Evening star., 1932-12-27

rs. '.!''. :
and oppression as their heritage. But
Big Chang overpassed even the large
endurance Of Shantung. His require
ments were on an imperial scale and
Shantung had to pay for them.
His personal army was one OF those
fabulous Oriental hordes; nobody knew
how many. There was his elegant br1-
gade of white Russians, who did his
actual fighting for him, eating their
heads of, between fights. in great lux
ury. There were his concubines, 48 OF
them, according to veracious observers,
including, besides japanese, Koreans
and native women, a number OF frall
flowers from the white nations-French,
English, American or Russian. depend
ing on the personal nationality OF the
correspondent who reported this cir
cumstance.
There were his armored trains and
his private cars. and the regal state of
his yamen in Tsinan-fu. And finally
the Tupans table. which had to be
supplied with all the delicacies Of the
world; for Big Chang had the stomach
Of a shark. the appetities Of Eliogaba-
lus and the alcoholic capacity OF q
Cossack general.
Liked Fancy Executions.
Shantung had to meet the bill. There
were taxes and surtaxes and new taxes
nobody had ever heard Of. Then the
taxes were collected in advance, for
two hand-counts of years. There fol-
lowed confiscations. pointed by tortur-
ings and executions in detail and In
mass for the encouragement Of the
more backward members of the COM
munity. Ever an administrator OF the
old conservative school. Big Chang ad-
hered to the time-honored and tradi-
tional methods of the ancient regime
despising such new-fangled departures
as execution by shooting. he went in
for slicings, vattings, dressings, tmpale-
ments and beheadings, as 1t was In the
old time.
So his bills were met. but in the wide
and rich and industrious Province OF
Shantung whole districts were emptied
of their inhabitants and much OF the
population subsisted on grass and bark,
like Nebuchadnezzar, and no fewer than
100000 of the Shantung people emf
grated to Manchuria.
All these things Big Chang accom-
plished with an air and flourish and
a cold and dreadful humor that did not
fail. He was always dramatic, they will
tell stories about him in China for a
long time. and whatever else he did to
biS Y,oop1o ho never hOrnd them
Conquered by Feng.
Toward the end, his sources Of reve-
nue. running dry, he had obscure ne
gotiations with the japanese In Tsing-
tao, and from those came the bad and
bloody Tsinan affair of 1928, whereby
the Japanese hold on the peninsula
was materially extended. And in that
year Feng, the Christian general. drove
northward at the old marshal, and Big
Chang went believing out Of Shantung
to strike his flank as he came up from
the south. Then occurred debacle,
the details Of which are not known;
somewhere on the Yellow River Feng's
Russians destroyed Chang's Russians,
and Chang's army disintegrated. Him
self, with q selection of concubines-
the story is that the ones he cast aside
were shot lest they fall into urlkind
hands-and 10000, 900 silver dollars, he
fed from Tsingtao to his friends, the
Japanese, and lived among the courte-
GUS islanders for two years or so In
what approximated q Mohammedan
paradise.
During this period a brother Of
Henry Pu-Yi, late Emperor of China
and now President Of Manchukuo, was
shot dead on Chang's premises; Big
Chang paid q fine of 800 yen to the
law-abiding Japanese for discharging
q flrearm, and q concubine with a
pretty name disappeared.
Back in China, the old marshal was
dead. Feng retired to his mountain and
the young marshal was friends with
Nanking again. Then came the Man
churian incident Of 1881 and on the
echoes of it Big Chang returned to
Peiping, nobody knew just why. He
took two palaces in the north city and
you heard that his table fed a thou
sand persons a day.
Went in for Gay Times.
You saw him at the Spring race
meeting, immaculate and enormous In
formal morning dress, his little pear
shaped head springing from high
wing collar, with spotted bow tie
such as an English statesman's, drink.
ing champagne from q bottle and very
drunk indeed, with four Of his girls in
nervous attendance.
You saw him on the Peiping Hotel
roof, at dances, wearing gown Of rich
brocaded silk, ordering martini cock
tails five at a time and two magnums
Of champagne to the cooler, to be fol-
lowed by slugs of brandy.
In this drinking the handful Of
women with him did not share; they
huddled at the next table, and out OF
his favor he allowed them cigarettes
while he watched the western dances
with amused, bright eyes. Now and
then there were about him a queer
man-woman and a certain exquisite
Eurasian, thought to be a gunrunner
You heard that Big Chang was direct
ing the guerilla fighting in Jehol, which
is now SO annoYing to the Japanese
You heard, on the other hand, that
he was an ally Of the Japanese. who
are his best friends. You heard this
and that. And then he died.
Funeral Two Miles Long.
His funeral was two miles long, and
8lOAIOuS WILL paper, AOIOcS, l1OtOI CARS
banners and all the correct accessories
Now the concubines, 20-odd of them
are squabbling over what is left, with
all the newspapers frightfully interested
The concubines who have had sons tt
Big Chang insist that they should gel
settlement of $4,000, Mexican, apiece
The unfruitful maidens, however-ant
they are in the majority contend thai
the fortune be equally shared among all
Big Chang was perhaps the last oi
the war lords, that turbulent and in.
satiable group which has In the lasl
generation gutted the wretched land
The war lord was distinguished by this
characteristic: He considered that HI
was not accountable for what he die
to any human agency. The only an
swer to Q war lord was another wa
lord.
There are still ruthless and unscrupu.