AMAZING CAREER OF COL. KIRKHAM.

TIENTSIN'S FIRST BAKER BECOMES COMMANDER OF ABYSSINIAN ARMY.

III.

The trade pioneers and other adventurers who came out in the old days were men of whom the last thing that could be said was that they were colourless. The griffin who leaves the shores of his native land even today believes, and is entitled to believe, that he has the spirit of the ancients who trod lonely, wild and distant paths in various parts of the remoter globe. But how poorly does the adventure compare with that on which men embarked in the days of the sailing ship! Of every member of the first generation of foreign traders and officials out here a story could doubtless be told that would be worth telling.
One of Sir Robert Hart illumines his unswerving faithfulness to and affection for, his employers. Mr. Stewart, of course, knew the great man, and one day, when visiting him in Peking, Sir Robert related the details of an interview granted to him and to Bishop Favier, the two foreigners who knew the Chinese best, by the old Empress Dowager upon her return after the Boxer trouble. Holding up a formidable dossier of recommendations addressed to the Manchu Government by Sir Robert and with tears streaming down her face, the old Empress Dowager proclaimed, her sorrow at the appalling events and cried "Had I but heeded your advice, these troubles would never have occurred." Mr. Stewart caustically remarked that her tears must have been crocodile tears. Sir Robert was so angry that he nearly ordered the sceptic out of his garden, and remembered it against him for long afterwards.
Mr. Detring, whose strongly backed claims to the succession was perhaps one of the main factors influencing Sir Robert in his decision to refuse the post of British Minister and to remain as Head of the Customs, was a masterful and singularly able man, and when he came up here from Chefoo he soon made his presence felt. Mr. Stewart was at the time Clerk of the Course of the Race Club and was negotiating with one of the last ditchers, an old widow for the rental of land in the area which afterwards became the German Concession, for the building of a new Race course. It was the only piece of land except the old Concession that had escaped the floods. Mr. Detring soon ousted Mr. Stewart as Clerk of the Course, and stopped negotiations, possibly because he already had his eye on this land for the future German Concession. The new and the old Clerks had many a conflict, but they were always based on mutual respect and a friendly feeling.

