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THE VISION OF A 
 SHORT LIFE 
 
 a jttemotial 
 
 OF 
 
 WARREN BARTLETT SEABURY 
 
 ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE YALE 
 MISSION COLLEGE IN CHINA 
 
 "7 was not disobedient unto the Heavenly Vision" 
 BY HIS FATHER 
 
 y^A M<4 h^^ 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 flrintefc at &&e Rtoeratoe J) res* 
 
 1909 
 

 ^ ^ -b $ U 
 
TO 
 
 HIS CLASSMATES AT YALE 
 
 AND 
 
 HIS FELLOW-WORKERS 
 
 IN CHINA 
 
" Warren Seabury was a man of vision. When a 
 youth he had the vision to see that the world and every- 
 body in it needed the religion of Jesus Christ. He had 
 the vision to realize especially what Christianity could 
 do for China. He had the vision to see a small col- 
 legiate school developing there into a university, con- 
 ducted by men who had had the experience of Yale 
 life and work. He had the vision to see what such an 
 institution could do in the building up of China. He 
 saw how his talents, such as they were, could be sac- 
 rificed to that service. Warren Seabury left Yale with 
 a vision which was doubtless nurtured early in the 
 home life" 
 
 Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr. 
 
 At the Memorial Service. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 The life of one who has spent a score of years in 
 preparation for his calling and has garnered but a 
 handful of sheaves from early sowing when suddenly 
 summoned to the harvesting, should be set forth 
 with brevity and self-restraint. This is especially true 
 of one so modest and retiring as the subject of this 
 sketch, which is made up in part of his letters to the 
 home circle during his student days and his three 
 years' residence in China. 
 
 From the first the writer has kept in mind that 
 noble army of young men just entering their life's 
 work and asking themselves the question, " What do 
 my talents, my education, the age to which I belong 
 demand of me?" May students in China, also, find 
 in these pages evidences of that entire devotion to 
 their good which crowned Warren Seabury's life. 
 As far as possible the personal element has been 
 eliminated from this biography. In preparing it the 
 writer does not act upon his own initiative, but yields 
 to the request of friends, particularly the Executive 
 Committee of the Yale Mission, who believe that the 
 story of the founding of the New Yale in China can- 
 not be fully told without tracing in its early stages 
 the labors of this young Volunteer. 
 
viii INTRODUCTORY 
 
 May this memorial of a beloved son, resolute, 
 responsive to every righteous appeal, tireless in 
 energy, genial of soul, unspoiled by praise, ever open 
 to new Visions of Truth, extend his influence and 
 prolong his life so early cut off. 
 
 J. B. S. 
 
 Wellesley Hills, Mass. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. Ancestry and Early Years ... 1 
 
 II. A Year at Hotchkiss 8 
 
 III. Life at Yale 14 
 
 IV. Hartford Seminary 29 
 
 V. The Call to China — The Journey 
 
 Out 45 
 
 VI. The Winter at Hankow .... 59 
 VII. Changsha — The Year of Beginnings 79 
 VIII. The Founding of the Yale Mission 
 
 College 116 
 
 IX. Living in the Life of Others . .131 
 
 X. Ruling 146 
 
 XI. The Accident 165 
 
 XII. The Memorial Service 177 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Warren Bartlett Seabury Frontispiece 
 
 From a photograph taken in 1904 
 
 Warren at twenty-one months 8 
 
 In his room, Theological Seminary, Hartford, 
 Conn 30 
 
 The old fireplace in Mr. Stokes's house, New 
 Haven, Conn 46 
 
 Seabury and Gage starting on one of their quests 
 for land for Yale Mission College .... 88 
 
 After the Banquet at the Governor's official resi- 
 dence, Chang sha, Hunan 102 
 
 His Excellency, Tuan Fang, in the centre 
 
 Front Gate of Yale Mission College, Changsha, 
 "Great Ya-li College" {Translation of inscrip- 
 tion over the door) 118 
 
 The Guest Hall, Yale Mission College . . . 124 
 
 Chinese Teachers 128 
 
 Dr. Niu : Dean, left 
 
 Mr. Ts'ai : Chinese Classics, centre 
 
 Mr. Kao : Science, right 
 
xfi ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Faculty of the College in the Chapel opening 
 day, Nov. 16, 1906 140 
 
 Seabury and Hoyt in native dress 148 
 
 Yale Mission College : Teachers and Students, 
 
 May, 1907 154 
 
 Professor H. P. Beach, Yale University, in 
 the centre 
 
 Ruling in the Mountains 160 
 
 Yale Bungalow on extreme right 
 
 Cemetery at Ruling 174 
 
 Arthur Mann's grave on the left 
 Warren Seabury's grave on the right 
 
THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 i 
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 
 
 The story has come down to us that one spring 
 morning about the year 1729 a boy, then in his early 
 teens, was riding horseback from Ipswich to Tops- 
 field, Massachusetts, carrying nails in his saddlebags 
 for use in building his father's barn. Suddenly he 
 was confronted by a highwayman who, hearing the 
 jingling of the nails and thinking they were silver 
 dollars, ordered him to halt. The quick wit of this 
 country lad caught his crafty intent, and with a swift 
 swing of his right arm he hurled his saddlebags over 
 a stone wall, nails and all. The robber, instantly 
 dismounting, sprang for his booty, while the boy, 
 seeing that the thief had a better horse than he, 
 mounted the fleeter animal and made a bold dash 
 for the Topsfield farm. The sequel of this exciting 
 adventure marks a crisis in his life. In the highway- 
 man's saddlebags this boy, Ivory Hovey by name, 
 found a goodly sum of money, with which he was 
 enabled to carry out a long-cherished ambition for 
 an education. He entered Harvard College in 1731, 
 graduating with honor in 1735, a college-mate of 
 
2 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Samuel Phillips, father of the projector and prin- 
 cipal founder of Phillips Andover Academy and an- 
 cestor of Phillips Brooks ; classmate of John Phillips, 
 founder of Phillips Exeter Academy. 
 
 In two pastorates of almost equal length, one at 
 Mattapoisett, the other at South Plymouth, Ivory 
 Hovey adorned the Christian ministry by a scholarly 
 and useful service of sixty-five years. He was a man 
 of chivalrous spirit, giving his three sons to the War 
 for Independence; a daughter married a colonel in 
 the army, enduring with him the hardships of that 
 desperate struggle. He preached to the last, and died 
 November 4, 1803, in his ninetieth year. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was a direct descendant 
 of this resourceful and stout-hearted parson, in the 
 fifth generation, and was born in Lowell, Massachu- 
 setts, September 17, 1877. 
 
 It is on record that, as early as the year 1639, three 
 men were living in eastern Massachusetts, typical 
 New Englanders, — John Warren of Watertown, 
 Robert Bartlett of Plymouth, John Seabury of Bos- 
 ton, whose sons, down to the seventh generation, 
 have won for themselves an honorable name, as the 
 annals of the Old Colony, the heroism of Bunker Hill, 
 and high attainments in the learned professions 
 amply attest. Being a direct descendant of these men, 
 whose memory is revered in the family, the boy re- 
 ceived the name of Warren Bartlett Seabury. 
 
ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 3 
 
 His first complete sentence was "I see," and to 
 vision his life was largely given. These two words 
 point to a well-rounded manhood, whose vision of 
 friendship, duty, truth he ever aimed to realize. There 
 was an unconscious foregleam of his future in a re- 
 mark made by an intelligent and attractive Chinese, 
 who was accustomed to call at the Lowell home: 
 "Warren, some day you will go to China and teach 
 my countrymen about Jesus Christ." 
 
 When he was seven months old he was baptized, 
 as the family journal says: "consecrated to the 
 service of God." When he was nine months old, his 
 sister, Helena, eighteen months older than he, was 
 taken seriously ill; the disease attacked him also, 
 and both children seemed for a time to hover between 
 life and death. She was taken, but he was spared : 
 " Warren has come back to us from the very Gate of 
 Heaven, restored by God's most Holy Will." 
 
 He was a child of normal powers, of good balance, 
 of average promise. A certain seriousness of mind, 
 thoughtfulness, reflectiveness, early appeared in him, 
 the basis of rapid development in later years. To one 
 as active as he, and as ready to receive moral im- 
 pressions, well-doing became in a measure easier than 
 to many boys. Obedience was rarely compulsory; 
 it was spontaneous. Young as he was when he be- 
 gan to manifest this spirit, he never betrayed the 
 least artificiality in possessing it. From boyhood up, 
 
4 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 what his play, his student life, his life-work demanded 
 that he appear to be, he was. To all high ideals kept 
 before him in the home he made ready and earnest 
 response. There was apparent in him as a boy a 
 quality which appeared in later life. As a friend in 
 Hankow has written: "The characteristic that im- 
 pressed us most was his faithfulness. He seldom 
 came to Hankow; it was always, 'Seabury says he 
 can't leave just now, he's just getting hold of the 
 language,' or, * Seabury thinks he has some boys 
 fixed for the school and they might drift away if he 
 came down.' Then there was the work for the relief 
 of the Hunan flood sufferers, in which he was one of 
 the leaders, — faithful and efficient, forgetful of self 
 and pitiful of suffering." 
 
 Like many other children of a contemplative 
 turn of mind, he occasionally practised the art of 
 "preaching," and one Sabbath, after listening to Rev. 
 Dr. Meredith, and being kindled by a spark from 
 his fiery anvil, he gathered the family together and 
 gave them a sermon on his own account, from the 
 words " God is love." Other parts of the service were 
 carried through in proper order and with due respect 
 to the occasion. One day his religious fervor burst 
 forth in these words : " I feel so happy I don't know 
 what to do. I love God so dearly, I feel just like pray- 
 ing;" and he did pray, again and again. 
 
 Warren at six years of age seemed to have a sudden 
 
ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 5 
 
 vision of God, a boyish insight into things spiritual. 
 During his father's absence in Palestine, he asked : 
 " Did papa take off his shoes when he went into the 
 Holy Land ? " and, watching the motley crowd of 
 people passing the house where he lived, he said : 
 " It seems strange that all the ragged people and the 
 black people and the coal men have been in God's 
 hands." His early leanings towards moral and re- 
 ligious things in no way suppressed in him the finest 
 physical self-expression, the most intense ardor in all 
 boyish sports, roguery, a wholesome love of plea- 
 santry. There was in him at that early age a prophetic 
 blending of sturdy conscientiousness with a full, free, 
 exuberant enjoyment of life. The man was beginning 
 to crop out in the boy. 
 
 It was Warren's good fortune to spend the forma- 
 tive years of his life, from eight to eighteen, in Ded- 
 ham, Massachusetts, a New England town of the 
 historic type. Powder Rock, the Pillar of Liberty, 
 the Training-Field of the Revolution, the Old Fair- 
 banks House, and similar relics of the graphic past, 
 were silently moulding his character. He canoed on 
 the Charles, roamed the wooded slopes of Wilson's 
 Mountain, gathered chestnuts on Federal Hill. He 
 early showed a fondness for mechanics, wrought good 
 specimens of work with his lathe, which he purchased 
 with money he had himself earned, installed a tele- 
 phone between his room and that of a boy friend in 
 
6 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 the neighborhood. There was a martial note in the 
 original design he drew to express his loyalty to his 
 mother, — on the right a sword, on the left bow and 
 arrows, in the centre a Cross, heavily pencilled, 
 against which stood out the words he wished her es- 
 pecially to mark : " Obedience. Honor. Chivalry. 
 Love." Of all the games Warren played in boy- 
 hood, and ever after, none quite equalled base-ball. 
 To his thinking it was, par excellence, the American 
 game for American youth. Through his college 
 course and in the Seminary, base-ball took the lead 
 among his chosen pastimes. 
 
 His fondness for his home friends was very deep 
 and ardent. Not only toward his parents, but toward 
 each of his brothers, Joseph, Mason, and Mortimer, 
 and his sister, Katherine, his heart ever went out in the 
 most tender affection. Nothing could be more clearly 
 proved than this by reading his home letters from 
 College, Seminary, and his field of labor in China. 
 
 He spent six years at the Ames Grammar School. 
 Mr. J. H. Burdett, the principal, writes: "Warren 
 was rather reserved, friendly to all, as is becoming in 
 the democracy of a public school. I well remember 
 his uniform bearing of modest self-respect and cour- 
 tesy/ He was instinctively a gentleman. I try to recall 
 him as he appeared to me sixteen years ago, and not 
 allow my picture of him to be clouded by my know- 
 ledge of his devotion to high ideals and Christian 
 
ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 7 
 
 heroism so conspicuous in his manhood." He took 
 the full course at the High School under Mr. George 
 F. Joyce, Jr., graduating in 1895. 
 
 Warren had at times expressed a desire to unite 
 with the church ; his delay in taking this step accorded 
 with his temperament and his deliberate manner of 
 weighing well all important questions. In his decision 
 to devote himself to the service of God, as a minister 
 of the Gospel, his resolve to make public profession 
 of religion crystallized. On the first Sabbath in July, 
 1895, he, with twenty-five others, mostly young peo- 
 ple, joined the First Congregational Church of Ded- 
 ham, and of that church he remained a member to the 
 close of his life. 
 
II 
 
 A YEAR AT HOTCHKISS 
 
 Upon graduation from the High School, Warren 
 passed his preliminaries for admission to Yale, but it 
 was thought an advantage to give him a year in some 
 good fitting school. Hotchkiss, at Lakeville, Con- 
 necticut, was chosen, and it was his good fortune to 
 come under the thorough instruction and refining in- 
 fluence of that virile friend of boys, Edward G. Coy. 
 
 No event in a boy's life so tests his character as 
 when he begins life in an academy away from home. 
 To a positive, aggressive nature it brings an oppor- 
 tunity for leadership; to a boy of unassuming dis- 
 position it demands a reenforcement of decision, 
 manliness, courage. Warren's happy art of making 
 friends helped him to win his way into many hearts 
 at Hotchkiss, but fully to adapt himself to his new 
 surroundings required an exercise of will. He shrank 
 from self-imposed prominence; he preferred to be 
 sought after rather than to court favor. There was 
 something noticeable in the way he carried himself, — 
 open to receive impressions from others, very guarded 
 in admitting others into the inner chamber of his 
 heart. As a result he chose his friends cautiously and 
 with discriminating reserve. 
 
b 
 
 i 
 
A YEAR AT HOTCHKISS 9 
 
 In the direction of athletics, especially foot-ball, 
 Warren developed a healthy ambition, but, having 
 received an accident to his knee, he was kept back by 
 parental warnings. " You are very, very kind to me. 
 May this introductory sentence prepare you for the 
 
 next (you know me), I want to play f b . 
 
 When I get to Yale, whose Freshman class will be 
 bigger than the whole school here, I won't get a 
 chance to play at all, not through my whole college 
 course. Of course I shall do as you say, but I hope 
 you will say — what I want you to." He accepted a 
 negative answer with that earnest deference to pa- 
 rental choice which always marked his conduct. 
 
 The studies of this single year at a preparatory 
 school were directed to the final test for admission 
 to college, and were in a measure review work. He 
 took an honorable stand in all of them, but made his 
 best record in English. " I am anxious to get an honor 
 in some study ; I hope it may be in English, where I 
 often get ' A.' My instructor in that department says 
 my standing is high enough to warrant one. ... I 
 am very busy ; besides twenty-one hours a week in the 
 recitation room, I have glee club five times a week, 
 gymnasium an hour each day, Latin at sight two 
 evenings a week, debating once a week with duties 
 as secretary of that Society, treasurer of the Pythian, 
 and library work." 
 
 No record of those days at Hotchkiss would be 
 
10 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 complete without reference to the deepening of his 
 religious life. He thought much upon problems older 
 heads than his have found it impossible to solve. 
 And yet he made his modest attempt at a solution : 
 "I understand the Trinity better than I used to. 
 It seems to me something like this, — God sent his 
 Spirit into the world, first through a man whom He 
 called * My son.' Jesus Christ was born like any other 
 person, but was filled with the Spirit of God, so that 
 He was on this earth God in the flesh. He was sinless, 
 but being a man He came to meet and overcome temp- 
 tation. (Note. It is possible for us to become Christ- 
 like, if we overcome the temptations of life.) After 
 God had sent His Spirit into the world in visible 
 form for the short space of thirty-three years, and 
 after men had seen a perfect life which they might 
 copy, He withdrew His son. Then He sent the Holy 
 Spirit, Who takes possession of every one in propor- 
 tion as he has the heart to receive Him. Christ was 
 a man of like passions with ourselves, and yet He was 
 the Son of God. How can I reconcile that with the 
 fact that He was with God before the world was? 
 Yet they need not necessarily conflict, for Christ 
 could have come down to earth, taken the form of a 
 child, and filled the body as He grew to manhood. 
 
 Mr. B says there is a time when young men 
 
 think they are very wise, when their simple, child- 
 hood faith gives way to broader views of life. I hope 
 
A YEAR AT HOTCHKISS 11 
 
 to pass that stage in perfect safety. Its influence I 
 begin to feel." In the same vein of reflection he wrote 
 a little later : " It is much easier for me to see the rea- 
 sons for serving Christ than it is for me to realize in 
 my heart that God is everywhere, although I have 
 mental proof of that fact and also that He is attentive 
 to my prayers. But I am praying for ability to see 
 more clearly what I really desire. I don't know what 
 ' animating Presence ' is, but I think that God is that 
 Divine Something which has got hold of the world and 
 enters every Christian heart. Conscience is a quality 
 of the Divine Spirit." 
 
 Warren seldom referred to his own spiritual ex- 
 perience, feeling it was one of those things that can- 
 not be exposed to the view of any one. These words 
 were rarely duplicated in his correspondence with the 
 home circle: "I have been thinking of my own 
 Christian life. I believe it will strengthen my faith 
 and be advantageous to me in every way to do active 
 work for Christ. I have a feeling that such work will 
 help me to be a better Christian and to come into 
 sympathy with Him. I must make my college life, 
 now so near at hand, doubly profitable, once for the 
 home friends and once for myself. I thank God 
 that in pleasing my earthly parents I am pleasing 
 Him." 
 
 Warren's religious life developed normally, grow- 
 ing into a serene faith and at times into an exuberant 
 
12 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 joy. And yet the tide was not always at the full : " I 
 have made several good resolves of late, but I think 
 it is better not to speak of them, but to show what 
 they are by their results." In the following he admits 
 an experience unknown to him before, nor did he 
 ever use the depressing words again : " I am almost 
 discouraged, and yet I cannot explain it. I feel doubt- 
 ful about religion. I don't know what to do. I must 
 remember that religion is not emotional. I almost 
 feel that in what I have been writing there were 
 things which I could not have fully realized or things 
 in which I was deceived. Don't mind what I say. 
 I shall be all right soon. At any rate it will do me 
 good to get home once more. I hope to get into 
 college without a condition but am afraid of being 
 over-confident." In this case at least his habit of 
 underestimating his ability was not well founded. 
 He passed all his examinations for admission to Yale 
 without conditions. 
 
 The instructors and students of Hotchkiss School 
 followed Warren to his new work in China. His name 
 was kept before them by speakers from outside, and 
 there were many references to his labors in China 
 during the Missionary Conference at the School in 
 1907. To centralize this interest and give it perma- 
 nent form, a tablet is about to be erected in one of 
 the Yale Mission buildings at Changsha, bearing the 
 following inscription : — 
 
A YEAR AT HOTCHKISS 13 
 
 IN LOVING MEMORY 
 OF 
 
 THE REVEREND WARREN BARTLETT SEABURY, B.A. 
 
 A FOUNDER OF THIS COLLEGE 
 
 BORN SEPTEMBER 17, 1877, DROWNED AT RULING, JULY 29, 1907 
 
 THIS TABLET IS ERECTED 
 
 BY THE 
 
 HOTCHKISS SCHOOL 
 
 OF WHICH HE WAS ONCE A MEMBER 
 
 He walked with God and he was not 
 for God took him 
 
Ill 
 
 LIFE AT YALE 
 
 " All is well ! I am a Yale student in full standing J 
 Please send my bond." The bond under seal, soon 
 in Warren's hands, suggests a "bond" of a more 
 personal kind, and more enduring, between himself 
 and the college of his choice. It was destined to hold 
 him to her as with bands of steel, to mould his char- 
 acter and give it structure, to shape his life's work and 
 give it concreteness. It was " a bond under seal " to 
 the Almighty for service in China. 
 
 The first of his family to enter Yale, he threw him- 
 self into her contagious activities. He quickly re- 
 sponded to her bracing " spirit." Although of a sen- 
 sitive temperament, he had withal a good measure 
 of self-reliance, force of will, discrimination in matters 
 of personal justice, a fine passion against defenceless 
 abuse; he had the qualities which call out respect 
 among his associates. His year at Hotchkiss had 
 given him a circle of acquaintances exceedingly help- 
 ful in establishing him in the student life of the Uni- 
 versity. That he early caught her atmosphere appears 
 in a letter of his, published in the Dedham "High 
 School Bulletin," soon after the opening of Fresh- 
 man year : " Yale is preeminently a college of customs. 
 
LIFE AT YALE 15 
 
 The Freshmen are not permitted to sit on the fence 
 in the Campus unless their nine wins the base-ball 
 game with the Harvard Freshmen ; nor can they pass 
 ball nor spin top on the Campus (!). This * privilege ' 
 is reserved for Seniors. Only Seniors can bow to the 
 President as he passes down the middle aisle at 
 Chapel. Although athletics are interesting to all the 
 students, they are not predominant over the intellec- 
 tual side of Yale life, as outsiders sometimes claim 
 they are." 
 
 Soon after the opening of college Dean H. P. 
 Wright gave the customary address to the Freshman 
 class; his subject, "Privileges and Duties of Stu- 
 dents," with its fourfold division, " Character, Honor, 
 Privilege, Example," furnishing Warren a motto for 
 his course at Yale. During Freshman year he roomed 
 in Lake Place, at the house of Dr. E. F. Mcintosh ; 
 during Sophomore and Junior years at 272 Law- 
 rance Hall. 
 
 In the summer of 1897, at the close of Freshman 
 year, Warren travelled in Europe with his cousin, 
 M. Phillips Mason, a Junior at Harvard. They 
 visited Paris, did a good deal in Switzerland, saw the 
 beauties of the Rhine, looked into Western Germany, 
 toured Holland and a little of Southern England. Writ- 
 ing of the trip, Mr. Mason says : " Warren had two 
 qualities which are invaluable when travelling with 
 others ; he was always good-natured, ready to under- 
 
16 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 take anything, and he had a deep sense of humor. 
 He seemed to enjoy people, on the whole, more than 
 places. He was always having his fun with the va- 
 rious persons whom we happened to meet, and did 
 love to have his little talks with them to see what they 
 were made of. While we were in London we went to 
 service in Westminster Abbey . Canon Gore preached ; 
 his text was from one of the verses in the story of the 
 Pharisee and the Publican, and he very effectively in- 
 veighed against self-satisfaction and exclusiveness. He 
 came close to his audience, and his manner was ex- 
 tremely informal. We both felt that it was one of the 
 finest sermons we had ever heard. But Warren re- 
 marked that the formality of the English service did 
 not seem to him in keeping with the directness of Canon 
 Gore. This illustrates not only his dislike for formality 
 in religious worship, but his good sense of the fitness 
 of things." 
 
 More recently Mr. Mason wrote : " On one of the 
 last drives we took together, I remember Warren's 
 telling me that he thought the main thing that made 
 life worth living was to live for some high ideal. I 
 think he felt most at home in an intellectual and 
 spiritual environment, but his real ideal was to bring 
 about something of an architectonic nature. He was 
 primarily executive." 
 
 Warren's candor and ingenuousness lacked nothing 
 in their claim on his fellows; he was never tempted 
 
LIFE AT YALE 17 
 
 to be other than perfectly transparent. Various 
 forces contributed to develop his Christian life. One 
 of these was the college pulpit. It was his habit to 
 give in his weekly home letter a digest of the sermon 
 of the previous Sunday. He wrote of his enjoyment 
 in listening to Dr. Alexander McKenzie, whose 
 definition of a Christian he long remembered and 
 quoted : " A Christian is one who does for Christ's 
 sake what he would not do otherwise." 
 
 Of President Stryker of Hamilton he writes : " He 
 uses forcible language, and some of his bursts of 
 eloquence would seem out of place from one who 
 spoke less spontaneously than he. One secret of his 
 power lay in his naturalness and ease." He was im- 
 pressed by the ornate diction of Dr. Henry van 
 Dyke, the evangelical fervor of Dr. Burrell, the prac- 
 tical weight of Dr. Teunis Hamlin, the logical acumen 
 and Saxon clarity of Dr. Jefferson. Stirred by a 
 powerful discourse by Dr. Bradford, he hastened 
 to record his feelings : " I have been thinking that a 
 minister does very little good who does not preach 
 fundamental truths. While listening to such a man 
 as he, one feels the love of God, the power of God, 
 and something of His eternal verities. I sometimes 
 think we talk too much and think too little." Later 
 in his course he writes of the services in Battell 
 Chapel in a more appreciative way still: "I don't 
 know what I should do without the divine stim- 
 
18 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 ulus of hearing God's Word preached, and being in 
 a religious atmosphere; I am praying for guidance 
 and the soul to follow God closely in my life's 
 work." 
 
 The field for mission work in New Haven is a wide 
 one. As in the case of many other students Warren 
 went into it heartily, believing it would have its bear- 
 ing on his future, as a Christian worker. After an 
 evening at the East Street Mission he described in his 
 home letter the arrangements of the building and the 
 atmosphere of the room, " filled with college men and 
 tramps." When testimonies were called for, two men 
 arose to show their desire to live better lives : " The 
 leader told them that if they wanted to follow Christ 
 they could not have lodgings in that house that night. 
 * Which will you choose ? ' said the leader. They both 
 gave up the lodgings." This frontier-like method 
 of putting an untutored inquirer to the test did not 
 commend itself to Warren's common sense. But his 
 open-mindedness towards any methods by which a 
 man may be reached led him to review the subject 
 thoughtfully and make a personal application to his 
 own life : " I don't think I myself have learned some 
 important truths yet. I wish that the desire for work 
 which I feel in a meeting like this burned in my heart 
 all the time. May God give me an earnest enthusi- 
 asm in His service this week." 
 
 The religious life at Yale was sometimes quickened 
 
LIFE AT YALE 19 
 
 by the coming of preachers or evangelists of note, 
 selected for their power over young men. In Warren's 
 Junior year George Adam Smith and Dwight L. 
 Moody held special services at the College: " Moody 
 preached with his usual frankness and straightfor- 
 wardness on 'sowing and reaping.' After speaking 
 for half an hour he asked those who could do so to 
 remain longer, and many stayed. Then he asked if 
 any had the courage to say they wanted the gift of 
 eternal life. There was a pause; then I tried to count 
 the voices of those who said ' I have,' or an equiva- 
 lent, but could not keep track of them. Over one 
 hundred followed him downstairs, while a large num- 
 ber of Christians remained above to pray. We have 
 been praying for ten days that Moody and Smith 
 might have power to move men's hearts. May God 
 forgive us for doubting that He would answer our 
 prayers, and for being surprised when He did answer 
 them to-night. We are very thankful for the work 
 done by glorious Mr. Moody. We look for a decided 
 spiritual atmosphere here at Yale. We have a list 
 of twenty men in our class who have responded to his 
 direct appeals to enter the Christian life. It has 
 always seemed to me that the great feature of the 
 Christian life was a deep, animating, changeless, 
 spiritual energy, — something which never seemed 
 to be my possession. If I were not wrong in trusting 
 so much to feeling, and if I were not deceived by a 
 
20 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 temporary enthusiasm, I should think I was drawing 
 nearer." 
 
 The growth of Warren's Christian life was marked 
 from the outset by a healthful virility. Imbedded in 
 a deep religious instinct, it broadened sanely into 
 an every -day life in God. There was no feverish 
 straining after a stereotyped form of godliness, but 
 the unfolding of a man's inner self, with God as its 
 Soul and Being. He believed that Dwight Hall, as a 
 centre for the activities of Christian men, was a dis- 
 tinct localization and development of the spiritual 
 aspirations of students. It quite fitted into his own 
 needs as expressed early in his course : " I think my 
 Christian life is somewhat dependent upon my sur- 
 roundings. I must be in close alliance with others in 
 order to feel enthusiastic." 
 
 It would be setting up a false standard were we to 
 judge of Warren's character by his religious aspira- 
 tions alone. No student could have a more rational 
 view of the whole range of college life than he. He was 
 extremely fond of athletics, and believed they were 
 necessary to a well-proportioned manhood. His de- 
 light in returning to the track, after an obstinate 
 handicap of two years caused by an injured knee, was 
 very keen : " I have been running nearly all the fall, 
 in preparation for the autumn contests. They took 
 place yesterday and I am the happy possessor of two 
 shining cups, one for second in the one-hundred-yard 
 
LIFE AT YALE 21 
 
 dash and one for first in the two-twenty. It was a 
 source of genuine satisfaction to me, but I had to run 
 all the way. As a result I was given a big dinner at 
 the best restaurant in the city." Writing later on the 
 same subject, he says : " The class games took place 
 yesterday. I was not successful. It is a sort of belief 
 of mine that there is a law of compensation among 
 men ; that if one cannot excel in one direction, he can 
 in another. It only remains for him to find out what 
 that direction is." 
 
 The shaping of Warren's future calling began to 
 appear near the close of his Junior year. His letters 
 of this period were especially thoughtful and specific 
 in their references to his place in God's kingdom. 
 About this time he, with thirty others, who were 
 "supposedly thinking about entering the ministry," 
 was invited to spend an evening at the house of Presi- 
 dent D wight. To be in such a company showed that 
 he was ready to be classed among those who were 
 looking toward that profession. In the same letter 
 he quietly remarks : " I have had quite a long talk 
 with Arthur B. Williams, Jr., of the Yale Missionary 
 Band." Thus it appeared that the seed had begun to 
 germinate. Theology and missions were filling the 
 horizon of his future. He had succeeded in getting 
 many of his student friends to go with him to North- 
 field that summer. As the meetings advanced, the 
 ploughshare struck into the deepest depths of his 
 
22 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 soul. It brought light, conviction, decision. "The 
 meetings lack nothing of their consummate power;" 
 and of that " power " Warren partook in abundant 
 measure. When he returned home he beckoned to 
 his mother and father to come into a room by them- 
 selves, and there he told the story in a single sentence : 
 " I have made up my mind to be a missionary.'' The 
 light of a joyous hope was on his face, the assurance 
 that he had done his full duty. 
 
