LI HUNG CHANG.

Otago Witness, Issue 2428, 26 September 1900, Page 63

LI HUNG CHANG.

SOMETHING ABOUT HIS JNTEREST- - i_\G PKHSONAJLITtf. The most eminent Chinaman in China — Li Hung Chang — -is pure Chinese in descent. This may sound like saying that truth is truth, but, as a. matter of fact, the I ruleis of China are Manchus and Tartars, \ and not Chinamen at all. j Li Hung Chang's success, aside from his intellectual gifts, which pre great, is per- J haps partly due to his great stature, 6ft 2in, a height seldom reached by China- j men, and by his ability to raise a heavier j beard thr.'i usual in a country where the I beard is the only poosesrsion of the white man that the Chinaman envies him. Li's person is large and bulky, 'and" when he was a young man he must have possessed remarkable physical strength. Evenin his eld age lie carries himself in a mannet that shows plenty of reserve strength"; h's bearing is soldierly, alert, and -impos- | fmg His eyes are large a,nd black, their , penetrating quality veiled by long lids when he wishes to conceal that which they- might j possibly betray. His skin is a deep yellow, , very much wrinkled. He wears a heavy j white moustache and imperial. His cheeks j still have colour in them in spits of his age, due pr.rtly to his correct habits and good digestion^ fur he is- very abstemious, and to applications of electricity for the relief of 'partial facial paralysis. -• The sobriety of Li Hung Chang is proverbial. • Of all the charms of life that allure other men, he cares only for power, and disdains that which is simply pleasure. In his own philosophical way he says : ''Flowery paths are not long." In can- ( versation he is either quietly and studiously j polite and deferential, or^brutally and vehemently frank, as best suits his ends. , His most characteristic qualities are inflexible purpose and the courage of his convictions. When Li Hung Chang rises he goes to work, and at 7' o'clock cats a bicakfast composed oi birds' nest soup, rice congee, and coffee without milk or. ?ugar. -At the close of the meal he takes a grain or two of quinine, and goes to work again. Li sHung- Chang has always been thrifty, and has "taken advantage of his grept op--portunities to make money. It. has been said that he is. the richest man in "the world- | but of that no 1 one knows, as Li ha 3 not j divulged his" financial stat-us. ' However, he practically owns the railroads and telegraph lines in China, which he put in on his own responsibility and at his own expense, and derives tlie revenue from them. . He is behind every progressive European innovation introduced into the country, and, while his motto is "China for the Chinese."' he is not averse to using the foreigner and the good things the foreigner can provide.