The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 14, 1904, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL ut the great te can see is this. The land wi Siberia are down except for the V ¥'s most private and par- ti ches. The sailors seem soldiers are snow-im- are no more steamers and perhaps he r in the cafes and the ovised theaters that war ut at last, but in Macedo- e Persian frontier, while lerk of Mars, is 10,000 In dull moments like thing to do is to do like the Russian b hibernate, but, unfortu- or this you must be a Russian To-day the popular and cer- stened to gospel of the t of strenuosity, but I still these the best ar Admirsl Ho think have conqu the Ru d the ¢ uld bleak world that is his without this wonderful ca- pacity for hibernation. never Next to burrowing in your hole and there awaiting the spring flood of hot and imminent war rumors is to ¢all upon and fraternize with some of the Viceroy’s Chinese lieutenants, for the Russian vrincelings and the Georgian Dukes who form the staff of the ruler of Russian Asia will talk to you of St. Petersburg and Paris, of Homburg and Nice, and that way discontent lies when you are awaiting war news in Manchu- ria A visit to Typhoon Tai, the great con- tractor, is always worth trying, though more often than not he is away from home on his master'’s business, the great White Czar's affairs. Typhoon Tai is a breezy, bustling Chinaman, who wears flashy waistcoats and loves to recail the time when as a Shantung coolie he worked on the docks of Chefu for 10 cents a sixteen-hour day. But that was a long time ago, and to-day 10,000 coolies do his bidding, though they insist on getting 15 cents a day. Typhoon Tai has become to the Rus sian temples of war that are rising on the east coast of Asia what King Hiram of Tyre was to the peace temple of Jerusalem. He does it all or tries to. Wil { i The story of Ali Khan, who bravely led his Turcomahs to battie against Skobeleff, and who ;when the battle was lost found-himself not a prisoner but a general in the Russian army is historic; but this is a, bit of history that repeated every day in Russia's Asiatic po: ions. When I first visit- ed Vladivostok the strangest little manikin I had ever seen came aboard while we were yet in the outer harbor, and made himself knoewn as, the officer of the port. He lwgcd like an unsuc- cessful cross betwe an Esquimau of Greenland and a hairy Ainu, of the Kurriles, but he wore -with ostentation that which was at once laughable and pathetic, the gaudy uniform of the great White Czar, who has no_ race prejudices. Once on shore we heard his story and the reason of. his employ- ment—one of the little state strokes upon which Russian dominion in Asia is built. Some years before he had been cap- tured by a punitive expedition up the Sungari River. He had tried to escape by suicide, but in vain. When-brought into Viadivostok he was not put: in prison, but in school, and as his lan- guage was Goldi or Gilyoli, some north- ern dialect which no one knew, he had to learn Russian. When his prelimi- nary education was completed he was baptized in the cathedral by the Bish- op,_the Governor General of Siberia acting as sponsor, and he of course was given the name of a saint. Then he had a trip to St. Petersburg, a day at court, and now—well, now he has dis- HOW NEW PEOPLES. appeared on' a secret mission’ for the Asiatic department. Doubtiess ;he has gone to visit the people among whom he was born, to tell them gbout the great Czar and what good medicine it is to be baptized and have a saint's name and a steady .salary given you. g But perhaps the most interesting and useful of Viceroy Alexieff’s native lieu- tenants is one who is inspired by no particular loyalty to Russia, but who worships with idolatry, as though it were a venerable shrine, the great, bul- warks of the Czar’s power in, the Far East, the fortress of Port Arthur. » If I should ever attempt to fathom the Chinese mind, a folly I cannot con- template in ‘cold blood, I should begin by taking'a dive into the placid in- terior of Admiral Ho, the Chinese naval officer who has held over under all the flags'that have flown over Port Arthur, serving each successive master with the same faithfulness, the same whole- souled love of his work. I mean:-no dis- respect to the many distinguished of- ficers who are associated with Admiral Alexieft—indeed, I am merely voicing the oyerwhelming popular sentiment in the Laitong—when I say that this little man with the lustrous, hollow eyes, the protruding forehead, is the No. 2 man in the great fortress. I shall not try to decipher Admiral Ho, ‘'but T cannot forego 'telling some- thing of his story. Some years after the Peking campaign of 1860, when the Anglo-French forces easily overran Pechili, it dawned upon several of the ,. : éCfifinéfie ieutenants ADMIRAL HO AT PORT ARTHUR AND TYPHOON TAI, THE COOLIE MASTER . RUSSIA WINS ITS WAY WITH move ennghtened Chinamen who wers in power that battles were no longer to be won according to the precepts of their