 And yet that characteristic of his, to weigh well 
 any step he was inclined to take, led him to write, on 
 his return to college : " I want to consider with you the 
 question of signing the Volunteer Card. If I decide to 
 sign, I want to do it before I graduate, both for my 
 own good and for the good of those about me. This 
 is my last year and oh ! the thoughts that come when 
 I reflect upon that fact ! I will not let this fire go out 
 if, by God's grace, it is possible to keep it burning." 
 And again a little later : " During this Senior year I 
 am trying to live. There is so much that I have not 
 done, the danger is I will not do it in this my last 
 chance. The fact is I don't know just where to begin." 
 The significance of such a step seemed to him so 
 weighty that he held it in a state of suspense until 
 March 1, 1900, when he writes, " I signed the Volun- 
 teer Card yesterday. You know this is no sudden 
 decision of mine. I have been thinking of it for a 
 long time. Of late special influence has been brought 
 
LIFE AT YALE 23 
 
 to bear upon me through my friend, Brewer Eddy, 
 and others. I have looked at the matter from every 
 side, and while I do not claim to appreciate this step 
 fully, I feel I have been divinely guided and do not 
 fear self-accusation for over-hastiness. I am weak, 
 but pray for increasing strength every day. I. H. N." 
 Nothing could indicate more clearly the prudence, 
 the caution, the deliberateness of Warren's manner 
 of coming to a crisis in life than this. The decision 
 was made for all time ; nothing could turn him from it. 
 The week following brought to Yale the two men 
 who of all others were fitted for such a critical epoch 
 in his life, Mott and Speer. " Mott's work," writes the 
 new volunteer, "has been marked with power from 
 the beginning. Not only has he reached unusually 
 large audiences by his clear argument, solemn ear- 
 nestness and conviction, but he has devoted a large 
 portion of his time to personal interviews with men. In 
 this way he met in the neighborhood of forty students 
 who desired advice. We who had been praying and 
 working for the meetings, were deeply stirred by 
 seeing the number and quality of the fellows not only 
 attending the meetings but staying to know more per- 
 fectly of * this way.' It was our special duty to get men 
 to come, men who needed such influence, and to talk 
 with them afterwards. Speer spoke to a full house 
 last Friday evening. Robert E. Speer is a vision of 
 God." 
 
24 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Another force that was at work to strengthen him in 
 his recent decision was the Ecumenical Missionary 
 Conference in New York, April, 1900, which he calls 
 "a fine monument to the power of the Gospel of 
 Christ. I am glad I attended. I was impressed with 
 the fact that there is a great host of missionaries in 
 the field ; that the missionary enterprise is a mighty 
 one, supported by the best element in the churches ; 
 that the missionary's calling is one of the greatest 
 dignity, perhaps the nearest fulfillment of Christ's 
 will on earth. One remark made near the end of the 
 meeting is well worth remembering: 'The close of 
 the Ecumenical Conference is the beginning of the 
 Ecumenical conquest.' The meetings as a whole were 
 a great inspiration. I hope now to go on from strength 
 to strength, without the interruption caused by lack 
 of conviction, hesitancy, and other petty things that 
 have foolishly hindered my growth." In such con- 
 fessions as these his extreme sensitiveness and shrink- 
 ing from display appeared. He could not affirm a 
 conviction he did not feel. The fibre of his nature 
 was so delicate that he sometimes feared his deeds 
 might fall behind his faith : " I may be wrong, but I 
 have felt as if I did not want to tell of my decision on 
 all sides. Telling my near relatives would not be 
 advertising myself, but I have felt as if it would be 
 better to let the facts appear in due time, without 
 haste, when my determination has ripened and de- 
 
LIFE AT YALE 25 
 
 veloped my life a little more fully ; and so it appears 
 to me better to say little or nothing to others about it 
 at present." 
 
 In a letter of introspection and intense desire to 
 make no slip in his final choice, he writes : " It seems 
 to me that if God is at one end of this chain of fact, 
 the need of man is at the other, and if I can be one to 
 fill the need, that is one reason for my going. I tried 
 to examine every foot of ground. I said, ' If God is not 
 running any risk in this course, I am running none/ 
 Medicine I do not care for; law seems less and less 
 attractive as time goes on; journalism is not mine. 
 On the ground of common sense my life seems to be 
 directed towards serving Christ actively. If a minis- 
 ter, why not a missionary ? So you see how practically 
 I have gone into this matter. I do not feel that all is 
 yet done. I lack deep faith, confident hope, Christian 
 joy. If I ever needed your prayers it is now. I am 
 face to face with the future ; I must press on." 
 
 In this resolute spirit Warren moved forward. 
 His Christian life, natively assertive, now becomes 
 intense in its grip on men, in its vision of things 
 spiritual. He developed a new instinct for action, 
 for service, and for God ; he now finds new ambitions 
 to arouse in other lives. 
 
 Returning to New Haven for his last term of Senior 
 year, and sitting down in his room in Vanderbilt Hall, 
 which he was so soon to leave, he writes: "It is a 
 
26 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 serious time. May God bless our last months here 
 together. Although by this time I ought to have 
 become accustomed to leaving home, this last leave- 
 taking was as hard as any. The vacation was pe- 
 culiarly enjoyable and every member of the family 
 seemed dearer. There are so many things that come 
 up now, so many advantages to avail myself of, that 
 I wish sometimes I had four years more to devote to 
 service in college. And yet, from another point of 
 view, the nearness with which I approach graduation 
 does n't seem to increase my desire to stay. When 
 these thoughts come to me I am almost ready to 
 accuse myself of disloyalty to Yale. And yet in spite 
 of the happy associations and the varied joys of col- 
 lege life, graduation is not an altogether distasteful 
 thought. There is a new world before me." 
 
 As Commencement Day draws near, he writes: 
 "It is impressive, this thought of graduating from 
 college, when one has time to think. But thinking 
 has not been my lot much of late. Examinations are 
 on and I have worked pretty hard so far. Up late at 
 night and early in the morning has been my custom, 
 with plenty of hard work during the day." 
 
 Warren entered with great ardor into the festivities 
 of Commencement Week. It was not an easy thing 
 for him to realize that his graduation day had really 
 come. To his parents and sister " Dib " (his pet 
 name for her) he gave a hearty welcome. Beneath 
 
LIFE AT YALE 27 
 
 the exterior of pleasantry there always flowed the 
 current of reflection. The breaking of college ties 
 brought him many a pang of regret; his frequent 
 return to his Alma Mater afterwards revealed his 
 love for her. 
 
 Were it possible for a single writer to give in one 
 picture a view of Warren's college life, no one would 
 be better able to do this than William B. Stoskopf, 
 who has written : — 
 
 " As a friend and comrade he was ideal, loyal to the 
 core and dependable under all circumstances. Room- 
 mates for three years as we were, I do not recall the 
 slightest act on his part which was unworthy of the 
 highest traditions of the Christian gentleman. 
 
 "As a student, while far removed from the 'grind,' 
 Warren was careful, painstaking, and thoroughly 
 conscientious. He viewed his college studies as a 
 preparation for usefulness in his after life, and pos- 
 sessed the quality of assimilating knowledge and 
 making it a part of himself. It was natural that a man 
 who threw himself with his whole soul into as great 
 a variety of activities as Warren did, should attain 
 a genuine popularity. His moral force and sound 
 practical wisdom soon made him a valued counselor 
 for many men who prized his friendship. 
 
 "The forcefulness of the man was illustrated in 
 the way he announced to me his decision regarding 
 his life's work. Although I knew he was deeply inter- 
 
28 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 ested in the Student Volunteer Movement, I had no 
 idea he contemplated going to China until he quietly 
 told me one evening as we were sitting in our room. 
 What most impressed me was his utter unselfishness. 
 The only matter worthy of consideration appeared to 
 him to be where his life would count the most for 
 God and man. 
 
 " Warren's life was a life with a vision. During his 
 college course those near him perceived that he was 
 living in that atmosphere of souls where visions may 
 be seen. 
 
 "'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord; or 
 who shall rise up in His holy place? Even he that 
 hath clean hands and a pure heart.' " 
 
IV 
 
 HARTFORD SEMINARY 
 
 The transition from College to Theological Sem- 
 inary is a sudden and radical one. The student has 
 been accustomed to a particular type of man, "the 
 college man." Now he is to meet men having before 
 them a specific calling, a vocation, whose chief char- 
 acteristic is that it demands modesty and an absence 
 of ostentation in him who devotes himself to it. And 
 yet in entering the Seminary the student makes a 
 certain affirmation that he is to become a spiritual 
 leader of men. 
 
 Upon one of Warren's build this assumption of 
 spiritual leadership made a distinct impression. Was 
 he ready for such a calling ? Could he ever become 
 an example to others ? His answer came in the ab- 
 sorbing purpose of his life, to preach the Gospel of 
 Christ. The nature of his chosen profession opened 
 to him a great variety of collateral studies which fed 
 his passion for knowledge and power, diverting his 
 mind for the time being from the intensely spiritual 
 weight of responsibility. In College he had lived in a 
 broadly democratic world ; in the Seminary he came 
 into a more restricted circle. 
 
 In choosing Hartford as the arena of his theological 
 
30 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 studies Warren was most fortunate. There he min- 
 gled with men of similar aspirations with himself, 
 there he found spiritual surroundings which culti- 
 vated his spiritual purpose. The opening of the fall 
 term of 1900 found him settled on the fourth floor of 
 Hosmer Hall, with Gilbert Lovell as room-mate, his 
 friend in Yale and later in China : " We have three 
 rooms, a study flanked by two rooms of unequal 
 size," and in this study Warren did a good deal of 
 hard work. 
 
 On the intellectual side he made progress with 
 marked rapidity. His mind grew in range, pene- 
 tration, power of continuity, and in the persistent 
 fruits of industry. His college course laid the founda- 
 tions solidly ; not till he began his work in the Semi- 
 nary did the walls of the superstructure really appear. 
 Then they shot up wonderfully fast. His home friends 
 observed it, others remarked it, among them one who 
 had followed his course with discrimination: "No 
 one developed faster than Warren in those years sub- 
 sequent to his graduation from College. He would 
 probably have kept on growing all the more and all 
 the faster because of his late development. Upon 
 coming to the Seminary he had not yet 'come unto 
 his own,' had not shown what was really in him." 
 He made a bold dash at Hebrew and found out what 
 sort of a problem he had to solve : " We have had ten 
 days of Hebrew, the bugbear of theological study. 
 
HARTFORD SEMINARY 31 
 
 I cannot say that I thoroughly enjoy it. I used to 
 think I had some gift in acquiring languages. Either 
 I was mistaken or it is necessary to have a distinct 
 talent for Hebrew. I dread losing a single lesson. As 
 it is, it is hard to keep up with the pace.'* 
 
 Into the various departments of seminary study he 
 threw himself with energy. Whether it was New 
 Testament Greek, or Systematic Theology, or Church 
 History, he was always the same earnest student. He 
 had a way of rapidly assimilating the substance of a 
 lecture, or book, thinking while he walked or played 
 golf, as well as while he buried himself in his studies. 
 His mental activity was intense, his grasp of a sub- 
 ject vigorous. He applied himself to strictly theolo- 
 gical subjects with a becoming reverence, which led 
 him to deal thoroughly and candidly with every truth 
 and yet did not hamper his freedom in forming his 
 own opinion. 
 
 Next to his mental expansion was his intense fond- 
 ness for active work. Soon after he entered the 
 Seminary he devoted himself to local missionary en- 
 terprises, believing he could thereby increase his effi- 
 ciency in reaching men. At various times he did work 
 at Warburton Chapel, the Open Hearth, the Friendly 
 Brotherhood, the Chinese Sunday - School. After 
 visiting a social settlement he wrote : " A fine work, 
 but I don't feel as if it were as direct and as effectual 
 as evangelistic work." Having been deputed to re- 
 
32 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 port sermons preached in one of the pulpits of the 
 city, he was pleased to be assigned to the Asylum 
 Hill Congregational Church. He had a warm place 
 in his heart for Mr. Twichell, whose sermon appeared 
 in Monday's " Courant." He taught a mission-study 
 class in the Wethersfield Avenue Church, taking up 
 Japan. He led the young people's meeting at the 
 Centre Church and assisted a friend in conducting 
 a Boys' Brigade. Added to this was attendance upon 
 lectures at the City Hospital given to all missionary 
 volunteers. But he discovered he was dipping into 
 too many things: "I want to restrict my time and 
 strength as the outlines of the future become more 
 clearly defined." 
 
 As the seminary years passed Warren derived 
 much pleasure from social life. Here his spirit of good 
 cheer found ample scope. He needed the relief that 
 comes from contact with others : " Last Friday even- 
 ing the Seminary held its annual Washington's Birth- 
 day celebration. Somehow I have been accused of 
 having some abilities in a dramatic way, and was 
 drafted into service as manager of a lot of shadow 
 pantomimes. It took a deal of time but was appre- 
 ciated. Most of the professors attended and enjoyed 
 it as much as the younger brethren did." 
 
 His modest refinement of sensibility was a shield 
 to him in meeting the vices and the vulgarities of the 
 world. There was in him a wholesome and protective 
 
HARTFORD SEMINARY 33 
 
 love of purity, which pervaded his taste and shaped 
 his love of the beautiful in nature and in art. His 
 fondness for the choicest poetry was inspired by this 
 trait; it was pronounced and individual. His poetic 
 preferences were entirely personal. He was drawn 
 to Browning, and made a careful study of his deeper 
 poems with analytical thoroughness. In his letters 
 from the Seminary he speaks of reading "Saul" 
 critically. Edward Rowland Sill had many charms 
 for him, and he was accustomed to carry a copy of 
 Sill with him on his journeys. Wordsworth also he 
 greatly enjoyed. His college note-book contains an 
 analysis of the "Excursion:" the "Ode to Duty" 
 was a favorite with him. But books, poems, paintings, 
 all expressions of art, were entirely subordinate to 
 life. Preeminent over all the productions of man's 
 mind was the man himself, human personality, hu- 
 man passion and inspiration. He was fond of Tenny- 
 son's " In Memoriam " and tried to fulfil, in his love of 
 the chaste and refined, Tennyson's prayer : — 
 
 " I have lived my life, and that which I have done 
 May He within himself make pure." 
 
 A man of Warren's enthusiasms was at home 
 among boys. Wherever he was he sought young 
 blood ; he was always a welcome companion among 
 boys and a participant in their games. His adapta- 
 bility to this class made him a very successful coun- 
 cilor at Camp Asquam, Holderness, New Hamp- 
 
34 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 shire, where he spent several summers during his 
 college and seminary years. Many boys of the camp 
 have borne generous testimony to his manly example 
 and his personal interest in their welfare. His experi- 
 ence at Camp led him to say in an article published 
 in a Wellesley paper of August, 1901 : "At the most 
 impressionable stage in a boy's career, only the purest 
 and most wholesome influences should be suffered 
 to exist. The nearer he can be brought into contact 
 with nature, the more correctly he can be made to 
 indulge in natural and suitable exercise, and the more 
 clearly he can be made to appreciate the deeper truths 
 of life, the better is he fitted to cope with the duties be- 
 fore him. Professors no longer insist upon sending 
 all university men through the same mould. Individ- 
 ual needs and propensities demand special provision. 
 This is even more evident at that earlier stage when 
 the character and mind, as well as the body, are 
 pliable. It is a rare opportunity for the boys, this 
 camping ; a heavy responsibility, together with a great 
 pleasure, for those who attempt to mould the precious 
 material in their hands. Nothing but the best of effort, 
 thought, and care is good enough." 
 
 In the progress of his seminary course Warren 
 came to that period when he must put into practice 
 the things he had learned. His licensure at the hands 
 of the Hartford Association of Congregational Minis- 
 ters was granted him in the spring of 1902. Of the 
 
HARTFORD SEMINARY 35 
 
 examination he writes : " We first read a brief state- 
 ment of our religious experience and belief ; then came 
 the sermon and our reasons for entering the ministry. 
 After that we were subjected to questioning. Several 
 spoke to me about my sermon, among them Professor 
 
 , who has referred to it again since then." He 
 
 also wrote Warren's father at the time : " I want to 
 express to you my very great satisfaction in your 
 son's examination for license before our Association. 
 I was especially pleased with his brief sermon, one 
 of the best things I have heard from a student for a 
 long time. The style and thought were exceptionally 
 good." 
 
 It has been observed that those who are by nature 
 reserved express their inner selves more easily in 
 public than in private. The presence of an audience 
 awakens a certain freedom of utterance and "they 
 are sheltered by the multitude." Warren was of this 
 type, his hearers giving him confidence, and assuring 
 him they were with him and glad to hear his voice. 
 They gave an elasticity to his thought, vent to his 
 emotions, fluency to his speech. When speaking with 
 an unseen God in public prayer, his words were apt 
 and unaffected. He never expressed himself in a 
 stilted or commonplace manner. 
 
 During the summer of 1902 Warren found a clear 
 field for the exercise of preaching in a country parish 
 in Weathersfield, Vermont. He preached at the 
 
36 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 "Centre" in the forenoon and at the "Bow" in the 
 afternoon. He usually covered the intervening dis- 
 tance of four miles on horseback. He did much hard 
 study, served faithfully as pastor, visiting the families 
 in the parish, and working for the young people. He 
 did not get through the season without betraying his 
 fondness for base-ball, but, having an invitation to 
 play in a match game with a neighboring club, he 
 discreetly declined. He issued small cards which 
 served as a Weekly calendar, always announcing the 
 text, as on one occasion, Revelation xxi, 1, "And 
 there shall be no more sea." One who joined the 
 church during that brief ministry, and who afterwards 
 became an earnest Christian worker in a New Hamp- 
 shire town, writes : " While Mr. Seabury was in our 
 home we all learned to love him and to admire his 
 manly, winsome Christian bearing. I shall never 
 forget the lessons he taught me ; they were many and 
 varied. He tutored me in Latin, but the one thing 
 I best remember was a suggestion of his as to how to 
 study, which helped me over more than one hard 
 subject later. His influence upon my life did not end 
 with his departure that summer. I often read the 
 letter he wrote me just before he left for China. It 
 was typical of his courageous helpfulness. He wanted 
 us to think of him as one ' who remembers though far 
 away.' Since his death I have reconsecrated my life 
 to the Master's service ; I am trying to be worthy of 
 
HARTFORD SEMINARY 37 
 
 the hope he had in me. I want others to know that 
 one life is richer because he lived." 
 
 In this new work of preaching Warren gave pro- 
 mise of much success. His friends affirmed that he 
 possessed marked qualifications for it. He had so 
 thoroughly studied theological subjects, made so 
 completely his own the thought he aimed to present, 
 that it became easy for him to give it to others. He 
 felt that the true preacher could not be the product 
 of a theological factory ; the man must grow his ser- 
 mon. It could not be produced by a series of lecture 
 courses ; it must be the product of an awakened soul. 
 His spiritual reserve distinctly favored this growth of 
 the inner life and its fullest expression in the pulpit ; 
 through this preaching there ran the golden thread 
 of sincerity and naturalness which made its way to 
 the hearts of those who heard him. His strong, sono- 
 rous voice gave the delivery of his sermon an appar- 
 ent ease which found an echo in his hearers, reassur- 
 ing him in return. He always kept his voice at a 
 medium register, speaking with a clear enunciation ; 
 he made but few gestures. In the summer of 1903, 
 during the vacation season, he preached in the Ded- 
 ham pulpit. Of the occasion a friend wrote at the 
 time : " We have just come from morning service and 
 I hasten to tell you how proud we all are of Warren. 
 You can hardly imagine the great pleasure our people 
 have had in listening to his first sermon in our church. 
 
38 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 He seemed much at home in the old pulpit and gave 
 us a fine discourse. We had the largest congregation 
 this summer, and many greeted him personally after 
 the service. You have great reason to rejoice in the 
 prospects of your eldest son, and we are glad to think 
 of him as one of the children of our church." 
 
 The critical studies of his seminary course were 
 drawing to their close, and Warren came back to 
 Hartford in the spring of 1903 for the final "pull." 
 If his mental growth had been rapid and solid, his 
 spiritual expansion had kept pace with it. He threw 
 himself more fully than ever into the life about him. 
 His " genius for friendship " was never more apparent 
 than during those last seminary days. Out of it grew 
 a desire, amounting to self-effacing eagerness, to im- 
 part some measure of happiness to others. Upon the 
 higher levels he sought their good, their spiritual 
 betterment. Looking back over this period, after 
 Warren's death, one of the professors thus estimates 
 his character : " The bright, cheery face, the winsome 
 manner, the full - blooded life, the frank, noble, 
 straightforward manhood, the spiritual Christ char- 
 acter — these all come up before us as we think of 
 those three years when he tarried with us at the 
 Seminary. We have told you more than once of how 
 we valued his influence in the seminary life which 
 gathers round us year by year and which, in such a 
 peculiar way, has its own problems and its own possi- 
 
HARTFORD SEMINARY 39 
 
 bilities ; but we wish now to tell it again with added 
 emphasis and deeper feeling. From the time he 
 crossed the threshold of Hosmer Hall he was a power, 
 not only with his classmates, but with all those who 
 made up the common fraternity of the student life. 
 If it was athletics he was at its enthusiastic front; 
 if it was the social life he was its natural gathering 
 point ; if it was study he gave others to see what was 
 the honest, faithful spirit ; if it was missions he stood 
 for all the work of an interested learner and a de- 
 voted doer of all that missions offered to be done." 
 
 It was in Warren's devotion to missions that his 
 seminary course came to its ripe fruitage. The primal 
 question had been settled and he was to be a servant 
 of the Master in a foreign field. His ambition reached 
 its climax in a burning zeal for service abroad, not 
 always a visible flame, but perpetually a fire on the 
 hearthstone of his inner life. During the last term 
 he preached a good deal in various places, speaking 
 on missions at Talcottville, Simsbury, Southington, 
 Meriden, and in other towns in Connecticut. He also 
 spoke at Amherst, Massachusetts, at South Hadley, 
 and Mt. Hermon. But he did not neglect the little 
 pulpit outside of Hartford, of which he writes : " To- 
 night I have been out to Blue Hills. Small audience, 
 very, but a big subject, exceedingly. If one was 
 helped it was worth the work and the time. We speak 
 of people's having different talents, but we some- 
 
40 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 times wonder why the flesh is so weak and the lips 
 so slow in using the talents which we have. Oh, for 
 powers of expression and helpfulness ! Do you know 
 it is a relief not to be waiting, writing, fussing, praying 
 for a church ? So many of the fellows are disturbed 
 over the question of their future. I am mercifully 
 spared this agony. I am bearing up pretty well under 
 much work of one kind and another, seeing that a 
 whole life is before me." 
 
 In February, 1902, while a member of the Middle 
 class, Warren attended the Student Volunteer Con- 
 vention at Toronto, with an attendance of twenty- 
 five hundred delegates: "The speaking was fine. I 
 do not feel that the meetings lifted me to any high 
 range of enthusiasm and any such intensity of feeling 
 as I have experienced at similar great gatherings. 
 But the mighty truths I already knew were forced 
 deeper down into my soul. I was strengthened in 
 my faith rather than deeply moved. If this is really 
 the effect upon me, I am really glad. It will, I am 
 sure, prove of more lasting benefit. Speer and Mott 
 were there in all their power. Personal consecration, 
 prayer, interest in the work of Christ in the neediest 
 places, and the cultivation of His presence ran all 
 through the sessions. I felt more strongly than ever 
 that my work has been well chosen and am happy in 
 the choice. May its influence upon me never be lost." 
 
 Warren rejoiced in the coming to Hartford of 
 
HARTFORD SEMINARY 41 
 
 President W. D. McKenzie, writing : " Dr. McKenzie 
 is an inspiration. He is now lecturing on the incarna- 
 tion and the atonement — those absolutely fundamen- 
 tal themes — so thoroughly, reverently, spiritually ! I 
 feel as if he were laying out the true ethics, the ration- 
 ale of the whole Divine scheme (as far as an humble 
 man can understand it), and though I fail to grasp 
 it in anything like its clearness I feel as if the Truth 
 lay with him. I must read it, think it, live it into 
 myself. We are glad of the opportunity of hearing 
 such noble and inspiring presentations of the funda- 
 mental truths. I think my theology is now settling 
 down to a solid Rock, that which is laid in Jesus 
 Christ ; in His Divine death for human sin. It is by no 
 means clear even to the best of men, but I think I 
 know where the Truth lies and thither I will travel." 
 President McKenzie has kindly furnished his per- 
 sonal recollections : " My acquaintance with Warren 
 as a student at Hartford was confined to the three 
 weeks during which I lectured here to the Senior Class 
 in January, 1903. This was before I was called to my 
 present position in this Institution. But his person- 
 ality was such as even in that brief time to leave a 
 definite impression upon my mind. He stands out 
 from the crowd of students whom I picture as I recall 
 them, for the sweetness and strength of his character. 
 He seemed to be a man of singularly pure mind, of 
 deep earnestness, of quiet dignity in his bearing. 
 
42 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 While his Christian zeal was apparent to every one, 
 it was combined with a very hearty and happy man- 
 ner. He took an interest in the sports of his fellows, 
 and was a leader in their base-ball games. He looked 
 forward to his life-work with intense delight, pre- 
 pared for it with great diligence, entered upon it with 
 high hopes. We must trust that the active life so 
 soon cut short here was called away to some form of 
 service in another sphere." 
 
 Warren graduated from Hartford Seminary in 
 May, 1903, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Di- 
 vinity. He delivered the class oration, choosing as his 
 subject "Success;" he also represented the class at 
 the Alumni dinner and spoke at the planting of the 
 class ivy. The Seminary offered him the opportunity 
 of studying methods of missionary instruction in 
 England, Scotland, and Germany and, on his return, 
 of lecturing on the subject before the students. It was 
 his choice, however, to take a final year at Yale, 
 studying philosophy and comparative religions. He 
 reentered the University in the autumn of 1903 and 
 located in Divinity Hall ; he joined the Graduates 
 Club, where he found much to gratify his social 
 tastes. He took the Law School Bible Class, also the 
 graduate students in the same department, of which 
 he writes : " I had my first session with the * grads ' 
 this noon. It is going to be interesting, I am sure. My 
 purpose is to have a sort of parliament, with plenty 
 
HARTFORD SEMINARY 43 
 
 of questions and suggestions from the class ; this will 
 be the order and not the exception." 
 
 With a very profitable year at New Haven he fin- 
 ished his preparation for his life's work, and received 
 from Yale the degree of Master of Arts. 
 
 On the ninth day of June, 1904, Warren was or- 
 dained to the ministry at the First Church in Hart- 
 ford. Addresses were made by Professor M. W. 
 Jacobus, of Hartford Seminary, Rev. Anson Phelps 
 Stokes, Jr., of Yale University, Rev. James L. Barton, 
 of the American Board. Professor F. K. Sanders 
 gave the Right Hand of Fellowship ; Warren's father 
 offered the ordaining prayer. 
 
 One who knew him thoroughly during his sem- 
 inary course and followed him through the remain- 
 ing years of his life gives this resume of Warren's 
 qualities : — 
 
 " First of all was his poise and self-control ; he 
 seemed always to be able to meet things in a calm and 
 fair manner. With this poise was the other supple- 
 mental characteristic, which showed itself when the 
 occasion called, of ability to do things with vigor and 
 precision and with apparent confidence. These two 
 traits were perhaps the ones which first made their 
 influence felt in my life with him. Of course with 
 these was the buoyant, cheerful, optimistic tempera- 
 ment which he always showed. I rarely ever saw him 
 cast down, though he showed that this buoyancy was 
 
44 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 no evidence of superficial thought or feeling. When 
 one got into his inner experience, then one saw that 
 back of the cheerfulness and candor and frankness 
 and breeziness, there was sober, well-developed man- 
 hood. 
 
 "I did not see the full growth of his intellectual 
 powers so much during the work in the Seminary, 
 as I seemed to see it after his post-graduate course the 
 year following. Then he went forward untrammelled 
 by any of the pre-suppositions which many of us had 
 in the earlier work, and his mind seemed to throw off 
 shackles and grow by leaps and bounds. Though 
 arriving at different conclusions from those he once 
 held, though his theological statements were different 
 from those he would have made earlier, there was no 
 arrogance in their expression. Ever constructive in 
 all his work, here, too, he sought to construct out 
 of his former thoughts a nobler and sounder belief. 
 
 "It was the enlarging vision of life, the growing 
 feeling of the greater brotherhood of man, combined 
 with the native courtliness of the man, which, it 
 seemed to me, marked him out for the peculiar work 
 he was called to perform in China. There was no 
 place in such work for the bigot, the recluse, the mys- 
 tic, or the man bound to a hard and fast set of tradi- 
 tional statements. He seemed to measure up to the 
 requirements of his post and bade fair to engrave his 
 character and worth upon many a life in that land." 
 
V 
 
 THE CALL TO CHINA — THE JOURNEY OUT 
 
 One April afternoon in the year 1900, three Yale 
 Seniors, en route to New York to attend the Ecumen- 
 ical Foreign Missionary Conference, were earnestly 
 engaged in conversation. Their proposition — the 
 missionary work of the University concentrated under 
 one of the denominational Boards — was germinal 
 but not new. These Volunteers, one of whom was 
 Warren, then and there agreed to try later to be thus 
 associated on the foreign field, where and how was 
 naturally left undetermined. 
 
 The following summer, Northfield, with its un- 
 wonted emphasis on missions due to the number of 
 eminent Ecumenical Conference speakers gathered 
 there that season, whetted the enthusiasm of these 
 three young men. The situation at Peking and the 
 perils of the Boxer outbreak added to the impressive- 
 ness, the gravity, the pathos of the hour. Under the 
 impulse of that great gathering two basal facts were 
 wrought into Warren's mind: one, if a man has a 
 talent for God's work at home he can find a com- 
 manding field for its exercise abroad ; the other, every 
 student must answer the question, "Why should I 
 stay at home in this great crisis ? " In his decision to 
 
46 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 go, already made, he was splendidly reenforced by 
 the sweeping enthusiasm of the hour. Furthermore, 
 several men, classmates of these Yale Seniors, them- 
 selves unable to go, came to them and offered to stand 
 behind them financially when they were ready for 
 their fields of labor. The Yale Missionary idea had 
 not then crystallized; it was slowly growing in the 
 minds of a few Yale men, awaiting its full time. 
 
 Shortly after the opening of the winter term at 
 Hartford Seminary, the subject was fully considered 
 by Arthur C. Williams, Gilbert Lovell, and Warren 
 in the room of the latter in Hosmer Hall. Warren 
 had been profoundly moved by reading " Pilkington 
 of Uganda." Might it not be well, he thought, to 
 establish a Yale Mission in Africa, the continent 
 which had witnessed Pilkington's glorious self-sacri- 
 fice ? As time went on new light broke upon the gen- 
 eral plan and with it new confidence that a Yale 
 Mission would ere long be realized. The Boxer mas- 
 sacres, with their awful record of suffering and death, 
 already suppressed, gave evidence of an immediate 
 reaction in favor of greatly accelerated missionary 
 work in China. The blood of the martyr, Pitkin, a 
 recent graduate of Yale, brought China still nearer 
 the hearts of her alumni. These and other consid- 
 erations pointed to China as the seat of the future 
 Yale Mission. 
 
