The Chinese Soldier and Other Sketches. With a Description of the Capture of Manila
London/Hong Kong: Sampson Low, Marston and Company/The "Daily Press" Office, 1902. First Edition. Octavo, red stitched wrappers with pasted on title label, in the original cloth slipcase, 143 pp, eight tipped in photographic illustrations, three photographic plates, facsimile reproduction of Peking Gazette title page, folding color woodcut showing "A Chinese Illustration of the Art of War." A rare account of the participation of the Chinese soldier in the First Sino-Japanese war, written by a "Special Correspondent in the China-Japan War and in the Spanish-American War." The author does not attempt "to pose as a sinologue. He has not sought to produce entertaining fiction, but has endeavoured to describe facts which came within his experience" (Introduction). Chapters include "A Chinese Red Cross Hospital", "Chinese Soldiers as Patients," "A Chinese Telegraph Superintendent," "The Chinese Soldier," etc. The final chapter, meanwhile, contains an account of the siege of Manila during the Spanish-American war, inserted because the author was "one of the two correspondents who went through it...and beyond the newspaper files the siege from the Spanish side is unrecorded." The book is illustrated by eight tipped in albumen photos, including Chinese soldiers, "A Chinese Execution", and a portrait of Aguinaldo. Roughly three dozen in OCLC, but uncommon in the trade. Crease to lower corner of first few leaves, bit of soiling/staining to covers, few albumens detaching or detached, some fading to albumens, soiling and fading to slipcase, slipcase lacking lower bone fastener. Item #14671
Price: $950.00