Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-26

son. an American who is high in the
confidence of the leading Chinese officials.
He was for long time, and is now. one
of the confidential foreign advisers of
Sheng. and he has been associated in
similar capacity with the viceroys Of
Marking and Wuchang. He accompanied
me to the palace and performed the cere-
mony of Introduction, after which he
left me with Sheng and the Interpreter.
We had but short time to wait. His
excellency came in through side door
and Dr. Ferguson presented me he
reached out his hand and shook mine in
American fashion He used the right
hand, giving me a strong grip with his
long yellow fingers. AS he did so he
looked me straight in the face, and his
bright black eyes seemed to be searching
my soul Indeed his eyes were keen
that the remainder Of his personality was
thrown into the background, and it was
some time before / took in the details.
Then / observed that the eyes belonged
to an old Chinese, of medium height
and STOPPING shoulders. They shone
out of a saliow complexion, over high
cheekbones, and from rather thin face.
His eXcellency was dressed in a long
gown of blue silk. He had black silk
hat on his head. the rim of which was
turned up all around. and out of the
back of which extended broad waving
feather He wore a white turnover
collar and his coat had buttons of gold.
The great financier smiled as he greet
ed me. He led me across the room and
motioned me to sit down at the table.
giving me a chair at his left. which is
sat there, our elbows almost touching,
he rested his left hand on the
table. and. as he became interested in
the talk, now and then tapped the board
with his nails. AS he did So I could not
keep my eyes off his hand. The nails on
the last three fingers-that is. all of
the fingers except the index finger-were
at least three inches long. and the thumb
nail stood out like a spoon. When not
tapping his excelency's hand, resting on
the nails. had the tips of the fingers
raised above the table itself to the height
of an ordinary glass tumbler. and the
wrist was well up eff the table. The
finger nails were as white ivory. and
it struck me that it must be a trouble
some matter to keep them so clean.
The conversation opened with the dis
cussion of the Hanyang steel works,
which l told his excellency l had just
visited. asked him how they were do
ing. He replied that they were steadily
increasing in efficiency and in their
ability to turn out modern rails. struc-
tural steel and other such materials. He
said that the company had already ex-
ported pig iron to America. and that it
could If 1t would, now sell iron there in
competition with the United States steel
trus. at a profit. He said that the day
would come when China would pro-
duce all it's own steel. and that every
province would eventually have its own
factories and foundries. Sheng expects
much from japan as a purchaser of Chi
nese iron and Steel and he considers
our Pacific coast a legitimate tributary Of
the Industrial China of the future.
| asked him as to his iron mines. He
tod hat the S1Innlv a 10 o1p
inexhaustible, and is finer than that of
most parts of the world. It is as pure
as the famed iron of Sweden, and is
much more easily won. AS to the coal
he is now using, this makes fine coke,
and China has been exporting coke to
Japan. His excellency believes that
China has all the materials to make
it a great manufacturing country. and