It Is Also Asserted
That The Priests Or Sisters, Or Both, Have Been In The Habit Of Holding
Out Inducements To Have Children Brought To Them In The Last Stages Of
Illness For The Purpose Of Being Baptized _In Articulo Mortis_.
In this
way many children have been taken to these establishments in the last
stages of disease, baptized there, and soon after taken away dead.
All
these acts, together with the secrecy and seclusion which appear to be a
part and parcel of the regulations which govern institutions of this
character everywhere, have created suspicions in the minds of the Chinese,
and these suspicions have engendered an intense hatred against the
sisters."
At that time Chung How, the superintendent of trade for the three northern
ports, was the principal official in Tientsin; but although some
representations, not as forcible however as the occasion demanded, were
made to him by M. Fontanier, the French Consul, on June 18, three days
before the massacre, no reply was given and no precautions were taken. On
the 21st a large crowd assembled outside the mission house. They very soon
assumed an attitude of hostility, and it was clear that at any moment the
attack might begin. M. Fontanier hastened off in person to Chung How, but
his threats seem to have been as unavailing as his arguments. On his
return he found the attack on the point of commencing. He made use of
menaces, and he fired a shot from his revolver, whether in self-defense or
in the heat of indignation at some official treachery will never be known.
The mob turned upon him, and he was murdered.
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