Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-08-16

y , whom he had believed to be
another example of unaccountable disappearance
Frederick townsend Ward had gone to Mexic
more than two years before to sell some old orc
nance to the government. Having accomplishe
this in due season. he had suddenly dropped ou
of KEN on the eve of supposedly returning nome
Fancy then the surprise which greeted these words
If any act of SO erratic person could amaze.
"I have entered into the Chinese service, nav
very fine prospects at present and hope soon
have a comfortable fortune 1 have been IRAN
formed from a Yankee into Chnaman in goo
STYLE with a good establishment l. few day
ago. took the second city of Importance In the VIC
royalty from the rebels. / have made prett
good thing of 1t and hope In a ie" weeks " Tan
another city"
This communication was veritable bolt iroi
the blue A restless almost penniless vagapon
of a man, whom his friends had given up as los
suddenly emerging in China as a master OF men an IN
a conqueror of cities! Our own bloody siaush.e
house had not yet opened its shambles' put u
newspapers were SO absorbed in an extraordinar
political situation that they gave scarceiy par
graph to such a curious piece Of news when II wa
made known to them
A few weeks later another similar letter re'ene
the staid merchant: ,.
'T was then referring to his first letterl aDou'
starting up country. but have since re.urneu' ~
having been badly wounded while attempting "
scale the walls of Sing Poo City, and was eon
pelled to return to Shanghai for treatment.
got several shot wounds. the worst one "ens
through the cheek and down through the rooi
of the mouth They. that is. the missionaiiss
and some English and Dutch merchants 'a
very badly about and my measures haVins
used both rather unceremoniously wnen iounu ,.
having connections with the rebels; put' 1ach'
] am Independent OF them all anu coheea''
do not - for them
"China is the country for man VINO is
able to take risks and is gifted with good COM
mon sense. I have made more money IN iew
weeks than I could at brokerage in New YORK IN
twenty years"
Sixty years ago American pulpis and church
conventions rang with the glad tdings tnat q
riafia
as it were out of Chinese soil. The future OF
missionary effort thus assured. 1t was hopeo'
in the blossoming of far-reaching native iorce
that would speedily win the heathen to the pan
ners of the cross These hopes, however. were
blasted as the rise of the religious cult OF
Makka schoomaster developed into one Oh tne
most ruthless and devastating civil wars oil 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 the passport of official ambition In
Canton he had absorbed some crude notion oil
Christian doctrine from a Methodist missionary.
and when he returned home crazed by disap-
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 army of ragged desperadoes began to
move from west to east In the early hfties to
establish the claim of the crazy fanatics twho
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 esti-
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. Tien Wang Heavenly
King" 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
sometimes hard put to 1t to defend the city
though nominaly amicable terms with the
Nanking despot. whom their trade largely
depended.
One autumn morning at Shanghai in 1859
slight dark-compexioned. insignifcant-looking
man called at the office Of Tah-ke, a mandarin
of the third button. a banker and merchant well
regarded by the foreign residents.
1t Frederick Townsend Ward, who had
Just landed in Shanghai from San Francisco. He
was rough and seedy-ooking, with sailors roll
in his gait, but with glance of fire and solid
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 1 didn't come
for that sort of advice. I could make you help
me and help yourself at the time. You
don't see II now but you will"
Who then Ward? Born at Salem, Mass,
about thirtytwo 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-
iaying-pln discipline. Daring and resolution
in his blood.
AT the age of nineteen he had his first