The rise to power of the warlords was due {o the absence of a strony central government following the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty in Some of them like Yuan Shih-kal, Tuan Chu-jui and Chang Tso-lin were Important officials prior to the Revolution, while others such as Wu Pelsfu, and the Kwangsi generals, Li Chueshen, Li Tsung-jen and Pel Chien-wu were able military men, and would, In the natural course of events, have obtained important commands.
There were others, however, who rose to fame from obscure beginnings and who, in the course of a few years, made fortunes which, with 0 Tew exceptions, far exceeded those made by even the highest officials under the Manchu Dynasly.
With the establishment of 'a central government in Nanking, however, the ewer of these one time all powerful ips greatly diminished and with the exception of a few, who still hold high posts In one or other of the provinces, they have gradually disappeared from view, and are either Uving quietly. in one of the foreign concessions or have "crossed over" to the great beyond, one of the most important of the civil wars. He retired with the comparatively modest fortune of $4,000,- 09. Unfortunate <peculations and extravagance on the part of the younger members of his family re-@uced this sum considerably within a very few years, but it was not until his death, that things really began to move, ' Over $1,000,000 was spent on his funeral, and the countryside through which the cortege passed was elaborately decorated for a dis~ tance of over thirty miles. "Then followed a regular orgy of expendi: ure, and it is not surprising to learn that' his family is now living In straightened elreumstances.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.