 Seated before the old fireplace in Mr. Stokes's 
 
THE CALL TO CHINA 47 
 
 house in New Haven, February 10, 1901, Arthur 
 C. Williams and Warren B. Seabury laid before Mr. 
 Speer full details of the Yale plan to date. To the 
 recital, for which they had made careful preparation, 
 Mr. Speer gave close attention, resulting in his hearty 
 endorsement. He saw great missionary possibilities 
 in the scheme, and encouraged the young men to 
 go forward and consult the officers of the American 
 Board in relation to its expansion. Professor Beach 
 foresaw the problem of finance, believing that if this 
 could be firmly fixed, "no missionary board would 
 refuse" them. Still later, Dr. Barton, Secretary of 
 the American Board, gave it as his opinion : " The 
 more I have thought over the plan the more it seems to 
 me to be feasible and practicable, provided the back- 
 ing at Yale is sufficient. The suggestion that China 
 be the field chosen will no doubt command the hearty 
 cooperation of all the officers of the Board, its Pru- 
 dential Committee and the wide public. ... It is 
 important that so far as you go you carry everything 
 before you. Your plan is very attractive and is 
 worthy of every effort to make it a success." 
 
 At the memorial service for Warren, more than 
 three years later, President Capen of the American 
 Board said : " Early in the winter of 1901 Warren 
 Seabury and Arthur Williams unfolded their plan to 
 Secretary Barton, asking if the Board would affiliate 
 in any way with such a work as they had in mind. 
 
48 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 They expressed a desire to talk with me. Dr. Barton 
 suggested that I point out the obstacles and difficul- 
 ties before them, saying : * I have done this and have 
 not shaken them in their purpose ; they always have 
 an answer ready.' An appointment was made and they 
 came to Boston for the interview. Williams was 
 taken ill and Seabury alone unfolded to me the plan 
 and told of his vision of the future. Of the greatness 
 of what we believe are to be its results only the future 
 will disclose. Fifty or a hundred years hence, with 
 China saved to the Kingdom of God, it will be seen 
 how great has been the work which Seabury and his 
 colleagues inaugurated." 
 
 Then follow in rapid succession interviews with 
 various men at the Yale end, pointing to the organ- 
 ization of the Mission, — President Hadley, Dean 
 Wright, Mr. Stokes, Professors Williams, Sanders, 
 and Reed, and others, endorsing the plan. The first 
 prospectus of the College was drawn up in May, 
 1901, but was never issued. At Northfield, during 
 the summer following, after consultation with Mr. 
 John R. Mott and Dr. Howard Taylor of the China 
 Inland Mission, Professor Beach, Dean Sanders, and 
 A. C. Williams made the first draft of the constitu- 
 tion. 1 
 
 1 The genesis of the Yale Mission in China has been fully de- 
 scribed in Dr. H. B. Wright's invaluable Memorial of John Law- 
 rence Thurston, "A Life with a Purpose," pp. 179-203, 207-260, 
 263-289. 
 
THE CALL TO CHINA 49 
 
 Important adjustments became necessary, finally 
 resulting in the full equipment of the Yale Mission 
 for work in China. Cordial affiliation with the Amer- 
 ican Board was established, giving to the Yale Mis- 
 sion entire freedom of action based upon its inde- 
 pendent financial support, the wholly undenomina- 
 tional aspect of the Mission being clearly set forth. At 
 this stage missionary work of a general character 
 was contemplated, with education as a prominent 
 feature. 
 
 During this year Warren put into writing his own 
 conception of the character and purpose of the Yale 
 Mission, as follows: — 
 
 " Under the inspiration of the great Ecumenical 
 Conference in New York in the spring of 1900, the 
 original project regarding a Yale Foreign Mission 
 became articulate. The enthusiasm for missions 
 which throbbed in those great gatherings in Carnegie 
 Hall did not suppress the enthusiasm which we as 
 Yale men felt for our own College. Surely two such 
 mighty forces would unite. If the great burden of the 
 church were missions, if the educated and enlightened 
 people of Christendom were, under God, moving in 
 invincible ranks against the forces of evil, surely the 
 College of our choice would not do better than add 
 its strength to the strong. 
 
 "And then we, who were planning to spend our 
 lives in foreign service, felt that we could be more 
 
50 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 efficient having the inspiration of men at our side, 
 not only stirred by the same great purpose, but with 
 the interests common to young men, to college men, 
 yes, to Yale men. It was our conviction that our lives 
 would be stronger with the Yale spirit on the field and 
 the old College behind us. 
 
 " This was all very well, but it was not so easy to 
 plan the details of support and management. In fact 
 the constitution, as it now stands, shows but slight 
 resemblance to its rude forerunner of two years ago. 
 For after repeated consultations two or three of us 
 were firmly convinced that the plan was practicable. 
 The back room at the Graduates Club witnessed 
 some earnest attempts to collect arguments, arrange 
 them in logical order and present them with the most 
 telling effect for our expected interviews with men 
 of experience. Our own growing confidence was 
 greatly increased by talking with Mr. Speer, Mr. 
 Beach, Dr. Barton, Dr. Capen, Mr. Stokes, Mr. 
 Roberts, besides many in closest sympathy with the 
 College and with deepest faith in her support. 
 
 " And so, as wiser heads than ours have taken the 
 plan as we outlined it in general and have developed 
 it, as we could not have done, we are content to stand 
 by and see the College we love take a hand in the great 
 cause that we love and wait until we are wanted." 
 
 Lawrence Thurston joined the group of men pro- 
 jecting the Yale Mission after much of the prelim- 
 
THE CALL TO CHINA 51 
 
 inary work had been done. But he came at the im- 
 portant hour when the question of the relation of the 
 Mission to the University itself was under considera- 
 tion. From that time on he was an influential factor 
 in the counsels of the committee. He gave to the 
 Mission his intense love of the foreign work, his rare 
 self-dedication, his humble devotion to its highest 
 welfare. To his painstaking research, his judicious 
 balancing of arguments, his obedience to every token 
 of Providential guidance is due the selection of 
 Changsha as the city for the establishment of the 
 Mission. To him belongs the credit of solving this 
 most vital problem. In his death, which occurred 
 at San Bernardino, California, May 10, 1904, this 
 pioneer of the Yale Mission passed on to his reward. 
 To the initial question of selecting a home for the 
 Mission Mrs. Thurston, also, contributed of her rare 
 good sense. Her personal consecration to the work is 
 abundantly assured by her return to China, to the 
 labors of her husband in the promising development 
 of the Yale Mission College. 
 
 Lawrence Thurston received his appointment 
 June 6, 1902. Next in order came Brownell Gage, 
 still doing loyal and telling work at Changsha. War- 
 ren was third in the order of appointment, the date 
 being November 3, 1902. 
 
 After his death, Mr. Speer wrote of the initial days 
 of the Mission as follows : " I knew Warren well and 
 
52 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 had the warmest regard for him. My recollections of 
 him are in connection with the talks which he, Mr. 
 Williams, and I had with reference to the founding 
 of the Yale Mission. In the dining-room of the Grad- 
 uates Club in New Haven and before the old fireplace 
 in Mr. Stokes's house we talked over the idea of the 
 Yale Mission, what form it should take, to what 
 motives appeals should be made, and how the founda- 
 tions of such a mission could be laid so as to be solid 
 and permanent and to endure the strain which every 
 foreign mission must meet and which we then little 
 dreamed the Yale Mission would have to meet in 
 Warren's tragic death. I remember the calm poise, 
 the patient but solid judgment, the smiling recogni- 
 tion of difficulties which were in the way only to be 
 triumphantly overcome, and the entirely simple and 
 unself -conscious, but for those very reasons the more 
 steadfast and all-embracing, consecration. I recall 
 those conversations clearly and with great gratitude 
 for the share which they gave me in Warren's life 
 purposes and in the work of the Yale Mission." 
 
 From the day Warren received his appointment 
 he gave himself to the business of personal prepara- 
 tion for his work. First came the further discipline 
 of his mind in philosophical thinking, in ethics and 
 philology. He made no specific study of the Chinese 
 language, believing that should be acquired on the 
 field itself. He bent his energies to the fullest under- 
 
THE CALL TO CHINA 53 
 
 standing of China's problems, especially her problem 
 of education. Henceforth he was to be a citizen of 
 China, which was to him more than a vast aggrega- 
 tion of souls, or a stupendous geographical area in 
 Eastern Asia. China lived in him as a synonym of 
 personal reality and manhood. 
 
 The summer of 1904 was a very busy one. The 
 outfit must be gathered, library, furniture, tools, 
 pictures, clothing, ornaments ; all these must be care- 
 fully packed and forwarded. The packing room of 
 the American Board witnessed some business not 
 exclusively its own, such is the kindly cooperation of 
 the elder brother. 
 
 Now come the last appointments for preaching, the 
 last visits to the homes of relatives that had become 
 so deeply interested in the future of one whom they 
 had known and loved from childhood, the last talks 
 with the home circle. As he wrote to one of the Yale 
 Committee : " It is somewhat hard to say ' good-bye,' 
 but a man must play the game and I expect the best 
 of good things for all those who do their duty as they 
 see it." But the pain of saying farewell was not 
 alluded to at home and he left with a cheery face and 
 a resolute voice. 
 
 " All 's well and I am happy ! Too beautiful to be 
 sad!" are the words he sent home two days after, 
 September 17th, his twenty-seventh birthday. 
 
 Writing of Warren's brief visit at his house at 
 
54 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Lake Forest, Illinois, while on his way across the 
 continent, Rev. Dr. J. G. K. McClure says: "I in- 
 vited Warren into the pulpit with me on the Sunday 
 morning of his visit, that I might introduce him and 
 his special work to all the people here. Then in the 
 evening he addressed the congregation. You must 
 let me say that he impressed me as a very unusual 
 young man. His thought is wise, his language is 
 appropriate, his judgment is balanced, and his spirit 
 is beautiful. I thanked God for him and all that he 
 stands for. He left a happy and a beneficent influ- 
 ence here upon all, both young and old. I feel like 
 congratulating you upon the honor and satisfaction 
 of having such a son for such a work ! May God ever 
 bless and keep him. I can think of no higher reward 
 for parentage than you now have." 
 
 At Denver Warren enjoyed for a day the charm- 
 ing hospitality of Mr. Washington McClintock. He 
 preached for Rev. Dr. J. B. Gregg of Colorado 
 Springs. On his arrival at San Francisco he was 
 greeted by friends, old and new. Letters and tele- 
 grams were received by him from the church in 
 Dedham, from the home circle, and from the Yale 
 Mission at New Haven, all speeding him on his 
 voyage Chinaward. Of the voyage itself and the 
 ports visited he subsequently wrote : — 
 
 "The Gaelic sailing from San Francisco on the 
 first day of October bore a very mixed collection of 
 
THE JOURNEY OUT 55 
 
 humanity. Her officers were British but the crew were 
 Celestials, big, strong men from Canton, which, by 
 the way, does one of the largest export trades of any 
 coast city, in citizens who go to many parts of the 
 world to find a better living than in the crowded place 
 of their birth. There were missionaries on board, 
 constituting a majority of the passenger list, teachers 
 going to the Philippines, globe trotters and non- 
 descripts. The second cabin and the steerage were 
 occupied by Chinese and Japanese. The Govern- 
 ment had decided that they were undesirable citizens 
 and were sending them back whence they came. 
 
 " Who can describe the little gem of tropical loveli- 
 ness which lies on the bosom of the Pacific — Hawaii ! 
 Its fearless cliffs rising from the water's edge, the 
 snowy sands and rolling waves which bring in all the 
 greens and blues that nature knows and break in that 
 clear light so white that one can think only of purity 
 itself. High palms and luxuriant flowers crowding 
 the Island with exuberance, and all bathed in the soft 
 warm atmosphere, clean from the great sea about it 
 and sweetened by the Island's fragrant slopes. One 
 can forget the people he saw there, on this threshold 
 of the East, the thrifty little Japs, Chinese laborers 
 coming in from the country with their produce or 
 doing the more menial work of the city, the swarthy 
 natives and especially the women with their wrapper- 
 like garments of the most brilliant hues ; he can forget 
 
56 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 the impression made on him by this strange motley- 
 population enjoying the summer sun in early Octo- 
 ber, but there was a beauty about the place, a bril- 
 liancy and fragrance of sunshine and sea and car- 
 peted hillsides, which one can never forget. The 
 scene as we steamed slowly out of the shelter of the 
 harbor on that Saturday evening at sunset was beau- 
 tiful. On the lowlands and rising with the lower 
 flanks of the hills was a gorgeous carpeting of livid 
 green. They told us it was the young rice. The sea 
 had a saffron touch from the declining sun, and where 
 it broke in splendid waves on the shore there were 
 bright rolls of foam and flashes of green over the 
 white sand that we could see nowhere else. Up over 
 the city rose the hills fluted and rough beneath a 
 thick cover of tropical trees and shrubs. There was a 
 strange mist rising from the wet lowlands, rolling 
 languidly up the sides of the island, looking like a 
 golden veil in the horizontal rays of the sun." 
 
 The voyage was again broken at Yokohama, where 
 he left the ship, taking the night train for Kyoto. 
 In this way he caught a glimpse of the country, vis- 
 ited the Doshisha, and saw some Yale men whom he 
 knew. He was fascinated with the busy, joyous life 
 of the people, their skilful work in beaten gold, silver, 
 and wood, their grotesque figures in bronze. He 
 joined the steamer at Kobe, and continuing the ac- 
 count of his journey, he writes : — 
 
THE JOURNEY OUT 57 
 
 " At last we reached our first Chinese city, Shang- 
 hai, but it was found to be strangely Western. In the 
 Concession where all the foreigners live and where 
 almost all the business of the place is done, the 
 streets are wide and the buildings show the touch of 
 a different hand from the Chinese. The streets are 
 filled with carriages, 'rickshas, and bicycles. The 
 driving is furious. Two men in queer livery of colored 
 cotton robes with capes sit on the box and yell them- 
 selves hoarse at people who presume so much upon 
 the rights of carriages as to be in the street at the 
 same time ! It is n't a beautiful place, this city of 
 Shanghai, but missionaries and others going into the 
 interior stop and lay in a stock of those things which 
 no other city in this part of China can furnish. And 
 you can get almost everything you want there, but 
 it is far from the quality you find in New York and 
 usually bears a higher price. 
 
 " One week we spent in such shopping, in which 
 time I also found a chance to see something of what 
 is being done in the matter of education. There are 
 many schools in the city and its suburbs, schools 
 which send their graduates all over the country as 
 teachers and interpreters. English is a very lucrative 
 accomplishment at present, which explains how it is 
 that all institutions which offer courses in the subject 
 find no trouble in filling up their quota. But the com- 
 plaint is that many come simply for this acquirement, 
 
58 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 caring nothing for Christianity or true scholarship, 
 but staying only so long as it is necessary to get a 
 little of the language and then taking up with an offer 
 in a business firm or some other activity where a very 
 fair salary can be earned." 
 
VI 
 
 THE WINTER AT HANKOW 
 
 During his brief stay at Shanghai Warren went 
 out to see St. John's College, which he afterwards 
 praised in generous terms; at some future time 
 may Yale have as good a plant, a school as well 
 equipped. 
 
 Mr. Harlan P. Beach writes, December 7, 1904: 
 " I received a letter from Warren written at Shanghai. 
 I can hardly think of a better prophecy for a success- 
 ful future in that Empire than his thoughtful discus- 
 sion of what he had already noted in that city and 
 its suburbs. If all our men are as observant and wise 
 as he and Gage I think the Yale Mission need never 
 have any fear about strong leadership in the educa- 
 tional field. Some things which Warren says, on the 
 basis of the most enlightened section of China, have 
 no special relation to present conditions in a Province 
 which has for decades been the most anti-foreign one 
 in the Empire ; but the same spirit which has made 
 him grasp so strongly conditions in one part of China, 
 will enable him equally well to grapple with the 
 different problems in the far interior." 
 
 It is an affecting episode that while he was at St. 
 John's College Warren formed the acquaintance of 
 
60 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Arthur S. Mann, who three years later gave up his 
 
 life in a noble struggle to save him. 
 
 From this time on the story of his life must be, 
 
 mainly, the transcript of his own impressions, the 
 
 work he is doing, the lessons he is learning. Now 
 
 that he is really in China the history must unfold with 
 
 his own pen as our guide : — 
 
 " History is half-dream, — aye, even 
 
 The man's life in the letters of the man." 
 
 On the way up the great Yangtse River he writes : 
 " We are on a river-boat running up to Hankow. I 
 used to wonder when I looked at a map of China, 
 what the country is like. Now I see. Along the banks 
 the land is very low and rather measly. Back from 
 the shore there are mountains, but no trees on the 
 mountains, which are yet green with some kind of 
 underbrush. We are sometimes very near the bank 
 and again out in the middle of the stream, which 
 varies from two to nine miles in width and is the color 
 of Postum coffee. Where the land rises a little you 
 often see clusters of houses of a dirty brown color, 
 built mostly of mud and reeds with thatched roofs, 
 one story in height. Around the door-step are seen 
 black pigs and white goats. Here you see great water 
 buffalo with which the people do their plowing ; they 
 are of a mouse color. All along these flats there is a 
 growth of reeds, twelve or more feet in height, and 
 the Chinese are, at this season of the year, cutting them 
 
THE WINTER AT HANKOW 61 
 
 down, binding them into bundles, and taking them 
 off to market. The tops go to waste or are used for 
 thatching. The captain was telling me this morning 
 about the game of this region. Pheasant Island, 
 which we were passing, contained plenty of the birds 
 for which it was named, he said ; also, duck and deer. 
 There are no game laws here and the animals and 
 birds are more often snared than shot. This morning 
 we saw four or five men in a boat driving before them 
 a flock of tame ducks which were swimming in close 
 order, innocently making their way to market. A 
 man in the bow with a long whip in his hand kept 
 them together as easily as if he were driving sheep 
 on shore. Every now and then you see on the edge of 
 the bank a big net stretched by means of poles so as 
 to form a great square, caught at the corners. By 
 means of a lever and a rope the whole net is lowered 
 into the water and raised again. A man in front of a 
 little straw hut every now and then pulls up the net 
 hopefully, but usually without result ; and yet all day 
 the patient fisherman, at short intervals, peeps at it 
 and, with such poor little things as shiners only a few 
 inches long, finds his reward. Now and then we strike 
 broad flats which are being cultivated for rice and 
 cotton, but the land as a whole has rather a poor 
 look. It is comfortable sitting on deck without a 
 coat." 
 
 Hankow is the greatest inland port in the world ; 
 
62 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 it has a population of a million souls. Located on 
 the Yangtse, at the confluence of that river with the 
 Han, it commands the commerce of a vast range of 
 territory, the most fertile and the richest provinces 
 of China. A writer has said : "Absolutely uninterest- 
 ing in its physical features, built on a vast plain, the 
 greater part of which, lying only a few feet above the 
 level of the river, is submerged for many miles during 
 the annual floods, it owes its importance solely to its 
 vast trade and the energy of its inhabitants. Its shops 
 and warehouses are exceptionally large, handsome 
 and numerous ; its merchants are princes ; its various 
 provincial and trade guilds are enormously wealthy 
 and have great influence." On his fourth day from 
 Shanghai, Warren reached the great city, from which 
 he writes his first home letter after the journey : " At 
 last we are in Hankow, where we can settle down and 
 draw a full breath. The trip up the river was delight- 
 ful. I felt as if we had a private yacht and had all the 
 world to ourselves. It was roomy and clean. The air 
 and food were good. On the steamer I was always 
 hungry and always found a delightful provision for 
 my wants. Here in China, at least so far, things are 
 what I like. I could ask for no better. Imagine Han- 
 kow, as you come up the river, strung along the bank 
 for several miles. A high stone wall runs from her 
 water mark up to the level of * The Bund,' which in 
 these cities of the East is a broad boulevard extending 
 
THE WINTER AT HANKOW 63 
 
 along the water front, with trees and seats it may be, 
 bordered on the land side with business houses and 
 offices and open to the water on the other. This is a 
 part of the foreign Concession. As soon as our ship 
 came up to the ' hulk,' a ship anchored permanently 
 out in deep water and connected with the land by a 
 movable bridge, the Chinese from shore began to 
 pour into our ship and those on board began to push 
 their way out." Upon landing he made his way to the 
 house where he was to stay : " The streets of the for- 
 eign Concession are broad, often shaded with trees 
 and having sidewalks, at least on one side of the street. 
 High whitish walls of stucco run all along in front 
 of the houses and you enter through gateways. More 
 privacy and safety are thus secured. Our house is a 
 two-story affair, but each story is very high, the rooms 
 being two and a half times as high as the door. All 
 the rooms open out on to a veranda, both on the 
 lower and upper floors. One roof covers the whole 
 and the front supports of the veranda are of the same 
 material as the house itself — pillars of heavy stucco, 
 so that you might speak of two walls, one mostly open- 
 ings under the line of the edge of the roof and the other 
 six or eight feet back, the house-wall proper. The 
 windows opening out on to these verandas are all tall 
 doors. The house is owned by some tea merchants, 
 who are here in the summer and have built accord- 
 ingly, i. e. the rooms are extra large. This feature 
 
64 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 adds a coldness and sombreness to the appearance. 
 As you enter the front door you find yourself in a 
 hall running through to the rear. On the right and 
 at the front is my study. It was used by the merchants 
 as an office, a huge spacious apartment, about seven 
 paces square and almost cubical in shape. My sleep- 
 ing room is the one over this and big enough for our 
 whole family. And O ! joy of joys ! my boxes have 
 come." 
 
 Warren settled down at Hankow for a good winter's 
 work. He was associated in his social and student 
 life with his friend, Brownell Gage, who, with Mrs. 
 Gage, made a pleasant home for him. His letters 
 during that busy winter were full of good cheer, 
 abounding in descriptions of the ways and character- 
 istics of the Chinese and in innumerable pleasantries 
 suggested by the new world into which he had come : 
 "I have been in the country two weeks and, think 
 of it, I have n't learned the language yet." Warren's 
 buoyancy, however, did not obscure his sense of the 
 colossal proportions of the task to which he gave him- 
 self unremittingly. His ideal was a high one, but 
 instructions from "the Home Office" lifted that 
 standard still higher : " You must be finished scholars 
 in the Chinese language. We want our teachers to be 
 so thoroughly conversant with it, even though it takes 
 years of study, that if necessary you could be used in 
 diplomatic matters and in places where only a scholar 
 
THE WINTER AT HANKOW 65 
 
 could hold positions of confidence and trust. We have 
 very high standards in everything for this Mission 
 and we are going to maintain them at any cost." 
 "That sounds like business," writes Warren: "It 
 means work for us and sent us back to the hen- 
 scratches with renewed vigor. My teacher usually 
 arrives at ten — or so. Like the rest of his race, he has 
 no idea of promptness, but saunters in any time about 
 the middle of the morning; then we begin to study. 
 We open our books to the lesson ; he notes the Chi- 
 nese character and gives the pronunciation ; I repeat 
 it after him again and again, until it seems fairly well 
 imbedded in my mind. Not only must I get the right 
 combination of letters, but there are five distinct tones 
 in the Hankow dialect and if I do not get the right 
 one, the pronunciation is inaccurate. This failure 
 to get the all-important tone is what often makes 
 the missionary an object of ridicule. Then I write 
 the word down in English, properly representing the 
 Chinese sound by the use of our letters. For example, 
 the teacher pronounces what is represented by a 
 Chinese character and I write 'sen,' which is the 
 proper pronunciation, and the tone, tone number 
 one, or the high, steady tone. Then I combine words 
 into sentences, or practise sounds, using the same 
 word in five tones. He puts the character on pieces of 
 paper, which I study, and so on. Every morning 
 my teacher has tea brought to him by 'the boy,' 
 
66 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 simply hot water poured over the leaves, and he 
 drinks away, often out of the nozzle of the little tea- 
 pot." In a letter to Professor Reed, while at Hankow, 
 Warren writes : " It sometimes becomes tiring to grub 
 away at this interminable language, but I am glad you 
 expect so much of us. It will keep us hard at work 
 in the recognition of the work we are bound to 
 do. It is patience which we need in the acquisition of 
 this reasonless, armless, footless, bottomless, endless 
 language. One can't do much of anything out here 
 in a hurry (unless it be to get sick) and first in the 
 list of these impossibilities stands the language. We 
 are hard at work and will remain as hard at it as 
 we can consistently with the demands of health and 
 efficiency." In one of his letters home he humorously 
 writes : " Yesterday, after six hours' work on the lan- 
 guage, I felt as if I never wanted to see another Chi- 
 nese character. They all seemed like so many choco- 
 late creams left out in the rain." 
 
 The initial stage of a foreigner's life in China is 
 spent in becoming acclimatized to his strange sur- 
 roundings. Warren fully realized he was living in a 
 new world, one which had to be learned, a world of 
 swarming multitudes, of strange anomalies, of per- 
 plexing contradictions : — 
 
 "The way these people dress in winter is simple 
 but effective; they put on more clothes. The richer 
 ones have fur-lined garments, and the very wealthy 
 
THE WINTER AT HANKOW 67 
 
 have the most beautiful and expensive robes, but 
 the common people simply put on more layers. My 
 teacher told me to-day that he had on eight layers. 
 Little children look almost spherical and when they 
 fall down are sometimes unable to get up again. 
 Many of the men who are out a good deal wear woolen 
 caps, often lined with fur, which can be pulled down 
 over the face and ears ; others wear cloth hoods. The 
 sleeves of the Chinese clothes are very long. They 
 are often turned over when it is warm or they are 
 in the way, but in winter they are very convenient. 
 The hands are clasped and they are both covered. 
 A little blowing down one sleeve will warm things 
 up a good deal. Still some of the coolies look very 
 chill and miserable on the cold days. Below the waist 
 the poorer ones seem to have but one thickness of 
 clothing and the legs are usually bare below the knee. 
 The upper garments are patched and worn and often 
 hang loosely and feebly around the man who appears 
 to be bluer than the bluest of the various shades of 
 blue worn by the shiverer. The old nurse, Amah, 
 whom Mrs. Gage has for her baby, is a treasure. 
 It is funny to see her stumping around the house. 
 She has small feet and, like most of the women, her 
 ankles are stiff. Then she wears pantaloons, very 
 loose and big, which terminate some inches above 
 the ground. Over this she wears a garment reaching 
 from the neck to the knee or a little above, like a 
 
68 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 cloak, only very loose and with very loose sleeves. 
 You see women walking along the street with the 
 sleeves of their outer garments so long that their 
 hands are completely covered from view. They 
 usually stick their arms out to the side rigidly and 
 they look like stumps. I suppose it helps them to 
 walk to thus use their arms, swinging them stiffly 
 back and forth. The hair is done up in the back 
 and ornaments are stuck through. When it is cold 
 they have little strips of velvet ornamented with 
 gold and silver-colored trifles, which are passed once 
 around the forehead, the ends being somehow fas- 
 tened in the back pug ; the top and back of the head 
 are protected by the hair." 
 
 Of a common experience he writes : " This after- 
 noon I have had my first ride in a Sedan chair on the 
 shoulders of men. This afternoon one of the Wes- 
 leyan missionaries wanted Gage and me to go to 
 their compound, which is in the heart of the native 
 city, and attend a * covenant meeting,' as well as meet 
 some of the Hunan missionaries of their mission. 
 It is a long way and there was not much time, so we 
 decided to go in these chairs. They are like little 
 coops, closed on three sides and open at the front. 
 Here you hang a screen or you can pull down a flap 
 and hide yourself from sight and weather. The little 
 box is hung between two poles and is carried on the 
 shoulders of men. Three men usually go with each 
 
THE WINTER AT HANKOW 69 
 
 chair, two always bearing and one resting. Through 
 the crowded street we went at a very fast walk. It 
 would be almost impossible to keep up with these 
 men without running, and they have to be calling 
 out all the time in order to make room for themselves. 
 Even then we hit against people and narrowly escape 
 others all the time. Men and women in the street 
 have to learn the art of stepping aside enough to let 
 you pass and no further, at least they seem averse 
 to doing anything more. We found ourselves in an 
 ordinary Chinese street, as narrow and as dirty as 
 usual. Filthy mud, stagnant water and waste ma- 
 terial all about. Right out in the street (which might 
 better be called a lane or alley) we saw a man lying ; 
 he seemed to be living right there. Under him was 
 a torn mattress of straw and around him were the 
 remnants of food. There he crouched in a very un- 
 comfortable attitude, nodding half-conscious over 
 a dirty bowl. He looked sick; he might have been 
 dying, but no one paid any attention to him. There 
 is so much suffering and so much evil in China that 
 people, even foreigners, get accustomed to it. On 
 the one hand the natives do not show much of any 
 pity for the sufferers, and on the other the suffer- 
 ers do not feel that they are singled out and espe- 
 cially deserving. We were making for a hill that runs 
 through the centre of Hanyang. There are no dwell- 
 ings on the hill as the people fear the dragon un- 
 
70 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 derneath, but strangely enough there are some gov- 
 ernment barracks there : and there is almost always 
 a temple. We passed through a swampy place on a 
 walk which was built up above the level of the water 
 and mud, and approached a tea-house." 
 
 Of the weather in Hankow: "I understand now 
 the words that I used to employ when people asked 
 me what the weather was like here and I said, * Very 
 damp and penetrating in winter. In summer — ' 
 but of that in season ! But all these days it has been 
 most unpleasant weather. The thermometer has not 
 been so very low, but there is something in the atmos- 
 phere which bores right into one. The air outside 
 is heavy and damp; inside it is not much better. 
 There has hardly been a room, during the cold snap, 
 where you could not see your breath plainly. The 
 walls and windows and floors are poorly made and 
 do not keep the cold out as they should. The result 
 is that in spite of open fires, which we have in almost 
 all the rooms, and of my oil-stove, which is working 
 overtime, the house is cold. I held out the first part 
 of the winter pretty well, but have given in, from one 
 grade of clothing to another, until now I am clad in 
 the heaviest underclothing which I could find among 
 my things and am wearing good flannel pajamas for 
 the first time in my life. Of course the people suffer 
 a great deal this weather. You see 'ricksha men, and 
 other coolies, splashing through snow and slush with 
 
THE WINTER AT HANKOW 71 
 
 bare feet. Others bind straw and bits of burlap 
 around their feet and take to the other parts of the 
 body all the clothes which they can borrow, buy, or 
 steal. The Chinese houses are of course very cold and 
 the people simply get all they can out of their good 
 things by putting on all their clothes and wearing 
 them right along, until the cold snap lets up and the 
 need is less. I think that the food they eat is not as 
 good for them as that which we eat, as far as warming 
 the system is concerned." 
 
