Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1912-08-23

interested him curiousy. 1t was
= @. from old friend and associate,
&@ 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
If any act of erratic person could amaze
II have entered into the Chinese service, have
very fine prospects at present and hope soon te
have a comfortable fortune. ! have been trans
formed from Yankee into Chinaman In goot
style with good establishment l. few day.
ago took the second city of Importance In the vice
royalty from the rebels. l have made prett'
good thing of it and hope in few weeks to take
another city"
This communication veritahle bolt from
the blue restless, almost pennfless vasapone
of man. whom his friends had given up as ios'
suddenly emerging in China as master Oh men ant
a conqueror OF cities! Our own bloody siaughte
house had not yet opened its shambles but TN
newspapers were absorbed in an extraorohai!
political situation that they gave scarcely para
graph to such a curious piece of news when II wa
made known to them.
few weeks later another similar letter reaches
the staid merchant:
81 was then referring to his first letterl apou'
starting up country, but have since returneu'
having been badly wounded while attempting "
scale the walls OF Sing Poo City, and was com
PEELED to return to Shanghai for treatment
got several shot wounds the WORST oho 49,
through the cheek and down through the rooi
of the mouth They that is, the missionaries
and some English and Dutch merchants, u,A
very badly about me and my measures. havihs
used both rather unceremonousy Wnen louIu
having connections with the rebels; put jan jan,
j am independent of them all and consequently
do not - for them
"China is the country for man VINO Is
able to take risks and is gifted with good COM
mon sense l have made more money IN rev
weeks than could at brokerage In New YORK III
twenty years"
Sixty years ago American pulpits and church
conventions rang with the glad tidfngs that u
Christian movement had sprung. spontaneously
as It we're out of Chinese soil. The future Oh
missionary effort thus assured, 1t was hopeu'
in the blossomng Of 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
Makka sehoolmaster developed into one OF tne
most ruthless and devastating civil wars oil MS
tory and the nature of the outrageous uavesty,
which had perverted a few Christian doctrines
into 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-
pontment, to live humble pedagogue, ne
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 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
Ghost) to be the imperial head of the empire
the annals of Oriental barbarism. It was esti-
mated by conservative opinion that in ten years
this Internal regime known the TAPPING rebel
lion had cost the empire some two and half
If and q destruction
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
ticaIy controlled the great provinces of Kang-
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 nominally on amicable terms with the
Marking despot whom their trade 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
Just landed in Shanghai from San Francisco He
was rough and seedylooking with a 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 yolun-
teers
THANK you for nothing" said Ward but I
can do that without your help. didn't come
for that sort of advice. I could make you help
me and help yourself at the same time You
don't see Il now, but you will"
Who then Ward? Born at Salem, Mass.
about thirty-two years before his arrival In
China he came of a of deep-sea shippers
who had sailed on all oceans arctic and tropi-
1000 Cd fO t.nf~ had aDfI.z \
laying-pin discipline. Daring and resolution ran
in his blood.
AT the age of nineteen he had won his first