19003 Homer Lea 



Sen, the brilliant dreamer, who conceived a great 

 liking for him. Passing on to Macao, the Portuguese 

 concession, he found himself out of money, and 

 appealed successfully to the Chinese in San Fran- 

 cisco for transportation home. Once arrived in Cali- 

 fornia, however, he paid no further attention to them. 

 But about this time he appointed himself "Lieu- A self- 

 tenant General of the Chinese Army, in command of 

 the Second Division"; this consisted of such Chinese 

 boys as he could induce to drill with broomsticks on 

 vacant lots about Los Angeles. His own uniform 

 of dark blue, with epaulets and brass buttons, he 

 devised himself, and added thereto a number of con- 

 ventional decorations. 



"General Homer Lea" then published his much- 

 quoted volume, "The Valor of Ignorance," a plea 

 for a great American army to meet the coming 

 onset of Japan, combined with an elaborate exposi- 

 tion of the philosophy of militarism. In this he 

 cleverly imitated the writings of actual authorities, 

 and his statistics furnished material for the yellow 

 journals in their clamor for war on the Pacific. Later 

 he put out a lurid novel of Chinese life entitled "The 

 Vermilion Pencil," the villains of the story being mis- 

 sionaries, especially those of the Catholic Church. 

 Another work, "The Fate of the Anglo-Saxon," pro- 

 claimed that the only hope of escape from the hordes 

 of Asia lay in thorough military discipline and prepa- 

 ration. 



Upon one of my visits to Los Angeles some years 

 later, I was (as usual) given a dinner by the Stanford 

 Club of that city, containing about a hundred mem- 

 bers. Lea sent his regrets, but invited us all to dine 

 with him at the Hotel Angelus the following evening. 



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