The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-06

copyright, l9lV, by FRANK u. Sai peti'ei. =
Marking.
"HE biggest men of China are be-
ing laid on the shelf. Shortly
1 after the baby emperor came te
the throne the prince regent and MS
party retired the great Yuan Shin kal
and they have now ordered Tuan Fang
the strongest Manohu of the Empire
into disgrace. The plea for Yuan Shin
I<at's abdication was that he had lame
leg and hence could not attend 10 ms
OFFICIAL duties The cause OF the disfnlssa
of Tuan Fang In that he outraged the
properties when he had charge Oh .ne
empress dowager's funeral allowing ioI
eigners to photograph the processivn'
and also that he attached heatheh 'eie-
graph wires to the heavenly trees Oh tne
irnnerial cemetery. Yuan Shin nal was
tba most able executive China has had
for wears. Tuan Fang Is its ablest states
man. He might be called the rather
of the new constitution, and ne mas Oeeh
at the front in all sorts OF reforms -
ia also a scholar along many INES. ~
ron,a rasnecte he reminds one or Giao-
stone in others of Alexander Haih l,l''u,,
and again of Schlieman. the srea' ~ -
exnlorer. He is now in re.ireinens
Pekin and will carry on MS
there.
Queer Chinese, These.
We Christians have no concepeioi -
Chinese of the class TO wnlch ludn IS
Sn lines, W. look upon the celestial as
= o,,rjositv in the geological garden VI
International humanity. He IS SUI -
,,siIow-sl,inned bird without feathers. WIN
ewes cut awry and long praio u - -
down his back. We are toio esat &c
dresses in silk and varies his olet u
80 ats and cats with birds nest soup
aud shark fins. We do not cleate ~.
with having a soul. nor with tne s, III
ambitions and tastes as ourselves Ane
truth is these people are az 1eai IN the
we are and they think, act ana leei III 'Ae
same way. -. IN sor+s
THE chinese are divided into all sor.s
of classes. There are philanthropIa.e
like Carnegie, who start libraries 'ous
lritchens and hospitals. Tuan rang 10
ono of these He recently bought ciass
ical library and built nome LOT ~ -,
Marking. China has old lhhiionn,i
who hoard their money Ike Rocheisiei,
and rich young sports who scatter AZ "o
did HYDE of the Equitable Life insurance
connauy. Lii Hung Chang vas hoaroer'
He buiit lin an estate like the Aslors'
h1,vi11g corner lots in the cities ana many
square miles of good farming lahds. MS
sons are rich, and they take care VI .iiota
nronerties as well az do the descendants
of old John Jacob, tho fur peddler, VINO
started the Aston fortunes.
Speaking OF Ii, met him for the thlro
time during his latter days, when ne was
vicerov of Canton, and as usual he asked
mo ali SORTS of questions. One was as to
lust how much money I made In the
nevgpaper business. I should not IKE
to publish my answer. but [ added that
I should be satisfied If at the END OF my
life I could lay up one-flftieth of the sum
which he was then credited with having.
And how much do your people say
am WORTH" said the great LII
1T is reported that your exceliency
fortune is from fifty to one hundred mil
lion gold dollars" said 1 interrogatively
THAT is great deal OF money, was
Ii Hung Changes only reply.
Well. there are but few multimillion-
aires among these Chinese statesmen, but
there are some whose grating compares
with that of our own high city officials
Men will pay quarter of a million dol
lars for three-year job at a thousand
dollar salary and come out rolling In
wealth. They squeeze right and left and
their commissions rank with those OF the
contractors of the new statehouse at
Harrisburg, WIN, you remember. charged
Pennsylvania for furniture and f1nishings
at 30 many dollars per inch.
A chinaman Who Cares Nothing for
Money.
I also know Chinese who cannot be
bought, who work for their country and
do good for goods sake. This is so of
Tuan Fang and it was so of Chang Chi
Tung, who died few months ago. Chang
Chi Tung had opportunities to make in
calculabfe wealth, but he died compare
80 hole
ship than for the dollar and ranked as
leader of the literati.
Tuan F.ng will live simply al Pekin.
He has Al establishment there, but his
private fortune is small. When I met him
here at Ranking about. eight months ago
he was the viceroy OF three OF the great
est pro gnces of the lower YanStze val
ley. aid under him was a population
larger than that of the United States. He
was ruling a country so rich that II al
most raises gold dollars. 1t has scores
of walled cities and thousands of viii
lagos 1t liz so thickly settled that much
of /, supports more than man to the
acre. and is go cut up by canals and
dykes that one can go to every mans
house in a boat The region includes
sucn cities as Shanghai. the New York
OF China: Soochow, the Manchester, and
Marking. the classical, reminding one of
Boston. 1t has thousands of factories
and it huns like g. beehive. or these
provinces Tuan Fang was the absolute
ruler and his income was greater than
that of the smaller Eui opean kings. He
had large corps Of government clerks
and most of his subordinates were laying
up fortunes. The taotai. or mayor, OF
Shanghai was getting about $1,000 a year
as a nominal salary but the office was
so valuable that within three years 1t
made him Independently rich. The
mayors of other cities were receiving
large sums, and Of all that came into
the treasury 1 doubt not that every hand
through which it passed pinci1ed out
portion Nevertheless. there were mil
lions left for the viceroy, and he might
have made himself rich beyond the
dreams of avarioe He did not. All Of
the surplus went into public improve
n7ents and into the carrying on of re-
forms of this new Chinese movement.
A Chinese Reformer
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 conservatism
and put on it the flesh and blood of
our civilization. He organized all sorts
of reforms in his various cities. Here
at Marking, he established Industrial
schools, commercial schools and a school
for teaching silk culture. He had schools
of law and debating societies for the