The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1900-08-15
CHINA'S MILLIONAIRES.
u HUNG CHANG IS PROBABLY THE
WORLDS RICHEST MAN.
Hcv from Beggar hoy In the Rice
Fields lie Rose to 80 the Most Power
fol Mandarin In the Celestial Empire
His Peculiarly Picturesque Career.


Fields lie Rose to 10 the Most Power
full Mandarin In the Celestial Empire
His Peculiarly Picturesque Career.
People are apt to believe that Ameri-
ca has a sort of monopoly on the pos
sibiltlcs that exist for the friendless,
helpless boy and that no hand but de-
mocracy can ever show such startling
and rapid evolutions from poverty and
humble surroundings to great wealth
and power, says John Il. Rathon in the
Chicago Times-Herald.
Ii Hung Chang. the "old fox with the
gray goatce," as Vizevona, the Italian
freebooter, once called him, Is man
whose wealth Is reputed to be on a level
with that of the Rockefellers Roths-
rhilds and Nandcrbilts. though stu
dents of Chinese history will tell You
that he could buy up any two of them.
III 1910 this representative of dead"
nation was puny orphan boy, work
ing on rice boat in the marshes of
Hwei Ling, where he was born. His
life was bounded on all sides by the
rice fields.
Imagine this barefoot beggar lad
earning Il few handfuls of food day
for his labor, shut in the heart of a
province crowded with poverty-strick-
en- coolics-a father and mother labor
ers before him. The village settlement,
20 miles away, was n place that, in
his widest dreams, he probably never
hoped to be able to visit. Make little
leap and see this small earth creature
as he Is today; swaying millions of his
countrymen with his bare word. more
powerful in reality than the empress
If he chose to act, the friend and in
innate of the leading potentates and
statesmen of the world the only chan
mel through which the powers can
hope for the pacification of China
and the richest man in the world.
How many other Instances are there
today of vast wealth allied to stntes-
manship, of millionaires being the un-
questioned leaders of their fellow
countrymen? Not one. We are accus-
toned to see great fortunes made III a
cessful stock manipulations placing a
financier in the "six noughts" column,
and to watch n business grow to enor-
nous proportions, enriching its found
CT in what seems to be twinkllng OF
time.
But Ii Hung Chang's cxchequer has
been built up in different way. He
never gambles for he has no need to
take any chances. "Mnny a mickle
makes muckle" seems to have b en-
his policy, and the mild-mannered old
gentleman has done fairly well by
sticking to the tenets of that homely
Scotch proverb.
To understand fully the manner In
which Ii Hung Chang has acquired
his enormous wealth il would be
necessary to understand the whole
system and method of life and govern
ment in China, but in a general way
few facts may throw some light on
the subject. 1t may be said in starting
that Ii Hung Chang, though the great
est, is only one OF China's multi million
aires There are 20 or 80 Of them, and
having had the sagacity to acquire
their wealth, they know pretty we'll
how to take care of 1t. The strongest
European banking institution and gilt
edged government bonds and funds
are the great storehouses of these
Chinese fortunes.
In 1914 Ii Hung Chang by some
freak Of fortune that nobody has ever
been able to discover the truth about,
reached Canton, and year later,
thanks to the way in which n ragged
and friendless beggar lad can seek and
obtain an education while the state
feeds and clothes him in that ''effcte"
and 'barbarous" land, he was admitted
to the famous study cells. In 1910,
after five years of hard work, he out
stripped all competitors and became
secretary to the vicerOy Of Kowloon
Province. In the following year this
viceroy led 10000 men against n rebel
uprising. He was killed in action, and
Ii Hung Chang TOOK his place, pur-
sued the enemy and won great vic
tory.
In 1851 he was called to Pekin and
became secretary of war, and in the
ten years following he studied and
mastered the whole intricate system
OF his country's government. Tha
year 1865 saw him still Il poor young
man, but when he was appointed gov
ernor of Klang Su he began to accu-
mulate money.
In kiang Su are the great salt mines
of China, and the governor of the dis
trict has the privilege of farming" the
monopoly. Then too he begun to round
up the mandarins in his province. They
tried to tell this young, quiet-mannered
governor that they We're only earning
bare living out their fees but he as
tonished them hy exhibiting complete
knowledge of their methods, and soon
80 per cent. of their emoluments went
into his capacious pockets.