The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-08-16
BY CT. FERRIS
q 8y RnoGhGAr co

chinery and junk business received
a letter from Shanghai. China, which
" interested him curiously. 1t was
#MEEs2 ID from an old friend and associate,
aIExEhA8 ID whom he had believed to be
..,tbsr example Of unaccountable disappearance
sn% r.osor,ck townsend Ward had gone to Mexico
;. tban two years before to sell some old ord
~ ~. 70 the government. Having accomplished
~ = n dne season, he had suddenly dropped GU
y sn on the eve of supposedly returning home
T,ncv then. the surprise which greeted these words
a~ nur ot Of 30 cratic a person could amaze.
az have entered into the Chinese service, have
- ere PROSPECTS at present and hope soon t
1--we a comfortable fortune. ! have been trans
Srnad from a Yankee into a Chinaman in goot
..ya with a good establishment. l. a few days
~ took the second city Of importance in the vice
rnvalty from the rebels. | have made a pretty
sond thing of it and hope in a few weeks to take
another city"
This communication was a veritable bolt from
,o blre A restless, almost penniless vagabont
n a man, whom his friends had given up as lost
Suddenly emerging in China as a master OF men ano
. connneror of cities! Our own bloody slaughter
holse had not yet opened its handles, but the
newspapers were so absorbed in an extraordinary
no,tttcal situation that they gave scarcely a para
graph to such a curious piece Oh news "heh " W."
MN A few weeks later another similar letter reached
n o "N0S
the staid merchant:
81 was then referring to his first letter. apou'
starting UP country, but l have since returneo'
having been badly wounded while attempting "
scale the walls Of Sing Poo City, and was cum,
peled to return to Shanghai for treatment
got several shot wounds, the worst one wen.
through the cheek and down through the TOOL
Of the mouth. They, that is, the missionaries
and some English and Dutch merchants, taik
very badly about me and my measures, ! ha'lhs
used both rather unceremoniously when lounu
having connections with the rebels; but, JACK
| am independent of them all and consequently
do not care a -- for them.
China Is the country for a man who Is
able to take risks and is gifted with good COM
mon sense. / have made more money in a le"
weeks than I could at brokerage in New YORK III
twenty years."
Sixty years ago American pulpits and church
conventions rang with the glad tidings that q
Christian movement had sprung, spontaneously
as II we're out of Chinese soil. The future OF
missionary effort was thus assured, 1t was hoped,
In the bossoming of a far.reaching native force
that would speedily win the heather to the ban
nay Of the cross. These hopes, however, were
blasted, as the rise of the religious cult or a a
Makka s~choolmaster 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 Dlaspheny, came 10 De unoer-
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-
pontment, to live as a humble pedagogue, he
began to dream dreams and speak prophecies as
one directly inspired from heaven. AS time
wnnt M hi. oo rIi.o, dnorp q Zee hannah
hordes from the ranks of discomfort and crime,
and an army Of ragged desperadoes began to
move from west to east In the early fftes to
establish the claim of the crazy fanatic (who
professed to be the younger brother OF Jesus
Christ and directly consecrated by the Holy
Ghos) 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 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.
ucally controlled the great provinces Of Kiang-
gu 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,
lnough nominally on amicable terms with the
Nanking despot, on whom their trade 80 largely
one autumn morning at Shanghai in 1859 a
shght' dark-complexioned, MISUNDERSTANDING
man called at the office OF Tah-ke, a mandarin
u the third button, a banker and merchant well
regarded by the foreign residents.
II was Frederick Townsend Ward, who had
Just landed in Shanghai from San Francisco. He
was rough and seedylooking, with a sailors roll
his gait, but with a glance of fire and a solid,
Squareset jawbone to redeem his face. Tah-ke
was not encouraging when Ward spoke of his
ueSFe to enter the Chinese service as a free
lance, and answered that he could get a belly.
~
Ihank you for nothing" said Ward, but I
an 40 that without your help. / didn't come
~ mat sort Of advice. l could make you help "
~ and help yourself at the same time. You
see 1t now, but you will"
VINO, then was Ward? Born at Salem, Mass, &
r, thirty-two years before his arrival in 4,
lima Una ne came OF a race OF deep-sea shippers,
M ~ mad sailed on all oceans, arctic and tropi.
=, ana been noted for their handspike and be.
q his blood.
a the age OF nineteen he had won his first