LI HUNG CHANG IN RAGS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 10058, 27 July 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

LI HUNG CHANG IN RAGS.

A Chinaman, be he king or coolie, if devoted to bis father and mother. When either parent dies custom ordains that the sons shall resign til honors and employments to repair to ths anoestral tomb 'and monrn there for along period. A recently returned globe-trotter tell* how the Chinese Premier, Li Hung Chang, was prevented from punctiliously observing the eostom by an imperial dooree. The aped mother of the great Chinese statesman died, and he hurried to celebrate the rites at her grave, accompanied by his brother, the Viceroy at Wuchang. Everyone was expeoting the Premier's resignation and his enforced retirement from all official positions. His enemies thought that] Li had gone finally. Hi* place wonld be filled by another and hit power become a memory. Snddenly there oame a decree from the throne commanding Li to lay aside mourning, ' and at the end of three months resume offioe. His brothor wag permitted to remain at the tomb and do filial reverence. The deoree was without precedence ; but the Emperor was sacred, and his oommand supreme. Li Hung Chang returned to Tien-Tsin, his home. When our globe-trotter taw the Premier's yaoht anohored In the harbour of Ohefoo, be went on board to pay bis respects. The Premier looked, liks ■ starving beggar. Be wore the coarsest - raiment j his beard and forehead had not been shaved, and hh queue hung down frota" a dotted mass of hair. Lines of lorrow streaked his faoe, and' his hands were grimy. The first man in j the empire, noted for bis carefulness of raiment and oleanHness of person, .appeared as the meanest subject, that he> ' might, by privation and penance, do reverence to his mother's memory accord- ■ ing to the creed of his ancestor*. A few days later, when the traveller met LI at Tien-Tsin, the beggar's mein had vanished, and he was again the well appointed nobleman.