The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-01-05

full of romantic adventures as were the | careers of the knights of old. As a midshipman on board the steam frigate Minnesota, he sailed under Commodore Tatnall to Cape Horn and the Orient in | 1859, and was present at the lombard | ment of the Pei-Ho forts by the allied | fleets of Great Britain and France, when the gates of China were forced open and the commerce of the world was permitted, under protest, to invade | that exclusive kingdom.
 Shortly before his death Colonel Graves described to a friend in graphic | language that memorable incident in the worlds history. u Hung Chang was viceroy of the province and was l just rising into power, and when the | allied powers sent to him demand that he open the ports he sent back naughty and defiant reply, refusing most emphatically. He had a consider able army posted behind the low hills l in the rear of Pei-Ho, and although they were armed with iin-galls and stink-pots only, he, with the obstinacy characteristic of the Chinese, thought to pit them against the foreign dew ils," with whom he had had no experi- ence but which he acquired afterward, with their ships and cannon
 He refused to allow them to set foot on the sacred soil of the Celestial king dom and had large landing stage constructed at point on the shore where the envoys were received After his naughty refusal to treat with the powers, they drew up an ultimatum, which they sent to the proud pagan, a 1 procession of mandarins marching down to the landing to receive it.
 The commanders of the two fleets de- manded that he open the ports within a given time on penalty of their bom- barding the town. A Chinese artist made pictures of the landing of the en- voys and the scenes that followed, l which he presented to Colonel Graves, l then a midshipman, and which are pre- served in his wonderful collection of curlos, many of them Of vast historical interest The viceroy sent back the same peremptory refusal to comply and 1 preparations began for the attack The commanders of the American and Russian squadrons were instructed to observe a strict neutrality, and as the decks of the British and French vessels 1 cleared for action, the non n-combatants withdrew to safe distance in the offing and watched the fight that fol- lowed.
 The first broadside from the British guns sent the mud walls tumbling l ae p,,ga ,4,, ,i.Tra garrison, and Lord Ii ordered his re- serve to the front. Colonel Graves captured one of the formidable mus kets called ingalls, a gun about ten feet long, with a short, clumsy stock, a muzzle about an inch in diameter and pan to hold the powder which was touched off by pressing a burning coal upon it by means of a crude arrange ment very much like the old-fashioned hnt-lock musket of Revolutionary days. Two men were required to man. age the weapon, one walking in front and bearing the barrel on his shoulder, and the other supporting the stock, sighting the piece and pulling the trig- ger. At every discharge both of the gunners were tumbled heels over head in the mud, and Colonel Graves said that the scene was grimly humorous. As the reserves marched down, dis charged their pieces at the vessels with hoots and yells, lighted their stink-pots and took to their heels, when a broad side from the allied fleet sent a shower of iron hail among the disordered ranks.
 After few such discharged the walls of the forts were in ruins, and the sol diers had taken flight and u slgnalled for a barley. Thus the Pei-Ho forts were taken, and the ports of China opened to the representatives Of the western civilization. The commanders of the fleets were invited ashore, with the accredited ministers of Great Brit ain, France and Russia, Commodore TatnaH acting as the representative of this government. Under huge pavil- ion of yellow silk, trimmed with blue and gold, erected on the plain of Pei Ho, the viceroy received his unwel- come guests.
 After his return from that memora- | ble cruise the war broke out, and he re- signed his position in the navy, having been promoted to a lieutenancy, and offered his services to the confederate | government. He held several positions under the confederate government. He l was second in command of the Morgan at the defense of Mobile, and was em- ployed for short time as an instructor of the infant naval school, and finally selected as second officer of the Kappa hammock, then being built at Calais, l France, and was compelled to run the blockade to get to his appointment. The vessel on which he took passage was pursued by a federal cruiser, and sunk of the island of Eleuthera, and the passengers and crew narrowly es- capped with their lives by swimming ashore.