The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-14
MINISTER WU'S VERY SHARP TONGUE It Made Epigrams and Enc mics When He Was
 Here Before. POLITELY INQUIsITIvE But Not as Inquisitive as He
 Has Been Charged
 With Being.
POLITELY INQUIsITIvE

Wu Ilng-fang, who IS to return 10 the United States as Chinese minister, has been talked about and written about more than any other diplomatist who ever came to this country from the Orient In fact, it would be hard to name any representative of a Eu- ropean country who in his day figured so extensively in the newspapers as did Wu Ting-fang when he was in Washington before.
 A good deal of nonsense was current about Wu when he was here the last time. Wu's extreme inquisitiveness is the chord that is chiefly harped upon in these yarns.
 Most of the stories of his inquisitive- ness are pure Inventions. Some of them, too, are built out of questions which Ii Hung Chang asked when he travelled through the United States a number of years ago. As matter of fact, Wu Ting-fang was never a patch on Ii Hung Chang for inquisitiveness.
 The little cabal which was organized against Wu before he went back to China from Washington was compris- ed chiefly of persons who had suffered from the sting of Wu's somewhat sharp tongue. He was unquestionably addict ed to the habit of making epigrams, He made some good ones, too, but al- most any epigrafn to be worth while has got to sting, somebody or other. Wu was careless about folks when he got ready to say bring thing, and { that made him no end of enemies. He heard other men giving rein to their tongues when they were so disposed, and he claimed the privilege of doing , that himself He never could see why he should be expected to eat humble pie merely because he was Ciinaman. But the victims of his wit were touchy about things said to or about them by Wu solely because he was Chinese. They would have laughed off the same things had they been said by the &C., cepted wits of the Caucasian race. < Once, for example, at dinner in Washington, Wu, who sat next to John Sharp Williams, the minority leader in the House Of Representatives indulged in a bit of bandinage in the course of which he said that while he might be considered simply useful, Wil- Hams was, in addition, ornamental. 1 Williams, who Is a singularly plain looking man took that to heart. He figured that Wu was making a crack about his plain looks.
 Maybe Wu didn't mean it that way i at all, and was only endeavoring to make a little agreeable dinner talk. But John Sharp never cared for Wu after that dinner.
 Certain persons fin this country be- came excited at the time when, short ly before Wu's departure for home, il was announced that in public speech l he had 'put Confucius above Christ. T The fact was that Wu made a com parison between the Confucian tenets and the dogrnas of Christianity. He rated Confucius and Christ side by side as immortal world instructors"
 Then he went on to say that any human being who lived according tc the doctrines either of Confucius or oi Christ would be doing pretty well with his life in this world. The trouble, he added was that so few folks lived ir actual accordance with the spirit eth. CT of the Confucian or of the Christian law. Then he quoted some of the say ings of Confucius that bore a resem blance to certain utterances of the Saviour. But he certainly did not "put Confueiue above Christ"
 Wu came in for a heap of censurt at the time he visited the senate com. nittee "unheralded and unannounced, , as the stories at the time went, ant made his little talk in the interest O. his countrymen. We always had quite a different story to tell, privately about that affair
 He said that happening to be at thu Capitol he met a certain western sen ator who invited him to the senat, committee room to give the Chimes, side of the matter, then before tn, committee Wu was glad to take ad vantage of chance to get his side O. the story before the country, and henc, the address he made. He was savegely attacked throughout the country fol having presumed to address a senat committee without having been asked and he certainly was game enough {, stand the gaff without coming ou with a statement as to how the thini came about
 There isn't any doubt that Wu dit ask lot of questions when he was il the United States before, But 1t i open to a great deal of doubt that h. meant any discourtesy by so doing.
 One of the main tenets of Chinese eti quette is that the Chinaman, whel away from his own land, should evinc the keenest possible interest in tn personal, social, business and other af fairs of foreigners with whom he come into contact, The underlying spirit o this tenet is that the party of the sec ond part should be fiattered to hay anybody of rank take so much interes in his affairs.
 Ii Hung Chang was most persist ent practitioner of this form of Chimes politeness when he made his tour o the States, and he never suspected bu that he was making all kinds of hlt | Wu, it Is fair to presume, must hay had much the same sort of idea wher early in his residence in the Unite States, he subjected folks to the quiz zlng process.
 At that Wu wasn't progressively in quisltive. He had very agreeable wa | of asking such questions as popped int l his hnad And when he uas nnrrlnf