CHAPTER XX
JOURNEY TO PEKING AND DEATH
OF MY WIFE
The treatment which the students received at
the hands of Chinese officials in the first years
after their return to China as compared with the
treatment they received in America while at
school could not fail to make an impression upon
their innermost convictions of the superiority
of Occidental civilization over that of China —
an impression which will always appeal to them
as cogent and valid ground for radical reforms
in China, however altered their conditions may
be in their subsequent careers. Quite a number
of the survivors of the one hundred students, I
am happy to say, have risen to high official ranks
and positions of great trust and responsibility.
The eyes of the government have been opened
to see the grand mistake it made in breaking
up the Mission and having the students recalled.
Within only a few years it had the candor and
magnanimity to confess that it wished it had
more of just such men as had been turned out
216