| Show for taft paper OUR DIPLOMATS IN CHINA copyrighted by frank G Oar carpenter penter 1895 HE WAR IN china and japan has radically c h a n g ed the position of our diplomats in the far east the legations in china japan and corea are now among the most important in the service of the united states and every american consul on the asiatic shores of the pacific ocean is id to h a certain extent responsible for the uve ot of a number of the cithens of the united states state bad judgment and mistakes are liable to bring the united states into trouble as never before and ya is interesting to look at the men who C now aw represent us in these countries at abis cri critical tica time one of the most im im positions is that held by col Ch charles girles denby the united states minis ter to peking he has held his office for the past ten years and he has proven M V himself to be an able man and a suek suck x diplomat he comes from H evansville ind and he was appointed hagely through the influence of the late l senator joe mcdonald he is an old titena ti tend of secretary groshams Gre shams and he C sas for years known in indiana as a firmat lawyer yer before he was made minis to nina china As a lawyer he often orinc ln in contact with benjamin har 1110 in and at the time of harrisons action tion to the presidency denby ought he would have to leave china e and harrison had had some little t uble during a lawsuit some time pre piously sly and denby knew that harrison ak wrongly 11 4 tron gly believed Republicans that thit should anfe the reading leading officials in a republican ration he was aware how iler of the inflexible honesty of 0 eisent t harrisons character and he knew that if he could persuade him that he JP was the best man for the place and that abe could fill the office better than any lc he would probably hold it he e attempted to do so and succeeded s As soon as harrisons election was an renounced bounced letters began to come to in ia from china the business elnen en of the different ports wrote asking albe the president elect electta to retain minister denby tien tiry the american missionaries sent ben t in long petitions and both protestants ts and catholics requested that col denby enby be retained li hung chang wrote a letter through his private secre f tary and high in peking got down on their knees metaphorically speaking eg L king and wrote to the president tt at the he t same time the campaign was carried on all over the world every foreigner lo reiner in china who had a friend likely to help col denby at once wrote to him and had him write to the president some of the highest church authorities ties ot of england I 1 am not sure but that one was not the archbishop ot of canterbury sent in letters in behalf of denby and such a spontaneous uprising in lavor favor of this foreign minister appeared th P president harrison very wisely con eluded that there must be some foundation for the desire for his retention and he said that he should stay at any rate he was held on and on until the time of the injudicious appointment of blair of new hampshire who had made speeches against the chinese in the past and who was not acceptable to the chinese government after this mistake president harrison concluded to let col denby stay the remainder of hip his term and president cleveland very wisely continued him to the present time OUR LEGATION the position of minister to peking is by no means a bad one the pay is is a year and at the present value ot of silver this is equal to nearly 35 a year as far as spending power is concerned I 1 was told in china that the position could be kept up very comfortably on about a year and if this is true there is a clear annual saving of in silver or more than in gold peking is is off of the regular lines of travel only a few americans get to it in the course of a year and service and eatables are cheap wines are much cheaper in shanghai than in washington and you can L give e a dinner in peking for halt half the sum that th v t the same feast would cost here I 1 am not sure I 1 but I 1 think the government pays the rent ot of our diplomats in peking the legation buildings are surrounded by a h high wall of blue bricks and col co den b bys ys own quarters consist of a number of low ow houses of blue brick and his rooms are large and airy the parlors of the le legation aaion are as well furnished as any you will will find in washington old rugs cover the floor magnificent chinese embroideries broide ries hangulon hang upon the walls tiger skins and leopard skins and bits of rare porcelain and are to be found here and there some of the furniture furu iture is of teak wood which is as hard as ebony and more beautiful than polished mahogany there is a piano on one side bide ot of the room and the latest books with english french and american magazines which are not more than two months old lie upon the table in addition to his quarters for himself and his family he has a little wing which contains several guest chambers and he is surrounded with all the comforts of an american home As to service he is tar far better off than he could be in america during the visit which I 1 paid to him about six years ago col denby gave a swell dinner in honor of the dean of the diplomatic corps who wae then just leaving for europe