Furthermore, the very large number of honorific tablets, amounting te over 200 in all, provided striking proof of Marshal Wu's popularity and of the respect in which he was held by all classes. These tablets were presented by all sorts of public bodies, such as guilds, chambers of commerce and so forth, and by friends and former subordinates and members of the present "Provisional" government.
As showing the high, if somewhat exaggerated, regard paid to the late Marshal's military talents—in the heyday of his power he was called the Napoleon of China—one of these tablets bore the three characters Kuan Wu Yueh; that is to say, Marshal Wu Pei-fu was worthy of being placed in line with Kuan Vu, the God of War, and Yueh Fei, another famous military hero in Chinese history. While over the bier itself were inscribed the characters Wu Sheng, Military Deity. Some Chinese of the old school criticized this, as going a bit too far. And, as a last reminder of his military' career, a couple of dozen of his veterans from former days, dressed in their old uniforms, marched in the procession.
It was noticed and much cor-mented on, that no high officials of any kind were to be seen walking among the mourners. This was ascribed to the fear of unpleasant incidents, as to which the authorities are said to have received repeated warnings.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.