Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1881 — A Talented Negro. [ARTICLE]

A Talented Negro.

S. A. Butler, the head of the Shanghai Navigation Company, is a remarkable man. He is a negro, reared in the United States, being the son of a preacher in Washington. He was educated in Paris, and became master of tlie French, German and Italian languages. Having attracted tlie attention of Ansen Burlingame, he became tliat Minister’s Private Secretary and accompanied him to China. Then he soon left the embassy, was employed by cn American trading lions ', and later by tlie Shanghai Navigation Company, At length the steamers of that company were bought by a number of Chinese merchants, who took Butler into their employ, and authorized iiim to reorganize the steam service at his own discretion. He managed affairs so successfully that at the end of two rears the company had a net profit of 000,000. The corporation now owns thirty-six steamers, and is becoming a formidable rival of European steamer owners, with whom it is about to contend for the supremacy of the Pacific. All of which has been accomplished by tie genius of a black man.— Virginia (Nev.) Chronicle.