The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 17, 1901, Page 10

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HINA is mourning. fi For her greatest statesman, her “Yellow Napoleon,” is-dead. He was grert not only to the people of his own race, but to all others who knew him. His shrewd diplomacy, his broadmindedness, his wise pa- tience with his people, who were in many ways a century or so behind bim, all made him famous through a long life. Here are some pen pietures of him by those who have known him per- scnally. One is by the Hon. Ho Yow, himself a Chinese diplomat. Another is by Stephen Bonsal, the keen news- paper correspondent, who chisels a man on paper as a sculptor does-in marble—true to the life of this modei He wrote the sketch last summer during the time when frequent false reports of Li’s death reached the out- side world. Professor Fryer of Berke- ley has a few words to add. “Uncle” George Bromley tells how he taught 1i to drink whisky. Two Chinese students now stopping in San Fran- cisco have met the great statesman and gpeak of him in their schoolroom English, F it was not for his Excellency Li Hung Chang we chroniclers of con- temporaneous history would have nothing to do in Peking. He fills the whole stags, and his associates rep- resenting China and the eleven foreign dip- lomats who are pitted against him by the powers can hardly be said to be on the stage at all. Now and again s telegram reaches us via Shanghai or New York telling us the great man is ¢ead. I saddle my Mongo-. lian pony and hasten to his temple. Some- times I find him eating a tiffin that would do for a dozen: scmetimes he-sits ab- sorbed, pen in hand, painting his dis- patches to the absent court. and one of the secretaries rays: “His Excellency will soon be at leisure. He has been eating for an hou or “His Excellency has written since daybreak. He must soon stop.” It is & great consolation to have a man like this in your neighborhood, even if ha is paralyzed, and it makes it seem Worth while staying here; but I don’t think it would be worth while or quite safe, either, & day after this one sturdy son of Ham is laid away in the magnificently carved tealwood coffin that yawns at his door (which he shows to all strangers, as one might & comfortable lounge chair) and is carried back south to his ancestral acres at Hwellung, a small village in the pro- vince of Anhul When the court fled before the advanc: roops, as usual the Viceroy was se- ed to face the consequelices of: its er- T of judgm And so. he -came to Peking, not very willingly, to be suce, knowing as he does by ‘bitter experience imperial grztitude is simply a Itveiy sclation of favors to come. All the knows what was his reward when rned from Japan, where he racked and =hed his blood fn an at- tempt to secure the best terms from tne e CONQUETOT. lost his yellow riding Jjacket, the three-eyed peacock feather, and all the other ipsignia of his high rank. There was not an understrapper in the palace who @id not insult him, and he bad to cross the palm of the gatekeepers uf the Forbidden City to the tune of a hundred thousand dollars before he secured the audience in which,.as he knew, only hu- miliation awaited him. Intellectual Enjoyment in His Work. Should he carry the present negotiations to a conclusion I do not know what the couft will take from him; perbaps the year or two of life that remains to him, fony the Viceroy is now 80 years of age. Certainly that will be the suggestion of Prince Tuan and many other influential Chinese” Princes and Viceroys, and Li Hung Chang knows it. I, as well as oth- ers, have often wondered why the Viceroy rconsented to take up the task, for he is least not in . not intensely patriotic, at our meaning of the word. Some think Le id it in' the hope of gain, others yielding to the habit of obe- dience which has become a second natu to him during his six decades of service to the throme. I think he accepted the vnenviable post for the intellectual en- Jjoyment which-it undoubtedly affords hin:. FPhysically the Grand Old Man of China is nalf dead, but intelleciually he remains a marvel, and he loyes to s wits and fight inteilectua: battle: eleven representauves of Europe, ame ica and Japan who form this chaoilc, mest - inharmonious body that is callea “the concert ol the powers to China.” There Wwas ope thing, nowever, that drew him to Peking, aund that was tn: thought of seeing tuc Msicn-idang-ize, oo the “Loyal Goou Yempi,” whnere he has alw capital. wuen he took his examinauons, a unimportant though promising Here he came to announce the suppres sion of the Taiping rebeliion. 