 Warren had great admiration for the physical 
 energy of the Chinese, their industry, their devotion 
 to those whom they serve, their marvellous patience 
 and endurance of the inevitable, their desire to learn. 
 He alludes from time to time to the sturdiness of 
 their characters. At the same time his eyes were not 
 shut to their sudden loss of temper, their vindictive- 
 ness, their apparent want of sympathy with suffering 
 man and beast. 
 
 During that winter in Hankow, Warren sought 
 good cheer in the companionship of others. His 
 letters show unmistakably that separation from home, 
 in a land so far off and so strange in customs and ways 
 of living, was keenly felt by him. He was the last to 
 admit homesickness, but he was the first to allow that 
 he at times longed for an evening with the family. 
 
 Among those whom he met at Hankow during that 
 winter was Rev. Arthur M. Sherman, of the American 
 
72 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Church Mission. After Mr. Sherman had left the 
 mission-field for a visit to his home in New Jersey, 
 Warren wrote him: — 
 
 "We are building lives, we are cultivating charac- 
 ters, which are eternal ; we are ' holding property 
 rights in human souls.' So all of this friendship, the 
 commerce of good ideas, the interchange of appreci- 
 ation and affection is well worth while. It helps him 
 who gives and him who receives, for it makes moral 
 fibre and endures forever. . . . To live in the appre- 
 ciation of good and of its constant exercise is be- 
 ginning the life eternal here and now, for we are 
 putting into ourselves and others what makes for 
 eternity, viz. the Good. It is said the judgments of 
 time are inflexibly moral ; the evil is requited if time 
 is given her way; nothing evil will endure forever. 
 Only the good has a claim on the reaches of time, 
 only thus can we ally ourselves inseparably with the 
 march of men to * God, Who is our Home/ It is 
 only cowardly for some of us, when we look ahead 
 and allow a feeling of concern to come over us. It 
 will be for the best ! I have been wonderfully guided 
 and directed. Will HE desert me now ? All my ex- 
 perience says * No,' but there is always a Voice of 
 authority within, sometimes louder than the Mind's 
 or the Will's. Let us be thankful for the past, happy 
 in the present, calm in the promise of the future. 
 Let us see if we cannot be, you and I. I will not give 
 
THE WINTER AT HANKOW 73 
 
 you a lot of messages to my friends at home. Tell 
 them just how I am and that I love them all right 
 well — better than ever. ' Out of sight, out of mind ' 
 was a lonely man's remark, — or a pessimist's. I 
 do not subscribe to it. And now, another farewell. 
 With you go our best wishes ; our prayers will follow 
 you on your journey. But my thoughts of you will be 
 persistently running away to a friend whom I have 
 come to love." 
 
 After the great shock of Warren's sudden death, 
 Mr. Sherman's letter, with its sad recital of detail, was 
 the first to reach the stricken home. He writes : — 
 
 " I thank God that I could call him — Friend. I 
 love to think of dear Warren's splendid gifts and 
 training put to splendid use in the new sphere of the 
 larger life upon which he has so recently entered. . . . 
 His buoyancy, his enthusiasm, his earnestness of 
 purpose, his kindness, were contagious. Being with 
 Warren was like marching to music, it made the 
 march so much easier. He gave a spring to one. We 
 might call it a strengthening — an uplift ; it is a qual- 
 ity hard to define, but I know it was a wonderful and 
 glorious thing. With it all there was that remarkable 
 companionableness about him. He was such an 
 inspiring friend ! During that winter in Hankow, in 
 long walks and talks together, there came from him 
 to me a stimulus which was invaluable. I especially 
 felt this in my preaching ; he was helping me to make 
 
74 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 it stronger, clearer, more simple. His own mind 
 was so clear that it helped me to think clearly. His 
 thought was so strong that, after being with him, 
 stimulated by his thought, clarified by his simplicity, 
 it was easy to get to work on a sermon. Times with 
 him were like times spent with the best books. I came 
 away to do things. It was far better than books, for 
 there was added the powerful element of person- 
 ality. He had every qualification for a successful 
 missionary, — spiritual power, adaptability, a talent 
 for study and acquiring a difficult language, ripeness 
 of judgment, the gift of drawing both Chinese and 
 foreigners to himself by strong ties of respect, admira- 
 tion, affection, by his ardor, courage, and humor. 
 This last is not least. How many an hour it has 
 lightened!" 
 
 While a missionary in China the noble Griffith 
 John cast longing eyes into Hunan, prophesying that 
 some time that great Province would welcome Chris- 
 tianity. In 1891 he wrote from his home in Hankow : 
 "I believe that Hunan is to be opened and that I 
 shall be in Changsha before I die." Two years later 
 he received into his church ten Hunanese : — " and 
 there are some fine fellows among them." During 
 that year four of his own converts were in Changsha, 
 sending back to Hankow encouraging accounts of the 
 outlook for Christianity there. In the spring of 1901 
 Dr. John grew restive under the delay to send out 
 
THE WINTER AT HANKOW 75 
 
 recruits for the field so ready for the harvester: 
 "Again I do entreat you to send us men for Hunan. 
 . . . Changsha must be occupied at once." During 
 the early part of 1905 Warren called upon this opti- 
 mistic patriarch and found him as earnest as ever to 
 see Changsha provided with proper missionary forces, 
 and in full sympathy with the spirit of the work Yale 
 men were planning to do in that city. Warren de- 
 scribes in one of his letters of this period a great meet- 
 ing which Dr. John addressed with his well-known 
 intensity, and how he appealed to young men to spare 
 no pains to acquire the language: "He said he 
 believed that we would live to see the time when not 
 only education would have a firm hold upon the peo- 
 ple of Hunan, but when English would be spoken 
 by the officials and those of the common people who 
 came into contact with the foreigner. The native 
 press is awaking and instead of taking the hostile 
 and rabid tone which the Hunan papers took previ- 
 ous to the Boxer trouble, they are not only progress- 
 ive but even tolerant. One of these papers, speak- 
 ing of the fear which some of the natives entertain, 
 that the introduction of the religion of the West 
 would destroy the Chinese ideals of filial piety and 
 patriotism, said recently: 'He that believes in 
 Jesus and is not patriotic is not true to Jesus/ 
 'The pulpit and the school are to become great 
 forces as the old country opens its eyes and sees 
 
76 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 the light of day coming over the hills of T'ang. 
 China is waking up hungry.' ' These words of 
 Dr. John's were spoken at a meeting during the 
 Week of Prayer ; his hopes were about to be real- 
 ized. The time had arrived for a forward move- 
 ment into Hunan; the Yale Executive Committee 
 urged it and the two men at the front favored it. 
 It was decided that Warren should go up to Chang- 
 sha in advance of Gage, reconnoitre and make a 
 beginning. 
 
 Warren was at this time quite up to his usual 
 standard of good health and good cheer. He writes 
 to a friend : " Think of me as busy and happy. It is 
 a good old world for one who is willing to work and 
 hungry to make friends. Could any better world be 
 constructed for one who wanted to do good, than this 
 one in which we live ? Every act we perform with the 
 best we have in it unfits us for the old life. We enter 
 the higher country which is better and whence the 
 lowland looks lower than ever before, every time we 
 rise. It is one of the privileges of my life to have gone 
 out from America with a company of very faithful 
 friends who will stand back of me and be true to 
 me." 
 
 To the home circle he writes : " Have I referred to 
 the fact I am very well? My friends are disposed 
 to make fun of me and Sherman had the effrontery 
 to call me ' fat,' and, worse still, ' pudgy.' I wish you 
 
THE WINTER AT HANKOW 77 
 
 would speak to him about it when he comes to see 
 you ! It is n't right ! ! But I think I am correct in say- 
 ing I never felt better in my life. I know I am right 
 in saying I never weighed so much in my life. Un- 
 less the Hankow scales are wrong, I weigh in the 
 neighborhood of 157 pounds, which is pretty good 
 for a half -fed, overworked, under-slept missionary ! 
 But I am saying very little, for I know that the 
 tropical summer is approaching and that the stron- 
 gest of men feel the strain of such days. I am trying 
 to keep as well as I can be and hope to make it last 
 as long as I can. And who knows but that I shall be 
 better here in China than I would have been had I 
 remained at home." 
 
 In the same letter, with all the hope of a great 
 work before him, joyous and yet reflective, he writes : 
 "Surely through all the years I have been wonder- 
 fully led and prepared for this work and you rejoice 
 with me in my growing joy. I could not feel it so 
 much at home, for there was much between and very 
 much unseen which caused me to hesitate. I tried 
 to be satisfied with the present and not set so much 
 by the future. This led me to appear even unhappy, 
 but I think it was only trying to be perfectly honest 
 and clear-sighted in the thing. I did not feel sure 
 enough of myself, and the work, and the place, and 
 the people, to be on the qui vive all the time. But I 
 was led to poke along and here I am, glad that I kept 
 
78 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 at it and that so large a work is before me. Pray, 
 as I do, that I may have the strength to take it up 
 as I should and not prove a disappointment to those 
 who look to me to do my part." 
 
VII 
 
 CHANGSHA — THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 
 
 On the east bank of the Hsiang River, two hundred 
 miles south of Hankow, lies the walled city of Chang- 
 sha. The Province of Hunan, of which it is the chief 
 city, has an area nearly twice the size of New York 
 state, with a population of nearly 21,000,000. It is 
 connected with Hankow by river service, but the 
 day is not far distant when, by the completion of 
 the railway, it will be possible to reach that city in 
 five hours, Canton in eight, Peking in twenty-four. 
 Changsha has a population of 192,000. It is the 
 centre of a Province regarded as the most intelligent 
 in the Empire, a larger number of officials for gov- 
 ernment service coming from this than from any 
 other province. The anti-foreign spirit has always 
 been intense in this inland, exclusive region, refus- 
 ing all alliance with the non-Chinese world. The 
 awakening of China has reached Hunan and grad- 
 ually she is swinging into line with the rest of the 
 Empire in commercial, social, industrial, and edu- 
 cational advancement. 
 
 The various missionary societies in Hunan, feeling 
 that there should be an unsectarian college in its chief 
 city, invited the Yale Mission to locate there. This 
 
80 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 should be an institution of a popular character, should 
 establish and work out the problem of higher educa- 
 tion, "in science, art and medicine," and consider 
 "the question of theological education," also. Those 
 sending this broad and somewhat awing invitation 
 heartily welcomed "the prospect of having Univer- 
 sity Extension and special work for the literati carried 
 on in Hunan." No suggestion was made in this 
 formal letter of invitation as to the amount of time 
 required for the development of these ideals. 
 
 In accepting the invitation the Yale Missionary 
 Society declared its purpose: (1) To furnish a com- 
 pany of missionaries who are strongly and sincerely 
 Christian as well as men technically fitted for educa- 
 tional work ; (2) To assist China in her great need by 
 raising up through such an institution a body of 
 native students acquainted with the truths, and 
 accepting the spirit, of Christianity ; by training these 
 men as effectively as possible in scientific and ad- 
 vanced studies to become leaders in their own coun- 
 try; and by reproducing in the Far East the whole- 
 some moral and social influences of an American 
 college community; (3) To cooperate with the mis- 
 sionaries of other societies in unifying and making 
 effective the Christian schools of the Province so that 
 they may be of the highest service to the church and 
 may become an object lesson to the government 
 schools in the country. 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 81 
 
 On the 15th of February, 1905, Warren left Han- 
 kow, en route for "the promised land." There was 
 much hurry and confusion, delay and dickering over 
 the question of rates and accommodations, before he 
 got fairly started. He was too early in the season for 
 the regular Changsha boats and was compelled to 
 put up with a second-class steamer, if worthy of the 
 name, which in his amusing way he designates, " The 
 noble Queen of the River, 'T'son Pau.' ' It was 
 a long, clumsy, flat-bottomed affair, with narrow 
 passageways: "So here I am, the only foreigner on 
 the ship, writing on my typewriter to the great inter- 
 est of a constantly shifting but always gazing public. 
 I never was such a popular writer as I am at this 
 moment. Both the windows on the port side are full 
 of Chinese heads, eyes watching with wonderment 
 this novel proceeding. There is no danger of violence 
 and the only fear is that, if I do not watch constantly, 
 they will quietly appropriate some little thing which 
 lies close at hand. My boy is a treasure; he is un- 
 spoiled, that is, he does not know all the tricks of steal- 
 ing your butter and selling it, attaching small orna- 
 ments and coins; spending all the time he can in 
 unadulterated laziness, or in total absence from the 
 premises. He was on the boat nearly all the time 
 yesterday at Hankow and, so far as I know, had no- 
 thing to eat until eight o'clock in the evening. He not 
 only would not touch anything until I had partaken, 
 
82 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 but had even brought three loaves of bread and had 
 almost forced me to take two of them. If he continues 
 as well as he has begun and seems as willing and as 
 industrious in a couple of months as he does now 
 (when there is nothing to do) he will be a fine boy 
 and I shall hold on to him, trying not to spoil him, 
 which is very easy out here." 
 
 The journey of two days up the Yangtse, across 
 the eastern portion of Tung-ting Lake and up the 
 Hsiang River brought him to his long-looked-for 
 haven. 
 
 Changsha at last, Feb. 19, 1905. 
 
 " Here I am in the city about which we have thought 
 and talked so much ever since the Yale people decided 
 that the Mission should be established here. The 
 circumstances of my arrival were not of the pleasant- 
 est nature and, as I look back over the last three days, 
 the scenes which come up before my mind are not 
 altogether the most engaging. And yet I did not seem 
 to mind the trip so much while I was en route. I be- 
 came restless in such small quarters and grew very 
 weary of the faces which could not be avoided but 
 seemed to be omnipresent. At last we neared the city 
 for which I had been straining my eyes all the after- 
 noon. On the right of the river there was a mountain 
 and one or two smaller hills indistinctly visible through 
 clouds of moisture. Nearer to us on the same side 
 there was a long island inhabited by a few people in 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 83 
 
 mud huts. On the left was the city straggling up 
 over a slowly rising hill. Nothing very distinct about 
 the landscape, partly because of the veil of mist and 
 fine rain, and partly because there seemed to be 
 nothing bright in color to relieve the dirty brown of 
 mud houses and walls. There were many Chinese 
 boats close together with their bows run up on to the 
 bank of the river. As we approached, the shore be- 
 came alive with men putting out in their ' sampans ' 
 (native boats) to convey passengers ashore. I left 
 my boy to guard my things while I went ashore with 
 the Customs officer who had come on board. And 
 so I got my first view of the interior of the city where 
 I expect to spend so much of my life hereafter. It 
 was a miry and disagreeable day, but even under 
 such untoward circumstances the prospect was far 
 from discouraging to the newcomer. 
 
 " We were told by Mr. Beach that the streets are 
 wide, and so they are. Not noticeably like Common- 
 wealth Avenue, to be sure, but nevertheless straight 
 and regular, more evenly and carefully paved, more 
 open above with fewer of those upper stories that jut 
 out and shut out the light. And the stores have a 
 more distinguished appearance, as if the people are 
 well-to-do and have more self-respect than those in 
 the more foreign places. In front of many of the 
 stores there are little balconies raised a foot or so 
 above the level of the street on which the proprietor 
 
84 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 and his friends can watch the passers-by. Strangely 
 enough the people and the shops which I saw re- 
 minded me more of pictures of Chinatown at the 
 World's Fair than of other parts of China which I have 
 seen. I think that this is because this city is more 
 Chinese, more typical of the people and more illus- 
 trative of the better and cleaner life than Hankow or 
 Shanghai. This is a bit early to be making such gen- 
 eral statements, but these are the impressions made 
 upon me as I see the place for the first time. Yester- 
 day was the fifteenth of the first Chinese month, which 
 marks the end of the New Year proper. There were 
 fireworks and fire-crackers galore all along the shore 
 and in the house-boats, where whole families and 
 their many relatives live the year round. The ex- 
 pense of real estate is thus debarred from their ac- 
 counts." 
 
 A week later he writes: "I have been more and 
 more impressed these days with the appearance of 
 these people, and their dwellings and their mode of 
 living, so far as I have been able to observe it. The 
 streets are not clean in this weather ; it would not be 
 China if they were. Over the stone flagging of the 
 streets there is a wash of black mud all the time. But 
 they are wider, more substantial, and freer from dirt 
 than those in Hankow. The people also seem supe- 
 rior. They are, as a rule, better looking, healthier, 
 happier than those in the lower cities. They are more 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 85 
 
 robust and you see fewer of the horrible beggars. 
 There is more self-respect and independence re- 
 flected in the faces of the people you meet ; an air 
 of prosperity, an impression of solidity and strength. 
 You find here neither that grovelling servility, nor 
 ill-concealed dislike which is often observed in the 
 lower cities. There are very rich families here, quite 
 independent of all the foreigner can bring and they 
 are not loath to show it. . . .1 have been struck with 
 the faces of some of the commonest laborers on the 
 street; they appear happy and self-respecting." 
 
 To acquire a piece of land for the new Yale was 
 regarded from the outset a most desirable end to be 
 gained. It would give to the enterprise a visible form 
 and produce the impression that the Yale men who 
 were seen on the street and met in a social way were 
 in Changsha for a distinct purpose, and this purpose 
 was always foremost in Warren's mind. Into every 
 reasonable endeavor to secure this coveted prize he 
 entered with all his heart. It suited one of his notice- 
 able characteristics, his love of acquisition. There 
 was in him an active and aggressive energy, directed 
 towards the accomplishment of visible ends. He 
 always hoped to realize the material, the palpable, 
 the adequate, the purposeful. He had a vast deal of 
 push for others, little " pull " for himself. The esti- 
 mate of his administrative ability, as expressed to a 
 friend before leaving home, was in a measure justi- 
 
86 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 fied on the field : " I shall not be a great educator 
 nor a profound student. If I am not mistaken I shall 
 be of use in the political and other relations of the 
 college as I come into contact with various classes of 
 men." 
 
 As he came up the Hsiang on that gloomy morning 
 in February, he looked to right and left to see if there 
 was not some site suitable for the college buildings. 
 He knew well the difficulties in the way ; yet he cher- 
 ished the confident belief that this cardinal end 
 might be gained early in his work. In company with 
 one or more of the Yale force, he made many an 
 excursion into the country around Changsha. There 
 was always a leading question in his mind : " Will 
 this site allow a campus?" His letters invariably 
 refer to some new locality visited, or some new obsta- 
 cle raised. Certain spots became very familiar to his 
 home friends, as "the Red Hill," and "the Soldiers' 
 Camp." 
 
 "Never before in my life," he writes, "have I 
 thought that in any way I could sympathize with 
 Christopher Columbus! But the experiences of the 
 last few weeks, during which I have been faithfully 
 * looking for land,' have given me a sense of comrade- 
 ship with the man! Finding land in China, which 
 shall be suitable for a young Yale, is no easy matter. 
 These people are the most economical folk in the 
 world ; nothing goes to waste. The multiplication of 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 87 
 
 industries and the division of labor, which you see 
 here, force upon you the seriousness of life. The 
 struggle for existence is a bitter one, indeed. The 
 land, the cultivation of which stands at the basis of 
 life, shows the effect of this struggle. The low lands 
 are covered with rice swamps, and terraces run up 
 the valleys until they come just below the level of 
 some small pond, the water from which flows from 
 one field to the next and makes them all irregular 
 plots of mud, with the rice plants under the surface. 
 The low hills are inhabited by the dead. Some of the 
 low hills, out to the east of the city, are simply pep- 
 pered with mounds and stones. The higher land is 
 usually too steep for good building sites, and almost 
 every lot has one or more of the omnipresent graves. 
 These resting-places of the dead have a religious sig- 
 nificance, and to buy a piece of property and build, 
 regardless of the fact that you are on a grave-yard, 
 is to act in violence to the religious sensibilities of 
 the people and to invite trouble. The reason why 
 the higher land is not so thickly populated is that 
 each grave must be well placed, the ' wind and water ' 
 of the location must be such as to insure the dead 
 against all disturbance from these elements. Hills 
 are too much exposed to insure peace and comfort. 
 Yet we have found that it is always impossible to 
 find a piece of property which has not its share of 
 graves, and it is our final conclusion that we must 
 
88 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 go ahead and get our land and then reckon the cost 
 of handling these previous occupants. 
 
 " The theory of land ownership in China is that all 
 land belongs to the Government. Any man may go 
 and settle down on a piece of property which is put at 
 his disposal by the Government as a loan. When he 
 wishes to leave this holding he asks a money con- 
 sideration from another man who wants to live there, 
 covering the improvements which he has made. But 
 at any time the Government can take for its own 
 uses any land which it likes. A case in point hap- 
 pened not long ago, when a space a mile square was 
 cleared right out of the heart of a thickly populated 
 city, not far from here, for a palace. The hills and 
 mountains have not been so much in favor with the 
 natives as they are not adapted to rice culture, the 
 main product in this part of China. So it is that the 
 larger eminences are held by the Government. When 
 it comes to obtaining a piece of land and indications 
 point to its being in the hands of private parties, it is 
 important to find out very quietly who the owners 
 are and what they think about sale. It is of the ut- 
 most importance to keep dark the intelligence that 
 foreigners are interested. Some of the Chinese will 
 not sell to foreigners and they are all given over to 
 the policy of squeezing all they can out of him. The 
 owners of the property tell the middle-man (as the 
 agent is called) what price is wanted, whereupon 
 
MSEST-i 
 
 SEABURY AND GAGE STARTING ON ONE OF THEIR QUESTS 
 FOR LAND 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 89 
 
 you authorize him to offer in return about a tenth of 
 the exorbitant figure named. Slowly the other par- 
 ties come down and you gradually go up until a com- 
 promise is made, but your identity is not revealed until 
 the whole is settled and the money on the point of 
 being paid. Even then the Chinese sometimes will 
 go back on their word, when they find that a for- 
 eigner wants to buy and is about to have his want 
 met. 
 
 "If it is land belonging to the Government, it is 
 often possible to get it at a cheaper figure. But there 
 are the graves. In some places it is possible to arrange 
 with the officials to have the graves removed at so 
 much per head. The money is paid to them and they 
 arrange with the various parties interested; many 
 exhibit a most surprising and zealous interest at this 
 moment! When it is a piece of private land, arrange- 
 ments in regard to graves must be made with the 
 owners and families directly. 
 
 " On this side of the city to the South where the 
 land rises to some bluffs close to the water, on the 
 islands opposite the city and along the other side, I 
 have roamed in search of possible places for our 
 future home. There are not many good sites, for the 
 land is either too flat and low, or it rises up too ab- 
 ruptly into little rounded hills which do not offer 
 enough room for such a plant as we want to put 
 up." 
 
90 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Warren estimated that during the first month he 
 was in Changsha he travelled over one hundred miles 
 in search of land : " One gets up on the big mountain 
 opposite the city and looks out to see other moun- 
 tains in every direction, fading away into dimness 
 on the sky-line. Most of them are not higher than 
 the lower eminences of the White Mountains, say 
 Cannon Mountain, but they are almost all of them 
 smooth in appearance, arising from the fact that 
 there are not many trees on them and the natives go 
 over them and pick up every stick and even cut down 
 the dry grass for fuel. Trees are protected by their 
 owners when they do not need them for building or 
 burning. But there is a fine mountain with tall trees 
 on its side opposite, which is sacred and so ensured 
 against axe or sickle." 
 
 Upon his arrival at Changsha Warren made his 
 home with Mr. and Mrs. Gotteberg, of the Norwe- 
 gian Mission, whose whole-souled hospitality won 
 his heart. That he might not be a burden to them 
 he subsequently began housekeeping on his own 
 account : — 
 
 "To-morrow I set up for myself. For a week I 
 have been buying pots and kettles, fuel and food, 
 and still my * boy ' says I have n't sufficient. I never 
 before took any interest in this department of the 
 world's industry. Now alas ! I must buy brooms, 
 wood and coal, send the boy after chickens, which he 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 91 
 
 brings home alive, tied together with a string and 
 left to hop about until he wants them. I must put 
 down in my book all these pennies which I so 
 domestically spend. It is not romantic and you 
 do not think of yourself in the light of a hero, 
 when you are counting the sticks of wood which you 
 bought at seven cash (f of a cent) per stick. My little 
 boy is tremendously in earnest and his eyes shine 
 with delight at the prospect of running a kitchen. 
 
 "My supper of curry and rice, cocoa, bread and 
 butter, marmalade, prunes, and cake, being finished, 
 I have come into this room where I live most of the 
 time, and, stretching myself out in my Morris chair, 
 read the ' Outlook.' Not such a picture of hardship 
 and sacrifice, is it ? Last night I went out to dinner 
 and wore a Tuxedo ; think of doing such an impious 
 thing ! A missionary having good clothes and having 
 the immodesty to wear them out to a dinner, whereat 
 he forgets the seriousness of life and puts away good 
 food! I am afraid that you are ashamed of me. 
 Don't let this get into the printed columns of ' Life 
 and Light for Woman,' or that yellow journal, ' The 
 Dayspring,' which we used to pore over on Sunday 
 afternoons. But I was about to say that I came home 
 to my bachelor quarters and sat down before the open 
 fire, feeling very much like one of these young Eng- 
 lishmen you read about in books, Sir Peanut Brittle, 
 R. A., or Mr. Remington Typewriter, M. P. For my 
 
92 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 boy came in and pulled out my slippers from under 
 the bed and tried to look intelligent while I put them 
 on, as he had nothing else to do at the time. And you 
 would laugh to see me eat. I am taking my meals in 
 a little room next to this, whither the boy brings all 
 the food from the kitchen. He is very proud of his 
 culinary skill and is very much delighted when I like 
 the cuisine. But yesterday, the first day in this pil- 
 grimage across the deserts of housekeeping, we had 
 soup; it was a curiosity. There was milk in it and 
 tapioca, also, and what else I know not. This morn- 
 ing, after indulging in an orange, some oatmeal, part 
 of the hen which I bored into and excavated a little 
 yesterday, and some coffee, he pressed me to indulge 
 in some of his tapioca pudding, but although I come 
 from the group of states where they are reported 
 to have pie for breakfast, I gently but firmly refused. 
 But the fellow is doing well and is working so hard 
 that to-day he told me he had no time for his break- 
 fast. I hope he does n't work so hard that I lose mine 
 in the melee." 
 
 Early in March he was invited by the Changsha 
 Board of Education to teach English in a large na- 
 tive school. He looked at the matter from a practical 
 point of view, considering well its bearing on the 
 work of the future, the impression he might make on 
 the gentry and on the broad-minded men interested 
 in all the good things the people are interested in. 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 93 
 
 He wished the leader of the school to understand that 
 he was not one whose time could be easily given to 
 this outside work and a good compensation would be 
 expected. He stipulated that he should not teach the 
 rudiments of the language, as he says : " It will give 
 us the respect of the teachers and scholars to know 
 that I am not a cheap man, and later, when we open 
 our own school, there will be a healthy respect for 
 the foreign teacher who helped the native school for 
 a few months and was well paid for his time.' , 
 
 A fortnight later he writes of his new position: 
 " I have had my first experience in teaching in China. 
 My professional career has commenced and that too 
 in a Chinese school. I am to go two mornings a week 
 and stay two hours with ten minutes' intermission 
 between sessions. The authorities of * The Bright 
 Virtue School ' sent a chair for me last Friday morn- 
 ing. Here in Changsha these chairs are usually borne 
 by three men, one in front between parallel poles, 
 one in the rear, and one close up to the little covered 
 box in which you sit; the weight comes directly on 
 the shoulders of the men. Through the city we went 
 in the rain, the coolies wearing big bamboo hats 
 covered with oiled paper. People in the way are in- 
 formed of our approach by constant calling from the 
 bearers. It is a much safer method of transportation 
 than are our faster means at home, such as the auto- 
 mobile. No danger of being run over; no need of 
 
94 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 policemen at the crossings. In and out we wend our 
 way, trying to keep the middle of the street as much 
 as possible, but often stopping to avoid collisions. 
 When near the North Gate the men suddenly turned 
 to the left down a narrow alley with one-story white- 
 fronted houses close to you on either side. Through 
 this alley we wound for a few minutes until there was 
 a little open space and we saw an artificial pond on 
 the left. We went up a few steps and the chair was 
 lowered in a covered gate-house. His scrubbiness, 
 the dean of the institution, appeared and ushered me 
 along an open passageway (open on both sides and 
 roofed in) to a little room more thinly and temporarily 
 constructed than our Camp Asquam buildings, where 
 there was a small dining-room table and a few tea- 
 cups. He was surprised to hear that I could speak 
 a little of his language, upon which he complimented 
 me, I of course politely insisting that my knowledge 
 was very limited (which, by the way, is true). Soon 
 a couple of young teachers came in who speak Eng- 
 lish and I soon went to my class-room. Meanwhile it 
 was very unpleasant to glance up and see boys look- 
 ing in at the window, to discover what the foreigner 
 looked like. I don't believe that there is anything like 
 what we call discipline, promptness, or order in the 
 school. My recitation began about half an hour late 
 and I found that the time which they were following 
 in a general way was that much behind mine and the 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 95 
 
 right time. At once rid your minds of pictures which 
 rise to view when the word ' school ' is used. Don't 
 think of Harvard or of Yale. Don't think of the Ded- 
 ham High. Remember that the people in this Prov- 
 ince all live on the ground floor. And the school 
 buildings are all as near the lap of the old lady as they 
 can get. Most of the rooms have nothing between 
 your feet and the ground but a layer of cement or 
 beaten clay. So in passing from room to room you 
 go, not up in the elevator or down the winding stairs, 
 but first of all you go out-of-doors and then you pass 
 along under this covered corridor until you come 
 around to your destination. It is all more or less 
 out-of-doors, for there is no heat in the rooms, the 
 walls are very thin, some with poorly constructed 
 glass windows, but mostly fret- work covered with 
 paper. The light comes in fairly well, and the wind 
 is not outdone. When it is raining outside (has been 
 for weeks and bids fair to keep bravely up for weeks 
 to come) these rooms with the earth floors do not 
 remind one of those hot front parlors in small houses 
 where the minister calls, with the perspiration run- 
 ning down his neck and forcing him 'to move on to 
 the next,' sooner than he had planned. These boys 
 whom I am to teach have had two years of English, 
 but are not very proficient in the tongue. What they 
 want from me is the ability to talk in English. None 
 of their teachers can do that as well as I, so I am 
 
96 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 to read to them, talk to them, have them read to me 
 and so keep the English words perpetually dinning in 
 their ears. It will be interesting work and may help 
 us in our school later on. Let us hope so and pray 
 so." 
 
