" Chang certainly does not hesitate
to blow his own trumpet; but I do not suspect him of "drawing the
longbow." Having the advantage of being an expert rhymer, he has
put his own pretensions into verses which all the school-children
in a population of fifty millions are obliged to commit to memory.
They run somewhat like this:
"In Kengtse (1900) the Boxer robbers went mad,
And Peking became for the third time the prey of fire and sword;
But the banks of the Great River and the province of Hupei
Remained in tranquillity."
He adds in a tone of exultation:
"The province of Hupei was accordingly exempted
From the payment of an indemnity tax,
And allowed to spend the amount thus saved
In the erection of schoolhouses."
In these lines there is not much poetry; but the fact which they
commemorate adds one more wreath to
[Page 229]
a brow already crowned with many laurels, showing how much the viceroy's
heart was set on the education of his people.
In the interest of the educational movement, I was called to Chang's
assistance in 1902. The Imperial University was destroyed in the
Boxer War, and, seeing no prospect of its reestablishment I was
on the way to my home in America when, on reaching Vancouver, I
found a telegram from Viceroy Chang, asking me to be president
of a university which he proposed to open, and to instruct his
junior officials in international law. I engaged for three years;
and I now look back on my recent campaign in Central China as one
of the most interesting passages in a life of over half a century
in the Far East.
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