1ln good or evil repute, ine priests have aiways made yellow riding jacket. The little ceil-ifke guest-room which he first occupied has been enlarged 10 a pa- vilion containing a dozen rooms, and the Viceroy has paid for the improve- ment. His presents to tne temple hava increased with his prosperity; in fact, hi~ favor is the main asset of the otherwise dilapidated and somewhat sidetracked shrine. The priests strike me as a worth- less, degenerate lot, but the Viceroy Joves them all. They furnish him with so_much amusement. Some one comes in and tells him = scandalous story about one of the breth- ren, and ‘the Viceroy says deprecatingly. “It cannot be £o. I knew his father and his grandfather, and they were good men.” Those conversant with tha Buddhistic canons. will be surprised to hear of brethren of the yellow robe who have sons and grandsons, but this is the those who dwell in the Loy: Good Temple. The abbot, in fact, is henpecked. I woull not say so if the Viceroy had not toll me so_himself. They live on very happily. these latter day Buddhas, though without that utter vacancy of mind which comes only with single blessedness and a rigid regimen, until toward the Chinese New Year, “when their sleek, expressionles: faces show some rudimentary signs of care, faint suggestions of thought. The time 1is commng when their conduct of earthly affairs is to be strictly looked into by the powers that be in heaven. For they are under a stricter -surveil- lance than that which the cynical Vice- roy bestows upon them. You would not notice it, and I did not notice it and, in fact, the priests do not notice it for eleven ‘months out of the twelve, but when New Year is comin the strange little red tablets with blac] s lved when visiung ihe northern He came here s.xty years ago, very — What the Chingse Consul General ‘ | , of Sz2n Frangisco Has o Sag’tv of LT Rung Chang. HE death of 14 Hung Chang clcses 2 busy and useful career. whichever standpoint you wiew him, whether it be as a statesman, or as an able administrator, or as a man of affairs, or as a private citizen, your admiration and respect arechallenged. dertook he brought to bear a well-balanced, . cultured, keen and expe- rienced mind. His knowledge of men and motives was profound, As & man he endeared himelf to all who knew him. a charm to his Society difficult tq resist, while wholesome and refreshing hu. mor instantly put at ease all who met him. vice of his country a vigilant, faithful and able servant, wi Chinese and Caucasian, mourn the loss of & constant and lrl::el;:x:?. ey From Upon everything he un- A rare and delicate courtesy lent His demise takes from the ser- um welcome, with or without tus - characters upon them which for the rest of the year are to be found in some ob- scure, dusty, corner of cach dormitory, ory quadrangie, are brought out and dusted henored with incense and piled with food offerings. These Matter are chunks of a sticky glucose candy and an adhesive parcake, which in case of need mignt serve as court plaster. For ten days be- fore the new year this shower of food anl honors “continues, and the Viceroy, be- tween roars of unrestrained laughter, loves to-tell you why. Laughs at Chinese Superstitions. “The tablets, you see,” he says, “‘are inscribed with the names of the guardiaus and governors of the temple. Iour days before New Year, as the priests believe, these guardians méke a journey to heav- en to report upon the behavior of the brethren who dwell in the good and loyal shrine. The journey requires one day each way and,-as they must be back n their places on New Year's eve, there is only twenty-four hours to give an account of their pupils’ shortcomings. Rather a short time—rather a short time to tell all they know,” shouts the Viceroy between great guffaws, “but they could tell a good deal if the priests were not so sly. You sce, they feed their guardians up with pancakes and 8ticky candy until not only are their hearts softened and they say, ‘these are good fellows, after all, but “a time. thase ‘witio vindictive and bent on tale- telling when they get up<in heaven and toy o ‘falk can't gpen their mouths or pull ‘th(“ u-e%‘ np%‘;t ffi? all ';nwf sflclgy food they have had.” B T wish you could hear the Viceroy laugh over this story. You would see that he pretty sound in some ways for a para see lytic, and you would birth and breeding he Chinaman, but a man of the people. He throws himself back in_his chair, claps his hand to his side and throws his feet up into the air. ‘Then he snouts “Li 1i!” and one at tendant comes with a tomato can pa tially covered w red flannel, which is the Viceroy's improvised toon. And when this is over another — attendant brings him his long stemmed Eipe, lights it, takes a whiff or two and hands it to his lord. Another order is given, followed by a great hubbub in the antechamber, and four or five more attendants appear, bearing_a charcoa! stove. / The Viceroy is, perhaps, the richest man in the world, but he hates to have more than one stove going in his house at The stove is the same as coolies have and it costs 50 cents. The fuel biil must be 10 cents a day in these dear times, but wherever the Viceroy goes, there goes the stove, and those who are wise when they interview his Excllency in winter