The Days of a Man 



Misplaced comment : "No doubt our officers in China knew 

 confidence wna t they were about." 



In Nagasaki I met Homer Lea, a former student, 

 then on the way to Tokyo to see Mr. Buck, and 

 hoping through him to induce the powers of Europe 

 to intervene in behalf of the lawful Emperor of 

 China as against the Empress Dowager. Lea had 

 finished the sophomore year at Stanford. Though a 

 hunchback dwarf, he was a youth of extraordinary 

 parts ready memory, very vivid imagination, im- 

 perturbable coolness, and an obsession for militarism 

 and war. To his associates in college he was known 

 as a "cub" reporter, a remarkable poker player in a 

 small way, and an inveterate student of Napoleon's 

 Romantic campaigns and of the military philosophy of England 

 militarism an( j Germany. For diversion he used to wander 

 about the hills overlooking Santa Clara Valley, work- 

 ing out methods of attack and defense. In 1899, 

 after a dangerous illness, he was warned that he had 

 only three months more to live. He determined 

 therefore to make the most of that time along 

 Napoleonic lines. Seeking out the leader of the 

 Chinese in San Francisco, Dr. Ng Poon Chew a 

 most effective orator even in English Homer put 

 himself and his talents at the disposal of the revolu- 

 tionary group, stating that he was a relative of 

 General Robert E. Lee of Civil War fame. Chew and 

 his friends then agreed to send him to China as a 

 military expert. But in characteristic fashion he 

 informed the public of these plans through the pages 

 of the San Francisco Call, and was promptly refused 

 access to China by customs officials. 

 At the British port of Hongkong he met Sun Yat 



C 32 H 