 A little later he writes : " The boys are very much 
 interested and are all anxious to learn. I will enclose 
 a sample of the composition which they do. In a few 
 weeks one cannot accomplish much except teach a 
 number of new words and certain principles of pro- 
 nunciation, insisting especially on those sounds which 
 seem to be constitutionally difficult for this race. 
 Following I will copy a couple of essays on 'The 
 Whale.' " 
 
 WALE 
 
 The wale is the larger kind of the fish and his power 
 is so highter that all the fish live in water are con- 
 troled by him. But he difference all the fish for he no 
 gills or fins for it is hard when he turns in the water 
 and in few very minutes he cannot appears in the air 
 that he might died. As for his spout can he wrecks 
 the smaller vessels and the fishing smacks, the people 
 of the river's bank almost always distressed by him. 
 
 WHALE 
 
 Some animals in water are lived chiefly by the fish. 
 The different kinds of fish are very much. As the 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 97 
 
 whale is especially with other. If we catch a fish to 
 lay down at the ground it will not take long that 
 which is soon to die. Why ? Because all fish cannot 
 live on land to inspire the air. But the whale can be 
 inspiring the air and drinking the water also. He 
 often inspires the air going down to the bottom of 
 water by and by rise up against to spit the air so high 
 that almost thirty feet away. He has no gil but has 
 a large mouse. When our traveled ship must take 
 care and don't sail into his mouse. Thus the whale 
 is a king of fish. 
 
 Nearly a month after Warren's arrival in Chang- 
 sha he thought it well to lay before His Excellency 
 Tuan Fang, Governor, the purposes of the Yale 
 Mission College. In this aggressive move the young 
 missionary relied upon the Governor's well-known 
 liberal views regarding Western civilization. Having 
 secured the good offices of Mr. Zau, interpreter in 
 English, he was able to overcome a supposed pre- 
 judice the Governor had against missionaries, not 
 because he was opposed to them specifically, but 
 because he was jealously watched by the old conserva- 
 tive party. The Governor agreed to see Warren, who, 
 at the appointed hour, was borne in his chair to the 
 official residence, through long, alley-like corridors 
 and heavy gates with grotesque figures painted upon 
 them. He was carried through various courts, open 
 
98 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 to the sky, having buildings on four sides, then he 
 was ushered into the guest-hall for Chinese, with its 
 low couch on which there was room for two to squat. 
 Around the wall were chairs and tables for guests 
 of less prominence: "We soon heard the Governor 
 slowly approaching; the servants held back the cur- 
 tain for him; he entered. He is a man of ordinary 
 height, whose sparse beard and foreign glasses give 
 him quite a solemn and dignified appearance. He 
 seemed rather portly, but aside from the fact that 
 these officials live pretty well and never take any 
 exercise, of course there is the amount of clothing to 
 be reckoned with. After shaking hands silently and 
 delicately we sat down, he at the head of the table and 
 I on his right. He wore his official hat, which is like 
 a saucer with the edge turned back, making a flat 
 perpendicular surface around the edge. This was 
 lined with fur and there was a stiff plume sticking 
 out behind. He wore heavy silks brocaded with de- 
 signs and around his neck were several strings of 
 beads. I told him about the plan of the Mission and 
 he seemed interested, but there was always a stolid 
 coldness about the face, and when he looked at you 
 straight his eyes were very penetrating. He soon sent 
 a servant (there were three or four of them with a 
 soldier or two going in and out of the room) after 
 something which proved to be an embroidered silk 
 case with a small bottle of snuff in one side and an 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 99 
 
 ivory plate in the other, on which he turned out a 
 little from time to time and applied it to his nose. 
 He was very strong on the idea of our establishing 
 a school which should turn out men who are fitted 
 for the highest service here in China. Many of the 
 schools under the direction of foreigners get many 
 pupils, but they graduate unfit to take a stand with 
 their fellows in public places and in Chinese society 
 as well as in Chinese scholarship. These are impor- 
 tant points and I pressed His Excellency to more 
 clearly set forth what he had in mind, which he did. 
 It was not a long interview but a very pleasant one, 
 and His Excellency asked me to come again, saying 
 he would be glad to help us. How far this will go we 
 don't of course know and cannot depend on it much. 
 But some day we may have a chance to remind him 
 of his promise. He came out into the court with us 
 and there I attempted to make the Oriental bow, 
 which I had made very well here at home. But it did 
 not seem to please His Excellency, who good-humor- 
 edly showed how the contortion should be executed. 
 Then with Zau I went to a restaurant near by, where 
 we had an excellent lunch, all in foreign style, well 
 cooked, and well served, — and then home." 
 
 Prince Tsai Chen, son of Prince Ching, the prime 
 minister, on a visit to New York in the year 1902, 
 received special attention from J. B. Reynolds, Esq., 
 Yale 1884, in the absence of Mayor Low, to whom 
 
100 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 he was secretary. When Mr. Reynolds visited China, 
 on his world tour, he carried with him a beautiful 
 Tiffany cup as a gift to the Prince, who, in turn, 
 received him with gracious ceremony and feted him 
 richly. Through Prince Ching, Mr. Reynolds re- 
 ceived a letter of introduction to Tuan Fang, Gov- 
 ernor of the Province of Hunan. Mr. Reynolds's 
 prestige preceded him at Changsha, where he was 
 received with marked favor by the Governor, who 
 promised Mr. Reynolds to take an interest in the 
 American College. 
 
 Warren gave a hearty welcome to Mr. Reynolds, 
 a member of the Yale Foreign Missionary Council: 
 " A finely cultured gentleman and a delightful com- 
 panion." He conducted him to various localities, 
 possible sites for the College, and finally to the moun- 
 tain on the opposite side of the river, from which a 
 fine view may be gained of the city and surrounding 
 country. Then he took him to call on the Governor: 
 " It was quite grand as we went through the middle 
 doors of the yamen, which swung open for us, and 
 were carried in our chairs through one little court and 
 then another and finally let down in the ' chair court/ 
 Gathering ourselves together for a final plunge we 
 passed through blue doors where stood soldiers at 
 * present arms,' and then out into another little court, 
 and finally into the room where the Governor receives 
 foreigners. We wanted to have Mr. Reynolds give 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 101 
 
 His Excellency an account of our work, but the call 
 was foreshortened by the Governor's invitation to 
 come to lunch to-day." 
 
 Of that interesting function Warren writes : " The 
 lunch which the Governor gave us was an event which 
 we shall long remember. It was really in honor of our 
 attractive friend, Mr. Reynolds, but we were glad 
 enough to creep in on any ' pull ' which could do the 
 work. As on the other visit we went in our chairs and 
 passed in at the swinging middle doors at what might 
 be called the outer gate, passed along an open court, 
 and were lowered in the chair court. Other doors 
 were thrown open, giving us a view through another 
 open court of the Chinese guest-room with its open 
 front. But you must not imagine that there was any- 
 thing very imposing about it for one who has read 
 about the pomp and splendor of the East. The whole 
 place, as I have said, is rather dilapidated, and, like 
 the lady in the comic song, it has seen its best days. 
 Through groups of soldiers and attendants we were 
 shown into the dining-room where we found the 
 Governor. There were two other Americans, both 
 engineers, and one a Yale man in the class of '01, 
 Sheff . In addition to them there were two Taotais 
 (or big officials) and two interpreters. We stood 
 around and talked for a while and the Governor 
 seemed quite informal. Then we were shown our 
 seats. There were ten of us. At one end sat His 
 
102 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Excellency and at the other one of the Taotais. I sat 
 at the latter's right and Mr. Reynolds at the Gov- 
 ernor's right, while Gage graced his left. The officials 
 were relieved by their servants of their heavy court 
 hats with their stiff horse-hair plumes sticking out 
 behind, and the ordinary black skull cap with the red 
 button was placed there instead. We were more at 
 home than our hosts. The big fat Taotai on my left 
 was much interested in the various articles as they 
 appeared and tried to fathom their nature by using 
 the sense of smell along with the use of his fork and 
 knife. These latter instruments looked very awkward 
 in his big hands and he had to wrestle with the viands 
 as they came along. The food was very good ; I will 
 send you the menu. 
 
 " Mr. Reynolds offered to take any message to the 
 son of the Governor, who is studying in Washington. 
 The Governor seemed quite pleased and sent around 
 the next day a wooden box, fully four feet long and 
 two wide, with two smaller ones, half as big, one con- 
 taining an embroidery for his guest and a picture 
 of His Excellency. But in a way the kind-hearted 
 American was repaid, for the Governor bought the 
 tickets on the steamer for Mr. Reynolds, covered all 
 the furniture in the room with white cloth, had flow- 
 ers put on the table, and sent down two of his suite to 
 bid him farewell. So I felt as if I belonged to royalty 
 at the steamer, in the midst of all this favor." 
 
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THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 103 
 
 Changsha, July 9, 1905. 
 
 "We are now seeing China as she is in summer. 
 Many of the coolies wear broad-brimmed straw hats 
 which turn up in front and back. The hats do not 
 come down on to the head as ours do, but there is a 
 sort of straw collar, which fits the head like a crown, 
 on top of which the hat is tied, which is to give ven- 
 tilation. A more picturesque kind of hat is also of 
 straw, but it is open-work and is backed with blue 
 cloth, which looks very pretty about the dark face of a 
 coolie. Every one, who has a hand disengaged, carries 
 a fan and a good proportion of the race is bare to the 
 waist. Some of the children spend the summer with- 
 out the inconvenience of clothing, but the popular 
 dress is a kind of apron which is split, one side being 
 tied around each small ankle. It comes halfway up 
 the breast, has a little string around the waist, and 
 another over the shoulder, and is open in back. You 
 pass a prosperous store, a silk shop or a silver shop, 
 and there behind the counter is a row of men fanning 
 themselves. 
 
 " Thus far I have been able to wear a shirt with a 
 coat, although I lay the latter aside when I am work- 
 ing. I have also been able to keep my teacher half a 
 day and do not find it bad studying with him. The 
 people at night take out bamboo couches into the 
 street in front of their houses and sleep there, or they 
 go up to the platform which almost every Chinese 
 
104 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 house in the city has at the top of the structure for 
 drying clothes, where they find air if there is any to be 
 found. The people run great risks in this weather by 
 eating fresh fruit ; it lays them open to the contracting 
 of cholera. Watermelons, most of them of a whitish 
 color and nearly round, peaches, plums and the like 
 are eaten even unripe by a great many, then you see 
 what is left thrown around the streets and allowed to 
 remain there for weeks. The people do not work any 
 harder than they have to, and they drink warm tea 
 with other quieting mixtures of uncertain origin and 
 very dubious appearance. We expect rain soon and 
 a little diversion like that will set us all up on our feet 
 again for another spell." 
 
 Mr. Greenwell Fletcher, British Commissioner of 
 Customs, whose residence was on the long, narrow 
 island opposite Changsha, arranged with Warren to 
 spend his nights with him. He returned to his work 
 in the city each morning, delving into the language, 
 which was a distinct gain to him, although pursu- 
 ing such a study in midsummer was in no sense a 
 pastime. Writing from his quarters at Mr. Gotte- 
 berg's, he says : " I have slept on the roof of the house 
 over on the island with no shelter above my head save 
 the top of the mosquito netting. The wind comes 
 through nicely and it is fine being up there behind 
 the iron palings, with the lights along the river to the 
 East, the big mountain towering gauntly aloft to the 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 105 
 
 West and the stars closing in all around you above. 
 No better air than that." 
 
 His friend Fletcher has written : " During the whole 
 of our intimacy, whether at home or journeying, — 
 for I, among others, was with him on the walking 
 tour he took to Paoking and Yungchow, — working 
 or playing, for many are the consultations we have 
 had over the former, and many the hard-fought 
 battles on the tennis ground, whatever the occupa- 
 tion, indeed, in which he was engaged, I never found 
 him other than a strong, helpful, and cheery friend, 
 whose good example was to be relied on and who was 
 to be trusted for good advice and action in any diffi- 
 culty. It seems inexplicably sad that a man so in- 
 tellectually and physically gifted, who, moreover, 
 was energetically and unselfishly using his great 
 talents in the service of the good cause, — a man, in- 
 deed, for whom I felt the greatest admiration and of 
 whom I often think as a model of all that is pure and 
 devoted, yet manly and charming withal, — should 
 be cut off in his prime, before he had had time to 
 delight more than a limited circle of acquaintances 
 with his personality." 
 
 The summer nights in a city, with its narrow 
 streets, its unsanitary ways of living and its inhuman 
 practices, brought much sadness to a nature as sensi- 
 tive as Warren's. He writes of the sounds that reach 
 his ears as he lies awake, trying to coax sleep : " One 
 
106 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 would get a very fair introduction into Chinese life 
 if he could be transported by night to some high 
 tower, there to listen to the sounds that rise from the 
 narrow streets and closely packed houses below. 
 Sleeping in such a tower, open on all sides to the winds 
 of heaven and the noises of earth, I have lain and lis- 
 tened to the strange night life as it is revealed in the 
 vocal strains arising from the wide stretch below. 
 One night the first sound that caught my ear was 
 the voice of a little child steadily crying. There was 
 something desolate and hopeless in her moan (for I 
 concluded that it was a little girl), as if she were try- 
 ing to bear her fate, but could not help telling the 
 story of her pain by these constant sobs. I thought 
 I knew all about her. Her mother had been tighten- 
 ing the bandages around the little feet that evening 
 and now they pained her worse than ever. She could 
 not sleep, so there she lay and sobbed in that sub- 
 dued but unbroken wail. Perhaps her mother was 
 holding her and was trying to quiet her by telling her 
 that, if her feet were allowed to grow big, she would 
 never be happy and never get married. She might 
 even have to be sold as a slave girl, for nobody cares 
 about slave girls, whether they are attractive or not. 
 All about the streets you see them, these women with 
 their little pointed feet, like a deer's feet, and their 
 swollen ankles, slowly stumping along. It is an ex- 
 ception to see a woman with big feet. . . . The city 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 107 
 
 is waking from its hot sleep. The upright boards 
 along the store fronts are being taken down one by 
 one, thus disturbing the vagrants who have been 
 sleeping on a piece of straw matting in the street or 
 on a little platform close under the front of the store. 
 Beggars crawl out from this end and that corner. 
 Sounds of trade are stirring. The streets are begin- 
 ning to fill and another day is on. Still, in a nook or 
 the shade of a hospitable door, tired forms remain 
 unmoved and weary eyes remain closed in the midst 
 of the hum about them. It is marvelous how these 
 people can sleep, on a board, or on a piece of matting 
 laid on the stones of a courtyard, or in the street, 
 unprotected from the sun. They squat until they 
 are sitting on their heels and then, resting their heads 
 on their hands supported from the knees, they glide 
 into dreamland. Sometimes standing up against a 
 counter or a wall or sitting against some support, 
 they are around you on all sides, and in the busy street 
 you have to avoid unconscious figures enjoying their 
 siestas." 
 
 July 16. 
 " Because I never have felt the cold much of any I 
 thought that I might be very sensitive to the heat. 
 But thus far I have not felt it as much as these old 
 birds who have been out here for years. They say 
 that one's resistance breaks down in time. How this 
 may be I don't know, but most rules are subject to 
 
108 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 the individual condition of the people. I have played 
 tennis on the average of about twice a week, singles 
 and doubles. This young Englishman, with whom I 
 am staying, is fairly good and often wins a set off of 
 me, but I continue to be the champion of some twenty- 
 one millions here in the Province ! The sun is hot, but 
 we don't play until five or later in the afternoon; it 
 is hot enough then, but I like it. The perspiration 
 runs down my arm until my hand is just soaked and 
 the handle of the racket feels like a warm mud-pud- 
 dle. I think that I have never gotten so hot as I have 
 this summer. 
 
 " I have one or two theories which I am testing grad- 
 ually ; one is that people put on too many clothes in the 
 winter. They expect to feel the cold and as a result 
 they do feel it. I think that the same principle is 
 true of the summer and that people make too many 
 concessions to the heat, wearing too thin clothing 
 and thinking about the weather too much. I also 
 think that the person with plenty to do does not feel 
 the heat so much as one who makes it his chief 
 business to keep cool. But I realize that it is a bit 
 early in the game to make sweeping generalities." 
 
 Writing September 10, Warren says: "There is 
 something in the air to-day that is suggestive of old 
 days. The skies are overshadowed and threaten rain, 
 but there is a cool wind blowing and for the first 
 time in months I have gone through the day not in 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 109 
 
 ducks and other thin things but in regular fabrics. 
 Suggestions of open fires, of doors that let in gusts of 
 unruly wind when they are opened, of hot biscuit 
 and cocoa for supper, come to mind. The fall is here 
 and our fears of another hot spell have vanished." 
 
 Warren greatly enjoyed the companionship of the 
 British Consul, Mr. A. J. Flaherty, with whom he 
 had many a good game of tennis. 
 
 After Warren's death Mr. Flaherty, writing from 
 London, said: "The acquaintance which I formed 
 with your son in Changsha developed rapidly into an 
 intimate friendship, and by his death I have lost one 
 of the best friends it has ever been my lot to make. 
 I had many opportunities of observing the patient 
 self-sacrifice with which he devoted himself to his 
 work, in particular during the exceptionally hot sum- 
 mer of 1905. The more intimately I knew him the 
 more I admired his manly and upright character. 
 I am convinced that his brief period of pioneer work 
 in Hunan will stand out as a land-mark in the history 
 of the Mission. None perhaps more than I can fully 
 appreciate the difficulties and hardships which he 
 had to face in that city, or realize with what indom- 
 itable courage he turned delays and disappointments 
 into final and lasting success. If God has called him 
 away in the flower of his youth and strength it is 
 because He is satisfied with the task he has accom- 
 plished." 
 
110 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Here is found one of the secrets of Warren's sym- 
 metrical nature. There was in him a happy blending 
 of the vivacious with the sober, the sportive with the 
 serious. Tennis was an expression of his physical 
 vigor, and yet he never played when his work de- 
 manded his attention. His honorable standards of 
 right-doing favored quick transitions from absorb- 
 ing task to glowing pastime. His clear-cut purpose 
 quickened the pace of all his activities. It clothed the 
 most commonplace act with the grace of high honor. 
 His was a native boyishness, and withal, an unaffected 
 manliness. Warren's was not " strained spirituality ; " 
 it was spontaneous, exuberant spirituality. Of him 
 may be said as has been claimed of another : " I never 
 knew any one who gave me so strong a feeling of the 
 pure joy of living." This joy often broke into radi- 
 ance, brightening his face the moment he began to 
 speak. It was evident that the tasks of his new life 
 in a distant country, his separation from the home 
 which he loved as he loved his own life, did not 
 quench the ardor of his nature : " I have not yet begun 
 to write my autobiography. How would *W. B. S., 
 Missionary and Saint ' look on the cover of a three- 
 volume edition?" 
 
 Warren kept in touch with his classmates at the 
 Seminary and occasionally wrote them a circular letter. 
 This extract, written during his first year at Changsha, 
 shows the depth of his feeling and his lofty ideals : — 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 111 
 
 " This is a birthday letter. It may not be your birth- 
 day, when this letter arrives, but it is mine. I am 
 ' twenty-one ' to-day ! Is n't that fine to have come of 
 age at last and to be able to vote for the Emperor, 
 the old Empress, and all the rest of our rulers ! But 
 I tell you it is serious to contemplate the advance of 
 time and to realize that you are approaching the 
 years of discretion. When I turn thirty I shall really 
 begin to think that I am old. Honestly, the very 
 thought of getting slow, heavy, and lax, physically, is 
 only less repugnant than the prospect of losing the 
 qualities of buoyancy and hope, enthusiasm and con- 
 fidence which one naturally associates with the days 
 of youth. But if there are good things in our lives 
 now, we need not fear their loss, for we must believe 
 that they give place to what is better. There never 
 can be gain without some loss. We must believe we 
 gain and we must gain, or accept the loss. Still the 
 spirit of youth need not be sacrificed. The capacity 
 of feeling deeply and freshly, of enjoying experiences 
 keenly, of having faith in men and joy in life, of 
 keeping the heart child-like, however old and wise 
 the head becomes ; this is worth holding and for this 
 I yearn. 
 
 "Let us all live the abundant life, fellows. That 
 expression means a great deal and it will take my 
 whole life to prepare me to understand what it can 
 mean. To fill our lives with outgoings and incomings, 
 
112 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 with many interests, many sources of enjoyment, 
 many means of self-expression, to live broadly among 
 men, deeply within and always in connection with the 
 Illimitable. In quiet parishes and mission stations, 
 it is hard to keep the windows open to the distant 
 view. Too much right at hand claims our attention 
 and we forget to lift up our eyes unto the hills. 
 These thoughts are very deeply wrought into me as 
 they doubtless are in you all, in different form. Let 
 us live them out and make them more practical, by 
 experiencing their strength in action and character. 
 
 "May God bless you all and lead you into new- 
 ness of life, as the days of your service increase in 
 number." 
 
 Writing to one of his intimate friends he seems 
 almost to divine the future: "I do not know what 
 is before me, but I am * building my nest in the 
 greatness of God.'" 
 
 During the month of May Warren made his first 
 visit to Kuling. It was not for rest but for conference 
 with his associates, Gage and Hume : — 
 
 " Here I am at Kuling at last. They say that one 
 of the safest and wisest remarks for a bachelor to 
 make when he is shown a baby of uncertain age and 
 is expected to say something, is, 'Well, that is a 
 baby ! ' So I say of Kuling, ' This is a place ! ' yet a 
 little disappointing to those who have visited Switz- 
 erland or the White Mountains! But let me bring 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 113 
 
 you to Kuling more gradually. Changsha was left 
 behind at daybreak. The next day we came into 
 Hankow, ' the Chicago of China,' a place whose trade, 
 activity, and westernism seem increased every time I 
 see it. I had time for breakfast on board and a walk 
 the entire length of the Bund to the Gilberts', before 
 the proper hour for putting in an appearance on 
 Sunday morning should arrive. We went to church 
 and saw a few friends. We, my boy and I, left Han- 
 kow Sunday evening and pulled up at Kiu-kiang just 
 after breakfast the next morning. My boy was put in 
 a chair and carried by three men ; two others started 
 off with our things, but I, feeling young and husky, 
 determined to hoof it. So off we started in a bunch, 
 the yellow horse leading and I at his shoulder a good 
 second. The first part of the journey led through 
 the city of Kiu-kiang and soon brought us out into 
 the plain. We could see the high mountains of Kuling 
 in the distance, but the plain looked very long and so 
 it was found to be. May is not a cool month in China 
 and yesterday was rather a trying day. There being 
 no sun it seemed a good time to start, but we soon 
 found how oppressive the atmosphere was. The 
 clouds shifted about in the sky, occasionally letting a 
 little sun through, yet there seemed to be no air mov- 
 ing. It took us most of the morning to get across the 
 plain and then we seemed to go along the base of this 
 line of hills without going up very much. It was very 
 
114 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 hot and I think I never felt any walk so much. About 
 noon we reached what is known as the 'half-way- 
 house,' but I was glad to learn that two thirds of the 
 distance had been covered. When I got to the top of 
 this steep mountain, or range of mountains, I was 
 fairly 'all in.' These hills are in stern contrast with 
 the plain, rising abrupt and smooth to their irregular 
 summits, but they are so shorn of any tree of respect- 
 able size, they do not seem natural. Kuling was 
 reached at about three and I must have spent an hour 
 in trying to find our place, but patience was rewarded 
 and it will never take so long again. 
 
 "You enter Kuling proper at one end of an ele- 
 vated valley, with steep hills on either side, whose 
 slopes are covered with a low shrubby growth. Here 
 are the summer homes of many missionaries, staring 
 little structures of white stone with still whiter seams 
 of mortar, standing bold and unrelieved on every bit 
 of space large enough for a house to get a grip. With 
 their corrugated iron roofs just big enough to cover 
 them they look more like little guard houses, so broad 
 and solid and sturdy are they. There is little variety 
 in architecture. They seem to have no mutual under- 
 standing as to which point of the compass a building 
 should face, each being quite regardless of his neigh- 
 bors and careful only to get the most out of his lot. 
 One might imagine that all the houses had been let 
 fall from some height above us and that each had 
 
THE YEAR OF BEGINNINGS 115 
 
 remained where it landed. In many cases the side of 
 the hill has been dug away in order to construct a 
 flat surface for building, thus leaving a steep gravelly 
 bank rising from behind the servants' quarters. Our 
 Mission house here is better than the average, better 
 built and better furnished. It consists of five rooms 
 in a row, four furnished with bath-rooms and the 
 centre one partially for use as a sitting-room and 
 dining-room. " 
 
 At the conference held in the Mission bungalow at 
 Kuling, the curriculum of study was arranged and 
 many of its details agreed upon ; it was also decided 
 to open a dispensary at Changsha as soon as prac- 
 ticable. In this most important preliminary work, 
 before the school itself had been established, Gage's 
 scholarly tastes and Hume's training in science, plus 
 the sagacity and level - headedness of each, and 
 Warren's practical good sense, effectively blended. 
 From this successful conference Gage, with Mrs. 
 Gage, came to America for the summer, Hume re- 
 mained at Kuling, while Warren returned to Chang- 
 sha, after an absence of ten days. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF THE YALE MISSION COLLEGE 
 
 As time passed it became evident that it was im- 
 practicable, at least for the present, to pursue further 
 the attempt to secure land for college buildings. In 
 view of the obstacles the committee cabled from New 
 Haven to hold the question of purchasing land in 
 abeyance. Attention was now turned to the search 
 for temporary quarters in the city itself. The first 
 thought was to rent rather than buy : " We want to 
 hire a large house, where there will be room enough 
 for us all and for the school, also. But I am almost 
 in despair of securing this as the city is full of schools, 
 many of them without suitable accommodations, and 
 looking for better ones. There are many Chinese, 
 men of property, glad to buy any house for sale and 
 there is strong dislike of renting to foreigners. Real 
 estate is at a premium here and we find conditions 
 that do not hold anywhere else in the Province. If 
 we could rent a large house in the city to-morrow, 
 we could begin at once to make the improvements 
 necessary for our comfort." 
 
 Early in August, 1906, Dr. Hume came down from 
 Ruling and long conferences were held between 
 Warren and himself over the steps to be taken 
 
THE YALE MISSION COLLEGE 117 
 
 toward the proper development of the school. As a 
 result a house was rented for use as a dispensary to 
 become the centre of that most important depart- 
 ment — medical work. " We are very happy about 
 it," says Warren, " for although it is not a great event 
 in a long course of mission history, we have made a 
 beginning and are able now to open work of our own 
 in the fall. It is the first bit of permanent work ac- 
 complished by us and we have done it without the 
 help of other missionaries. There are changes to be 
 made in the building ; we felt this was the thing to do 
 and we did it." 
 
 After the ball had once been started it rolled rap- 
 idly, and the long-expected crisis came suddenly into 
 view. Patience in waiting the favorable turn of 
 affairs, and the two summers spent in the heat of the 
 city, were at last rewarded, the second stage of pro- 
 gress following closely upon the first. On the 19th 
 of August Warren gave, with confident detail, the 
 steps which led to the purchase of a house: "This 
 letter will bear no uncertain note to you to-day. It is 
 raining hysterically, as if the weather had felt the 
 strain of the week and, now that the crisis has passed, 
 had lost its self-control. Last night our faithful agent, 
 who has worked bravely and skillfully through it all, 
 brought us a collection of deeds showing that we are 
 the lawful owners of a piece of land, with a house on 
 it, here in the heart of the city. It is located on one 
 
118 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 of the principal thoroughfares known as 'Official 
 Street.'" 
 
 When the transaction is completed and the first 
 payment made, fourteen papers are passed and pro- 
 nounced by an old resident in China to be the clean- 
 est and most complete he ever saw. And now the 
 process of transformation begins, making the build- 
 ing habitable for the school. Warren describes the 
 work : " The program of the week has been on this 
 wise; after breakfast, as soon as I can leave the 
 house in good shape, I hasten down to the school, 
 which is fifteen minutes' walk from here. There I 
 find a busy scene. There are carpenters, masons, 
 painters and glass-fitters hard at work. The car- 
 penters are laboring over doors that must be made 
 or repaired, knocking desks and benches into shape, 
 putting down a floor for my servants, making a few 
 platforms for the teachers in the various (4) recita- 
 tion-rooms, window-frames, beds, a big flat seat-of- 
 honor for the guest-hall and such articles for use and 
 ornament. The masons are plastering the brick walls 
 that rear their dull height all over the premises and 
 then treating them to coats of whitewash. The stone- 
 masons are tossing huge slabs of stone about, making 
 steps from one level to another, or paving the little 
 courts through which one must pass from one building 
 to another. The oilers are at work everywhere follow- 
 ing the steps of the carpenters like blood-hounds and 
 
By courtesy of Yale Alumni Weekly 
 
 FRONT GATE OF YALE MISSION COLLEGE 
 
 " Great Ya-li College " (Translation of inscription) 
 
THE YALE MISSION COLLEGE 119 
 
 daubing on the clean white wood a mixture of various 
 things including pigs' blood. The glass men putter 
 around and try to help the good work along, succeed- 
 ing only in adding to the general confusion. It is 
 quite necessary that I be there. Not only must I tell 
 them in the first place what is to be done, but I must 
 see that it is done and that it is done not according to 
 their ideas but according to mine. Then there are 
 changes in my plans as the days go on and there are 
 constantly new things to be done which were not 
 noticed before. So I spend the day in going from one 
 end of the long premises to the other, watching, or- 
 dering, urging and consoling the several score of men 
 who are there in one capacity or another. The 
 teachers' rooms must be first in order with their beds, 
 desks, tables, stools and the like all furnished. The 
 dormitories, the school-rooms, the kitchen and the 
 dining-room must be in shape, and if I do not see 
 that all is right you may be sure that all will not be 
 right. From the drains under the earth to the tiles in 
 the roof above the earth, the one in charge must be 
 on hand to see that what should be, is. It is axiomatic 
 in China that to have things right one must person- 
 ally superintend the work done, and I am proving 
 that there are no exceptions here. When noon comes 
 and the men go across to the dispensary property for 
 their dinner, I sit down with the faithful Niu, he of 
 the big head and short body, my former teacher and 
 
120 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 constant stand-by since first coming to the city. 
 From a neighboring restaurant rice in a large wooden 
 tub and several bowls of vegetables, meat, stew, or 
 fish are brought and we get to work with chop-sticks 
 in true Oriental fashion. Then there is a little native 
 tea to wash it down and we begin work again." 
 
 Dr. Hume, writing of this period, says: "During 
 the summer of 1906 we worked together over the 
 problem of property in Changsha, finally securing 
 the school and hospital premises. And day by day, 
 as we climbed the steps at the evening hour, and sat 
 together on the little roof-seat above Warren's room, 
 his word was always an expression of wonder at 
 God's manifest guidance through that day. And 
 always with it the most sane and natural valuation 
 of our own part. Those were precious days." 
 
