88o 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



November 1, 1913. 



court of Seoul, an American diplomat 

 described him as being "just a brutal, 

 sensual, rollicking Chinaman." The 

 diplomat added : " Nobody understands 

 the meaning of the word arrogance who 

 didn't know Yuan in those years. He 

 was arrogance personified. Having vast 

 powers, he frequently cut off tne heads 

 of Chinese gamblers and others, and I 

 was an unwilling witness of some of 

 these street-side pastimes of his. He 

 would not let a physician save the life 

 of one of his soldiers by amputating his 

 arm, saying, ' of what good would a one- 

 armed soldier be?' Yet he kept as a 

 pensioner another soldier whose life was 

 saved, but who was useless as a trooper. 

 He was altogether unscrupulous, but ab- 

 solutely faithful and devoted to his pat- 

 ron, and largely to his friends. He 

 would sacrifice an enemy or one who 

 stood in his way, but at the same time 

 sacrifice himself readily for his patron." 



MEETING THE BOXERS WITH CONVINCING 

 .ARGUMENTS. 



Yuan has always been a man of action. 

 While he was acting as Governor of 

 Shantung province there came to him a 

 delegation representing the organisation 

 later known as the Boxers. They ex- 

 plained their ambitious plans to drive 

 all foreigners out of China, and the 

 virtues of the charms they wore, which 

 would make them invulnerable to bullets. 

 Governor Yuan expressed great interest 

 in their plans, and especially in the effi- 

 cacy of the charms. He was so curious 

 about these that he asked them to dinner 

 for a further discussion. At the conclu- 

 sion of this meal Governor Yuan led his 

 well-fed guests into an adjoining court- 

 yard, where a squad of his soldiers was 

 stationed. The Boxers with the magic 

 charms were lined up on one side of the 

 courtyard — the soldiers fired a volley, 

 and all the Boxers fell dead. That was 

 Yuan Shih-kai's answer to their silly 

 claims. 



AS ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMER. 



It was while Yuan was Governor of 

 Shantung, and later as Viceroy of 

 Chihli, that he began to attract the at- 

 tention of foreigners by his practical 

 reform measures. He has never been out 

 of China, except for his ten-year stay at 

 the retrograde court of Korea, and he 



knows no foreign language. Yet in the 

 administration of the Vice-royalty of 

 Chihli he beat the foreign-trained re- 

 formers at their own game, instituting 

 reforms which still serve as a model to 

 China. He gave Tientsin a good muni- 

 cipal government, and employed an 

 American to develop an excellent school 

 system. More than that, in the eyes of 

 his Manchu lords, he reformed the army, 

 saw that the men were drilled by 

 foreigners, were regularly paid and well 

 fed. Later, when he was called to 

 Peking to serve on a government board, 

 his activities knew no departmental 

 bounds, for he dominated everything 

 with which he came in contact. He dic- 

 tated the foreign policy, and ruled every- 

 thing with a high hand. Foreign friends 

 of China were not alarmed at this, for 

 after the death of Li Hung-chang, Yuan 

 was the only man around the decaying 

 Manchu court who deserved to be called 

 a statesman. 



CHARGES OF ABSOLUTISM. 



But many Chinese scented danger in 

 his rapid rise to power, and formal 

 charges were brought against him that 

 he had " usurped all governmental 

 power, and was ruling like an absolute 

 despot against whom nobody could 

 achieve his purpose" About the time 

 these charges were brought Yuan cele- 

 brated his birthday, and officials high 

 and low crowded to his villa to offer him 

 congratulations and gifts. When the 

 guests assembled they were surprised 

 to see among the gifts a pair of scrolls 

 with the inscription : " May the Em- 

 peror live ten thousand years! May 

 Your Excellency live ten thousand 

 \'ears!" The Chinese character which 

 means " ten thousand years " could, by 

 inviolate custom, be used only for the 

 Emperor of China, and its use as a 

 means of birthday greetings to Yuan 

 was merely a sarcastic hint that he had 

 helped the Empress Dowager, in 1898, to 

 depose the Emperor because of ambi- 

 tions to succeed him. 



YUAN'S RHEUMATIC LEG. 



Not long after this the Empress 



Dowager and the Emperor died, and 



the rule of China passed into hands less 



friendly to Yuan Shih-kai. The new 



