The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-02-06
lis nxcELLENcY RECEIVED ME IN A LARGE pARLoR

for furniture and finishings at SO many
dollars per inch.
A Chinnman Who Cares Nothing for
Money.
I also know Chinese who cannot be
bought, who work for their country
so of Tuan Fang, and 1t was SO Of
Chang Chi TunE, who died few
months ago. Chang Chi Tung had OPP
portunities to make incalculable
wealth but he died comparatively
moor. He cared more for scholarship
than for the dollar and ranked as a
leader of the literati.
Tuan Fang will live simply at Pc
king. He has an establishment there,
but his private fortune is small. When
met him here at Marking about eight
OF the greatest provinces of the lower
Yangtse valley. and under him was
a population larger than that of the
United States. He was ruling a coun-
try so rich that it almost raises gold
dollars. 1t has scores of walled cities
and thousands of villages. 1t Is so
thickly settled that much OF Its sup
ports more than man to the acre,
and is so cut up by canals and dykes
that one can go to every mans house
in a boat The region includes such
cities as Shanghai, the New York of
China; soochow, the Manchester, and
Marking. the classical, reminding one
of Boston. 1t has thousands of fac
tories and it huns like n beehive. OF
these provinces Tuan Fang was the
absolute ruler and his income was
greater than that of the smaller Eu-
ropean kings. He had a large corps
of government clerks and most of his
| subordinates We're laying up fortunes.
! The taotai, or mayor, of Shanghai, was
| getting about $1,000 a year as NOM
inal salary, bur the office was SO valu-
able that within three years it made
him Independently rich. The mayors OF
other cities were receiving large sums,
4 and of all that camc into the treasury
i doubt not tnat every hand through
Il which it passed pinchcd out a portion.
4 Nevertheless, there We're millions left
Il for the viceroy, and he might have
made himself rich beyond the dreams
of avarice. He did not All of the
Isurplus went into public improvements
and into the carrying on of reforms
I of this new Chinese movement.
A Chinese Rcformer.
The work of this man is an evidence
of what is going on out here in what
is supposed to be the deadest country
of the world. Tuan Fang yanked up
the dry skeleton of Chinese conserva-
tism and put on 1t the flesh and blood
OF our civilization. He organized all
sorts of reforms in his various cities.
Here at Marking he established indus
trial schools. commercial schools and
n school for teaching silk culture. He
had schools of law and debating soci-
cites for the study Of the new Consti-
tuition. He established an academy
for the customs officers, and there were
meetings night after night where the
people were educated in modern gov
eminent He reorganized the courts,
the police and the prisons. He built
roads in the cities and established fac
tories and industries. He had one
government hospital which treated 500
patients a day, and among the assist
ants were women physicians and nurses
educated abroad. He sent Chinese stu
dents to tho United States and had
coeducational school in his own prov
tnce. He did what he could to wipe
out opium In the Yangtse Valley. and
had opium hospitals here and else
where. He did much to push railroads.
A line was constructed from the river
to Marking, and he aided in building
the railways northward to Picking and
Tientsin.
Tuan Fang and the Rebels.
Tuan Fang did so much In the line
of reform that he aroused the enmity
of the conservatives, and they tried
TO assassinatc him. The Chinese OBJ