The founder of Phillips, Moore & Co., of whom the auctioneering firm of Moore & Co. are the present day descendants, was a man who called himself Joe Moore. He was a Jew who, among other offices, had once acted as a priest for the Jewish community in Shanghai. His real name Mr. Stewart learned from his nephew, upon whom he chanced in Glasgow. "Joe" had the distinction of being the first to start a newspaper here, though he was not the first to print one. His journalistic bud it never really blossomed was hand written, and in an execrable hand at that; spelling was not "Joe's" strong point. He used to gather data about ships in port and the cargo they brought, and various other items of interest, write it out and send it round to the residents. In three weeks it had passed away.
Another great "card" among the old timers was Captain Lane, an old skipper who had been on the coast for years. He suffered a somewhat similar experience to that of the commanders of the warship Racecourse and the German gunboat Iltis, though he was more fortunate. These two men of war mistook a neighbouring bay for Chefoo Harbour and both were lost, with heavy death rolls. Captain Lane managed to save his passengers, among whom were Mr. Williamson and his wife, the well known Chefoo missionaries. An amusing story is told of him. A lady who shall be nameless called in his store one day and said she had a great favour to ask of him. Apparently she had ordered a considerable quantity of provisions. which were lying in Shanghai and could not be shipped North because the season was too far advanced and the river closed. "I have a lot of butter in Shanghai" she said "and if you would let me have so many pounds of butter I will replace it in the Spring" "Well, madame" the old salt replied. "I sell butter but I do not lend it."
A big business was done at one time in smuggling iron cash, wihich had heen shaken up in a bag containing copper riflings to give them a coppery appearance. They were made here and shipped to Shanghai, and the bigger part of the l00% profits went to the local officials who were thus defrauding the Government. The Customs must have known about it, but in view of the people connected with it here possibly thought it most discreet to wink at it. A Tide Surveyor named May, however, possibly to satisfy a personal grudge, got up early one morning as a ship was leaving the port, boarded the vessel, discovered huge quantities of the iron cash and got the Mate into trouble. Chinese officials went to see him in jail and promised that if he told them where the cash were made he would be pardoned. He said he could not find out while he was in prison, so he was let out, took the shortest route to Taku and was soon well away. He was on the same run, on another ship, in a month! The Commissioner of Customs is reported to have told the Tide Surveyor that he would have done better to remain in bed, for he would get nobody's gratitude for his enterprise
The pioneer does not always reap his reward, and Captain Henderson, who was the first to export camel's wool, is a case in point. Unhappily the wool he sent away was taken off the coal begrimed camels engaged in coal transportation, and he could not sell it. Others were wiser, and obtained clean wool from camels in Mongolia. Owing to the lack of machinery, however, it was some time before this trade developed to any dimensions, and those who exported the clean wool got the business.
Mr. J. T. T. Meadows, after whom Meadows Road is named, was a very prominent, if not universally popular resident. He was at first in the Consular sorvice, but married a Chinese lady and then left the service. He went into business here, built a house in the vicinity of the present Tientsin Club, and made quite a lot of money during the big cotton boom at the time of the American Civil War, but bought heavily and held on too long. with the result that he lost all. He was a great friend of Chuang-how, a conspicuous figure in connexion with the Tientsin massacre, and started the powder works at the East Arsenal, which he conducted for some time. His family removed to Shanghai after his death and eldest son ran through what remained of his money.
One of the most memorable characters of Old Tientsin was a soldier of fortune named Paddy Welsh. His manner of arrival was somewhat dramatic. Mr. Stewart saw a very dejected man of great height and powerful build dragging his way towards his house. He was dressed half in Chinese and half in foreign clothing. “I saw the smoke from your chimney,” he said, “and I knew there would be a foreigner where there was a chimney.” He then explained that he had been in Gordon’s army and had been taken and retaken three times in one day during the drive northward. The rebels knew him and were short ot gunners, so they had tried to keep him. While they were asleep from sheer exhaustion, however, he escaped, and hid in ditches during the daytime, travelling long marches by night. He had a wound from a sabre cut on his scalp. which was in a dreadful state. Welsh had been in a famous battery of artillery in the Crimea and the Indian Mutiny, and was a fine soldier and athlete. He fought in the China War of 1860, and in athletic contests with the French proved he was without an equal in jumping, putting the weight, and flat racing. He was also a fine rider. He obtained a lucrative job as drill instructor to the Chinese troops here and held it for two years, but lost it when Li Hung Chang got rid of these drill instructors when he came up to Tientsin. He had saved enough money to bring him in an annuity of £80 per year, and several of his friends among the local residents were making arrangements for him to go home to enjoy it, but he got in tow with a fellow countryman at Taku, who persuaded him to start a bar with him in Foochow. Eight or nine months afterwards he reappeared here penniless, his partner having "done him wrong," and absconded with the money. For a long time he lived here practically on the charity of a few friends, who furnished him with two or three bottles of beer daily, among other things. He was a stout defender of his “rights,” and when his allowance once was short he promptly appeared at Mr. Forbes' house and treated the squeezing cook to a display of “blarney” that attracted the attention of almost the entire Settlement. A Chinese woman attendant at a joss house lived with him, and he was very well treated by the Chinese, to whom a foreign mendicant was something of a novelty. They would alway give him a meal whenever he dropped into a shop and never asked for payment. He was at every race meeting, and for some time acted as gate keeper. He died here and is buried in the Canton Road Cemetery. “Some day,” he once said, “I shall die and daisies will grow on my grave, and the geese will be after the daisies. But, be Jabers, if they do, I'll be after the geese.”
One of the most striking personalities was "Lieut Colonel” Kirkham, a close associate of Gordon in the “Ever Victorious Army.” He was at one time a Steward on a P.&O. ship, and joined Gordon's force against the Taipings. He had had no military experience, but possessed certain qualities that Gordon liked to find in his men, courage and amenability to discipline. He was one of Gordon' favourites, and when the army broke up he came here and opened a billiard room and bar, and a bakery with the Chinese who had acted as his major domo. It was the first bakery in Tientsin and its product was hard and heavy. Before that the foreigners used to eat manlo, the native apology for bread, the skin of which was removed. The interior was cut into slices and toasted, and in that way was more palatable than it looked when exposed, as it is today, on hawkers' stalls. Kirkham had a bullet-wound in the head during the fighting with the Taipings, and a piece of his skull had to be taken out. This he fashioned into a small skull and cross bones, which he wore as a scarf pin!
Apparently Kirkham got the experience and his Chinese assistant the money, and he went home. Through Gordon's influence he obtained a post in the Expedition against Abyssinia as post-master, and when the troops withdrew he remained behind as Commander in Chief of the new ruler's Army! He was the sort of fellow who would take on anything that entailed the wearing of a uniform. Ultimately there was trouble between Egypt and Abyssinia, war was declared, and Gordon, who commanded the Egyptians, and Kirkham, were pitted against one another. Each no doubt hugely enjoyed the irony of the situation. Gordon's forces conquered the enemy in the first pitched battle and took Kirkham prisoner.
When Kirkham left Tientsin he sold his effects, and Mr. Stewart bought a prismatic compass that Gordon had used in his campaigns in China. This was ultimately presented to the Gordon Boy's School as a Gordon relic, and is doubtless there still.
Another well known figure associated with the earliest days of the British Municipal Council was a former Sergeant Major of Artillery, Mr. Reeks, who joined the Council in 1862 or early in the following year as Superintendent of Works. He was a man of considerable ability, who had seen much active service. Mr. H. A. Reeks, of the Chinese Posts, is his grandson.
Mr. Reeks was attached to a Battery which, with the 93rd Highlanders, was on its way out to China as the result of the renewed trouble in the South, but diverted to India as the result of the outbreak of the Mutiny. They went right through the Mutiny, and S. M. Reeks carried personal letters from Havelock and other commanders referring in the warmest terms to his services. After the Mutiny he came out to Taku with the troops, who remained there pending the payment of the indemnity. Mr. Reeks put in the first drainage service in Tientsin, and continued with the Municipality until he joined the service of the Chinese as a Military Instructor at three times the pay he obtained under the Council.