about fifty guests sat down at the table and the dinner was as well served and as nicely cooked as any you can get up in washington all that col denby had to do in order to bring about this result was to say to his chinese cook john manchee number one dinner fifty pieced men three days from now all proper I 1 the he chinese cook made out the menu did all the market marketing iniz arranged the wines and decorated the table all that col denby had to do was to put on his bis dress suit and take his place at the head of the table during this dinner he made a speech in french and he is by the way a very well educated man and speaks and writes french fluently his father was I 1 think consul to marseilles when a boy and a part of his education was gotten in paris he has especially distinguished by the num ber of good reports which he has written during his mint ministry stry THE LEGATION FAMILY the legation family consists of the minister his secretary of legation and the official interpreter the first secretary is col denb denays s son mr charles denby jr who K has as done very good work during the present trouble and who has been acting minister to china during the greater part of last year he is a young man I 1 judge not more than thirty years of age but he has been with his father during the whole of his service in Pekin peking gand and he is it is said a good chinese scholar the salary of the secretary is 2625 which at the present value of silver is more than cheri there is a house in the legat legation iott compound for the use of the secretary and the position is by no means a bad one the interpreter of the legation is mr fleming D cheshire a young man who is somewhere between forty and fifty years of age he is an ame american rican who has lived in china for eighteen or twenty years and who speaks chinese fluently he has been connected with the legation at peking for years and much of his chinese he learned in peking he found that the only way to learn the language was by living among the people and while he was studying it he shaved his head and wore a chinese pig pigtail t a dres dressing ss in g in chinese clothes he kept t this i s u up until he mastered the man darin and common dialects and he is now an indispensable part of the legation he is a dark laced faced black mus cached very intelligent young man and he has a house near that of the minister in which he keeps bachelors hall SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS OFFICIAL HAT RACK quite a number of americans are connected with the imperial customs of china the duties on exports and imports are collected by foreigners under an inspector general the famous sir robert robe rt hirt hart there are about men in the customs and these are scat feied all over china they receive good salaries but they are en entirely sub eject to sir robert hart and they are more afraid of losing their offices than our government clerks were before our civil service ice rules were inaugurated they tell a story in peking in the illustration trad 10 of the arbitrary way in which sir robert hart makes his changes they say he has a great board fastened against the walls of his bis hall in which there are pegs each of which bears the name of an official the holes are marked with the names of the different positions and if john smiths peg is in the shanghai hole it shows that john smith is in charge ot of the customs at shanghai now and then the inspector general comes home very late he may have been out to dinner he may have taken a little champagne and upon entering into his own hall he may bun bunglingly use his board as a hatrack hat rack an fn an fn doing so he may knock down a number of pegs gs which his chinese boy sticks bacr back at random before his imperial highness gets up when he comes out in the morning so the story goes he looks with a little surprise at the appointment board ahl says he john smith has been changed from shanghai to bankow I 1 had forgotten all about that I 1 must send off the order at once I 1 andoff it goes tom jones who was getting a year at tien tsin is like as not put off to A amoy where the salary is half that and al all 1 sorts s of queer changes occur I 1 dont know whether the story is true I 1 imagine it is not but I 1 know that sir robert hart could clotild make the changes if he would and he does make any changes he feels like doing and that with no compunctions whatever OUR CONSULS IN CHINA the head of our consular service in china is mr thomas R jernigan the consul general genera at shanghai he is a st straight aich t s slender ende r north carolinian of about ut f forty arty five who ho got his first diplomatic experience as consul in kobe japan he is a gentleman and the ahe has proved roved himself to be a much better T diplomat than those who have given him orders he held on to the japanese students who were afterward tor aured to U eath until he be received positive orders of secretary of state gresham to give them up and he then acquiesced almost under protest mr acquiesced jernigan gernigan made a most efficient consul at kobe and he be is a refreshing change from the incompetent broken down politicians who have held the place in the near past during my stay in china the position was held by the vice consul beneral a p amby bamby me Se ude who went