 An epoch in the history of education in Central 
 China was the opening of the New Yale. Of all the 
 schools in Changsha none were designed to do the 
 work the Yale Mission was sent to China to accom- 
 plish, namely, University education. The process 
 must be one of gradual evolution ; to make a begin- 
 ning was highly essential. Now that a footing had 
 been gained and the purchase and re-modelling of a 
 building with school-rooms, reception-room, chapel, 
 etc., completed, pupils could be gathered and teaching 
 could commence. William J. Hail had joined the 
 missionary force and all was ready for launching the 
 
THE YALE MISSION COLLEGE 121 
 
 new movement : " On Friday morning, Nov. 16th, 
 at eight o'clock the students (some twenty of them) 
 gathered in the chapel for the opening exercises. We 
 had sent notice to all the missionaries in the city to say 
 that we were opening very quietly and that a formal 
 occasion would be observed at a later date. So there 
 were only three or four foreigners besides our own 
 people at eight o'clock on Friday morning. Hume, 
 Hail and I, in academic gowns and the three Chi- 
 nese in ceremonial robes, hats with brass or glass 
 buttons, filed in and ascended the platform. The 
 students were on their feet and upon facing them 
 they and we bowed deeply in Chinese fashion. Then 
 I led the service following the Episcopal morning 
 prayer form (in Chinese); a hymn, practised for the 
 first time the night before, was sung and the service 
 proper was opened. Then we each made a few 
 remarks in Chinese, Hail's being translated into col- 
 loquial by Mr. Kao, our teacher from Doctor Mat- 
 teer's school in the North. This concluded the ser- 
 vice and the remaining half hour of the first period 
 was employed in the studies appointed for that time. 
 v We are indeed where it is deep. Here we are in charge 
 of a school in old China, where schools have been an 
 institution as long as the country has had an articulate 
 existence, and here we are with our inexperience 
 trying to institute a curriculum that shall be sufficient 
 to meet the needs of these eager young men. Many 
 
122 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 problems as to discipline come to our attention at 
 once and we are constantly searching our hearts to 
 find the solution for the present day, and the prece- 
 dent for days to come. We find that Chinese schools 
 publish very excellent catalogues, but they do not 
 pretend to keep up to the standard set. This may be 
 one reason why so many have been willing to enter a 
 school where there is advertised a strict discipline 
 and high ideals — the feeling that we will not live up 
 to what we preach. Now we are on trial and in the 
 various things that constitute the policy and disci- 
 pline of the school we must be confident and efficient." 
 Early in the autumn Warren arranged a set of rules 
 and regulations for the school, decided about tuition 
 fees, courses, and many like details. It was put into 
 Chinese by three of the teachers. Then he reduced to 
 system outlines of preparatory, academic, and gradu- 
 ate work : " This has not been easy, for it is new work 
 for me, especially difficult when you are considering 
 the needs of a foreign people. I have used all the wit 
 I have and have consulted the other outlines of 
 schools in China at hand, but after all it is something 
 of a responsibility to publish the policy of the school 
 and to set forth its courses for the first year alone. 
 Still the Committee has put me here and they will not 
 blame me if I do the best I can. This week I have 
 added to our staff one new man, a genuine Chinese 
 scholar of the old style, one who has a good reputation 
 
THE YALE MISSION COLLEGE 123 
 
 here in the city and one who will help us by his con- 
 nection with our institution. First I went with my 
 stand-by, Niu, to call on him. He was out, but the 
 next morning at nine o'clock he came to see me, 
 dressed in the robes, boots and hat to which his offi- 
 cial rank entitled him. It was a short call and I 
 bowed him out after an interchange of polite phrases. 
 On the following day or so we sent him an invitation 
 to teach in our school, written on flaring red paper in 
 neat black characters. In response to this he came 
 yesterday for the first time and helped us in arranging 
 our bulletin for publication. He is over sixty and a 
 genuine specimen of the Chinese scholar class. How- 
 ever, he is open to enlightenment, as his willingness to 
 come indicates, and he further says that he considers 
 this as good as a trip to America, for he will be able to 
 learn from us modern educational methods. You 
 would smile if you could look in on me working with 
 these three men. The old fellow is one of those who 
 get very much excited when they talk. He will come 
 up close to you and look at you narrowly through his 
 great round glasses. Then he will break off and get 
 under way. In his talk he will stoop, bend forward, 
 sway backward and forward, straighten up and 
 extend his arms full length and really get quite dra- 
 matic. Meanwhile I look very much interested and 
 very serious, although I am aching to run away and 
 laugh, but I sway sympathetically from side to side as 
 
124 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 the Chinese are apt to do when another is conversing 
 with them, and grunt my entire concurrence with 
 his remarks ! Sometimes we all four talk at once in 
 Chinese and no one hears what any one else is saying. 
 But this is not usually true, nor does it preclude our 
 making rapid progress." 
 
 A week later he writes : " The teachers are working 
 in finely ; even the old Confucian scholar who, with all 
 his peculiar manners, is one of the most interesting 
 curios of the school. But another thing which has not 
 ceased to be a wonder to me is the school building 
 itself, which is so wonderfully adapted to our purpose. 
 Doors have been cut, more light admitted here and 
 there, two shops walled in and converted into a large 
 chapel, but in the main the school has not been much 
 altered. After the school was well started we turned 
 our attention to getting our own little house into form 
 for occupation. It is a little gem of a house and I feel 
 almost selfish for occupying it. The house stands at 
 the back of the property to the right, with a high wall 
 between it and the school kitchen. When the gates 
 are shut between us and the kitchen we are very quiet, 
 although we have to pass through the school to get 
 out. We have two studies in the front. Behind one of 
 them is the little dining-room and behind the other is 
 the back hall with the stairs. Upstairs there are four 
 rooms, two for each of us. There are open fireplaces 
 in the five rooms, the house is plastered throughout 
 
THE YALE MISSION COLLEGE 125 
 
 and, although the wood-work is not well done, it is 
 going to be very comfortable, and I am taking much 
 pride in the house, which has been made over accord- 
 ing to my ideas and under my direction." 
 
 Upon the question of discipline he writes : " School 
 has been going for over a week and it seems as if we 
 have had such an institution for a much longer time. 
 I have not ceased to marvel at the ease with which the 
 boys fall into the idea of a school and the smoothness 
 with which it has started on its long journey. The 
 boys show amenability to system and discipline. Of 
 course they hope that the first speed will soon drop to 
 a more lax and easy gait. This is just where we shall 
 disappoint them. To be sure, we had to expel a boy 
 yesterday, but it has not clogged the school machinery 
 in the least. We found that he was using a different 
 name from that with which he entered. It rather 
 upset us to have to change the name in the record 
 books and elsewhere. He declared at first that he 
 came in under an assumed name so that he could 
 drop out again without ' losing face' if he should find, 
 as he feared he might, that the school was very strict. 
 Upon close examination it appeared that another fel- 
 low, a friend of his, had passed the entrance exam- 
 inations but for some reason could not come, so he 
 handed the privilege over to this fellow, who took his 
 friend's name and changed it to his own, only when 
 he thought he was safely in and there would be no 
 
126 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 trouble. And so the boy had to go. It will be a good 
 thing from all points of view and will help us to 
 maintain the good name with which the school has 
 begun. " 
 
 Dissatisfaction with one of the Chinese instructors, 
 a man trained in North China, a convert to Chris- 
 tianity, arose because his use of Chinese was declared 
 to be imperfect. Instead of denying the boys their 
 right of complaint, the teachers held conferences with 
 them in order to bring them to the touchstone of rea- 
 son and, with excellent good sense, finally announced 
 that the Chinese teacher would be retained but an- 
 other would be secured to assist him. All those who 
 would abide by the decision of the faculty might sig- 
 nify it by attending prayers the next morning. Nearly 
 all responded, but at the close of the exercises a rebel- 
 lion broke out in the hall outside, due to the insistence 
 of the leader that all the boys should stand, as the in- 
 structors filed into the chapel. This was interpreted 
 by them to mean a studied sign of lordship over them 
 and of disapproval by the teachers of their attitude 
 toward the recent ruling of the faculty. Some of the 
 boys left, others remained, but the reputation of the 
 New Yale for discipline was established : " Our stand 
 on the subject of school management is now known 
 and our high standard is coming to be understood and 
 appreciated. Another gain which we feel we are mak- 
 ing is in winning the confidence of the boys in the 
 
THE YALE MISSION COLLEGE 127 
 
 school. It is not easy to make the Oriental believe in 
 you; the student class, especially, is not easily con- 
 vinced of your sincerity. And yet in China it is com- 
 mon for the most cordial relations to exist between 
 teacher and pupil. These we hope to secure for their 
 own sakes as well as in the belief that these young 
 friends may be led to know the joy of intimate com- 
 munion with Him in Whose Name we are here." 
 
 At the close of the academic year there were thirty 
 boys in the school. Some came from very good fami- 
 lies and showed their good breeding in every move- 
 ment. Others were more humbly born, but there was 
 a creditable evidence of earnestness on the part of the 
 majority of the school, most pleasing to their in- 
 structors. In the personnel of the school, the four 
 great classes of Chinese Society were represented : 
 Literati, Agriculturalists, Artisans, Traders. 
 
 "What would you think of a school of thirty 
 boys who, left alone every evening in the study, be- 
 haved themselves with sufficient decorum to make it 
 unnecessary to have any one act as proctor ! The 
 Chinese boys are certainly more quiet and law-abid- 
 ing than ours. On the other hand, when allowed to 
 go out into the city they have to be watched very 
 closely. This noon after their dinner they sent a 
 delegation to us to ask that they might have Sun- 
 day afternoons off. This is just what the other 
 schools have and is just the thing that both stu- 
 
128 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 dents and teachers employ for evil purposes. We are 
 being tested by these young fellows and must stand 
 our ground now or it will go badly with us later." 
 
 True to his instinct of giving the boys every plea- 
 sure possible, Warren was accustomed to take them 
 out for long walks, or show them how to play games : 
 "Last evening [Dec. 2d] we had a house-warming 
 and you may be sure it was a hot time. We had the 
 whole school in and gave them an evening of real fun. 
 We played * pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey,' * Jenkins-up ' 
 and 'crokinole,' all of which the boys enjoyed ex- 
 ceedingly. I think the element of chance in the 
 second-named appealed to them especially, for there 
 was a hilarious crowd around the dining-room table 
 all the evening. The teachers hovered about the 
 pictures of Yale and Yale men, but even ' Old Vege- 
 tables ' (as we call our old classical teacher, because 
 his name has the sound of the word for that useful 
 variety of food) seemed interested in everything going 
 on and had a good time. We had Japanese biscuit 
 found at a little Japanese bakery in the city, and 
 served them hot coffee." 
 
 Warren also purposed to show the boys how to 
 play American games, base-ball, tennis and foot-ball, 
 realizing the purpose which he once formed when he 
 wittily said to a Hartford professor : " I shall coach the 
 Chinese boys in athletics, then I shall become a 
 Cochin (coach in) China." 
 

 
 
 
 
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 A 1 
 
 
 
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 9 : ;;' 
 
 1:" Y- i : 
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 By courtesy of Yale Alumni Weekly 
 
 CHINESE TEACHERS 
 Dr. Niu, Dean; Mr. Ts'ai, Chinese Classics; Mr. Kao, Science 
 
 
THE YALE MISSION COLLEGE 129 
 
 Interwoven into the events of the summer of 1906 
 are evidences of an increasing tenderness on War- 
 ren's part toward the home friends and his satisfac- 
 tion with the work done : " Dear brother Joe : For I 
 always think of you as my 'brother* preeminently. 
 Are you not mine and have I not been yours in all 
 things through these happy, vivid years ? And if you 
 will insist upon sending me things like these that have 
 just come and do come from time to time, I can do no 
 less than write you and say not so much that I thank 
 you, as that you have called from my soul one more 
 poor expression of the unbounded admiration and 
 affection that lives there for you. Your picture, your 
 name, a passing flicker of memory fills my soul with 
 long, rich thoughts, lengthening as far into fond hopes, 
 as they come out of the hallowed past. For do we not 
 live ? and is it not death to say that the best is gone ? 
 What we have had together has only fitted us to live 
 and be of some use. How unworthy of God to give 
 honey for the moment and not strength for the 
 day! 
 
 "We have to grow older, it seems. My birthday 
 hangs over me like a bad dream. I am heartily 
 ashamed to be so youthful, when I am so old by the 
 calendar and yet envious of the relentless years that 
 take one chapter after another of one's life and put it 
 beyond his touch. But I love the men and women 
 who are young, all the way from four years to ninety- 
 
130 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 four, and I hope that that love will help to keep me as 
 young and happy as I am this day. 
 
 "This has been one of only two summers in my 
 short life, when I can remember having accomplished 
 anything. One summer in Vermont when I preached 
 and made calls and took seven people into my little 
 church ; and again this summer when I dare to think 
 that I have given the Yale Mission a start in Chang- 
 sha, by getting for them these two places. Such satis- 
 faction is better than vacation." 
 
IX 
 
 LIVING IN THE LIFE OF OTHERS 
 
 It has already been evident that Warren had recep- 
 tive sympathies of a high order. He was no recluse ; 
 he abhorred voluntary hermitage for the sake of self- 
 gratification. The quality of his mind was essentially 
 associative. He heartily welcomed any opportunity 
 for showing himself a friend, a brother, an almoner of 
 good. He freely gave of himself at whatever cost of 
 exhaustive labors. With such a nature there was 
 always before him an open door. 
 
 Heavy rains in the spring in China fill the rivers 
 rapidly, without sufficient room for outflow into the 
 lakes; this is especially true of the Hsiang River, 
 pouring itself into Tung-ting Lake. So much of the 
 country lies low that vast areas are covered with 
 water in a very short time. The flood of the spring 
 of 1906 was a disastrous one, as we may learn from 
 Warren's description : " We are at present passing 
 through a great calamity here in Changsha. No one 
 thought that we should have more than the usual 
 spring flood, which sometimes works up to the west 
 gates of the city, but with steady cruelty it continued 
 to rise day by day. The streets outside the city 
 became flooded to the upper stories, then the streets 
 
132 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 inside the eity began to fill, houses became uninhab- 
 itable; people, loath to leave their belongings, first 
 took refuge in the upper stories which most houses 
 have. There they were often cut off and many have 
 been drowned, refusing to be taken away from all they 
 have in the world . The effect of the high water on the 
 houses made of mud and thin bamboo is fatal and the 
 flimsy structures are falling on all sides. Poverty will 
 of course continue until business resumes its ordinary 
 course ; many of the wretched people, who in the best 
 of times are only a meal or two ahead of the game, will 
 now be reduced to helplessness." This catastrophe 
 was the signal for the expression of substantial sym- 
 pathy ; an appeal was made to Hankow and Shanghai 
 for financial aid ; money and food were distributed by 
 the people of Changsha, both natives and foreigners. 
 Into these schemes Warren entered heartily, render- 
 ing personal assistance. 
 
 Continuing the story, he says : " I have been much 
 engaged of late in the affairs of the Relief Committee. 
 I have been to see conditions within and without the 
 city walls and I find that where the water rose build- 
 ings in many cases fell down, furniture was carried 
 away, other property destroyed and now sickness is 
 appearing. Almost all the houses are built on the 
 ground, consisting usually of one room approached 
 down a dark passage-way, or by passing through 
 several other rooms. Here you find wretchedness all 
 
LIVING IN THE LIFE OF OTHERS 133 
 
 about, a poor bed, two or three pieces of furniture, 
 one or more members of the family sick from the 
 dampness breathed forth from walls and floors, others 
 out begging. Most of these people are never far from 
 the line of hunger and a catastrophe like this sweeps 
 them over into actual suffering. We went from house 
 to house, distributing checks for ten, fifteen, twenty- 
 five and fifty cents (gold), which were exchanged in 
 the afternoon for money." 
 
 In company with Mr. Gotteberg Warren visited the 
 stricken city of Chin kiang, twenty miles north. He 
 went as almoner of contributions from the people of 
 Changsha, Hankow, and Shanghai. There he found 
 great suffering and demand for utmost caution in the 
 distribution of the money at his disposal. While there 
 he writes of a summer night in a Chinese harbor: 
 " The city of Chin kiang carries on a busy trade. It is 
 often spoken of by the Chinese as ' Small Hankow,' 
 not because of its activity but because of its situation. 
 We had spent a busy day on shore distributing relief 
 among the people who were slowly recovering from 
 the flood and returned to our boat about sundown. It 
 was too hot to eat inside, so we had the table placed on 
 the top of the boat. There we pretended to partake 
 of our dinner, but we had no appetite for it. There 
 seemed to be no breeze and the heat of the day did not 
 go with the sinking sun ; a candle burning by our side 
 insisted on bending over weakly. As soon as possible 
 
134 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 we finished our meal and stretched ourselves out upon 
 the top of the boat, among the long oars and boat 
 hooks. The mouth of the small river was filling with 
 boats. We were soon surrounded by them and found 
 it useless to ask them to move farther on. In greater 
 and greater numbers they came, until the place of 
 anchorage was quite choked with them. There was a 
 sullen self -constraint in the atmosphere and a change 
 was feared. I knew there was no use in going below, 
 so for some hours lay under the stars and tried to keep 
 cool. A boat containing Chinese musicians was mov- 
 ing about. One artist beats rhythmically upon a 
 resonant strip of bamboo, another saws mournfully 
 upon a one-stringed violin, a third contributes to the 
 discord by singing shrilly in a high falsetto. They row 
 from one boat to another and stop for a concert when 
 bidden. Another boat travels about with refresh- 
 ments, cold jelly, peanuts and — no foreigner knows 
 what else. The vender calls out his wares in a mono- 
 tone or hits a little bell at regular intervals. A watch- 
 man moves quietly from one quarter to another and 
 sounds his conch shell from unexpected localities. 
 There is a quarrel between some of the boatmen. 
 Every man in any way interested joins in and they all 
 talk and curse at once. No one hears what any one 
 else says and the trouble comes to a natural ending, 
 when exhaustion sets in. Finally quietness reigns and 
 I know it is after midnight. I go down and fan myself 
 
LIVING IN THE LIFE OF OTHERS 135 
 
 as I lie sleeplessly on my bed. Low voices, here and 
 there across the still water, show that I am not the 
 only wakeful one. Suddenly there is a noise, so loud, 
 so startling, that I cringe at the very thought of it. A 
 thunderous roar accompanied by a hoarse yell from 
 many throats seems to move across our bows and only 
 a few yards away. I think confusedly of pirates as I 
 spring up in bed, but a word from the boatmen, who 
 are on their feet in a moment, explains it all. ' Thief ! 
 Did n't get him ! ' It seems that the sailors are always 
 ready for this emergency and, as soon as one of them 
 perceives a boat stealthily moving up, or observes a 
 suspicious figure creeping along the shore, he cries 
 out, fiercely. His neighbor hears the warning and, 
 leaping to his feet, he cries, and so the cry travels up 
 and down all the boats anchored in one locality, 
 accompanied by the sound of bare feet stamping on 
 the deck. Very few of the boats have small boats at- 
 tached, so there is no way of pursuing the thief, who 
 drops away in the darkness, but he is frightened and 
 will not dare to come back, which is the principal 
 thing in a Chinaman's mind. 
 
 " There is quietness again, although I am sure that 
 many eyes are on the watch. Then there is another 
 noise. On every boat there is movement, for the rain 
 is coming. Sails are covered, doors are closed and 
 boards are slid into their grooves along the side. We 
 are shut in without a breath of air, but the atmosphere 
 
136 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 is now cooler, although the shower is disappointingly 
 short and light. Every one feels relieved and until 
 daylight the fleet is asleep with a cool day coming. It 
 is very often so in China ; a hot day dawns and you 
 feel that many more like it would be too much, but 
 there comes a welcome wind or a generous shower 
 and life begins anew." 
 
 In an earlier portion of this narrative special note 
 has been made of Warren's love of home and kindred, 
 which grew deeper and was more manifest as the 
 months passed. Never weary of his work, always 
 hopeful, he yet held himself in true loyalty to the 
 home circle. His brother, Mason, made a book of 
 photographs of the house at Wellesley Hills, the trees 
 and the garden, which he sent to Warren, who wrote 
 in reply : " I cannot think of anything which I would 
 rather have you send me than just this. It is so good 
 to be carried back to the dear old place when I look 
 around my bed-room. It is a very nice little room to 
 begin with, but these pictures which you sent me are 
 pinned up on the wall now and add very much to the 
 appearance of the room and much to my pleasure in 
 occupying it. When you happen to take any other 
 pictures which you think I would like, do be sure to 
 lay them aside for me. Anything that speaks of 
 home will be very welcome indeed." 
 
 Another letter speaks for itself : " Dear Mother of 
 Mine. A mail came in this afternoon with a package 
 
LIVING IN THE LIFE OF OTHERS 137 
 
 from you to me. Upon opening it I discovered the 
 pretty Easter wishes and strong thoughts for all the 
 day. I read all the bits in the ' Book of Cheer ' at din- 
 ner to-night (I often read at meals) and have been 
 helped already. I thank you for your choice in these, 
 I thank you for the love that looked as clear as day in 
 every line of the address, and every leaf within, but I 
 thank you most of all for what I can never fully thank 
 you, — for what you are to me. I may as well not try 
 beyond the point of telling you I am out in the world 
 with the precious treasure of a mother's love in my 
 heart each day. In her love for me I am strong and 
 my love is a reflection of hers. 
 
 "I am very anxious that you should not think of 
 me as experiencing things that would cause you pain. 
 There are times when I think of you with more than 
 usual tenderness, but even the good letters and gifts 
 from you do not bring about unhappy collapses. You 
 must think of me as well and strong, contented and 
 satisfied with this work. It would not be a good thing 
 if our paths were all smooth. We have been very 
 much tried by our failure to get land. It may be well 
 for us if our hardest trials come at the first, so long as 
 we weather them and find ourselves better for the 
 storms. We rebel in word as we talk of it and the 
 matter is often in our silent thoughts and we find it 
 hard to see why we should be blocked, when every 
 consideration seems to lay upon us the greatest haste. 
 
138 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 It must be for the best, if one must suffer, to suffer 
 with others and in their interests. May we come out 
 refined by the fire and welded into a mission of men 
 and women who will remain inseparable to the last." 
 Towards his only sister, Katherine, he always 
 manifested glowing affection, and many a breezy 
 letter he wrote "My dear Little Dib," after he left 
 home. In this vein he writes to her during his first 
 summer in China : " What a nice little lady you are to 
 write me as you do about yourself and all your friends 
 in town and about the place. I would n't swap you 
 for anybody's sister and all the old clothes they had in 
 the house to boot. And if any of the kids get at all gay 
 with you, just shake your finger at them and say that 
 you will write to your big brother in China. I '11 fix 
 them and I '11 come straight home and give them such 
 a scolding as they never had in their lives ! Or, I can 
 send my boy home and he can talk to them in Chinese 
 until they are frightened almost to death. Nearly all 
 the children about the streets are afraid of me. I 
 don't blame them much, do you ? I am pretty fierce 
 looking when I march along these stone -paved 
 streets! Little boys run for all they are worth and 
 get behind their mothers. Little girls can't run so fast 
 because their feet are bound, but they grab hold of 
 two or three younger brothers who don't know enough 
 to run and chase them off into the house, or try to get 
 them in the protection of fans or whatever else there 
 
LIVING IN THE LIFE OF OTHERS 139 
 
 may be at hand, and then they think when I have 
 gotten by, * Oh ! goodness sakes alive ! what a narrow 
 escape from that horrid foreign devil.' And I go 
 innocently on ! But it is the worst when mothers hide 
 their children's faces in their laps, for fear the wicked 
 eye of the foreigner will bewitch them. And really, 
 Dib, you '11 believe me when I say that I am no fiercer 
 than when we took walks together on Sunday after- 
 noon or sat on the front piazza and read. 
 
 "You sometimes see a man with a very common 
 pole over his shoulder, from either end of which bas- 
 kets are hung for carrying things. But in one basket 
 there will sometimes be a little child, with a rock in 
 the other to balance him. A great many men here are 
 engaged in carrying water from the river and from 
 a spring outside of the city. I feel sorry for some 
 of the little boys who have to go in and out with 
 pails of water suspended from the carrying poles. 
 
 " But if I tell you more my stereopticon lectures, 
 when I get home, will not be very interesting. So I 
 must slow up . . . and stop with a jerk ! Uff ! " 
 
 After receiving a box from home he writes: 
 " This is a holiday ! It is not kept in America, but 
 here we are faithfully true to it. We call the day 
 ' Boxes-from-Home-Day.' I was out in the warm sun 
 for a walk in the latter part of the afternoon. Re- 
 turning at dusk and threading my way through the 
 darkening streets, with bunches of fire-crackers going 
 
140 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 off around our heels (this is the New Year season 
 as well as Boxes -from -Home -Day), we came in 
 through our big doors to find the outer hall full of 
 dusky figures and — boxes. We poked around and 
 found that Mr. Fleischer, kindly remembering our 
 great day, had pushed through and arrived yesterday. 
 There was a cook from Hankow, a cooking stove and 
 the Box, which of course is the central feature of these 
 annual celebrations. Unfortunately I had a young 
 fellow here teaching him Latin and English. After 
 I had prepared him to enter Yale(!) I found that it 
 was too late to open the box. So I went to bed, slept 
 as hard and fast as I could and came down to eat my 
 new cook's first breakfast, and then begin. How the 
 splinters flew and how the nails groaned, as I got hold 
 of them with my teeth and yanked them out ! How I 
 piled into that box ! I sat in it, rolled in it, burrowed 
 down in among the dictionaries and atlases, and 
 splashed around among the pictures ! I tore off the 
 paper coverings of bundles, foaming at the mouth 
 and pawing the ground the while, until, weak and 
 fainting, I had to be carried to my room by my cham- 
 berlain and keeper of the hounds, where light refresh- 
 ments were served until I recovered. I cannot begin 
 to thank you ! I feel as if a year's waiting for such a 
 box was not too long. If this sort of thing happens 
 very often I shall have to have a furlough soon to 
 recover. The box was fragrant; in spite of the oil 
 
LIVING IN THE LIFE OF OTHERS 141 
 
 paper it leaked through every crack with love and 
 good wishes. I feel unworthy and shall have to 
 'buck up* now and try and be good. You each de- 
 serve a memorial, a long document suitably embel- 
 lished and embossed ; I will see if there is any to be 
 had in the neighborhood. More next Sunday, but 
 until then remember that you have in China a very 
 happy and grateful son and brother who is all this 
 because you are so good to him." 
 
 The variety of custom in China's complex life 
 demands a broad and patient study. Unified as she 
 is by ages of seclusion, by social and ancestral bonds, 
 there exists within her vast boundaries great diversity, 
 both physical and temperamental. In one sense, to 
 know one Chinese province is to know all provinces ; 
 in another sense, he who has lived in a city on the 
 coast, and become familiar with its maritime features, 
 finds, upon penetrating into the interior, a different 
 social type, grade of intellect, standard of morality. 
 It is only by visiting many portions of China that a 
 person can familiarize himself with the different as- 
 pects of her character, or approach a complete know- 
 ledge of her resources. This fact was deeply impressed 
 upon Warren's mind. First, he would see the Pro- 
 vince in which he was to live and from which the 
 teachers of the New Yale were to draw students. 
 Then, if possible, he would see other provinces, espe- 
 cially those of the far North. During the year 1906, 
 
142 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 the only complete calendar year he spent in Chang- 
 sha, he made two journeys,, one through portions of 
 Hunan and one to Peking. 
 
 About the middle of February he started with a 
 party of four to explore portions of the Province lying 
 southwest of Changsha. He went first by boat up the 
 river Hsiang thirty miles to Siangtan, where he laid 
 in a stock of provisions and secured coolies to carry 
 the equipment for the tour. The caravan moved 
 slowly, and there was not wanting friction over the 
 restlessness and obstinacy of the servants. Travel- 
 ling along one of the busiest highways in Central 
 China, the party crossed the " Bridge of Ten-thou- 
 sand Happinesses." The misery and squalor of some 
 of the towns, especially the " beggar towns," appealed 
 to their sympathies and there were occasional thrusts 
 of spite against these "foreign devils" who were 
 invading their borders. The pagodas, the sentries 
 guarding the good luck of the people, the extremely 
 narrow and stuffy streets, reminded Warren that he 
 was "in real China." He visited Paoking, Yungchow, 
 saw the famous coal mines worked by a party of 
 Germans and rode in a veritable steam train, so vis- 
 ibly does the West inoculate^ the East. After an ab- 
 sence of ten days he returned to Changsha, thankful 
 for all he enjoyed at his own station, and having 
 discovered that Christian workers away from the 
 open ports suffer many hardships. 
 
LIVING IN THE LIFE OF OTHERS 143 
 
 After the exacting duties of the summer of 1906 
 and when the transformation of the house was well 
 advanced, Warren took a few weeks for rest ; he began 
 to feel the effects of the heat and saw the danger of 
 pushing into the winter campaign without a respite. 
 Late in September, in company with Mr. Cars well, 
 father of Mrs. Hume, Warren started for Peking. 
 Writing from a station on the new Hankow- Peking 
 Railroad, he says : " Through the windows of a sec- 
 ond-class compartment at Hankow we had our lug- 
 gage thrust ; the shrill whistle blew and exactly on 
 schedule time we pulled out of the depot. Had it not 
 been for the crowds of natives on the platform, stand- 
 ing in slant-eyed curiosity, with their hands buried 
 deep in the heavy sleeves of their winter garments, 
 slowly thawing out as the sun rose over the low sta- 
 tion-roof, we might have thought ourselves on the 
 continent of Europe. But we were off for Peking, the 
 famous capital of ancient China. And now, 250 miles 
 north of Hankow, I am sitting in a Chinese inn (that 
 institution which brings a pang of remembrance to 
 many a traveller in China), and we are at the end of 
 our first day. We secured an apartment in cars of the 
 English type, save thatthereis a passage-way along one 
 side. Here we have had our dinner of bread, canned 
 meat, helped out by some rice and other food furnished 
 by the Chinese themselves. The train woke up at six 
 the next morning and snorted sleepily out of the sta- 
 
144 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 tion. We were fast getting out of the rice country, 
 characteristic of the South, into the broad plains of 
 the North, brown and dusty in the September sun- 
 light. Here and there clumps of trees mark the vil- 
 lages where the people lived, then there were miles 
 and miles of open fields ; no fences, no walls, not even 
 a stone to mark boundaries, but each piece of prop- 
 erty as clean as if ruled with a chalk line. On all 
 sides we saw evidences of the people's thrift. Not 
 only do they wrest as much from the overworked soil 
 as it will yield, but their use of draught animals indi- 
 cates that we are in a country where nothing goes to 
 waste. Teams of donkeys, or a pony and a donkey, 
 or a cow and a donkey, all possible combinations of 
 all possible animals appeared on the long furrows." 
 
