Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1912-08-16

Frederick Townsend WafQ nau gone W N1eAlC
more than two years before TO sell some olo Or
napca to the government Having accomplish
this in due season, he had suddenly dropped OF
of ken on the eve of supposedly returning home
Fancy then, the surprise which greeted these word
If any act of so erratic a person could amaze
Il have entered into the Chinese service, nav
very fine prospects at present and hope soon
have a comfortable fortune. / have been tram
formed from a Yankee into Chinaman in goo
style with a good establishment l, a lew day
ago. took the second city of Importance In the vlc
royalty from the rebels. l have made prett
good thing of 1t and hope IN 9 rev weeks 10 Ian
another CITY,"
This communication veritable bolt frol
the blue. restless, almost penn1less 1vagaDon
of man, whom his friends had given up as los
suddenly emerging in China as a master OF men an
a conoueror of cities! Our own bloody slaugnte
house had not vet opened its shambles, but Ia
newspapers were so absorbed in an extraordlnar
political situation that they gave scarcely para
graph to such curious piece OF news Wnen II wa
made known to them.
few weeks later another similar leIler io'
the staid merchant:
II was then referring to his first letter. apout
starting I'D country but have since retufneu'
having been badly wounded while attemptlns =
scale the walls of Sing Poo City, and was conl-
PEELED to return to Shanghai for treatment
got several shot wounds the worst one went
through the cheek and down through the rool
of the mouth. They that is, the missionaries
and some English and Dutch merchants 'a'N
very badly about and my measures, haVlns
used both rather unceremoniously Wnen lounu
having connections with the rebels but Jac ,N
am independent of them all and consequently
dc not care - for them.
"China is the country for man VINO is
able to take risks and is gifted with good COM
mon sense have made more money in lew
weeks than I could at brokerage in New YORK IN
twenty years.
Sixty years ago American pulpits and church
conventions rang with the glad tdlngs tnat q
Christian movement had sprung, spontaneously
as it were out of Chinese soil. The future OF
missionary effort was thus assured, 1t was nopeo
in the poisoning of farreaching native force
that would speedily win the heather to the pan-
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 or MS
tory and the nature of the outrageous travesty
which had perverted 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 crude notion OF
Christian doctrine from Methodist missionary
and when he returned home, crazed by d1sap
pointment to live 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 an army of ragged desperadoes began to
move from west to east in the early ffties to
establish the claim of the crazy fanatic (who
professed to be the younger 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 was est1-
mated by conservative opinion that in ten years
this Internal regime known as the TAPPING rebel
lion had cost the empire some two and 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 Heavenly
King" was enthroned at Marking and he prac-
tically controlled the great provinces of Kiang-
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 it to defend the city,
though nominally amicable terms with the
Marking despot, whom their trade so largely
depended.
One autumn morning at Shanghai in 1859 a
slight dark-complexioned, MISUNDERSTANDING
man called at the Office Of Tah-ke mandarin
of the third button, banker and merchant well
regarded by the foreign residents
1t was Frederick Townsend Ward who had
ust landed in Shanghai from San Francisco He
was rough and seedylooking with sailors roll
in his gait but with glance of fire and solid,
square-set jawbone to redeem his face Tah-ke
Jas not encouraging when Ward spoke of his
desire to enter the Chinese service as 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. 1 didn't come
for that sort of advice. / could make you help
me and help yourself at the same time You
don't see it now, but you will"
Who, then Ward? Born I Salem Mass,
about thirty-two years before mis- arrival In
China, he came OF of deep-sea Shippers
who had sailed on all oceans arctic and tropi-
cal, ard 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