great tactician, Kwang Ti, who flourished somewhere about the begin- ning of the Christian era. It was necessary to fight the barbar- lans with their own barbarous weapons, and the natural advantages of Port Ar- thur being recognized it was decided io try what Western science could do to make it impregnable, thus securing the northern capital against another incur- sion. Li Hung Chang was then Viceroy, and having secured a large grant of money from the throne for the work, he intrusted its execution to a commjs- slon of French engineers selected with the sanction of the French Government. They were doubtless very talented of- ficers, but after the fashion of the members of all foreign missions in China, they were constantly going home or visiting at the treaty ports; in fact, doing everything except throw- ing up thelr lucrative positions to es- cape the-boredom of permanent resl- dence in a wretched Chinese fishing vil- lage, and that is all that could be sald for Port Arthur at this time. Probably LI Hung Chang foresaw this. It was not his first experience in employing foreign talent, and he at- Port Arthar (Copyright, 1904, by G. T. Viskniskki.) ER indolent grace ir- ritated Harding. Even her serene, audacious found no favor in his eyes to- day. Her big, gray eyes looked out from under the loveliness sweeping y means that I am going shortly. Don’t. I may our interest and think you're With all your wisdom osophy you're only «~ddened uncomfortably. would fall in love with heedied. “Think how it would develop your character to put the tender emotion under foot. And how i ve to me to see your con- ow that not even love u condone my indolence me she struct vulsior ce*!” he added caus- ing of my own af- unfortunately.” A smote his eyes. 1l have to make an as- t of business—Rob's e has involved me deeply. Could Mercer T could pull through, but raise even $1000 with the other against the stock. Money is very close now. I shall have to go to the your: not When do you assign?” she inter- rupted calmly. “Next week—I'll give myseif every hour’s grace I can. Something may happen, but it's a forlorn hope.” “Then we shall lose you and your vast store of knowledge, and I shall be free from your rebuking tongue. But I'm truly sorry, Duncan, that you are in trouble; I really wouldn't have eme braced my gain &t yeur less—premedi- tatedly.” She held up her jeweled finger and laughed joyously. The piled up gems that flashed under Harding's tired.eyes were no more heartless than their beautiful owner, he thought savagely. Selfish as he had always believed her, he was yet stunned by her indifference. He had been George Rives' closest friend, and had promised him on his deathbed six years before to keep a watchful eye over his mother, a gra- cious, delicate woman of 50, and his sis- ter Madeline, a willful beauty of 16. Because she loved diamonds, Made- line had promptly put one-half of her patrimony on coming of age into num- erous rings to adorn her slender, tap- ering, pink-nailed fingers. The other half was tled up so she could not handle it, or she would have weight- ed her toes with them too, Harding declared in disgust when he saw her investment. The Riveses were com- fortably fixed, but it was only by care- ful financiering and good manage- ment that mother and daughter could live in the comparative luxury they did. Mrs. Rives spoiled Madeline as only a doting mother can, but then every one, save Harding, took a hand at spoiling Madeline. She was so very lovely and so irresistibly sweet de- spite the selfishness Harding so great- ly deplored. Harding was hurt. He ignored the jeweled fingers and strode angrily to- ward her mother, who was approach- ing from the other end of the wide, comfortable veranda. Madeline’s smile was enigmatical as she gazed at the big, broad-shouldered figure tow- ering above her mother and openly disdainful at his whispered command on leaving. “Don’t tell your mother; she's un- selfish enough to care.” ’ Mrs. Rives looked at Madeline dis- approvingly as Harding tremped an- srily down the long walk. “Why will you persist in quarreling with Duncan?” she rebuked gently, “Ne brether ceuld be kinder.” T By Maravene Hennedy THE WONDROUS SELFISHNESS OF LOVELY M | SR -— “I don't like paragons,” sald Made- line shortly. “It does him good to be disagreed with once in a while and to lose his temper. He should be grate- ful to me and & “He’s not,” .concluded her mother impressively. She shook her head sadly. She had hoped things would be different between Duncan and Madeline. As day after day passed o— and Duncan did not come she was truly angry with her willful daughter. But, the girl had never seemed so) happy; she was like a blithesome songbird with her bubbling spirits and | gayety. And when, after a Week’s/Ab- sehce Duncan did appear, she greeted even him with a smile of alluring sweetness. “Y.ou think I'm going away,” he said bitterly, as Mrs. Rives left them together.. “You're rejoicing too soon —some one has loaned me $1000. Who it is the Lord only knows., It