Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 144, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1917 — RECALLS POPULAR TRAVESTY [ARTICLE]

RECALLS POPULAR TRAVESTY

Charge Against Former Minister of Finance Revives Memories of “The Miseries of a Chinese Official.” These who recall Franclsque Sarcey’s popular travesty upon Chinese corruption, “The Miseries of a Chinese Official,” will enjoy reading the proceedings in the trial for bribery of* Chen Chin-tao, former minister of finance, and two of his subordinates. The Investigators appointed by President Li Yuan-hung do not appear to be able to discover whether the late minister of finance was bribed, whether he kept money that certain merchants allege they paid to certain persons for him or whether it went “higher up.” The complainant merchants insist that money passed, but Chen Chin-tao denies having received any. Tn Sarcey’s saflre “graft’L was declared to be so- universal that Eo HI. the would-be-conscientious official, found himsfelf in very hot water when he undertook to check it. The climax is reached when a contract for battleships is given to a porcelain factory I The Chinese navy has an engagement with an enemy (assumably the Japanese, at the time tiie book was pubTishedJ*. and the first shot from the attacking cruiser shivers the Chinese craft to bits. The collapse of the formidable-appearing warship resembled nothing so much as a waiter dropping a tray full of dishes.