In old China, no gentleman could be a soldier, Perhaps that is the explanation of the capstan dynastic changes, the inability of the Chinese to hold their own before Toba jons. The Chinese make " distinedon between the "fighting officer" and the "commanding offer." The fighting officer is generally an officer froma battalion commander Tartars, Niichen Tartars, Mongols and Manchus. The {est of gentility was scholarship, the ability to
course.on the sages, to appreciate write an sightlegyed essay, to die. a morceau of porcelain, to embellish' a fan with love "characters. An epicure might rise to be Viceroy, while the Tartar-Genei who guarded the city was treated with contempt. Yuan Shih-kat was among the first military mea tw rise to high civil position. He failed, perhaps becatize he was a military man, but the tradition of Yuan has continued and with the exception of the poetic Hsu Hsihchang, every President of China has deen a soldier, including the delectable Sun Wen, whose armies before and since the Revolution have been as militaristic and as damaging China as those of any other mi tarist, To-day, China is ruled by her army. The real governor of each is the Tuchun or Tuli or} that is, the commander of the military forces. The Civil Governor is usually n scholarly nonentity who signs his name second to proclamations prepared by his bellicose superior. In Peking, the military possessor of the capital is the master of the Government and such a one as Feng Vu-hsiang ma end unmade Presidents at will, en as the Roman legions made barbarians into Emperors. To-day Tuan Chi-jui has become the master of the Government, the same Tuan Chi-jui, who headed a faction of Peiyang Military Party, was Minister of War and led his into the capi stitution and parliament in China, but almost without interval, since the Second Revolution, China has been in the hands of one or anoth>r military dictatorship.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.