impossibilities that lie in his path is go- 
 ing to add to them rather than detract from them, 
 and the man who believes that nothing is impos- 
 sible if it is in the line of his duty, reduces and 
 sometimes altogether blots out the list of those 
 things that men say cannot be done. Yale teams 
 have been different from other teams, principally 
 from the belief that nothing which was set before 
 them was impossible. We sincerely hope that 
 this season has brought back that feeling into 
 Yale efforts on field or river or platform, and that 
 it will again become a part of the Yale man's 
 theory of life." 
 
 It was the theory of Horace Pitkin's life. And 
 the end of it was what ? Martyrdom ? Well, 
 the greatest character in human history deemed 
 that a glorious ending of His life, and He laid it 
 down as the law of life forever, that whoso 
 would seek to save his life, shall lose it, and that 
 whoso loseth it for the sake of Christ, saves it 
 forever. 
 
 ''Verily, verily, I say unto you," said Jesus 
 when the Greeks were brought to Him in the 
 court of the temple, "except a grain of wheat 
 fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself 
 
310 A Memorial of Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
 alone; but if it die it beareth much fruit. He 
 that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth 
 his life in this world shall keep it unto life 
 eternal. If any man serve Me let him follow 
 Me; and where I am there shall also My servant 
 be: if any man serve Me, him will the Father 
 honor." 
 
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