The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1912-08-17

Frederick townsend Ward had gone to Mexic
more than two years before to sell some oin ore
nance 70 the government. Having accomplishe
This in due season he had suddenly dropped OF
OF ken on the eve of supposedly returning hoIn
Fancy then the surprise which greeted these worn
If any act of erratic a person could amaze
II have entered into the Chinese service, nav
very fine prospects at present and hope soon
have a comfortable fortune. have been 'rah
formed from a Yankee into a Chinaman In goo
styIe with a good establishment /. a few DAY
ago took the second city OF importance IN the Ne'
ROYALTY from the rebels. ! have made prett
good thing of 1t and hope in a few weeks to TAX
another city"
This communication a vertable bolt froi
the blue A restless almost penniless vagaooh
of a man whom his friends had given up as los
suddenly emerging in China as master oi men ,. a
"A conqueror of citesi Our own bloody slausht'
house had not yet opened its shambles, put III
newspapers absorbed In an extraofulhai
political situation that they gave scarceiy par
graph to such a curious piece OF news "heh II wa
made known to them.
A few weeks later another similar let'ei iNA'~
the stad merchant
"I was then referring to his first letter. apoe
starting up country, but | have since relulneu, w.
having been badly wounded while attempths ~
scale the walls of Sing Poo CITY. ana was w..
pelied to return to Shanghai for treatment
got several shot wounds. the worst one "
through the cheek and down through the io
of the mouth They that Is. the missionaries
and some English and Dutch merchants '
very badly about and my measures ha'ihs
used both rather unceremoniously wheh io"nu
having connections with the rebels; ont' jazz
l am independent Of them all and consequently
do not a - for them.
China is the country for man VINO Is
able take risks and is gifted with good com
mon sense I have made more money IN le"
weeks than could at brokerage IN Ne" 10TH III
twenty years"
Sixty years ago American pulpits and church
conventions rang with the glad udings that Il
Christian movement had sprung, spontaneously
cDi1 o
missionary effort was thus assured, it was hoped
in the blossomne of a far-reaching 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 a
Makka schoomaster developed into of the
most ruthless and devastating civil wars oil MS
tory and the nature of the outrageous traVest!'
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 OF
Christian doctrine from 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
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 ffties to
establish the claim OF the crazy fanatic (who
professed to be the younger brother Of Jesus
Christ and directly eonsecrated by the Holy
GhosD to be the imperial head of the empire.
the annals of Oriental barbarism. 1t esti-
mated by conservative opinion that in ten years
this Internal regime known the TAPPING rebel
lion had cost the empire 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, Tien Wang Heavenly
King" enthroned at Nanking and he prac-
Su and eh-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 nominally amicable terms with the
Marking despot. whom their trade largely
depended.
One autumn morning at Shanghai in 1859 a
slight. dark kcomplexioned, insgnifcant-looking
called at the office Of Tah-ke, mandarin
of the third button. a banker and merchant well
regarded by the foreign residents
1t Frederick Townsend Ward. who had
1ust landed in Shanghai from San Francisco He
rough and seedy-looking, with sailors roll
In his gait but with glance of fire and solid
square-set jawbone to redeem his face Tahke
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 I
can do that without your help, I didn't come
for that sort of advice. l could make you help
me and help yourself at the same time You
don't 1t now, but you will"
Who then was Ward? Born at Salem Mass
about thirty-two years before his arrival in
China. he of Of deep-sea shippers
who had sailed all oceans, arctic and trop.
cal. and been noted for their handspike and be-
laying pin discipline. Daring and resolution ran
1n his blood
At the age of nineteen he had won his FIRST