The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-08-19
How China Saved OO,OOO,O 600
Taels-Li's Fortitude Versus
That of Roosevelt-Stofies Of
His Attempted Assassination
The Chinese Necromancer-
What Ii Says of The Empress
Dowaxer-Christianity Versus
Confucianism and How The
Great Victory Put Them on a
Par - The New Christian
Movement in China, Etc.


N<'Iy
penter.)
Washington, D. G.
spent an evening this week with
IA man who for more than half a cen
tury. has been molding the affairs OF
nations-a man who has formed not
only an integral part Of our domestic
and diplomatic history. but who has
had much to do with making the his
tory of others Of the great world pow
ers. Born in Indiana during the
presidency of Andrew jackson, he
graduated at the State University
there when Franklin Pierce was still
In the White House. He carried on his
law studies at Harvard during the first
years Of James Buchanan's admins
trstion, and with the single exception
~ Andrew Johnson, ha has neld I'M
po;tant commissions signed by every
rresident since then from Abraham
Lincoln down to and including Will
liam Howard Taft, OF blessed memory.
refer to John w. Foster, soldier, am
baSsador, secretary of state, interna-
tional lawyer. statesman AMI author,
who now at seventy-seven has an eye
- bright and a mind as keen as whe:l
he began the practice Of law a,
Evansville, Ind, more than fifty
three years ago.
Gen. Foster graduated from college
NJ tnt age Oh ~. lie ptSdu ~ pTdt'
tice law at p. and he was not yet 2;
when, without solicitation, he wa
made a major in the United States
army. That was in 1861. He LON
manded "A regiment during thu war
being made lieutenant colonel an
colonel. and was mustered out at it
close at the head OF a division OF cav
airy as brigadier general.
Mr.. Fosters diplomatic career be
gan before he was forty. Genera
Grant then made him our minister I
Mexico and from that time to this h
has been more or less connected wit
our diplomatic history. He has req
resented the United States as minis
ter or ambassador in Russia an
Spain. n he has been a special en-
Voy to make teratieS with such cOuE
Tries as Great Britain, Russia. Ger
many and Brazil. AS an information;
lawyer during the intervals OF n
diplomatic services ne has acted
the counselor OF Mexico, China an
other nations. and he was invited /
the Emperor Of China to aid in brins
Ing about the treaty OF peace wit
Japan at the close Of its great W.
with that country. In those negoti;
lions he saved China an immense 10
NJ territory, and the actual paymel
Of more than SIS, 00O, 600.
As an author Gen. Foster has ad,
ed much to the valuable history
our country. His Century of Anne
lean Diplomacy" published in 100
is a standard textbook in our &C
leges: his other diplomatic wor1
car he found in every library. and l
diplomatic Memoirs printed
1909, are intensely interesting al
have had a large sale.
To interview a man like this max
one feel as Aladdin must have f,
when he first rubbed the old lamp
the fave and saw the vast quantiti
of gold and jewels about him.
hid not know what to taxi first. Gt
Foster has done SO much. been
hard to know what questions to a
or what lines of his life to touch.
| have settled this question in
Nor Of China, and that because of I
manuscript of a diary of Ii HUI
Chang which Gen. Foster has be
examining, with the purpose of WI
ing an introduction thereto, for
lIouShton Miftlin Company. 1t is
generally known that this diary is
existence. 1t consists of m
and notes collected from the archi
81 the high offices which Ii HI
chang held during the s~eventy-ei
years "f his life. 1t begins with
early manhood and runs from tn
on until his death in 1901. giving m
interesting pictures of what has b
going on behind the scenes in