The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-08-25
Chinese Gordon.

The most celebrated feat of Chinese
Gordon was the suppression of the Taep-
ing rebellion, which in the spring of
1868 had reached its apogee. In thir-
teen years Hung-sew-tsuen, the vision
ary school teacher of Canton, had mus
tered following of 500, 600 men. Most
of the principal cities on both banks of
the Yang se-Kiang were in his hands.
His professions of Christianity and his
control of the tea district had at first
enlisted many foreign nations in
his favor. The resistance of Mankin to
his arms turned the current of feeling
against him. For days the inhabitants
and the imperial garrison had lived on
the bark of trees, and roots of grass.
Leather, boiled in narrow slips, was
eagerly swallowed. Human flesh was
openly hawked in the streets. The sur
rounding country was devastated. Water
courses were filled with broken furni-
ture, rotten boats and ruin. Once
fourishing marts were entirely deserted
and thousands of houses we're burned to
the ground. Here and there solitary
old man might be seen moving with
tIembnng Inn Ds among the ruins, sadly
musing over the desolation that reigned
around. In the midst of these events
the Tapping leader put forth proo1ama-
ton. 1.-The Father and the Elder
Brother" he said, "have descended up
on earth and established the heavenly
kingdom, and have taken me and Junior
Lord to regulate affairs appertaining to
the world"
The foreign nations at once withdrew
their support and waived their ardor for
Christianity in favor their interest In
tea.
Ihe first to take advantage of the
change was an American named Ward.
He had been a mate on a Boston ship,
and had landed at Shanghai with suit
of clothes upon his back and six Mexi-
can dollars in his pocket. He went to
Prince Kung and offered to crush . the
rebellion for $10,000,O 900. The prince
accepted and paid considerable sum in
advance. Wards life was full of adven.
ture. He had been with Walker in his
earlier expeditions, and had taste of
civil warfare in South America. He
first set to work to recruit his menand
then to drill them. Dozens applied
every day. Marines, sailors from men
ofwar, tea planters, members of the po
lice force, all the European adventurers
whom chance had brought to China,
were enrolled under Wards banners.
They were q mutinous and rapaclous
mob. They plundered all who came in
their way. They broke into pagodas
and despoiled them of their rare con-
tents. They tore out diamonds from the
idols eyes dug up treasures which priests
had concealed, and scattered precious
manuscripts of Buddhist classics to the
wind. Ward was soon disgusted with
them. He had been created Mandarin
- L. haI III
Chinese wife, and he was preparing to
enjoy the immense fortune he had won
when Teapine rebel shot him through
the heart before the walls of Nipgpo.
That was Gordon's opportunity, Bur-
gevine, who succeeded 10 Wards COM
mands, was, disposed to sell his men to
the highest bidder. The young British
engineer forestalled him. Fortified with
counsels from Calcutta and promises of
unlimited pay from Pekin, he called the
remnant of Wards force around him and
offered them terms of service. There
was to be no looting so long as their pay
was regularly distributed. He then
went to work to mature his SCENE of
attack. Heretofore the plan for de-
Tending the city of Shanghai was to
guard radius. of thirty miles around it
and remain wholly on the defensive.
This policy he at once reversed. Having
raised most of the Europeans toeposts of
command and drilled an army of some
four thousand Chinese he moved boldly
against the enemy. He did not direct
his attack on their front, where their
numbers must have overwhelmed him,
but determined to throw himself upon
their communication, seize them, point
after point, with the aid of q small fo-
tilla, and so clear the whole country
down to the gates of Nankin.
A study of the operations by which
he cut of the great city of Soochow
proves him a master of strategy in its
highest sense, as his extraordinary con-
wild spirits that cfficered it had marked
him true leader of men. His Difficult.
ties were unprecedented. The Yang
Kiang had so long been closed to foreign
commerce that the villagers had never
seen Europeans. They mistook the
army of succor for Tartar robbers. The
whistle of Gordon's steamer, the sparks
that issued from its funnel, added to
their terrors. Whole villages fed from
the ''fiery dragon ship" Women threw
themselves down from great heights.
They saw that at Taitsan faithful sub
iect Of the emperor rushed into the
rebel lines and fought desperately on
the side of the detested Taepings.
Dimly through the smoke he saw the
black and yellow banner and hesitated.
Then the firing ceased and he was sur
rounded by his countrymen rushing
through the breach. In his amazemeni
he still was able to cry Good China
mani"
'Show your gun" was the reply. The
barrel was still warm.
''Your hands," His hands were black
with powder.
They pushed him back against the wall
and fred. He died in ignorance of his
ofSense.
With the arrival of winter Colone,
Gordon was before Soochow, and
opened the siege with which his name is
inseparably connected. Soochow is the
Venice of the east. When the city ot
abe Foscari was marshy waste poets
were singing the glories of Soochow. the
splendor of its temples, the beauty o.
its women. It's canals traced their way
through arches of osier and weeping
willow. It's shops and streets wore al
air of Partisan gayety. In the Morning
Palace the Mowang or commandant O
the city wandered among exquisite
.grottos and summer houses. Girls
famed him as he reclined in bis dlvan
musical boxes tinkled in his halls. De
spite his lnxuriousness he was man o