 He spent some days in the great Capital, visited 
 the tombs of the Ming Emperors, saw something of 
 missionary work at various stations, and returned to 
 his work at Changsha after three weeks' absence. 
 
 In the early part of the following year (1907) War- 
 ren made his third journey into the heart of the coun- 
 try, this time up the Yuen River, in company with 
 Mr. Fred Gilbert, of Hankow, an old college friend. 
 He visited various cities and described in his letters 
 the fine scenery that he saw. In writing of the journey 
 he says: "My late tour through the Yuen River 
 valley as far as Chenchow was not only very interest- 
 ing, but I think it has served to give me a much bet- 
 
LIVING IN THE LIFE OF OTHERS 145 
 
 ter knowledge of the work that the missionaries are 
 doing ; has made it clearer to me what we can reason- 
 ably expect from them in furnishing us with students 
 from their lower schools and has also, I hope, by 
 means of personally conversing with them, given 
 them a fair and favorable idea of the work which we 
 are undertaking in Changsha. Aside from any effect 
 which such an excursion may have on the work of the 
 Mission, it is certainly highly instructive to one who is 
 anxious to learn all he can of the language and life of 
 the people. I find, too, that my friends among the 
 Chinese are pleased to see that I care to travel about 
 in the Province and do not feel hurt that I have vis- 
 ited more cities in China than most of them have seen. 
 We feel very strongly our indebtedness to the mission- 
 ary body of Hunan and our readiness to do all we can 
 to meet our obligations to them." 
 
X 
 
 KULING 
 
 " The calendar says that to-morrow will be the 17th 
 of September [1906], and my reckoning indicates that 
 I shall be twenty-nine. I believe the former, but the 
 latter seems to me preposterous. I cannot see the 
 years go by without feeling that it is all a great mis- 
 take. If my birthday came every other year it would 
 still always pass with the thought that I am too young 
 to be so old." It was his last birthday anniversary. 
 
 Much was packed into the closing months of that 
 eventful year. High hopes had been realized in the 
 visible shaping of the Mission, the school launched, 
 the machinery working smoothly. 
 
 Warren passed from the old year into the new, all 
 unconscious that there were left to him but seven 
 short and busy months of that life in China to which 
 he had given himself with so much zest and such 
 bright anticipations. " We go to the British Consulate 
 for dinner on New Year's Eve," is all he says about 
 the dawning of the year 1907. The same contagious 
 buoyancy, the same keen and kindly humor, the same 
 interest in all about him, the same devotion to the 
 welfare of the school characterized those days when 
 the work was still in its initial stages. Already his life 
 
KULING 147 
 
 for "the boys" appears in his plans for them, which 
 covered everything which might in any way broaden 
 their knowledge or develop their characters : " This 
 morning I preached to the boys in Chinese and how I 
 did pity them ! I think that one of the chief reasons 
 for commiserating the Chinese is that they have to 
 listen to foreigners preach! This is the Week of 
 Prayer and there have been union meetings everyday 
 at three o'clock. To-day one is to be held here in our 
 chapel, our first public meeting, and we expect a full 
 house. I do not preach, but yield the honor to Mr. 
 Wilson of the London Mission, who is a veteran in the 
 service. This evening we have a little gathering of the 
 boys, they discussing some subject of interest to them- 
 selves. To-night we consider whether China should 
 take up arms, or be a peaceful nation." 
 
 A little later he writes: "Our school has not yet 
 closed. We have one more week of recitations and 
 then examinations. Some of the students live a long 
 way off and they must be starting soon in order to get 
 home by New Year. Those who live very far away 
 go in bands, thus making it safer and pleasanter to 
 travel." 
 
 Pictures of domestic happiness in Changsha, when 
 all were gathered together and of one mind and spirit, 
 appear in his letters of this time: "This morning 
 [March 24th] Hume preached his maiden sermon, I 
 steadying him by sitting by him and taking charge of 
 
148 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 the opening exercises. Mrs. Hume played the organ, 
 while Mrs. Thurston, Gage, Hail and Hoyt adorned 
 the front row. It was a good service. They are getting 
 better as we become more at home in the use of the 
 language. We are having a Chinese meal once a 
 week, on Sunday noon now, and it tastes very good. 
 Thus the work of the servants is reduced and it is 
 no trouble to bring in our portion from the school 
 kitchen." 
 
 Warren was appointed to represent the Mission at 
 the Centennial Conference at Shanghai. Toward this 
 event he turned with pleasure, and for it he early laid 
 his plans. He writes fully of the great gathering. 
 Speaking of Shanghai, he says: "Gorgeous shops 
 and stores of all kinds, horses of the best, automo- 
 biles, 'rickshas crowd the streets and there is no speed 
 limit. The Chinese of Shanghai are learning alacrity 
 with remarkable success, promptly obeying the signal 
 from the man in blue." 
 
 Speaking of the convention, he says: "Arthur 
 Smith's address was strong and adequate to the occa- 
 sion. I am looking for more of that kind." He was 
 impressed by the Martyrs' Memorial Hall, where the 
 sessions were held, and many places of interest 
 attracted him. He was a guest of the British Consul, 
 whose ample quarters were a delight to him. While at 
 Shanghai he met many noted missionaries, many 
 friends from America. After a fortnight's absence he 
 
SEABURY AND HOYT IN NATIVE DRESS 
 
KULING 149 
 
 returned to Changsha : " Back to work again for a few 
 weeks and the summer comes and we flee away." 
 
 After the Shanghai Conference Professor and Mrs. 
 Beach were cordially welcomed to the Yale counsels 
 at Changsha. It was a distinct advantage to have 
 the long experience and ripe judgment of Professor 
 Beach upon questions affecting the initial life of the 
 Mis ion. Warren made frequent allusion to this good 
 fortune and counted it no ordinary event in the early 
 history of educational work in the city to have on the 
 ground so wise a friend and so vital a part of the Mis- 
 sion work as he. May 19th Warren writes: "This 
 morning Mr. Beach spoke to the boys, I presiding and 
 conducting the service ; then we prevailed upon him, 
 Mrs. Thurston, Dr. and Mrs. Hume and little Teddy 
 to stay and share our fare with us. Last evening we 
 had the entire party down here for dinner, ten in all, 
 including Mr. and Mrs. Beach and Hoyt. We feel 
 deserted if Hoyt is not with us on any pleasant excur- 
 sion or whenever we are having a good time." 
 
 Warren accompanied Professor and Mrs. Beach up 
 to Siangtan, and had many a good talk with them on 
 the future of the Mission : '* We are having some valu- 
 able times with Mr. Beach. He tells us what the com- 
 mittee think of us and brings with him some of their 
 ' Memoranda' for our examination. There is one we 
 are just now considering. It covers our relation to the 
 home committee and to our work here. Among other 
 
150 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 provisions it allows us bachelors thirty dollars for 
 * vacation expenses,' and lavishes on the married 
 folks seventy or seventy-five; I am therefore begin- 
 ning to think that it will pay me to get married ! If I 
 can get a wife who will do all the washing and cooking 
 and, also, manage the housework, I can make money 
 on my salary, especially if she is a vegetarian and a 
 dyspeptic ! ! " 
 
 After Warren's death Professor Beach furnished 
 an estimate of him and the quality of his work as he 
 saw it in May, 1907, a few weeks before he left 
 Changsha for the last time. It is produced here, in 
 part, with confidence that there is no one better quali- 
 fied to give a just account of the work of the Mission, 
 and Warren's personal share in building it up, than 
 he: "For the last two years Warren's letters have 
 closely revealed the dead earnestness with which he 
 grappled the serious tasks confronting the Mission. 
 To him the language was part and parcel of the peo- 
 ple. To acquire it was, therefore, via the Chinese 
 themselves, rather than through text-books on the 
 language. Its study was a voyage of discovery, in the 
 course of which he learned the people, as well as their 
 strange tongue. His teacher was more useful than 
 his text -books and a stroll in the city or country, with 
 stops at temples and tea-shops, accompanied by his 
 teacher or some Chinese friend, yielded a satisfactory 
 return in natural, idiomatic Chinese. And yet Warren 
 
RULING 151 
 
 did not neglect books and the higher forms in Chi- 
 nese. His method was to read widely rather than with a 
 slavish regard for the acquisition of the difficult char- 
 acters and idioms. The Changsha dialect is so hard 
 to understand, for a foreigner who knows only that of 
 Peking, that I do not feel competent to characterize 
 his linguistic attainments. I do know this, however, 
 that so far as language is effective, as a medium for 
 the free interchange of ideas and a bond of friendship 
 between man and man, Warren had admirably suc- 
 ceeded in this primary missionary task. 
 
 "And he was even more successful in the cognate 
 and more difficult undertaking of learning the people 
 and winning their friendship. I have met in China 
 and other mission fields hundreds of missionaries, but 
 I do not recall more than half a dozen who, in so brief 
 a period, have succeeded so well as Seabury in this 
 most important matter of understanding men of 
 wholly alien mind and character and winning their 
 respect, and in many cases, their real friendship. 
 Most missionaries do not accomplish in a score of 
 years what he did in three. He genuinely enjoyed 
 trips alone out into little-travelled sections, and had it 
 not been for strong remonstrances he might have gone 
 into the wild regions of little-known Kulichou instead 
 of to Ruling. That Province attracted him because of 
 its very rudeness and the atmosphere of adventure 
 which surrounded its mountain stretches. 
 
152 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 "A third task which Warren surprised me in 
 accomplishing, or nearly so, was in the search for 
 land for the Mission. In 1904 Mr. Luce and I had 
 spent many days in exhausting the possibilities as to 
 sites within some miles of Changsha. Owing to Mr. 
 Gage's bodily weaknesses at that time, and Dr. 
 Hume's later arrival, most of the burdensome search 
 for land and practically all the negotiations for the 
 property actually secured, fell upon Seabury. He had 
 developed to a marked degree, for one so new to the 
 country, many of those characteristics which enable 
 one to maintain his ground in land dickering. Reti- 
 cence, humor, ability to chaff, firmness, and a real 
 friendship, together with entire faith in God, won the 
 day in the case of the city property purchase. The 
 search for land outside the city was continued to the 
 end. So unselfishly did Seabury give himself to this 
 work that he spent two summers in the fearful heat 
 of Changsha, so unsanitary in July and August. He 
 would have spent his last summer there, instead of 
 going to Kuling, had it not been for the Mission's 
 insistence on his getting relief from strain, in that cool 
 mountain valley. 
 
 " A fourth respect in which Warren exhibited grow- 
 ing strength was in the capacity for leadership. So 
 readily did he respond to the demands upon him that 
 I once prophesied that if he were spared long enough, 
 he would in twenty years prove himself one of the 
 
KULING 153 
 
 foremost leaders in China's missionary force. He 
 was wise enough never to assert himself as against 
 his associates, yet his wisdom was usually so self- 
 commendatory that it gained assent. His joyous life 
 and humorous way of lighting up a difficult question 
 or situation always made him a welcome associate in 
 other missions as well. Having first found his way 
 to the affections of others it was easy to be their leader. 
 Such a man would have commended himself still more 
 to the Chinese had he been longer in the relation of 
 leader among them. What Seabury would have been 
 as an educational leader, it is hard to say. He loved 
 the students and yet could be firm as a rock with them, 
 and they honored him in the very process. 
 
 "Plans of his which we talked over very fully 
 during a trip to Siangtan suggest two of the 'might 
 have beens,' had his life been prolonged a few years. 
 One of them was a projected course of philosophical 
 study which was to be made his avocation in China 
 and might be continued at Yale during his first fur- 
 lough with a possible Ph.D. as its seal, but not as its 
 motive. The works of the Sung Dynasty Philosophers 
 had greatly appealed to him from a superficial know- 
 ledge of them and he felt that the study of years might 
 enable him not only to understand China better, but 
 it might also be a genuine contribution to the student 
 of philosophy in Occidental lands, if the result of his 
 studies should in time be given to the world. 
 
lo4 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 "While Seabury's enthusiasm for the Sung Phi- 
 losophy, despite its being clothed in so forbidding and 
 impenetrable a garb as the classical Chinese, sug- 
 gests a profound and scholarly man, his second propo- 
 sition, which fairly transfigured him in the telling, 
 reveals his genuinely Christian character in its 
 breadth of human interest. He had a vision of the 
 time when land outside the city would be secured, so 
 that the city property would be needed no longer for 
 college purposes. Instead of the present lowly build- 
 ings, devoted to education, a worthy pile, the finest 
 in Changsha, was to be erected for the purposes of a 
 Young Men's Christian Association and Social Set- 
 tlement combined. Its object was to be twofold ; one 
 the social and Christian betterment of the young man- 
 hood of his adopted city, the other a prophylactic 
 against mere selfish scholasticism in the faculty and 
 students of the Chinese Yale. To this building they 
 should come, from their scholarly isolation beyond 
 the city walls, and freely mingle with men of another 
 type, who greatly needed just such Christian help- 
 fulness as this centre would enable them to give. How 
 could a man who glowed with so high and holy an 
 enthusiasm have been anything other than a most 
 potent influence for good, had God permitted him 
 to spend his life as an educator? 
 
 "To recapitulate, Warren Seabury was a man 
 whose three years in China were at once a record of 
 
W P 
 
RULING 155 
 
 unusual accomplishments and of still greater proph- 
 ecies. He was symmetrically fashioned; he loved 
 and touched life at very many points. Like the Man 
 of Galilee, he mingled with the lowliest and charmed 
 the highest with his humility, humanity and self- 
 sacrificing goodness. Though the years of his active 
 ministry were as few as His Master's, Warren Sea- 
 bury has sown seed that will reproduce itself in many 
 lives through the future years. Our Mission, and 
 those who knew him in China, both Chinese and for- 
 eigners, are the richer because of his generous, buoy- 
 ant, sacrificial life and his prophetic trust in God, 
 Who outlives all His works and Who looks upon such 
 a career as Warren's as Jesus did upon the poured- 
 out cruse of precious ointment." 
 
 And now begins the summer hegira to Ruling. The 
 weather had settled into its customary grooves of 
 unrelieved heat and the little children of the Mission 
 must be taken to the resort among the hills. Writing 
 on June 2d, he says: "We are widowers and bach- 
 elors indeed, to-day. Last night our fair ones left us 
 for Ruling. We had them all down to dinner and had 
 the usual jolly time. There were eight of us in all 
 and the pleasure of being in our newly furnished 
 dining-room was not the least of the evening's plea- 
 sures. We have had it wainscoted lately and stained a 
 weathered oak color. Above the plate-rail the white 
 wall has been colored dark green ; the entire effect 
 
156 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 is very good. Hail's prize cups and mine, Chinese 
 plates and brasses, ornament the plate-rail and it all 
 looks very well, I can assure you. The worst of it is 
 that we who have put the money into it must get out 
 next fall and leave it for some one else. We have made 
 plans for the bachelors to live over the school and these 
 alterations will soon be begun." 
 
 As the end of the year's work draws near, the last 
 fortnight he was to spend in the city he had learned to 
 love, and with "the boys" into whose lives he had 
 entered with fond hopes of a future college of far- 
 reaching influence, his words carry a forceful mean- 
 ing to those at home, to whom he writes: "This 
 morning Hail and I got up at five and went out for a 
 walk. There is a range of low hills across the river 
 and considerably below the city, which has loomed up 
 like a promised land for almost as long as we have 
 been here. Often we cast our longing eyes over in 
 that direction and talk of the time when we can look 
 from our verandas out over the river and see the boats 
 coming in or can rest our eyes upon the smooth sides 
 of the hills in the other direction. We often think how 
 much better it will be for every one of our number, 
 from the little children to the men who do the work 
 and the boys for whose sakes we are here. 
 
 " So this morning before it became warm, we went 
 across (one can go the entire distance to the further 
 bank now in one boat, the water having covered the 
 
KULING 157 
 
 island in places) to the further side and started up 
 over the low hills. There is a strip of rice land along 
 the bank of the river, protected by a bank, on which 
 the men who tow the boats travel, and used also as a 
 highway for people passing up and down the river on 
 foot. These rice fields make inland, here and there, 
 thus breaking the regular front presented by the low 
 red hills, which begin to rise from the level of the 
 rice fields at a distance of fifty or a hundred yards 
 from the river. Perhaps it would be better to call the 
 higher land bluffs, for they hardly rise to the dignity 
 of hills, although they are prominent from their loca- 
 tion and also from the red color which here and there 
 lies bare through their covering of green. There are 
 on these bluffs some very attractive pieces of land 
 for our purpose, and this morning (as is always the 
 case when we pass through or near that region) our 
 imaginations were given free rein as we attempted 
 to picture what we could do with such an opportu- 
 nity. We would turn the low land where the rice is 
 now growing into athletic fields, and would not be 
 worried if the river did overflow that part of our pro- 
 perty once in two or three years. Then we would even 
 off the irregularities in the slope above and have steps 
 ascending to the higher level. There would be our 
 houses along the front stretch and commanding the 
 river, while the dormitories and recitation halls would 
 be further in, commanding a view across the hills to 
 
158 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 the west. It would be a beautiful place and I feel as 
 if God must mean it for us. When I think of the 
 advantages in such a place I become almost unre- 
 conciled to our present quarters and I certainly feel 
 impatient to start on permanent ground." 
 
 Warren was about to leave the city with which he 
 had been associated only two years and four months. 
 He had viewed her walls on all sides, had become 
 familiar with her narrow streets, her busy people. 
 He pictured the Changsha of the future, when the 
 civilization of the Far West would have become dom- 
 inant there. He knew her environs, having gone over 
 them with every possible attention to detail, in local- 
 ities he regarded as coming within the requirements 
 of the "Promised Land." And now he was unwit- 
 tingly doing the last things, making his plans to go 
 off to the hills. He had remained there during two 
 hot summers: "Other missionaries do this; why 
 not I ? " His home friends, his associates at Chang- 
 sha, had argued against it, but he did not yield. 
 When, during a particularly hot spell in the previous 
 summer, he almost relented and was about to go to 
 Kuling and, as he humorously said, "enjoy the plea- 
 sures of sin for a season," he so deeply felt the claims 
 of the work that he remained behind, and now, even 
 as late as June 16th, he still tried to make out a case, 
 saying: "Why not remain another summer, also? 
 It is hot, but not too hot. White suits, a fresh one 
 
RULING 159 
 
 every two days at least, shirts, collars and all the rest, 
 fill up the basket and fatten the wash bill. So we 
 drink refreshing lemonade and lime-water, sit under 
 the punkah, sleep as late as we can in the morning 
 and, when school closes, I am going to be a lazy man 
 of leisure, a disgrace to my family. If one does this 
 he will get on m anxiously." 
 
 He spent a few days with the Commissioner of 
 Customs on the island, in the same commodious 
 house where he found relief from the heat during the 
 previous summer. He writes, June 30th: "Here in 
 the school all is quiet. Most of the boys have left 
 and those who wish to remain all summer are pre- 
 paring to move over to the Dispensary while the 
 work here is in progress. To-morrow alterations be- 
 gin and will go on for several weeks. We hold ex- 
 aminations for such students as wish to enter the 
 school in the fall." 
 
 Under date of July 7th he says : " The work on the 
 house, which is one of the things keeping me, is now 
 in its initial stages and there is very little that I can 
 do for several weeks. The examinations are now out 
 of the way and the teachers and servants are paid off 
 for another month. The question of land is always 
 in my mind and I am to hear to-day whether there is 
 any reason for my staying on on that account. I feel 
 quite enthusiastic at the prospect of seeing Kuling in 
 the summer season and having a good solid rest with 
 
160 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 my friends. Mrs. Lovell writes that I must go and 
 stay with them. She adds : ' We will have all the music 
 we want, that we will rise late, sleep long and eat the 
 bread of pleasure.' It sounds very attractive and I 
 shall enjoy long hours of conference with those good 
 people. " 
 
 On the morning of July 10th, he left Changsha for 
 Kuling. He had reached a juncture in his work when 
 he could breathe freely, confident that no harm could 
 come to the cause while he was away. On that day he 
 was at his best, more mature in thought, more experi- 
 enced in practical affairs, richer in knowledge of the 
 Chinese character and language. It was impossible to 
 know him at that time without a consciousness of 
 something rare in his nature, something broad and 
 deep to which he had come by the gradual ascent of 
 his aspiring soul. He was in his youthful prime, just 
 ready for the educational work to which he had given 
 his ardent life. In the ripening of his early manhood 
 there was apparent a proportion between his physical 
 and mental powers, while the deeply spiritual, ever 
 kept in reserve, was gaining new strength and sweet- 
 ness. His feelings had grown more delicate, more 
 responsive to the appeal of reasonable pity. We pic- 
 ture him on the deck of the steamer, still searching the 
 shore with a vision ever eager to find a site for the New 
 Yale. Alas! he was never to behold her in all the 
 beauty he had pictured her. His work for his beloved 
 
RULING 161 
 
 College had been done, and speedily done. It re- 
 mained for others to take it up and carry it forward. 
 Writing from Ruling, July 21, 1907: — 
 " There ! I suppose that the assurance of my be- 
 ing in Ruling will do something towards making 
 your summer more comfortable. If it will there is 
 one good reason supplied for my coming here. 
 * Lassie ' (my little dog) and I were escorted by the 
 Gilberts to the steamer. There was a long delay in 
 her casting off and we found it very hot against 
 the hulk. At Riu-kiang we, who were bound for 
 Ruling, came ashore and repaired to the rest house. 
 There coolies were called and the trip up to Ruling 
 began. It was not a very hot day below and as 
 we wound along the steep, bare hills in the bright 
 sun, it became cooler and cooler. My hands were 
 badly burned, but no other ill-effect of the journey 
 was experienced. The Lo veils' little house was soon 
 found and I was heartily welcomed. A wind had 
 begun to blow and by sunset it seemed like an Octo- 
 ber evening in the mountains of New Hampshire. 
 Thus far there has been no rain. During the day it 
 has been even possible to play tennis at noon, a 
 thing that no one would attempt on the plain. In 
 the evening it has been so cool that we have wanted 
 a wrap when sitting on the veranda. Compare this 
 with the hot nights and blistering days below and 
 one is convinced of the first great attraction of 
 
162 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Kuling. The people have been very nice and I have 
 been picnicking, or dining, or going to some other 
 social function every day since I came." 
 
 Warren spent thirteen days at Kuling. All who 
 have written of those days speak of his buoyancy, his 
 irrepressible mirth, his great vivacity, as of one who 
 has just been released from school. There were con- 
 ferences with his co-laborers, Hume and Gage, and 
 many were the good times he had with his host and 
 hostess, Mr. and Mrs. Lovell, and with the children 
 whom he knew. 
 
 Sunday evening, July 28th, was spent around the 
 piano in the Lovell bungalow. They sang the beauti- 
 ful hymns in "In Excelsis." At half-past nine War- 
 ren excused himself that he might write his weekly 
 home letter. When he had finished it he placed it on 
 the mantel to be posted the following morning, after 
 he had left for the excursion which had been pre- 
 viously arranged. The letter is almost wholly given 
 to the subject of the purchase of a house : — 
 
 Kuling, Lot No. 76 B., 
 July 28, 1907. 
 
 "Kuling has captured me and I am its obedient 
 servant. Such beautiful air! for we are up 4500 feet 
 above the level of the sea. Almost no mosquitoes and 
 I have used no netting over my bed since I came. Not 
 a single punkah in the place! The valley is not 
 
RULING 163 
 
 pretty, as I wrote last year and as you can see from 
 photographs of it; the houses are little blocks of 
 stone standing up in the searching sunlight. Some 
 are perched high on the sides of the hills or balance 
 themselves even on the very tops of the long slopes. 
 There are two major classes here, (1) those who 
 like lofty dwellings and minimize the labor and dis- 
 tress of climbing to get the view, and (2) those who 
 prefer a more central location, lower down, from 
 which one can go up if he wishes. I am a late convert 
 to the latter class, for I like a place near people, near 
 the courts and the church. As to sunsets, they never 
 come oftener than once a day(!) and you can always 
 clamber up a hill if you wish to see one. Then there 
 are days when it is wet and no one sees anything. So 
 on the whole I belong to the lowland people. Yes, 
 Ruling is good. I have been playing tennis again. 
 A man named Richards, Yale Sheff, is with me in 
 doubles. We have beaten all combinations thus far 
 in practice. And the people are so cordial and the 
 children are so happy and well ! Picnics for young 
 men and maidens, suppers for the unwary married 
 ones, moonlight excursions for the sentimental and 
 those who were once so — all these things attract. A 
 concert, a convention and other public functions, 
 keep the community well toned up. It is a good 
 place and I am wondering how to get the most out of 
 it in coming years. 
 
164 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 " All this is the introduction, used with a homiletic 
 purpose — 'to gain the hearer's attention,' 'win 
 their sympathy,' 'enlist their moral support,' etc. 
 For I am about to make a serious proposal. 
 
 " Proposal. I propose to buy a house ! There now !" 
 
 Then Warren goes on to describe a house which 
 was at that time for sale ; it was " back from the road, 
 sequestered, opening out to a fine view down the val- 
 ley." He concludes this, his last letter, by saying: — 
 
 "In getting a house of course I am thinking that I 
 can then have a place for you when you come out to 
 see me. This is bound to be. Then, if I do not rent 
 it, I can have friends with me, ask some married 
 people to run the house and take me in, or I can have 
 a pleasant company of my own choosing. I am as 
 enthusiastic as a boy over the prospect of a new pos- 
 session. We shall see ! I hope that it can be. 
 
 " W T ith much love to all and with many apologies 
 for being your son and brother ! 
 
 Warren." 
 
 So ends his last letter ; so terminates that long list 
 of bright and cheery messages to his home friends. 
 It carries the same candor, the same deference to 
 parental wishes, the same look forward, so like him 
 in all his correspondence. 
 
XI 
 
 THE ACCIDENT 
 
 The morning after Warren wrote his last home 
 letter he was up at five o'clock and soon off on the 
 long tramp to the " White Deer College." It was on 
 this trip that the fatal accident occurred. The inci- 
 dents connected with that sad event are affectingly 
 told by Warren's friend and co - worker, Brownell 
 Gage, and are as follows: — 
 
 " Five of us left Kuling last Monday morning, July 
 29th, to make a visit to the 'White Deer College,' 
 which lies at the foot of the mountains about ten 
 miles from here. This college dates back to the ninth 
 century, and is of special interest because of the con- 
 nection which it has with the names of some of 
 China's great literati, especially the writer of the 
 standard commentaries on the classics, the sage Chu 
 Hsi, who did much for the college in the twelfth 
 century. It was therefore of special interest to our 
 party, all of whom were engaged in educational 
 work, — Mann at St. John's College, Shanghai ; 
 Kemp at Boone College, Wuchang ; Seabury, Hume 
 and Gage at the school of the Yale Mission in 
 Changsha. 
 
 "We started with a beautiful sunrise, but about six 
 
166 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 o'clock we found ourselves in the Nankang pass sur- 
 rounded by clouds and mist, and at one time were on 
 the point of turning back. But the clouds rose above 
 us and the bright sunlight appeared on the horizon 
 over Poyang Lake. So we went down the mountain. 
 The road is in beautiful scenery all the way, and in 
 spite of frequent drenchings from the rain, and hav- 
 ing to ford streams up to our knees, we all enjoyed 
 the walk immensely. We talked of books, and Mann 
 was most interesting and suggestive with results of 
 his discriminating reading. Seabury spoke of how 
 much he was enjoying a book of Newman's which 
 he was reading. That led our conversation to theo- 
 logy and we shall not forget the profitable talk we had 
 on the subject and on related topics of Christian his- 
 tory and experience. We were enough unlike in our 
 points of view and habits of thought and theological 
 training to make it worth while to get each other's 
 opinions. Altogether it was a day one likes to look 
 back to and few days in our lives have had in them so 
 little to regret, up to the time of the accident, when 
 Seabury fell into the stream. Both men, if they could 
 have spoken, would have said it was a good day to 
 be their last on earth. 
 
 "The spirits of the party rose with the increasing 
 wetness, and after a lunch under the hospitality of a 
 Chinese roof, we reached the College in a mood to 
 appreciate the visit. It is in an ideal location for se- 
 
THE ACCIDENT 167 
 
 eluded literary study, surrounded by hills and trees, 
 with a fine view of the * Five Old Peaks ' in the back- 
 ground. We wandered from court to court trying to 
 puzzle out inscriptions, and hunting for some of the 
 famous tablets. Mann showed that he had made 
 good use of his time in the study of Chinese. The 
 Literary Assembly Hall, adorned only with the char- 
 acters of the eight virtues; Memorial Hall, with its 
 images of Confucius, Mencius, and their disciples; 
 the shrine of Chu Hsi, and back of it, the cave of the 
 poet, Li P'u, 'the White Deer Gentleman/ with its 
 stone image of the white deer, placed here in the 
 fourteenth century by Ho Cheng — these were all 
 visited and Dr. Hume took several photographs. 
 
 " We left the College about half -past twelve. As we 
 started back, I turned and said to Warren : * Won't it 
 be good to get back to the swimming pool and have 
 a plunge ? ' He answered that he did n't know whether 
 he would go in or not. He had previously told Hume 
 that he could swim forty or fifty yards. I knew of a 
 perfectly safe pool with a gravel bottom, in a small 
 canyon of the mountain stream which our path fol- 
 lowed. When we got to the place, about half -past 
 one o'clock, I turned aside from the path to look for 
 the way to this pool. Warren, Kemp, and I were to- 
 gether, Hume and Mann being two hundred yards 
 behind us. 
 