by the title of william dulaney hunter and who licked his lips in order to make his words soft and girl like the marshal of the legation degati on was george A a son of admiral and its brains and standing were at this time kept UD by mr walter A alter S emons a young new yorker who has lived in shanghai for some years and who was acting as one of the judges of the mixed courts and interpreter anter reter he e has since left the legation and d is now one of the partners in a large trading adin company in Shan shanghai jhai the consul at tien ien tsin is sheridan P read who was for some time connected with Rt russell issell co and who is related to ex secretary foster and josiah quincy sometime since secretary of state he makes a very good consul connected also with the consulate at tien tsin is mr C D tenney who was for a long time connected with li hung chang and who was the head of a chinese school at he is a very ery bright man and knows as much about about china and chinese as any other man in the country the consulate at tien tsin is a big two story building situated on the edge of the foreign concession and mr read has ample quarters for the entertainment of his friends Iri ends nearly all our consuls in the east have fine establishments establishment ano and at bankow seven hundred miles in i the interior I 1 found an establishment which would do credit to washington it was that of the honorable jacob T childs better known throughout the west as genial jake childs he was you know minister to siam and he is now OW taking care of the interests of the united states and of jacob childs in the heart of china OUR CONSULAR DEAN the dean ot of chinese consular corps is mr charles seymour of canton he has been in office for about twelve years and he is one of the most efficient men in the diplomatic service he comes from wisconsin and he has time and again saved the foreigners at canton fram riots he is so well liked byrhe by the he can go anywhere among them and he be has the universal respect of the chinese officials and of the foreign residents he has a beautiful home on an island in the pearl river his daughter married not long ago one of the rich business men of canton and his family seem to like their life in china mr seymour must now be about sixty years of age but he is in perfect mental and physical health and he has a friend in every man who has ever visited canton diplomatic ignoramuses IGNORAMUS ES speaking of tien tsin reminds me of some stories I 1 have heard concerning the diplomatic boors we have sent to the far east not long ago there was a consul in tien tsin who came from kentucky who was an inveterate user of tobacco and who I 1 am told could at his own home in kentucky stand on one side of the road and by slightly stooping and bending his head back ward send a yellow stream of tobacco juice across the way and make it go right through the hole in the hitching post on the opposite pavement this gentleman was an inveterate and he carried the habit with h him im to china one evening he happened to be at a function given by one of the foreign consuls and as usual had a small quid in his mouth he was talking to one of the ladies when an irresistible desire came upon him to get rid of his saliva the lady was standing in front of the grate he touched her on the apology of a sleeve which she wore ore with her low necked dress and gently pulled her to one side excuse me madam will you please move a little while I 1 spit of course the lady moved and that quickly and the loud sizzling of the boiling juice announced the fact to the assembled throng that the american consul had spat I 1 do not mention this consuls name suffice it to say that he held the position only a short time ago and that uncle sam paid him a year for doing so HOW IS YOUR GRANDMA another consul story is concerning one of our able officials who had a position at or amoy I 1 am not sure which it was during the time that the two young sons of the prince of wales went around the world the english consul gave a dinner to which this american consul was invited W when hen he was introduced to the young youn 9 princes he effusively exclaimed well boys I 1 am real glad to see you I 1 have always been interested in your country and in your grandma victory say boys how is your grandma anyhow the young men said their grandma was well and thanked him for his interest upon leaving the consul again expressed his delight of meeting them and told them that when they next wrote to england they must be sure to send his regards to their grandma diplomatic ENGLISH another consul a famous southern general called not long ago on li hung chang and while talking with the great viceroy li hung chanas son entered the room this boy is now about twenty years of age he speaks the english and the he french almost as well as he does chinese and he is what would be called in america a hibb highly educated young man he had just left it t his tutor to come in to his father and had been taking a lesson in polite forms of expression the american general he was a southern general conversed with him for some time and at last surprised at his knowledge of good anglo saxon he burst out as follows why my boy you talk the english language elegant shortly after afier this the boy went back to his tutor who was an |
