The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1912-08-16

. - whom he had believed to D.
another example of understandable disappearance
Frederick Townsend Ward had gone to Mexie
more than two years before to sell some old or
nance to the government. Having accomplishe
this in due season, he had suddenly dropped o.
Of ken. on the eve Of supposedly returning hom
Fancy then, the surprise which greeted these woro
IL any act OF SO erratic person could amaze.
II have entered into the Chinese service, hay
very hne prospects at present and hope soon
have comfortable fortune. have been tran
formed from Yankee into Chinaman In goc
style, with good establishment i few daJ
ago, took the second city Of Importance In the vic
royalty from the rebels. have made pretl
good thing Of 1t and hope in lew weeks 20 tal
another city"
This communication was veritable bolt fro
the blue restless, almost penniless vagapon
of q man whom his friends had given up as ios
suddenly emerging in China as master q men q
conuueror OF cities. Our own bloody slaugnt'
house had not yet opened its shambes put p
newspapers were SO absorbed in an extraordlnai
political situation that they gave scarcely par
graph to such a curious piece Of news when y W.
made known to them
4 few weeks later another similar letter reachs
the stafd merchants:
II was then referring to his first letter. about
starting up country, but have since retuIneu'
having been badly wounded while attempting y
scale the walls of Sing Poo City, and was COM
PEELED to- return to Shanghai for treatment. =
got several shot wounds, the worst one went
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, having
used both rather unceremoniously when lounus
having connections with the rebels; but, jack
am independent of them all and consequently
do not care for them
.sChina lis the country for man who Is
able to take risks and Is gifted with good COM
mon sense u have made more money In 9 few
4ho ~ IN
twenty years"
sixty years ago American pulpits and church
conventions rang with the glad tidngs that
Christian movement had sprung, spontaneously
as it were out Of Chinese soil. The future q
missionary efort was thus assured 1t was hoped,
in the poisoning of far-reaching native force
that would speedily win the heather to the ban
ners Of the cross. These hopes, however, were
blasted, as the rise OF the religious cult Of
Makka sch6olmaster 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 grotesque blasphemy came to be under
stood.
Hung SD Tsuen had sought In vain for that
recognition before the literary boards at Canton
which was the passport Of oficial 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 as humble pedagogue he
DGE6H dream pIOpuCSioS
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 hfties to
establish the claim OF the crazy fanatic (Who
protested to be the younger brother OF Jesus
Christ and directly consecrated by the Holy
Ghostl to be the imperial head OF the empire
the annals OF Oriental barbarism, 1t was esti-
mated by conservative opinion that in ten years
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-
ticaily controlled the great provinces Of Kiang.
Su and ShehKiang: 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 on whom their trade so largely
depended
One autumn morning at Shanghai in 1859 a
slight, darkcomplexioned, Misunderstanding
man called at the ONCE Of Tah-ke. q mandarin
Of the third button. banker and merchant well
regarded by the foreign residents.
It 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 q 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. l 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 was Ward7 Born at Salem Mass.
about thrty-two years before his arrival in
China, he came OF race OF deep-sea shippers.
who had sailed on all oceans arctic and tropi-
cal and been noted for their handspike and be-
iaying-pin discipline. Daring and resolution ran
n his blood
AZ the age Of nineteen he had won his arst