Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1912-08-28

XIII a letter from Shanghai, China which
interested him curously. 1t was
a-a.@ from an old friend and associate,
. - b whom he had believed to be
another example OF unaccountable disappearance.
Frederick Townsend Ward had gone to Mexico
more than two years before to sell some old ord
nance to the government Having accomplished
this in due season, he had suddenly dropped out
OF ken on the eve OF supposedly returning home
Fancy then the surprise which greeted these Words
II any act of so erratic person could amaze
Il have entered into the Chinese service have
very fine prospects at present and hope soon to
have a comfortable fortune have been trans
formed from a Yankee into a Chinaman In good
style with a good establishment J. few days
ago took the second city OF Importance In the vice
royalty from the rebels. l have made a pretty
good thing Of 1t and hope in a few weeks to take
another city"
This communication was a vertable bolt from
the blue. restless, almost penniless yagaoopc
of a man. whom his friends had given up as lost
suddenly emerging in China as a master OF men aho
a conqueror of cities Our own bloody slaughter
house had not yet opened its shambles, but th'
newspapers were so absorbed in extraordinary
political situation that they gave scarcely para
graph to such a curious piece OF news When II "a'
made known to them.
A few weeks later another similar letter reache'
the staid merchant:
II was then referring to his first letterI apou'
starting up country, but have since returned
having been badly wounded while attempting 10
scale the walls Of Sing Poo City, and was com,
PEELED to return to Shanghai for treatment
got several shot wounds the worst one "e"s
through the cheek and down through the rool
OF the mouth They that is, the missionaries
and some English and Dutch merchants, taiK
very badly about and my measures haVlns
used both rather unceremoniousy When lounu
having connections with the rebels; but JACK
I am independent Of them all and consequently
do not care -- for them.
China is the country for man VINO 10
able to take risks and is gifted with good com
mon sense. / have made more money in rev
weeks than l could at brokerage in New YORK IN
twenty years"
Sixty years ago American pulpits and church
conventions rang with the glad tidings that a
Christian movement had sprung, spontaneously
as It were out Of Chinese soil. The future OF
missionary effort was thus assured, 1t was hoped
in the poisoning of a far-reaching native torce
that would speedily win the heather to the ban
ners Of the cross. These hopes, however, were
blasted as the rise Of the religious cult OF
Makka schoolmaster developed into one of the
most ruthless and devastating civil wars OF his
tory and the nature OF the outrageous travesty,
which had perverted a few Christian doctrines
into a grotesque blasphemy came to be under
stood.
Hung Su Tsuen had sought in vain for that
recognition before the literary boards at Canton
which was the passport Of official ambition. In
Canton he had absorbed some crude notion OF
Christian doctrine from a Methodist missionary
and when he returned home, crazed by disap
pointment, to live as a humble pedagogue, he
began to dream dreams and speak prophecies as
one directly inspired from heaven. AS time
went on, his propagandism drew to its banner
hordes from the ranks of discomfort and crime
and army Of ragged desperadoes began to
move from west to east in the early ffles to
establish the claim of the crazy fanatic (who
IN ha no brother of JesuS
Christ and directly consecrated by the Holy
Ghost) to be the imperial head of the empire
the annals of Oriental barbarism. 1t est-
mated by conservative opinion that In ten years
this Internal regime known the TAPPING rebel
lion had cost the empire some two and a half
billions of dollars and the destruction of several
millions of lives by war, starvation and whole
sale massacres.
Hung Su Tsuen, as Tien Wang or Heavenly
King" was enthroned at Marking and he prac-
tically controlled the great provinces of Klang-
Su and Sheh-Kiang the heart Of the richest
tea and silk production Of China. His robber
bands indeed raided down to the very gates Of
Shanghai. and the foreign merchants there were
sometimes hard put to 1t to defend the city,
though nomnally amicable terms with the
Marking despot, on whom their trade so largely
depended
One autumn morning at Shanghai in 1859 a
slight dark-complexioned, MISUNDERSTANDING
man called at the office Of Tahke, a mandarin
of the third button, banker and merchant well
regarded by the foreign residents.
1t was Frederick Townsend Ward, who had
Just landed in Shanghai from San Francisco. He
was rough and seedylooking, with sailors roll
in his gait, but with glance of fire and Did
square-set jawbone to redeem his face. Tah-ke
was not encouraging when Ward spoke Of his
desire to enter the Chinese service as a free
lance and answered that he could get a belly
full of fighting by joining the Shanghai volun-
teers
Thank you for nothing" said Ward, "but
can do that without your help. l didn't come
for that sort of advice. I could make you hep
me and help yourself at the same time. You
don't see 1t now but you will"
Who, then was Ward? Born at Salem, Mass
about thrty-two years before his arrival in
China, he came of race of deep-sea shippers
who had sailed all oceans arctic and trop
cal and been noted for their handspike and be-
layingpin discipline Daring and resolution ran
in his blood
AT the age of nineteen he had won his first