came three days ago, ten one hundred dollar bills, with a typewritten note saying ‘Accept this loan from a friend. You can:repay it with legal interest when you feel amply able to do so. I will disclose myself then; I cannot do so FOR WHAT IS A BURDEN ANYWAY? N some form or other, we are all burden bearers. Sometimes the weight presses hard. And in no re- spect is there a sharper difference between_men than in the way in which they carry thelr respective bur- dens, What, then, is the secret of successful burden bearing? : In the last analysis much depends on one's funds of courage. Most of us are tempted to whimper over our burdens. ‘We say to ourselves, if not to others, “I can’t carry another ounce. I've had sickness in my family for a long while,” or “I've been suddenly called upon to support a distant relative,” or ‘“I'm bearing more than my share of responsibllity in the church or in the club and I can't stand it much longer.” Then before we know it the habit of self-pity grows upon us and instead of facing our burdens like heroes we draw back from them like cowards. A beautiful woman, one of the army of “shut-ins,” and herself wasting away with consumption, said to me when a boy: “God will never put any- &s"unon you too heavy for you to cause of his burdens. He may under- . take of his own volition to do many things at onge, byt the- - Which - are put upon him to bear by a higher power he ought to stand up to man- fashion and not be perpetually whining about them in public or bemoaning them in private. It helps, too, to look upon one’s fellow men and realize that each is carrying burdens, too.” You are not the scapegoat of the human race while everybody else moves through life dancing and singing like a mountain brook. But “very few people have as much to carry as I do.” | Doubtless you think so, but you have probably forgotten the fable about the cld-time monarch, - who, wearied "with the grumbling of his subjects, at last bade them all to assemble on a certain day at a certain place, bringing each his own great burden. When they had come together he commanded that all the burdens be, massed in one great pile. Then by lot he selected one man to help himself from the pile to the burden which seemed to him the light- est and most agreeable. -After wallg- ing around the pile and looking care- -fully at all the other burdens, he.se- lected ‘the very one he had brought. So .did No. 2 and No. 8, and so on through “the list. Finally ‘all ‘went silently home with their old burdens, but with contented hearts. - There is a ‘deal of philosophy in this ancient tale. | You. sre better off. with your burden - than you would be with your neigh- bor’s. It was fashioned for your shoul- ders. And the time may come when You may even be fond of it. For what is a burden any way? Look up the definition in the dition- ary and see the primary meaning. It does not necessarily carry the idea of strain and friction. We speak of\a fruit tree with its burden of apples or oranges. The burden of the tree is its glory. That is the final purpose of its being in the world at all. And in the large view of the matter our burdens should be the occasion of pride and glorying. Said a sympathetic trayeler to the little girl whom he met in the street staggering under the weight of a big baby: “Why, child, isn’t he too heavy for you?”’ ‘No,” was her quick reply, “he isn't heavy; he's y brother.” It's a great honor to a man to be permitted to carry burdens. We speak contemptuously sometimes of beasts of burden—those great patient animals, without whose aid man could never cross the deserts and extend the frontier of civilization. But I would rather be a'beast of burden than a And I would n.ll)l.umhu' be now.'” “And you have no idea?” she asked wonderingly. “Perhaps it was Mer- cer himself. He may want to repay good for the evil he has done you, even wicked folks are penitént—some- times.” “But selfish ones are never gerfer® ous,” he retorted. “You—you were glad of my misfortune. You thought it would rid you of me and my preach- ments. Don't you know, Madeline, I reproach you omly for your own good.” “If I were as selfish as you think me,” she said seriously, “ ‘for my own good’ might prove efficacious. It's hard to be unselfish when folks per- petually insist on my holding the thought, ‘for my ,own good. If it were only for some one’s eise good, I —might.” “ > < The tenderness in her voice dis- armed him. “I wish wé could be good friends,” he said gently and took her slender hands in his. Something strange in their touch made him un- clasp his fingers. He started dumbly 'or a moment, then- “Where are your rings, Madeline?"” he cried sharply. “I—I'm tired of wearing them,” she faltered. “Mr. Ross said my hands were too beautiful to need adorn- ment,” and she laughed gayly. Hard- ing gazed intently at the flushed face. “Where are your rings?” he com- manded roughly! ~ The uncertainty made him cruel. “Tell me.” ¢ “Is that your affair?” she asked im- periously. “Yes,” he said tensely, “it is. If you have sold