The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-01-11
GENERALHOMERLEA
NOVEMBER IL, 1S76---NOVEMBER 1, 1912
BY CHARLES E. VAN LOAN, IN HARPERs WEEKLY


The death Of General Homer Lea in
his seth year removed from the the
alter of world events a figure absolute
ly unique, without a fellow in history,
and ended career stranger than any
to be found in romantic fiction.
A hopeless cripple from early child
hood, pitiably deformed, never free
from pain and the bondage of physical
weakness, this young American held
commission as acknowledgement of
Chinese revolutionary troops before
he was 25 years of age; at 80 he was
the author of work on modern war
fare which amazed the military eX-
perts of many nations and gave him
permanent place as an authority on
the subject; at 35 he was the conf
Dental adviser of the first President
of the Chinese republic, and yet his
one regret was that he had accom-
plished so little! 1t is hard to meas
ure a spirit like that by ordinary stan
dards.
1t is impossible to guess what he
might have done had he lived ten years
longer. His ambition was limitless.
His belief in himself was absolute.
All sorts of vague stories have been
told about Homer Leas boyhood. 1t |
has been said that before he was 10 !
years Of age he amused himself by |
forming his companions into compa- |
MES and working out military prob !
lens. This is not true. His grammar
school days bore no promise of mill
tary genius. His teachers in the Los
Angeles High School remember him
as an apt though often inattentive pu-
pill. He never seemed to study, but
rather to rely upon his power of per-
ception, which was remarkable. He
absorbed information rather than &C.
CURED it.
1t was during this period that he
began to read historical works deal
ing with the life and career of Ma
poleon, the one character in his his
tory who held a fascination for him. {
This was unquestionably his first i'm Il
petus to thought along military lines. l
Before he was IS he had mastered ev-
Try detail, every strategic move in ev- v
Try battle of Napoleon's campaigns, Il
IS well as the history of every great a
Engagement of which there was def o
lite record. v
4 realized then" said he some years r.
fterward, that the only really great h
areers in history were those made
18th the sword" Il
After high school he entered Leland to
tanford University with the intention So
fitting himself for the practice of el
w. No other career seemed open in
him. While at Stanford he became fa
terested In the Far East, and it was al
the Chinese quarter of San Fran of
SEQ that he met the men who fred sh
young imagination and gave him tn
insight into the conditions then ex- sc
ing In China. What he learned must to
We made a tremendous impression de
on him, for he left college and sail err
for the Orient. The Boxer War was
an at its height, coincident with ev
ng Yu Wei's movement to Danish the in,
wager Empress and seat the young m,
lperor Kwang Hsu on the throne. phi
ng Yu Wei, then Premier, was Sec alb
ly enlisting as many army officers an
possible, and this under the very cal
'e of the Dowager Empress. Alto
her China presented the promise Wi
a fine three-handed fight, and this
the magnet which drew the young cee
erican eastward. .
knew there would be a chance An
get in somewhere" said General too
afterward. Whenever there is VIII
ting, there are opportunities for sio
lership. China seemed to me to gor
a.