Shanghai, ho joined the American Gonsulate at Hankow "and began the stady of the, Chinese language with the view of becoming. an in-"the. consular servi which Mr. Seward hoped to organize Seva young Shu yersunded Ue ober young men fo eave mercantile career and enter the service of the United States as a nucleus of his consular scheme, 'They were' Mr. Pethick, confidential secretary of Li' Hung: chang; "Mr. Cole,.and Mr. F.-D. Cheshire—the latter of whom rose to the important position of Consul-General-at-large—all of whom have now passed away.
After 34 months of study, -Mr.
successfully passed an min Chinese and was appointed interpreter at Hankow; subsequently he was transferred to Newchwang as consular interpre: for; two years later he was transferred to Tientsin under commission of President Hayes in the same capacity. While stationed at Newchwang he acted at different times as vice-consul-in-charge for the United States, Germany, Sweden and Norway, and consular agent for Japan.
In May, 1881, he resigned from the American consular service and Joined the Imperial Chinese Ma time Customs Service under the Into Inspector-General Sir Robert Hart, in which service he remained 40 years, with periodical long home-leaves-of-absence, his last position in China being' that of Commissioner of Customs at the port of Yochow, Hunan, where he was stationed four and a half years in the midst of indescribable political and military strife, He retired from the service in March, 1921, on account of the age-
Asia and Europe and America with his family, settled in Polo Alto, in March, 1023.
He was twice decorated by the Chinese government in recognition of his long and faithful service.
Mr, Bryant is survived by his widow (nee Emeline Laura Oak-man of Marshfield, Mass.); two daughters, Anstrice Churchill, wife of Dr. William Leonard Schwarts of Stanford University, and Beatrice Hatch, wife of Carl Martens of Amoy, China; four grandchildren, a sister, Miss Sarah F, Bryant of Silver Lake, Mass.; and numerous other relatives in that vicinity, He was a Freemason for more than half a century, having been a member of lodges (and. officeholder in them) under the Scottish, English, and Massachusetts Constitutions. He was also a member of the Masaachusetts Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.