Evening star., 1901-11-09
TO Ii % E:.,.sssE RI L

'sWhatkxHr elsa Ii Hung Chang may have
been-and there were a million stories
about HIN, one of which. you'll recall. was
that he Elasntfa "a fChinaman at all, hut
Swedel who had slanded In China as
young cabin Boys frdma merchant ship-he
was decidedly tffite most monumental walk
Ing intergpgatioR point that ever came
across, and FNeamet some mighty inauisi-
tive menu saids New York newspaper
man whoais no6s stationed in Washington
with fbur other newspaper men inter-
viewed Lb in his apartments when he ar-
rived in EeweYork five years ago. He re-
ceived usiswfe1 his encourage about him,
and he permitted ms interpreter to do the
talking. although Ii spoke good Engusn;
The information that we went aiteI snu
that we didn't get out OF the ceiss.,si 81.
statesman would have filled a large oooh,
but the points relative to the pupiic anu
private history of five unpretentious news
paper reporters that Lii picked up IN Ihe
progress of that queer seance were SUI
a-plenty.. observed that one OF La sui.e .Se
was writing rapidly on tablets curing tns
progress of the talk, and when l inquireo
afterward of the interpreter what the man
was writing the interpreter Dianoiy II
formed me that he had taken notes OF tue
entire interview in Chinese shorthand, SO
that the records of the five or us are proo-
ably now on file in the archives Oh the
f1owery kingdom. -
editors to get If possible, a talk out or Ii
relative to the Chinese foreign policy, with
particular reference to RUSSIA put we
might just as we'll have asked sucn ques-
tions Of the Sphinx. l was elected spokes,
man by the other reporters. ana Ea9
my little list of questions neatly tapuiateo
in my mind when we were presehteo 70
China's great individual. :! started 10 put
one of the queries when Ii Interrupted me
with wave Of his hand, and then ne noa-
ded amiably to all of us in turn. Ihen ne
turned to his interpreter and said some
thing to him in Chinese.
prefer, addressing us, how OLD each Oh you
IT asked the other four in turn how old
they were, and when they told me toIo
the Interpreter, giving also my own age,
and the Interpreter conveyed the ln1of1na-
tion to Li-while that scribe feliow WIN
the tablets and the Chinese system OF
shorthand went ahead writing at great
rate.
From then on the interpreter simply
served as medium through which LII
Hung Chang asked questions
How are you paid daily or weekly!
the Chinese boss wanted to know.
How much do you get a week? the IN
terpreter then asked, and. as couidn
speak for the other four fellows, and as
did not consider the question material,
anyhow, I replied:
lone thousand dollars week each
"You should have seen the interpreters s
and LIS eyes open when l sprung that
ferocious falsehood. I don't imagine that
they believed nett couldn't have been
possible that they did-but both LII ana the
interpreter appeared to look upon us with
considerably more respect from tnat mo mo-
ment on. Maybe it was because they knew
that I was lying-the Chinese diplomats.
understand, think a great deal OF a nrst-
rate, tip-top. rip-rearing liar
"'What do you do with the money" was
the question the interpreter hurled at me
then at LIS dictation.
IAN of sus grinned then, of course. as 1t
was ,Ifo to.4s teIdo. But l didn't want to
be too gay and thus spoil at least the
chance sat length getting an interview
from the famous Chinaman, and so made
the best reply could to the question: 1oid
the interpreter that such little items as
food and drink and raiment and an occa-
sional smoke and ride on the cars managed
to consume most Of our money that we
weren't laying aside for the purchase OF
steam yachts race horses and 9th avenue
residences.
Are you ,rnarried? Ii wanted TO know
then. - 40 ..-s- Res"
ut happened that we all were. and 1 re-
piled to that effect So.
srhe best, ever, replied T.. not flip
PANTY. but lnere for the purpose of lodging
=" .Hayeayo,r, cffiIdren?. came along then.
+ 81 hadet ask two of the others whether
they had any Fg0Ang ones or: not and then
Llmades the fitting reply r4ra g. 49,
- He says that you have not enough chill
dren.9 said the Interpreter when had re-
piled. a-s--7. ssT. 5--s
e..Well, We all had to hang our heads and
look sorry,s of course, but in view Of the
fact that I had told the Interpreter that one
of, the crowd had eight children, the crit
icisrn appeared a bit unreasonable.
. Are your wives pretty and domestic?
the interpreter inquired then, after his lit
tie talk with. Ii Hung Chang. ..
81 don't remember just how l. eyaded
that one zs..,..s
Ii wanted to know then through the In
terpreter 1 replied No. and then he
wanted to know why not. When I said
that our wives had never even met and
that the five of us only happened to be
together accidentally, Ii wanted to know
If we didn't like each other. and IL our
wives wouldn't like each other If they met;
if there was anything unsatisfactory in
the conduct of any of us or our wives that
caused us TO desire to hold aloof from
each other. I had to hum and haw out of
all this the best way 1 could, and all the
were kicking me on the leg from the rear
to urge me to hop in and get that talk
out of Ii about the Chinese foreign policy.
was sparring around for an opening, when
the interpreter came at me again, after
whispered conference with his master.
"'He wants to know said the inter-
prefer, If your friend to the left of you
does not d drink m to to excess-he says that he
Now, the good kindly fellow on my left
one of the best newspaper men that ever
worked In New York, had very for;d
countenance, but he scarcely ever touched
a drop of drink. He went pretty red over
this jolt. but he spoke up to me in an un-
dertone.
"'Telf him that Just eat whisky said
he to me, but I didn't say anything of the
sort replied that the man on my left
was total -abstainer
"And that's the way that interview went
for fully half an hour. There never was
minute when I had a chance to slip in
query pertinent to our mission in seeing
Ii Hung Chang. Every time that started
question along the ways the Interpreter
would gaze blandly at me and ask me
another question, and I had to reply to
1t some Old way or be looked upon as
boor. After I'd been under the gun in this
manner for half an hour Ii made a nice
little smiling bow to each of us in turn
again, executed a sweeping gesture with
his right hand and we were immediately
surrounded by the bunch of richly ar-aved
stolid-looking Chink attendants and gently
ushered into the hall That's how we didn't
interview Ii Hung Chang. 1t was put-un
job on his part. OF course, and he worked
1t all along the line while I'm this country