"THE GRAND OLD MAN OF CHINA."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 138, 10 July 1909, Page 4

"THE GRAND OLD MAN OF CHINA."

STOEIES OP SIR ROBERT HART. Opportunity and luck have played a prominent part iu tlie success of many men; others hare lifted themselves from the ruck by sheer hard work and patience. To the latter class belongs Sir Robert Hart, "The Grand Old Man of China," who is just now enjoying a wellearned rest after half a century of diplomatic work in the Far East..

Rut Sir Robert always Was a worker. As a boy at school he was nicknamed"Stewpot," for so great was' his passion for study that he was in the habit of • tealing fifteen minutes of his lunch nour to work at Hebrew.

LOGICAL REASONING. And he was always a reasoner—never satisfied until he knew the why auu the wherefore ol matters iu which he was interested. Says Juliet Bredoii, in lwr absorbing book on Sir Robert Hart, "To the masters he must have been something of a trial, "One day, for instance, when a certain master spoke somewhat sourly and irritably to him, Sir Robert then and i..ere took it upon himself to deliver him a iectuve which, in its calm reasoning, was most disconcerting. It is wonderful the 'way you treat us boys,' he said; 'just as if you were our superior i-just as 11 \"U were not a little dust aiiji water I'ikc the rest of us. One would think from your manners you were our master, whereas you are really our servant. It is we who give you vour livelihood —and yet you behave to lis in this higli-liauded manner.' Natur-1 ally this tirade made a pretty row in i the school."

An amusing story of Sir Robert's' first school is also told by the authoress of this book, who, by the way, is a niece of the great Pro-Consul. One day two visitors w'ere announced. One was a stoutish man with sandy hair; the_othw a very long person like a knittingneedle. The stout man called the boy to him, passed his hand carefully over the bumps of his head, and then, turning to the father, said, "From what I gather of the child's talents from my examination of liis cranial cerebration, my brother's system of education ; s exactly the one calculated to develop them." The men were two brothers named Arnold, who proposed to open a little school, and were tramping the country in search of pupils.

HE DOESN'T LIKE PEANUTS. When, fifty-four years ago, Sir Robert was first attached to the British Consulate at Ningpo, lie had an experience which was the reverse of pleasant. He was travelling to Shanghai in a 150-ton schoofter, ana the voyage took three weeks instead of one, on account of a monsoon. Provisions gave out, and the ship's company were reduced for twelve days to an unsavoury diet of waterbuffalo, and peanuts—all they could get from a near-by island. "Was it any wonder that Hart could never afterwards' endure the taste of peanuts, or that at the sight of a passing waterbuffalo his appetite was clean, gone for the day?"

This is not the only occasion when Sir Robert has experienced some of the troubles of starvation. During the Boxer rebellion of 11)00, when the Legation of Peking was Jbcsieged by the fanatics, Sir Robert, in common with the other refugees, cheerfully ate mule, "which was hatefully coarse while It was tat, and unutterably tough when it grew lean."

"GO IT, YE CRIPPLES." Sir Robert came much into contact with the ill-fated General Gordon in the. day, when the hero of Khartoum was attached to the Allied Army in China. Un one occasion Sir Robert met Gordon at Quinsan, and. the soldier held a review in his honor. "The march-past," says Juliet Brejon, "was unforgettable. Though the soldiers were commonplace enough, plain and businesslike, the old- > ici-s, ol whom Gordon had about thirty j of all ages, sizes, and tastes, usually designed their own uniforms, which were; sometimes fantastic, to say the least. On this greaf occasion you may be sure none had neglected to appear in the | fullest of full dress, with highly eoniica)! results. Indeed, their efforts amused Gordon so much that all the time they were advancing he kept repeating, as he rubbed his hands gleefully together, 'Go it, ye cripples! Go it, ye cripples!'" Amongst the must iuHuentiai of h-s Chinese friends, Mir Robert numbered the great Li Hung Chang. The diplomat liked Li's household because of the simplicity he found there—no wearisome courses at dinner, but fish and, perhaps, a dish of chicken with r ice. incautious-' ly, as it turned out, he praised this frugality to his own Chinese servant, for the remark reached Li's ears in a distorted .form. Next time Sir Robert went there he had to face a grand ceieluiinial banquet. '"You shall not have_the chance to go away again and say That you have been fed like a coolie in my house,' said the Viceroy, .proudly, at the end of the banquet.

" "Nevertheless, the very simplicity of your huspitaiity was what I most' appreciated,' Sir Kohert replied. 'But if you .believe that I could have made any such remark, and if you persist in alt'ir- ! IB the style of my reception, I shall ot come to lunch with you again.'"

'HOW TO WARD OFF OLD AGE. Another famous Chinese ollitial—Wu Ting Fang—often visited Sir Robert ami took tea with him. Wu 'Ting' prided himself upon "U »'<-' r t maimer, which made him appear much .younger than lie really was, and his favorite boast was that lie meant to live to he two hundred. Furthermore, lie would explain how the feat was to be accomplished. "The first thing, naturally, was diet. The man who ( would cheat Time should live Ou nuts like the squirrels. Under no conditions should he touch salt, and he should begin and end each meal with a teaspoonful of olive oil. 'I have hung scrolls' in m y bedroom,' Wu Ting went on to explain, 'with these sentences written upon them in English and in Chinese: "1 am young, I am healthy, lam cheerful, - ' Immediately I enter the room my eye falls upon these iprccepte. I say to myself, "Why, of course I am," and therefore I am.' Was ever simpler or saner method discovered for warding oil' old age?"

tfEVER SPOKE WITHOUT THINKING.

Carefulness and deliberation have always) marked Sir Robert's diplomatic dealings. "What is your secret power of settling a diflicult matter?" a friend once asked him.

"Whenever I deal with other people, and especially with Chinese," was the answer, "1 always ask myself two questions: What idea that I do not want them to have will my remark suggest to them, and what answer will my remark allow them to make to me?" illut the habit of deliberation had awkward consequences' once, anyhow. At a soiree a charming lady came up to Sir licucrt holding a rose'. "May I offer you my boutonniere?" said she, smiling. The mere fact of a question having beau asked l|im suddenly put him instinctively upon his guard; an linconiuuniicativc look spread over his face, and, to her horror and his own subsequent amusement, he answered, "I s'liould prefer to consider the matter before answering."—Tit Bits.