put on doubie flannels and keep onggheir over- too, that by ot a high class RACTER . INTELLECTUAL GIA Q) i o coats. The Viceroy will not mind this-at all. He wears a nice blue tunic, with a dfamond button on it here and there, but every now and then it slips aside and you see that he is so swathed in furs that you do not know whether you are talking man or a bear. val Temple, so famous throvghout I se of fts illus- trious guest, ljes in the Tartar City, about a mile north of Legation street. It covers about ten acres of ground. The are unpretentious. - It l0oks line er temple in Peking. The per- slory of the plage Is the great y which every courtyard and tri- shaded. You can understand how pitiable was the position. of the. Chinesa Plenipotentiary when he came to Peking to negotiate peace for four hundred mil lion people when you read on the gate as you enter the legend, ““This temple is the property of John Dae (a well-known American _curio dealer) and trespassers will be pu " In the gatehouse sits shed."” and night a small guard of Russian tall and sturdy Siberian rifle- who have protected the Viceroy from many an intrusion, at the same time furnishing the only foundation to the Shanghai story that the Viceroy had be- come a Russian agent. 5 The second gateway is kept by Vice- roy's own bedyguard, a cerps of ected men. numbering about a "hund who * & PERSONAL RECOLLECTION OF LI RUNG CHRANG. By George T. Bromley, United States Consul to China Under President Arthur. THINK I may say that I enjoyed the personal regard of the late LI Hung Chang to an extent that was given to but few foreigners. My first meeting with him took place at his yamen in Tientsin in 1884, the first year of my service as United States Consul to China. He took very kindly to me and I am sure I did to him. His first question was to inquire my age, always a point of great moment with the Chinese. When he found that I was five years older than hé the favor- able impression I had made seemed to deepen greatly. From that time the only two men in the foreign settlement who were received by Li Hung'Chang at any time without the formality of sending in a card were the British Consul and myself, When Genezal Grant was in China .the Viceroy manifested for him a stronger feellng of kindness than he ever felt for any other foreigner. Grant returned this feeling and always called Li Hung Chang the greatest man of the age. I once had an impressive interview with Prince Chun, the father of the last Em- peror of China, and Hung Chang. When his son came to the throne Prince Chun had to leave the forbidden city and was appointed as head of the army and navy, though he had never seen, a ship or fortification, When I saw him he was on his way to Port Arthur to see fortifi- cations and the Chinese squadron at Taku. He had never seen a foreigner before. ‘The Consuls apd other officials were received by the Prince and the Viceroy at the Treaty Temple at Tientsin in the order of their seniority. The Russian Consul came first, myself and m{ Vice Consul, a young fellow from Rhode Island, a fluent Chinese scholar, who acted as my interpreter, came next. The Prince asked my age the first thing, and with a twinkle of the eye Li Hung Chang told him before I had a chance to answer. A The Prince said that I being an Ameri- can he hoped our Government would pro- tect his people in my country. I assured him he could depend upon the protection of our army and navy. It was about the time of the Wyoming massacres, and I notieed Li laughed at my answer. He seemed to think it was sarcastic. The Viceroy was a man of very simple habits, desnite his great wealth, and his immen at Tientsin was a one-story build- ng of clay, very modestly appointed. ‘When about leaving Tientsin T went with my Vice Consul to dine with Li Hung Chang. In speaking of my being five years older than fle. he inquired of my habits, and wanted to know if I drank mucn aid, “Not when I can get I much prefer.” This med to make a great im- upon the Viceroy. Two years 2 1 received a letter from my Vice Consul, who remained there, saying that Li Hung Chang had taken to drinking whisky. I think that helped him make his last trip around the world. He never could have done it on champagne! Earl Li's most striking characteristics ‘were his close observation and knowledge of men. He was looked up to by Chinese officlals -as the greatest man in China, and was a good friend to foreigners. He was generous, and it cost him thousands of dollars every time he went to Peking. ‘The poor would hold him up at the very gates of the city. Of course, he had faults and made mis- takes, but he knew they couldn’t get along without him, and was reconciled to dis- grace when he lost his badges. China, in my opinion, will never have another like Li Hung Chang. On my sev- enty-fifth birthday he sent me congratu- lations and presents, and when I was re- moved from the Consulship by President Cleveland he showed the