Young Apprentice Disowned by Trate Father: Story of Tsao Kun's Early Struggles From. Our Own Correspondent.
Tsangchow, Chihli, Nov. 1.
The phenomenal rise of Tsao Kun from the obscurity of an itinerant cloth seller's humdrum calling in the neighbourhood of Takw to amazing affluence and the Presidential Chair, affords a wealth of material for gossip in the tearshops of the large cities and the crowded markets of the plain.
The Chinese are born talkers, and the romantic career of their new President has given publicity to a crop of stories about him, some of which would do credit to the "Arabian Nights" in their elaboration of detail, and spirited portrayal of His Excellency's early struggles before he set foot upon the ladder of fame and fortune.
The following tale was told me by a village Jad last week while on a trip in the district, and he gave it with extraordinary vivacity. He had probably picked it up at the local market, where the village elders discuss with becoming gravity the eternal topic of the rising price of food commodities, the abnormal taxation imposed by a Republican Government, social events, and current politics, interspersed with highly-seasoned and improbable rumours emanating from. the latest arrival from the outside world.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.