San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-09-20
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1896
LI-HUNG-cHANG-ISM.


the armament of American observa-
ton a very remarkable man. I'm
like the orators who, presenting the
names of candidates for nomination
in political assemblies. withhold the
name of their eulogies as long as pos
sible. there will be no delay in naming
our subject His name stands at the
head of this lay discourse. Ii Hung
Chang. He is only a heather Chi
nee, but he is one of tire most distin-
guished men or his time, and all the
more distinguished for being a heath
EN-, as it is our custom to call those
who worship other Gods than ours.
He is remarkable in many ways, in
his natural abilities, in his strength
of character, in his accepted power
as diplomat, in his craftness in deal
ing with his own countrymen, in the
influence he eXerts in a kingdom
where jealousy of a powerful SUBJ
ject is the law, and assassination of
such subjects the rule rather than
the exception.
He is remarkable in that he drew
upon himself the notice of such a ST.
lent man as the late President Grant,
who in his tour around the world dis
covered Lii Hung Chang to be the
most powerful man in China, and
classed him with Bismarck and
Gladstone in the power of his percep-
gence, the Quickness of his percep-
lions, the acuteness of his diplomacy
and the far-reaching grasp that he had
on the situation at home and abroad.
1t is none the less remarkable that
Ii Hung Chang intuitively sized up
the greatness of the silent American
general, and placing him among the
men whom he worshipped put him
down as the greatest man of his
time. This was not transitOry
feeling, for there was nothing in
which ne bof som uch real delight
while in this couitry as in learning
all that he could about the dead idol
of the American people. Nothing,
unless it was the delight that he took
in asking questions on general prin-
ciples.
Perhaps there was nothing more
noted about Ii Hung while in this
country and in Europe than the in
ordinate inquisitiveness> of his mind.
This was to be expected in variety
of ways, for he was abroad for the
first time and the habits and customs
and manners, dress and conversation
among whom he travelled, were all
strange to him. 1t was natural that
he should desire to know all that he
could find out about his strange west
ern neighbors of whom he had heard
SO much. Natural that he should
wish to find out the secret of that
propelling force that in one century
had tided them out into a power
and modes of thinking of the peoples
among the nations of the earth that
his own beloved China had not reach
ed in the hundred centuries through
which her dynaties run. But ii
was not so much in this direction that
the induisitiveness of Earl Ii mani
: tested itself as in that smaller field
of enquiry that in that smaller field
osity, curiosity about little things.
SO marked was this popularity of
the great Chinaman, and he is truly
great, all the greater for the adverse
circumstances in spite of which he
has set his name on high among the
nations, so marked was this cnriosi-
ty that is was theme of general com
ment in the public prints and in the
social circle and in the high places
of government and criticism. No
American Interviewer ever got the
DROP ebEarf Ii. He could give the
sharpest newspaper reporter in the
country points on asking questions
He could interview the interviewer
and turn him up side down and in
side out and do it while the reporters
were wondering where it was best
to tackle their subject. He was the
embodiment and personificatiOn and
epitome of human interrogation
point. His heterogeneous were
kargely of personal character. He
lever talke with man or woman five
minutes that he did not want to know
their ages. fortunes, social conditions
thousand and one other questions
whether married or single, and a
that in any but bona fide heather
would have been deemed insuffera
bly, impertinent. These things may
be excused in a Heather Chinee, but
| are they excusable in an enlightnd
American?
= Foreigners pretend to stand aghas
the curiosity of Americans, but
here is not a people ON the eartl
with less curiosity about them thar
n the well-bred and well-educatet
q American. The purely personal be
S longs only to the person, and it is NJ
the concern of some other person
4 This fact is coming into general re
II Ill IN