Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-02-05
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vANKIN3.DThc biggest men oil
NANK1N, The biggest men o.
VI China ere being laid on tho
1 shelf. Shortly after the baby
emperor camo to tho throne
tho prince regent and his party re-
tired tho great Yuan Shih Kni. and
they have now ordered Tuan Fang the
strongest manchu of tho empire. into
dfsrrace;. Tho plea for Yuan Shin
! Kars abdication was that he Ind
lame leg. and hence could not attend
to his official duties. The cause OF the
. dismissal OF Tunn Fang is that he out
raged the proprietics when he hau
charge of the empress dowagers run
eral. allowing foreigners to photograph
the procession, and also that he at
tached heather telegraph wires to the
heavenly trees of the Imperial ceme-
tery. Yuan Shih Kai was the most able
executive China has had for years
Tuan Fang is its ablest statesman he
might be called the father OF the new
constitution, and he has been at the
front In all sorts of reforms. He Is also
n scholar along many lines In some
respects he reminds one of Gladstone.
In others OF Alexander Hamilton. ana
ncain of Schlieman. the great Greek
explorer. He is now in retirement at
PeI<in, and will carry on his studies
there.
QUEER CHINESE THESE.
We Christians have no conception of
Chinese of the class to which Tuan
Fang belongs. We look upon the ceies.
tiaI as a curiosity In the zooloGicai
garden Of International humanity he
lis a sort OF yellow-skinned bird With
out feathers, with eyes cut awry
and a long braid OF hair down his
back. We are told that he dresses In
silk and varies his diet OF rice. rats
and cats with birds nest soup ana
shark fms. We do not credit him with
having n soul. nor with the same
ambitions and tastes as ourselves. inc
truth is these people are as human
as we arc and they think. act and 1eel
in tho same way, :,
The Chinese are divided into all
sorts of classes There are philantho-
pists like Carnegie, who start libraries,
SOM kitchens and hospitals. Tuan
Fang is one of these He recently
bought n classical library and built
home for It in Marking. China has old
milllonaires who hoard their money |
like Rockefeller. and rich young
sports who scatter It as did Hyde OF |
tho EouitabIe Life Insurance COM |
pany Ii Hung Chang was hoarder. |
He built up an estate like the Astors, |
buyinp corner lots In the cities and |
many SQUARE miles of good farming |
lands, His sons are rich. and they take /
care of their properties as well as do
the descendants OF old John Jacob
the fur pedlers who started the
Astor fortunes.
Speaking OF Il l met him for the
third time during his latter days.
when he was vlceroy of Canton. and as
usual he asked me all sorts of ques-
tIons One was as to just how much
money made in the newspaper busi-
ness ] should not like to publish my
answer. but I added that I should be
satisfied II at the end of my life I
could lay up one-flftieth OF the sum
which he was then credited with hay-
Ing.
And how much do your people say
I am WORTH" said the great Ii.
"It is reported that your excellency's
fortune is from flfty to one hundred
million gold dollars" said I interrog-
atively
That is a great deal Of money"
was Ii Hung Changs only reply.
Well. there are but few multimil-
lionaires among these Chinese states-
men, but there are some whose
grating compares with that OF our
own high city officials. Men will pay
n quarter OF a million dollars for a
threc-year job at a thousand-do
salary and come out rolling in wealth.
Thcv squeeze right and left and their
commissions rank with those of the
contractors OF the new statehouse at
h. /
charged Pennsylvania for furniture