Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-26
Remarkable Career of the Great
Chinese Statesman.
TIE BISMARCK OF TEE ORIENT
Lessening Of His Reputation by
Recent Events.
CAREER PRACTICALLY CLOSED

much discussion of his remarkable career
and some expression of opinion as to how
much his fame has been affected and how
his place in history will be affected by the
recent Chinese reverses. He has for years
among civilized people been the most high
ly respected of all the oriental statesmen
His breadth of view, his progressive ten
denotes, his firm hold on affairs at home,
have generally been accepted as indicating
powers of a very high order. He has been
called, indeed, 1.-The Bismarck of the orr
ent''-the man who had knitted his people
the more closely together and given in
creased Importance to the empire; Until
very recent date indeed, he was Considered
the first man in all the world outside the
confines and influences of Christian civili-
sources sufficient to dominate the situation
all around him.
Feeling When War Began.
When japan first took the field against
China it was pronounced the most fool
hardy act of modern times. The consensus
of opinion was that the little kingdom
would be speedily crushed. How could she
hope to win? Lii Hung Chang had untold
wealth and millions of men to draw upon,
and he would put force in the field and
on the water that would simply be ire
sistible. What If the Chinese were back
ward in military equipment? With so much
money on hand. could rot she supply her
self out of the stores of the more advanced
nations, and even hire European comman-
ders to drill her men and fight her ships?
But the great reliance was on Ii Hung
Chang. He at the helm, he was the
greatest of oriental pilots, and everything
in the end would go well with his people
The first few Japanese victories were an
swered with the statement that China, be-
ing big nation, had not yet become
aroused. Wait until the giant should wake
Chang had had time to get his great hordes
Of fighting men fairly afoot. Then little
Japan, with one or two deXtrous blows,
would be knocked into the middle OF the
the great hordes, If afoot, seemed to be
facing in the wrong direction; things gen
orally were amiss. and China was obliged
to sue for peace to her foolhardy ana de-
spised little opponent.
II LII Hung Chang Had Died.
The question is asked: What II all this
had happened with Ii Hung Chang in his
grave? What If he had died a few months
or a year before the war began, and an
other man had been in his shoes? How
the Chinese would have complained! How
they would have sighed for just one hour Of
the "old man. in his old form! How GER
tain they would have been that under him
no such disasters could have overtaken the
country! How the Chinese arms under
him would have carried everything before
them! His successors friends would have
pleaded in vain for him. 1t would have
been useless for them to point out that
China then engaged was the China of
Ii Hung Chang, and almost in the same
condition in which he had left her. There
would still have been the supreme conf
dence felt that had the great man lived to
ffsarc, ryvf h N "a
Chinas way. And so Lii Hung Chang
would have grown even in his grave. and
have attained stature overlapping all but
the tallest of the century.
His Stature Reduced.
How much will these disasters, sustained
under the great man, reduce his stature? :?
Or will they serve merely to bring out the
real facts, and demonstrate how impossible
it was for even an oriental of Ii Hung
Chang's abilities to succeed amid sur
rcundings of such backwardness and
torpor? He will always receive credit, ! is
admirers claim, for the reforms he
wrought, and even for those ne tried to
bring about, and this, they declare, fixes
him securely in a high and permanent
place in history. But they admit that the
events of the past year will deprive him
of much admiration and confidence that
otherwise would have attached permanent
ly to his name and fame. He must stand
upon the record. which now has its dark
places, and not in any measure upon the
white. bright ground created by the pop
ular imagination.
The Likeness to Bismarck.
But the likeness to Bismarck is thought
to continue even in the hour of adversely.
The great Chinaman. like the great Ger
man, is 1.-The kings man. His master
may condemn him and humiliate him, but
ha ala Inn ell Ind;
to the empire. Peacock feathers and yell
low jackets and all that sort of precious
paraphernalia may be withdrawn, but he
still loves China and is still willing to work
for her. Stripped and unornamented, he
responds readily to the emperor's COM
mand and goes to Japan to make terms.
It was a painful duty to exact of him.
He, like Bismarck, had always carried
himself rather haughtily toward his op-
porents. He had given Japan many
he despised her. And now he was required
to go and bend the knee to her, and ask
her please to put up her sword.
His Career Closed.
While the wish is profound and sincere
that he may recover from the assassin s
bullet, there is a feeling that if he should
die from it his fame would benefit. What
Is called glorious death is something
that statesmen and soldiers are taught to
covet. Glory is largely their game, and
glory is their reward. general may lose
a battle, but If he dies on the field and
partic ylarly while directing some perilous
feature Of the day, he wins out. The his
torian takes care of him, and the country
builds him a monument. LII Hung Chang
has played now in the hardest luck for
the last nine months. Much of his own
prestige is gone, and his country has been
humbled into the dust He has become
merely an Instrument to arrange the price
of a peace. That is a great fall for SO
great a man! But If in performing that
service "a great service for his country-he
meets his death at the hands of an assas-
sin it must soften feeling for him and about
him everywhere in China and throughout
the world. If the curtain falls to funeral
march the whole audience will weep. The
great mans career, in any event. is
thought to be closed. If peace is arranged
he passes from the scene. His power is
gone. China must get somebody else for
the first place. She cannot hold her own
among the nations with a broken idol on
her PEDESTAL She cannot hope longer to
conjure with the name of Ii Hung Chang.
She must try to recover some of her lost
ground. end success in such an endeavor
can only come through new agents and an
entirely lew policy. The old order cannot
be re-establiShed.