Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-20
.7s I'D

honor. and his bones rest in the cemetery
of Confucius. Even the British, who,
with reason. viewed him with suspicion.
have paid tribute to his worth. BY one
of their historians he has been termed
the American Give. Yet here in the
United States, and even in the old witch
town Of Salem, where he was born, COM
paratively few persons ever heard of
him OF ever read about him. Ward GER
tainly deserves at least the grateful re-
membrance OF the people of his native
land.
In the days of the nations peril he
opened wide his purse for the land he
loved, and at the time of the Trent affair,
when it seemed as If England and the
United States would come to war, he
planned to seize the warships and mer-
chant vessels of Great Britain then i'll
chinese waters. Not only that, but when
ne was at the height of his fame he
sought to close up his affairs and give
UP his high offices in China in order to
take part in the civil war. Man could
do no more, yet America may be said
to know him not.
Too bad Ward did not live a little
longer He did not find himself. he never
really had an opportunity to show the
stuff he was made of, until he was TWEEN
was dead. But into those two years he.
crowded more of action. more Of spec
tacular achievement, more OF picturesque
ness than ever man of foreign birth did
in China before or since From a COM
mon adventurer, a rover over the world.
soldier of fortune whose sword was
at the service of the highest bidder
mercenary of mercenaries who went to
battle for the loot that was TO be his if
victory perched on his banner, he rose to
be admiral general OF the empire,
mandarin of the first rank. and the
founder of the ever victorious army that
saved the throne to the Manchu dynasty
China was in sorry state when Ward.
restle S and almost penniless. arrived in
Shanghai late in the year 1859. He had
been born in Salem in 1851, and fate it
seemed. had frowned on him in almost
everything he undertook. AS a boy he
yearned for military life. and when ne
was in the Salem High School his chief
ambition was to get to West Point Pow
erty kept him from that. Disappointed. he
became sailor. After few voyages ne
tried ship brokering in New York and
made failure of 1t. Then he took To the
sea again. When the Crimean war
started he enlisted in the army of France
and fought so well that he won a lieuten-
ancy. After the war he returned TO the
sea. He joined Walkers tiIibustering
party in Nicaragua. and i'll one of the lulls
in the strife in that country he resumed
his wanderings over the globe.
From Nicaragua he went to California
and from San Francisco he drifted To
Shanghai. He was ready for anything
that turned up. and China just tnen was
big with opportunity. For ten years the
empire had been In the throeS of a mighty
conflict, and anarchy retgned in more
than half the country.
The Tae-ping rebellion. starting in an
al ar IN "a r.4fnr nh.
called himself the Heavenly King and
who professed form of religion having
some resemblance 10 Christianity. had
spread year after year until province
after province had been conquered and
the government at Peking was in immi-
nent danger Only few ports were open
10 the commerce of the world. The i'm
pertal government was unable. even had
IL any particular desire, to prevent the
rebels from interfering with the resi-
dents of the treaty ports. The governor
ship OF province was a matter OF barter
and sale and the governor usually showed
more concern in the progress of the re-
beliion than did the imperial authorities.
hemmed in by their centuries-old preju-
dices and conceits.
To the Chinese merchants OF the treaty
ports the rebellion was a source of much
alarm The rebels hated the foreign
devils more even than did the Pekng
government. They were for China for
the Chinese England and France had
warships at all the open ports to protect
their interests, but this protection was
confined TO only the range of the ships
guns The whole country beyond was
overrun. Each city had to look after it,
self. II held by the imperialists and
captured by the rebels II was subject to
loot, II held by the rebels and captured
by the imperialists II paid as heavy a
toll. Aside from the rebel armies and
the various imperial armies, indt pendent
armies OF robbers. which sometimes num-
bered 10000 men, roamed the country
over. plundering wherever opportunity Of
fered-
Each city was walled, and around each
wall was a moat. Conditions were about
the same as existed in the early DAYS
when robber bands swept over Europe
and each city or each province had TO
look TO itself for protection.
While the attitude of England France
and other nations toward the imperial
government and the rebels ostensibiy was
one of neutrality. the concern of the men
i'm command OF the warships at the open
ports was TO prevent so far possible,
Il