sincerity of his friendship by paying $106 for a cable dis- patch to the Chinese Minister at Washing- ton to ask that I might be retained. As the avpointee was-a friend of the Secre- tary of State his request could not pe granted. FEI CHI HAO AND KUNG MSIANG HSI' SPEAK OF THE GREAT MAN. E have met LI Hung Chang, who is now dead, having been sick since the fourth month, He was a great man both in mind and in stature. He was also a good man, therefore & man whom China will wish back. Li{ Hung Chang gave away much money. In the winter he bought warm clothes and sent them to the poor people of his country who were suffering. You ask, Was he kind in manner? To foreigners he was kind and to high offl- cers. But Li Hung Chang was a high officer himself, and it was proper that he HO YOW. 'hm;fldg;:“ poor people t:! a lom caste as 'y Wwere serv ., this, —— und It wae right that he should. - ol These Chinese students are now stopping here on their way to Oberlin College. * He had much wealth. He was the rich- est man in China. We do not know what You mean by asking “How much was he worth?” If vou are speaking.of his ‘wealth, then we must answer that we do not éyl}ace_ values upon men in that manner in China. What floflung Chang'’s wealth ‘was we do not know; the Emperor would mnever permit him to tell how much money he recelved. That is the custom in our country. But we know that he was very wealthy. ‘When his first wife died he ordered that all ber clothes be burned. Now, that is the custom among only the very rich; poor men have paper dresses made for a small sum of money that can be burned at the funeral of a wife. But LI Hung Chang was so rich that he burned the same dresses which his wife had worn, and they were very costly. Also his friends, the high officers of the empire, sent gifts of ¢ostly garments to be burned at the funeral. It was a very eleinm ceremony. Li Hung Chang spent much of his wealth in nltuying the wishes of his wife, and when her garments were burned it was seen that they were all ornamented with most beautiful gold but- tons. These did not burn. The children of the poor gathered themto take home to their poor parents. They fought for the Possession of them over the {mnnl dre. SKETCH eame nortn rrom Canton shortly after the Viceroy - himself. The Viceroy's living apartments occupy one side of this second courtyard awd ars very sl ' No man has been killed by the news- papers and resurrécted in subsequent is- sues quite so often as the Viceroy, not even the Mahdi or the many lived Osman Digna, and yet these stories are not whol- 1y without justification The Viceroy’s Morning Toilet. Practically every morning at sunrise the Viceroy is half dead. All his extremities are cold, and he lies an inert mass upon his k'ang. His glassy eyes are motion- less, his breathing tmperceptible. It would take a medical man ta tell whether he is alive or dead. At the hour when vi- tality is lowest his is very low indeed. Every morning he is brought back from a deathlike sleep tq life, slowly, patiently, by the care of his attendants and the gal- vanizing_force of his mighty brain and heart. Upder the direction of a very i telligent Qbinese doctor from Cafllr\e tion . the daily operation of resuse is begun, his arms and legs are rub with flanne! soaked in alcohoi, and a white substance containing the essence of almonds is forced down his physically un- willing throat. Then the Viceroy half opens his eyes, and is confronted" with a_hard boiled egg. which he nibbles. Then Dr. Mark applies electricity, shock after shock, and finally something like a lifelike glow runs through the gray, withered body. Two of his attendants then shake him into his clothes, like a pillow.into its case. Other attendants grip him under the shoulders, and with their help he reaches his worl ing table. By this time his sleepy ener- gles are revived. You would hardly know the man.' He sits upright in his chair, reads and rereads his telegrams and with- out a pause dictates the answers and his dispatches to a succession of secretaries. Then, but not until after his assistants —boys In the heyday of youth though they be—are fatigued by the exuberant energy of their chief. something happens. What it is would be hard to say. A feel- ing of exhaustion arrests him in his men- tal flight, sometimes, though not often, before his day’s work is done. He has felt a warning that for this day at least he must no longer concentrate his mind upon affairs, and without a word he drops his work. His people know the signal well and they bring him one of the classic books of Confucius beautifully hand wrftten by some prince of literature, for in ridicu- lous, benighted China there are still princes of literature. This is the only luxury which the Vigceroy permits him- self, the only esthetic taste in which he indulges—that of baying beautifully bound and artistically written coples of the works of the Chinese sages. And now for an hour or two he