 " The stream at this point has worn a canyon whose 
 
168 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 sides are almost vertical walls of rock, though further 
 down the stream they are steep banks covered with 
 dense undergrowth. In the brook bed below are 
 several pools, varying in depth, some of which make 
 excellent swimming places. At the head of the canyon 
 and twenty or more feet above it, on a level with the 
 road, is a smooth flat rock, crossed by the main road 
 on its upper side, from which it slopes gradually to 
 the bed of the brook, which thus flows across the 
 rock on the side furthest from the road. The rock 
 conducts the stream to a plunge of twenty feet into 
 the pool at the head of the canyon. This is a deep 
 pot-hole, shaped like a tea-kettle, whose rock walls 
 are polished smooth by the whirling eddies. In dry 
 weather, when the brook is small, many of us have 
 swum up into it from the shallower pools below. 
 But on Monday, with the stream and the cascade 
 swollen by the rain, it was almost impossible of ap- 
 proach, because the current at its mouth was so swift. 
 "While I was hunting for a path in the bushes fifty 
 yards below the waterfall, Warren must have started 
 to undress on the flat rock referred to above, — per- 
 haps not intending to go in swimming but only to 
 bathe in the stream above the falls. The rock he was 
 on was slippery because it was wet by the rain. Hume 
 was just in time to see him slip, and slide, his momen- 
 tum increasing with his efforts to gain his balance. 
 In a moment more he was carried by the stream over 
 
THE ACCIDENT 169 
 
 the falls, going over in a sitting posture. He came up, 
 struck out two or three strokes, and then went under, 
 not to be seen again. Mann was not in time to see 
 him, and Hume had no chance to reach the pool and 
 he could not swim. Mann went down immediately 
 over the face of the rock into the pool just below the 
 pot-hole into which Warren had fallen. It was a 
 dangerous descent, and I do not know how he could 
 have accomplished it. He told me that he fell the last 
 eight or ten feet. The roar of the water prevented 
 Kemp and me from hearing. Having failed to find a 
 path, I came back to the top of the bank and was told 
 by Hume what had happened, ten minutes after the 
 event. I rushed back where the path should have been 
 and got into the water at the pool we had intended to 
 swim in,fifty yards below the waterfall, and then swam 
 up to where Mann was working, just below the upper 
 pool. He told me he had tried five or six times to get 
 into this upper pool, only to be washed down by the 
 water at its mouth. While I was getting my breath 
 and taking off my clothes he made one or two more 
 attempts. Then we went together for the last effort, 
 swimming up with the back current to the rock at the 
 mouth of the pot-hole. This time Mann, somehow, 
 got a shove on the rock which carried him across the 
 current of the upper pool and was carried around 
 almost under the waterfall. I tried to follow, but was 
 washed down by the current, as he had been in his 
 
170 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 earlier efforts. I swam back to try again and saw 
 Mann carried around by the circling currents and 
 finally go under not many feet from the waterfall. 
 I do not feel certain whether he was diving for Warren 
 or was sucked under by the whirlpool. He never 
 came up. It was impossible for me to get into that 
 pool with the strength I had left, and it was useless 
 or worse than useless to be carried around by the 
 whirling waters unless one had some idea where help 
 was wanted. Hume and Kemp soon returned with a 
 rope and Kemp with the rope about him dove into the 
 pool below. None of us, even the rescue party, the 
 next day, got into the upper pool, which grew worse 
 as the rain continued later in the afternoon. The 
 search party could only drag it and search it with 
 poles while the waterfall was so heavy. It was nearly 
 two hours, after Warren went under, that we gave up 
 hope and Kemp started up the mountain for help. 
 He left us at three-thirty o'clock and arrived at Kuling 
 at five-thirty. Three men started back at seven 
 o'clock, with ten coolies, dry clothing, food, etc. 
 Meanwhile Hume and I had retired to a temple 
 near by to get dry. The three men joined us there 
 about midnight. A large party with ladders, ropes, 
 grappling irons, etc., arrived at sunrise, and the 
 search began. About four hours later Warren was 
 found in the pool below the pot-hole where he fell in. 
 Mann was found in the pool half an hour later. Both 
 
THE ACCIDENT 171 
 
 were pulled up easily on ladders. Warren had on his 
 running pants, shirt and pongee coat, 1 and Mann the 
 underclothes which he had not taken off. They were 
 carried up the mountain on stretchers, arriving before 
 two o'clock. A host of friends here had made prepa- 
 rations to receive them. They were buried together 
 next morning at eight o'clock, after a beautiful out- 
 door service conducted by the Rev. James Jackson, 
 President of Boone College, of the Episcopal Mission, 
 in Wuchang, and by Warren's classmate and room- 
 mate, Rev. Gilbert Lovell, of the Presbyterian Mis- 
 sion in Siangtan. 
 
 (Signed) Brownell Gage." 
 
 The heroic efforts of Arthur Mann to save War- 
 ren's life, repeatedly plunging into the swirling pool 
 and emerging but to plunge in again, reveal the mar- 
 tyr spirit which swayed him. The utter self-sacrifice 
 of this talented, well-equipped, promising Christian 
 teacher to the Chinese fills all hearts with admiration. 
 To Warren's home circle it brought an oppressive 
 wave of the deepest gratitude, mingled with exquisite 
 pain that one so noble in character, so indispensable 
 to the work in China, should give his life in so chival- 
 rous an effort to rescue a beloved son and brother. 
 
 1 In other accounts of the accident it is told that when War- 
 ren was found he lay with his hands clasped across his chest, his 
 face wearing a peaceful expression. 
 
172 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 What can be finer in quality or breathe a choicer 
 magnanimity than the words of Arthur Mann's fa- 
 ther, Matthew D. Mann, M.D., of Buffalo, N. Y., 
 in a letter to the writer of this sketch : " As regards 
 Arthur's efforts to save Warren's life, we would not 
 have had it otherwise. I would rather have had him 
 dead than for him to have proven himself a coward ; 
 such I know was his own spirit. He could not help 
 doing all that was in his power." In Arthur Mann's 
 noble deed were illustrated the words of our Lord : 
 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man 
 lay down his life for his friends." 
 
 These two young men, in the vigor of early man- 
 hood, engaged in a similar undertaking, the advance- 
 ment of Christian education in China, finished their 
 earthly service at almost the same moment. They 
 were ushered as one soul into the presence of their 
 God, one in their self-dedication to a sublime minis- 
 try, at a great epoch in the unfolding of a mighty 
 people, one in their humility, one in their spiritual 
 valiancy. As in a sudden translation, they stood side 
 by side before their King — and were not ashamed. 
 Laying their commissions before Him, of labors al- 
 ready finished, they were ready to be assigned to the 
 new and infinitely higher mission to which they had 
 been so swiftly summoned. 
 
 Soon after the accident Professor Olin Wanna- 
 maker of Canton composed these lines: — 
 
THE ACCIDENT 173 
 
 WARREN SEABURY AND ARTHUR MANN 
 
 (" They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they 
 were not divided.") 
 
 They two went down the hills through a stormy dawn 
 With joyous comrades, laughing in the mist, 
 Cleaving the windy fog before their steps, 
 And holding converse as they downward fared. 
 
 The storm fog drenched their footing on the stones, 
 The rains came roaring down the mountain streams, 
 The torrent snatched them, — and they were no more. 
 
 Their souls walked forth across the morning heights, 
 And past the peaks and up beyond the clouds; 
 So, while their brethren sought their bodies drowned, 
 That loving hands might tomb them in the hills, 
 Christ met them all amazed — in Paradise. 
 
 In that perilous struggle to save the life of their 
 friend and fellow-laborer nothing more could have 
 been done than was done by Hume, Gage, and Kemp, 
 facing the wild storm of that terrible afternoon. 
 Breaking the news to the families at Kuling, the 
 anxious night in the Buddhist temple, finding the 
 bodies after the long search and bearing them up 
 the mountain-side to the bungalow prepared for 
 them, these and other incidents form a picture of 
 inexpressible sadness, relieved only by the certainty 
 that the " Eternal God is our Refuge." Nor can it ever 
 be forgotten how anxious every one was to show his 
 respect for the memory of the dead ; boys who loved 
 
174 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Warren gathered ferns from the mountain slopes, in 
 the driving rain, and lined his grave with them, and 
 other devoted hands covered the graves with flowers, 
 bringing at short intervals fresh tokens, until the sea- 
 son closed and they returned to their labors in the 
 cities. Could Warren have expressed his choice it 
 would no doubt have been : " Let me lie here among 
 the people to whom I have given my life." There may 
 his body rest, guarded by the bold and rugged moun- 
 tains, while "the sentinel stars set their watch in the 
 sky." To have separated Arthur Mann and Warren 
 Seabury, in their final resting-place, would have done 
 violence to the marvellous blending of their home- 
 going. 
 
 Not long after the burial, when the stricken colony 
 had had time to recover from the shock of the tragic 
 event, about thirty of Warren's friends met in the 
 Yale bungalow for a service of remembrance. Some 
 of his associates spoke of that phase of his life with 
 which each was most familiar: Gilbert Lovell, his 
 College and Seminary days ; Philip Evans, Northfield 
 and his missionary purposes; Arthur Sherman, his 
 winter at Hankow; Fleischer, his early months at 
 Changsha ; Hume and Gage, his services to the Yale 
 Mission; Edwin Lobenstine, spiritual impressions 
 and lessons from his life. The hymns were those of 
 which he was especially fond. 
 
 The universal expressions of sorrow at Kuling were 
 
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 ca 
 
 fe 
 
 £ 
 
 
 
 -; 
 
 .— 
 
 
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 y 
 
 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 
 CO 
 
 >* 
 
 T 
 
 
 5 
 
 H 
 
 s 
 
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 53 
 
 W 
 
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THE ACCIDENT 175 
 
 also manifest in many letters of sympathy from the 
 various missionary boards represented there during 
 that sad summer, and from those at their posts of 
 duty at Changsha, Hankow, Wuchang, Shanghai, 
 and other places. 
 
 Hoyt was at Dalny when the news reached him. 
 It came as an overwhelming blow to this dear friend 
 of Warren's. It was more than his stricken heart 
 could bear. Struggling to express himself, he wrote : 
 " Never in my life before had any friend come to mean 
 so much to me in every way, as had Warren in the 
 year that I knew him. The whole aspect of my work 
 and my life in Changsha was changed by our friend- 
 ship and companionship. And I can't make the loss 
 seem real yet. Death had never come very close to 
 me before and I can't grasp it. I ought not to dwell so 
 long on my own feelings, but I would like to have you 
 know a little of all that Warren was to me. He always 
 stood for the best and the highest and my great loss 
 makes me want to reach out to you over the sea my 
 best love and deepest sympathy." Early in Septem- 
 ber Hoyt went back to his post of duty as teacher in 
 the Shi-ya Government school at Changsha. He was 
 then suffering from dysentery ; after many weeks of 
 wasting illness heart failure brought this choice spirit 
 his call to higher work. Hoyt and Seabury planned 
 to live together the following year, for Warren used 
 to say : " We can't get along without Ho." 
 
176 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Rev. H. Roswell Bates, who came to Kuling soon 
 after the event, and who has, since his return to this 
 country, used Warren's life as the text of many pow- 
 erful addresses to students, writes as follows : " Early 
 one morning while at Kuling I went out on a spur 
 of a mountain which overhangs the valley, in search 
 of his quiet resting-place. I knew the grave by the 
 fresh cut flowers which were placed upon it and sat 
 down to read my Bible for a little while and to think 
 over his beautiful life. The more I think of him the 
 more his friendship means to me. Surely he had 
 ' built his nest in the greatness of God ' and when the 
 flood came which snatched his soul from his body 
 it could not harm him, for he was with God and there, 
 I am sure, he is finding a larger service than he could 
 know in China. 
 
 "The Chinese were greatly impressed at his fu- 
 neral ; impressed for three reasons : first, because the 
 Christians placed such emphasis upon the victory 
 over death; second, because the Christians showed 
 such love for him. Of course the Chinese do not re- 
 gard death as a triumphal entry into eternal life, and 
 the attitude shown by his warmest friends at the time 
 of his death taught them the value of the Christian 
 faith as no sermon could have done. Third, the Chi- 
 nese know so little of what we call Brotherhood, that 
 they kept saying to themselves in surprise, ' Why, 
 their faith really makes them love each other ! ' ,! 
 
XII 
 
 THE MEMORIAL SERVICE 
 
 The daily press of July 30th gave the news of War- 
 ren's death to his friends far and near. It brought to 
 the family a flood of letters from his acquaintances, 
 associates, classmates, and those who had passed 
 through similar afflictions. They were significant and 
 eloquent in the things they could not say, the emo- 
 tions they could not express. 
 
 On the twenty-first day of September a Memorial 
 Service for him was held in the First Congregational 
 Church of Wellesley Hills, a large company of his 
 friends attending. The ushers were his classmates 
 and old-time companions. Choice flowers were beau- 
 tifully arranged by devoted friends. On the front of 
 the pulpit were two wreaths, one bearing the letters 
 "A. S. M.," the other, "W. B. S." The hymns sung 
 were two of those used at the funeral at Kuling, also, 
 " Crossing the Bar," a favorite with him, and " Some 
 time we '11 understand." The programme contained 
 several quotations from his letters, and a leaflet in 
 memory of the sacrifice of Arthur Mann. Samuel B. 
 Capen, LL.D., presided, representing the American 
 Board. Addresses were made by Rev. Anson Phelps 
 Stokes, Jr., representing Yale University; Rev. D. 
 
178 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 Brewer Eddy, of the Executive Committee of the 
 Yale Mission in China; Professor M. W. Jacobus, 
 D.D., of Hartford Theological Seminary ; Rev. Frank 
 K. Sanders, D.D., instructor and friend; Bishop 
 Roots of the American Episcopal Mission, Hankow, 
 China, friend in the foreign field. Rev. W. B. Stos- 
 kopf of the Church of the Advent, Boston, read the 
 Scriptures. The prayer by Rev. John R. Thurston, 
 D.D., father of the late Lawrence Thurston, flowed 
 from a soul burdened by a kindred sorrow, but stead- 
 fast in its faith in God. The words spoken came from 
 the lips of men who loved Warren, and were marked 
 by great discrimination, appropriateness, sympathy, 
 and beauty. They disclosed his character from per- 
 sonal knowledge of him as a student, a worker on the 
 field, an intimate friend. He was brought to view in 
 that innate and efficient harmony which he possessed, 
 for in him no quality of supreme weight stood out 
 conspicuously ; no power was kept in the shadow by 
 another loftier than itself. His real charm lay in the 
 quiet symmetry of all his gifts. His sense of humor, 
 vivid as it was, blended with his promptness to see 
 and feel the insistence of duty, the responsibility of 
 stewardship, the realities of the future. Reverence in 
 poise with pleasantry, firmness with gentleness, hu- 
 mility with moral assertiveness, a passion of righteous 
 indignation with patience and self-control, haste in 
 doing the King's business with composure in biding 
 
THE MEMORIAL SERVICE 179 
 
 the King's time, — these traits, in their interweaving, 
 were characteristic of him, aiding him through two 
 channels: One was his power of varied acquisition. 
 He gathered from all sources ; he gave out with cor- 
 responding lavishness, for no part of his acquisitive 
 nature seems to have been dormant. The other was 
 his power of concentration, — " the specialized con- 
 trol of attention," ever arousing him to do many 
 things and to do them well. The addresses, in their 
 fine blending, emphasized this feature. 
 
 His friend of earlier days, Rev. Mr. Eddy, said : 
 "The very reason these rich memories crowd upon 
 us is that Warren was such a splendid example of a 
 real Christian. Few are the complete and rounded 
 lives that seem to bear the impress of the Master's 
 touch. We get accustomed to half-hearted service 
 and to the combination of conviction with narrow- 
 ness, but here we give praise for a life that held a full 
 measure of the pleasures of Christian manhood. . . . 
 I never knew a more unselfish man. What a wealth 
 of tenderness he had for one in trouble ! and yet how 
 fine were his strength and determination ! To the full 
 and deep earnestness of Christian devotion Warren 
 added an irresistible and infectious attractiveness 
 that made his going to China seem a greater thing 
 than for most men. Life will be the poorer for us 
 if this experience does not lead us straight to the 
 strength and inspiration that Warren knew so well." 
 
180 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 This blending of his powers Professor Jacobus 
 brought out at the Memorial Service: "Warren's 
 Seminary work was, first of all, full of the spirit of 
 the life around him. The fraternity of the Seminary 
 halls and Commons knew him at once. If it was the 
 ball game, or tennis, or the winter sports, he was 
 leader in them all. If it was the social hour or the 
 formal reception, or the pleasantry of the student 
 function, he was at the front in each of them and 
 was indispensable to its success. For he was whole- 
 hearted in his enthusiasm just as he was whole- 
 handed in his service. He liked the fun of life. He 
 enjoyed the humor of life. He revelled in the exercise 
 of life. He gave himself to life, just for the simple, 
 wholesome, red-blooded, pure-minded, noble-hearted 
 living of it. And of course this infected others' living. 
 It cleared the cobwebs out of others' brains, it started 
 the sluggishness out of others' veins. It got others 
 who knew books to get acquainted with the vagrant 
 winds of heaven, companionable with the color and 
 the music of God's great world and brought them to 
 know each other and themselves in that living where 
 * men register their interests by what they do and say 
 and let their minds have play upon.' 
 
 " This dear soul was not exempt from struggle. He 
 was not free from question and debate. How deep 
 these were and how vitally they laid hold of him, per- 
 haps none of us shall ever know ; for this reserve kept 
 
THE MEMORIAL SERVICE 181 
 
 him from the uncovering of his inner self in the class- 
 room, and made distasteful to him any boisterous 
 airing of himself even within the rooms where friend 
 and friend held communion with one another. But I 
 believe few men within the Seminary life ever dealt 
 more bravely with the questions which that life sum- 
 mons before the soul ; for these questions were to him 
 the questions which determined what he himself 
 should believe, as he went out into the dark world of 
 Christless China and sought to lead it to God. He 
 must have a word to speak which was real to him, or 
 he could not make it real to those poor souls. He must 
 know God, or he could not make God known. He 
 must in some way understand for himself the great 
 love of Jesus of Nazareth, as it wrought itself into 
 that ministry in Galilee and that passion on Calvary, 
 or he could not hope ever to make it understood. It 
 was his intense conviction that he must get at these 
 things in their actuality for himself that perhaps left 
 him at points confused in mind as he came to the end 
 of his course, but it was just this same conviction 
 that, when he got across the wide waters, heart to 
 heart with his work, showed him how much after all 
 he had found of what he had sought for. And the 
 treasure he had purchased at such cost he poured 
 out with a far richer offering than if he had never 
 struggled for it at all. The Saviour he gave to others 
 was a far greater Saviour, because he had so become 
 
182 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 to be the Saviour of his own soul. The Master he 
 preached to others was a far more royal Master, 
 because he had so come to hold the mastery over his 
 own living. And so it matters little that the service 
 he gave was short in its duration ; for it was a service 
 into which he threw all he had gathered out of these 
 deep experiences of his life and all that these experi- 
 ences had brought him in himself to be." 
 
 The letters which came from China after his death 
 referred repeatedly to this well-rounded feature of his 
 character. Gage, who knew him intimately, writes : 
 " I often think of Warren's devotion, which is in itself 
 a cumulative inference, and, as far as examples go, 
 is best shown by such large things as his two summers 
 spent in the hot city. I remember coming in and catch- 
 ing him unawares that first summer (1905), before he 
 thought Hume and I could arrive. We were in the 
 excitement engendered by the hope of getting land. 
 I found him at his table, which had been moved 
 into the court for the sake of coolness, poring over 
 a lot of Chinese characters which he was trying to 
 learn. ... It was evident that the Chinese had a 
 fondness for him because of his good nature and his 
 patience combined with his personal ways, but the 
 Chinese are stolid about their deepest feelings." In 
 giving a resume of Warren's qualities, which he con- 
 sidered he possessed to a marked degree, Gage adds : 
 "I should name as most prominent and important 
 
THE MEMORIAL SERVICE 183 
 
 these characteristics in Warren which are essential 
 to success : 1. Robust health and absence of * nerves.' 
 2. Cheerfulness and a keen sense of humor. 3. Pa- 
 tience and perfect good nature with exasperating 
 people and circumstances. 4. Enthusiasm, earnest- 
 ness and force of character. 5. Entire freedom from 
 gossip and the tendency to talk over the weaknesses 
 of others. 6. Good sense and willingness to learn, 
 to change his mind and to take advice and receive 
 suggestions, although they might oppose his previous 
 views." 
 
 His capacity for friendship appeared in Bishop 
 Roots 's words at the Memorial Service : " The most 
 precious thing about Seabury's life, to those who 
 knew him in China, is the friendship he called out 
 from the Chinese. He learned the language, I think, 
 distinctly better than most young missionaries learn 
 it; but there was something besides his ability to 
 speak their language which gave him access to the 
 hearts of the Chinese. It has been most truly said 
 that Orientals think a great deal more about what you 
 do than about what you say. They judge what you 
 mean not by your words but by your deeds, and it 
 was the constant manifestation of intelligent sympa- 
 thy and kindliness, in all of his relations, which won 
 for Seabury the confidence of the Chinese. Two of 
 our Chinese clergymen, stationed in Changsha during 
 Seabury's residence there, leaned upon him as I have 
 
184 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 never known them to lean on any other person not a 
 member of our own Mission. It comes a little hard to 
 say he was not a member of our Mission, for we re- 
 garded him as belonging to us, just as I think other 
 missions regarded him as belonging to them, and our 
 Chinese workers felt as we did about him. They went 
 to him freely, especially when beset by the perplexing 
 dangers incident to the political unrest in China ; and 
 his counsel was given freely in such ways as to brace 
 them for all the work they had to do." 
 
 Confirming this prevailing trait, a dear friend says : 
 " What a flood of memories come back to me, where 
 that throbbing and earnest heart figured in my life ! 
 The distress I was in for years made me know how 
 big a heart, and how sympathetic, he had. I never 
 knew a man whose naturally joyous mood and face 
 would change so quickly on an appeal for friendly 
 sympathy, or whose affectionate interest could have 
 followed as his did the blind gropings on my part for 
 peace. I recall my last look at him ; he had driven me 
 down to the station at Wellesley Hills and as the train 
 moved out he stood on the depot platform ; knowing 
 the darkness and uncertainty that was on my heart 
 and when his voice could no longer reach me, he 
 stood with his arm raised, his finger pointing up- 
 wards." This further appears in the testimony of 
 Professor F. Wells Williams, a member of the Execu- 
 tive Committee of the Yale Mission, who writes: 
 
THE MEMORIAL SERVICE 185 
 
 "He had a charm such as few possess to win and 
 keep friends and a strength which does not often go 
 with such amiability. To these qualities we owe the 
 successful deal that gave us our college buildings at 
 Changsha, the securing of which will stand as his 
 monument as long as the Mission endures, and seems 
 to have been deemed, by a higher Power than we 
 can comprehend, sufficient to secure him an eternal 
 reward." 
 
 The work in China brought Warren face to face 
 with an exacting test of his power of administration. 
 To have a share in laying the foundation of an insti- 
 tution which should have in it the prophecy of years, 
 a far-reaching influence to be slowly and wisely de- 
 veloped, demanded the finest executive talent. The 
 Yale Mission College must become a foremost factor 
 in the educational conquests of the Empire ; therefore 
 the initial hours must be long hours and all work 
 thoroughly done. No violence should be shown a 
 people endowed beyond all other Asiatics with the 
 " historic instinct." Such social and intellectual seg- 
 regation as theirs, which has contributed to their 
 marvellous solidarity, must permit the entrance of a 
 new instinct for civilization. In the vast crisis of 
 change from the old to the new, great wisdom is 
 needed in meeting the temper of the Chinese mind. 
 Those who watched Warren in the days when he be- 
 gan, with his associates, the subsoil work of 1905-6-7, 
 
186 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 felt how judicious and unprejudiced he was in his 
 share of the work of that crucial period. He grew 
 in the art of reaching men. 
 
 In the resolution passed by the Yale Mission's 
 Executive Committee his administrative ability is 
 thus referred to : — 
 
 " Warren Bartlett Seabury was one of the first men 
 who grasped the possibilities of the Yale Mission in 
 China. From his college days, on through all the long 
 years of preparation, he had his mind fixed on the 
 work of Christ in the Far East. He had a clear reali- 
 zation of the needs of China and of the great future 
 that lies before that country, when the teachings of 
 Christianity shall have gained a firm footing there. 
 To the task of aiding in this great work of regenera- 
 tion through Christian education he devoted himself 
 with tact, patience, energy, courage and faith. He 
 had the supreme satisfaction of knowing that it was 
 mainly due to his labors that the Yale Mission secured 
 premises for the beginning of its work in Changsha, 
 and that it was largely due to him that the Collegiate 
 School completed its first year under such good aus- 
 pices. The Executive Committee had grown to real- 
 ize that Warren Seabury's humble and strong charac- 
 ter, his sound judgment, cheerful personality, and 
 true loyalty to his Master were among its most valued 
 assets, and feels that in his death the Mission has sus- 
 tained an irreparable loss, for which it would express 
 
THE MEMORIAL SERVICE 187 
 
 to his family at home and his co-workers in China its 
 deepest sympathy." 
 
 And will some one ask, " Why sacrifice to vast and 
 unwieldy China youthful powers which might have 
 been so effectively given to progressive America?" 
 The thrilling answer comes out of the mighty crisis in 
 the China of to-day, an opportune China, an aroused 
 and eager China. How the words ring out in this our 
 swift-winged age : A transformed China ! A China 
 without foot-binding, without opium-slaves, without 
 bondage to ancestral worship, without prejudice 
 against Christian institutions ! What a glorious mis- 
 sion opens here for a young man, at this the twelfth 
 stroke in the sweep of time ! Projecting one's self into 
 this golden epoch of the new century is itself the seal 
 of victory. 
 
 Moved by the mighty summons, Warren Seabury 
 pledged himself to surrender in service what he had 
 cherished in vision. He felt it was the ripe hour for 
 the investment of the best talent of American youth, 
 in moulding the China of the future. Although far 
 within the horizon of his ambition, he gave himself to 
 his life's work there, in that country opening her 
 rusty gates to Western thought. He made a deliber- 
 ate choice, and he ever kept to his high purpose to 
 serve God in China. When his work was finished he 
 was called from it to another part of the Kingdom. 
 Lawrence Thurston gave only eleven months to 
 
188 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 China, Warren three times as many. In this, to us, 
 short period, God's plan for him in China was abun- 
 dantly carried out. In that estimate, which is our 
 great resource, Warren lived a completed life. The 
 increase of years in that inviting field would not have 
 added one laurel to his brow, if the Sovereign of the 
 whole Kingdom wished him in another portion. As a 
 Connecticut pastor writes : " Many a time I have said 
 as I have watched him, * This young man is destined 
 to be a great missionary.' He had, in a preeminent 
 sense, the equipment for great service in China. He 
 seemed the ideal man for this formative period, and 
 I now recall the words of Phillips Brooks, that 'the 
 Master must have vast resources in men and means 
 to withdraw a life like this.' I think of the Mission's 
 sad bereavement and irreparable loss and of the sore 
 disappointment and the inexpressible sorrow of the 
 Wellesley Hills home, — and then realize that only 
 the Father can interpret this providence and only the 
 Master can make all things clear." 
 
 To reduce to concrete form the results of Warren's 
 work is utterly futile; much of it lies hidden in the 
 foundation-laying done with so much prayerful at- 
 tention to little details, of which only the Eye of 
 God makes account. But there are visible tokens of 
 his labors that will stand the test of time. He applied 
 himself persistently to the acquisition of that most 
 difficult language and after a year's study preached 
 
THE MEMORIAL SERVICE 189 
 
 in it, although brokenly ; he won the confidence of the 
 wary Chinese ; more than this, he called forth their 
 love. In a land where things endure, he made a dis- 
 tinct contribution to the building of a great Institu- 
 tion, destined to become a part of the life of a country, 
 where longevity is a racial and a social trait. By his 
 industrious hand much of the initial sacrifice was 
 made; as in the erection of some vast cathedral, he 
 devotedly set some of the basal stones in their places. 
 In the task of inaugurating the work itself, Warren 
 was first on Changsha soil. In alliance with Hume 
 and Gage he laid out the courses of study, the rules 
 and regulations for the management of the school. 
 It fell to his lot to discover, purchase, and transform 
 the house now used for school purposes. He pio- 
 neered much of the early administration of the School ; 
 he shared with his associates the gathering of stu- 
 dents, taught in the class-room the first year and saw 
 that year completed. Is not this worth going to China 
 for ? Is it not worthy the name of Him Who gave him 
 his original commission, to go forth and teach in His 
 name ? Do we wonder that the seal of the Master 
 is already on his labors? Are we surprised at the 
 testimonies already given of the fruits of his efforts 
 to do exact and timely work, in that field with so 
 wonderful an outlook? 
 
 Into all that touches the present hour of the Yale 
 of China the labors of Warren Seabury are closely 
 
190 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 woven and he lives in her now. With this in view Mr. 
 Stokes's words may well be remembered : " It is given 
 to few men to accomplish in a life-time what Warren 
 did in a few short years. It was given him to be one 
 of the founders of a great Institution ; he did his work 
 humbly, in the spirit of Christ. His influence will be 
 great among us all. He was a Christian gentleman, 
 a true missionary, one of the noblest fellows I ever 
 met." 
 
 Mr. Amos P. Wilder, visiting Changsha early in 
 the year following the accident, writes to the " Yale 
 Alumni Weekly : " " Memories of Thurston and Sea- 
 bury are constant and bracing rather than sad. . . . 
 Yale men visiting China should push past modern 
 China to Changsha, where one may see the Empire 
 as it is. A cordial welcome awaits him at the School. 
 There are music and flowers, pleasantry and good 
 talk, and in the dormitories not far away one can 
 hear twoscore of young Chinese of good family sing- 
 ing snatches of native songs and talking of new 
 things. Some day there will be five hundred, and 
 then a thousand, and Yale will mean even more at 
 Peking and in the seats of the mighty, and the old 
 saints and sages in Yale's coronation list will lie si- 
 lent in their graves, as if this potential thing did not 
 trace back to their dreams and their faith. Arthur 
 Smith is right, when he says of this new College 
 in China : * It is the greatest opportunity any uni- 
 
THE MEMORIAL SERVICE 191 
 
 versity ever had for doing a matchless work for hu- 
 manity.' " 
 
 As this broad educational system unfolds, so fasci- 
 nating and so prophetic of mighty things, others will 
 bring their glowing testimony to the commanding ser- 
 vice of her teachers, foreign and native. They will look 
 upon a great University equipped in all departments, 
 in classics, mathematics, literature, science, art, medi- 
 cine, law, theology. She will have a worthy plant, 
 her buildings ample and fitted to their uses and to the 
 demands of the age. Her scholarships will be a stim- 
 ulus to her eager and competitive ambition ; her inter- 
 class and intercollegiate contests will cover oratory 
 and athletics. Her campus will be a rallying centre 
 for her many students. She will have her college 
 songs, her college colors, her college cheer, and each 
 will be characteristic and inspiring. A religious spirit 
 will not be lacking, but will crystallize in her Christian 
 Association building, in her roll of " Student Volun- 
 teers " for regions beyond. As the years sweep on and 
 commencement succeeds commencement, she will 
 produce a noble army of alumni, in the foremost 
 rank of China's educators and public servants, who 
 will return to do honor to their Alma Mater. All this 
 is no idle dream, for the older Yale is behind her, 
 devoted builders are still at work on the foundations, 
 a great price has already been paid for her freedom 
 in the sacrifice of those who have laid down their 
 
192 THE VISION OF A SHORT LIFE 
 
 lives in her behalf, men who believed that her su- 
 premacy, her redemption, is drawing near. 
 
 When that coveted, that sublime day dawns, 
 Warren Seabury's vision of a Christian University 
 in Central China will be fully realized. 
 
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