them for me, it means— Heaven. Madeline—darling, don’t you know how I love you?” . “You love—me!” she cried in ‘voice Duncan had never heard befors. “Me? Oh, Duncan! Then—then why have you always been so—so fault- finding ™ “Because I @14 love you,” he whis- pered remorsefully, “I wanted to tached to the mission from the begin- ning a young Chinese naval mandarin named Ho. This particular branch of the Ho family has been very distir- guished in piratical circles for many generations off the coast of Southern China. This Ho, however, had been induced to forsake the family calling by the prospects of an easy life and high pay in the imperial Chinese navy. He had been a junk master since his earliest boyhcod, but he knew nothing about fortifications or naval architecture. He was, however, wonderfully studious and energetic. In a few years he had learned all his teachers knew, and, glad te find some one upon whoem they could shift their ponsibility, the members of the foreign mission gave him many opportunities of deing their work. When at last the mission was let go. Ho, the young junk master, completed was created an admfiral, and the work. he has been in Port Arthur ever since. Why he did not go away during the Japanese occupation no one seems kpnow. I think he mained because he could not tear himself away from his ically, though by in- as much. Soon n to employ him. He interested in the for- tion under the flag as he had been gon flag flew over its when the Di battlements. When the Russians he started, it Is true, cestral acre in the ath, but got neo further, than Chefu, and then came back again. Dressed as a coolie, he used to potter around the place, now and then offering a suggestion which often prove helpful to the Russians. Soon he was askeé to enter the service of the engineering department in an advisory capa~ity. Phe Fussians recognize his ability and give him every opportunity to ex- ercise it for their benefit. The drydock of granite was found a hundred and twenty-five feet too short for the new battieships. W'th some misgiving the work of lengthening it was intrusted to Admiral Fo, who brilliantly exe- cuted it. Now he is in charge of the construc- tion of the new torpedo-boats, and though ihere are naval architects and engineers of distinguished . ability in Port Arthur, it is generally redognized that no one could have acquitted him- self better in the performance of many difficult tasks than has Ho. 1 often talked to him about the werk upon. which he was engaged, but we never touched upon the subject of poli- tics until one night when he came to me at the hotel. The man seemed then for once to overcome the artist, and he plied me with questions about what was going on in Peking. He listened to my accounts of thedistressing situa- tion with grave attention, and~then he said slowly in a voice that was almost choked with unaffected emotions: “China Queen no belong bad woman. English Queen, 'Merica Queen can walkee, can see, can savee. China Queen no ean walkee, no can see, no can savee; China Queen only can hear talkee, talkee. Bad men make plenty talkee, plenty, and China Queen mno saveewwhat belong good talkee.” And as he went away he shook his head sadly and said with prophetic in- tonation: ‘“Large, large trouble com- ing. coming.” STEPHEN BONSAL. took possession to visit his an- ADELINE punish you for not loving me.” “Then—then that’s why I was al ways 80 cross with you, too!” she cried with sudden understanding. He gathered her in his arms. *I0 was our selfishness,” he said humbly. “‘Ours!” not mine alone, this time. Durncan, you truly do love—me!™ Rapturove=iy he kissed the pretty fingers. “My unselfish darling,” he mumre mured. “But it was selfishness,” she cried hurriedly. “I didn't—want—you—te g0 “I don’t mind that sort of selfish- ness, my precious,” he sald. —_—————— Tropieal Housekeeping. American housekeepers will find 1t much easier to keep their rooms clean and bright and free from dust if they follow the tropical pian of polishing floors with beeswax, rubbed on with a cocoanut. husk, instead of covering them up with carpets. It goes without saying that it is easier to sweep a polished floor than a carpet, and the former is much healthier, because it does not collect the dust and dirt like a carpet. Perhaps an absolutely bare floor, however beautifully polished, does mot look well to eyes unaccus- tomed to it; therefore, it would be ad- visable for the Americafi housekeeper to place a small rug in front of the couch and another in front of the fire- place to break the monotony of the glistening surface. On the mirror-like floor they would have a striking and beautiful effect, far surpassing that of even the best carpets in the market. This receipt for saving dust and labor is only one of many useful hints which the American woman may pick up from the housekeeper in the tropics. The housekeeper is always om the leokout for a polish for brasses. In the West Indies a mixture of lemon juice and ashes I8 used, and a better polish cannot be secured.