is lost entirely to his surroundings. He copies the words, or rather the ideographs, with the accuracy of a mathematician and the love of an artist reproducing: the faded work of a dead master. In his opinion this patient mechanical labor is the great- est restorative. It banishes every thought of the intrusive powers, the vanisaing court, the crumbling empire, which, after all his advice and counsel was unheeded, hnsdbeen placed upon his shoulders to up- hold. All goes well in the Good and Leoval Temple until tiffin time. when the Vice- roy closes his book. and, turning with some pride from his own well written transeript of the sage's sentences, begins to remember that, Hke all men of his inches and intellect, he is a mighty feeder. This is a critical moment for Dr. George Mark, and for the Viceroy, teo, if ye& could only persuade him to believe it A Frequent Domestic Trage¢y. « The truth is that the Viceroy atill pre serves the healthy appetite of a grow. boy, while his digestive apparatus has fallen into desuetude. However, things go well generally. The Viceroy is given long strings of yellow, doughy staff tha looks like macaroni. Dr. Mark tells that If he wouid eat nothing else he might live another score of years more, and the Viceroy groans and stou asserts that he would not wish to at such a price. . As a rule, he eats his string of dough like a man who can .take punish- ment when he must, but when Ais friend dish for his honored patron’s and enjoyment, then comes the tug of war. The dish in question is gemerally a preparation of pork, which, as the insin- uating salt 'commissioner knows, when once it is placed before him and the fas- cinating fumes narcotize his consecience the Viceroy loves better tham dear life itself. Dr. Mark pleads, threatens, ad- jures. On bended knee he asks permis- sion to have the offending dish and the servants of the salt commissicaer thrown out into the street. The Viceroy, as great a compromiser as Henry Clay, suggests a middle way. Let him have the pork, and the doctor can throw the bearers into the street and give thedh bamboo chowchow . besides. Then the doctor resigns, washes his hands of the whole business and looks suggestively at the cofin outside. = The Viceroy thunders; the pork is twenty feet away, and alone he cannot reach it. One by one he calls up his attendants and orders them to place the dish om the table before him. They tremble and sweat until their tunics cling about them like bathing jerseys, lool anxiously from the doctor to the Viceroy, and then to the mess of pork, the boneless bone of contention. If they stand flrmi, obeying the strict orders which coms from the Viceroy himself In saner, less M id oments, the Viceroy grows plaintive. o' never thought to dve to see the day, he would rather die, now that all who bore him affection are dead. he sa: Then the sleek. fat heads of the atte: ants hit the ground in the kotow, and one and all rush for the bowl, while Dr. Mar;k adjusts a towel about the Viceroy’'s neck. After tiffin, If the ther ls d, to warm himseif in lhn”“:n Fae te claims, or to retard the~ ~gpera- tion of digesting pork, as Dr. Mark avers with biting sarcasm, the Viceroy takes a walk of a hundred steps or so in the great quadrangle. This baby promenads he can ouly accomplish with the assist- ance of four of his burly henchmen, who grip him mightily under the shoulders and guide his faiteriag, unecertain feer. It is a pleasant, tranaull place, this grea: shady quadrangle. thomgh but a sten away from the Vicerow's own .noisy, al- mest tumultuons quarters. Noticing one day that a_visitor was driven to distraction, the Viceroy grew apologetic and showed his perfect ac- quaintance with the demenmerate nervous systems of the West. “But as for me,” Ne confessed. “T eannot live without the noise. 'Tis an old man's wealkness' sa pray excuse it. I am not the worker that 1 and the row keeps my theughts ntrated uvon the work I have in hand. If all was hushed my mind would wander: I might even fall asleep. judgment John Frier, L.L. great. ance with him and for that bave known him. He was keen sense of humor that — xS D., Professcor of Origntal LamGuages, at the | University of California. Professor of Orlental Languages and Literature, University of Galornia. | 1 HUNG CHANG was a man whom 1 never knew intimately—} never wanted to. He was a great dipiomat—oh. yes; but a diplomat Js. not necessarily a man whom one wants for a friend. even though he be 1 have met him at times, but have had only a superficial acquaint- | reason I do ngt care to be quoted as professing to | a most genial and cordial man to meet: he had a delighted in making fun ln..:: l:r:\llm:x‘::x Never did a man ask so many m s ness to draw out ev h < e le “poke funeSul, Ty one he met. then 1o study his vie n| Was a great one, there can be no doubt of that of people, in rangiing them ‘ questions; he geemed to | \ 3

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