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Title: Under the Dragon Flag
My Experiences in the Chino-Japanese War

Author: James Allan

Release Date: August 1, 2005 [eBook #16407]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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UNDER THE DRAGON FLAG

My Experiences in the Chino-Japanese War

by

JAMES ALLAN

New York
Frederick A. Stokes Company
Publishers

1898

CHAPTER I

The following narrative is a record of my experiences during the late
memorable war between China and Japan. Without going into any detailed
account of my earlier life, some few facts concerning myself are
probably necessary for the better understanding of the circumstances
which led up to the events here presented. It will be obvious that I
can make no claim to literary skill; I have simply written down my
exact and unadorned remembrance of incidents which I witnessed and
took part in. Now it is all over I wonder more and more at the
slightness of the hazard which suddenly placed me at such a period in
so strange an experience.

I am the son of a Lancashire gentleman who accumulated considerable
wealth in the cotton trade. He died when I was still a boy. I found
myself, when I came of age, the possessor of upwards of L80,000. Thus
I started in life as a man of fortune; but it is due to myself to say
that I took prompt and effectual measures to clear myself of that
invidious character. Not to mince matters needlessly, I ran through
that eighty thousand pounds in something short of four years. I was
not in the least "horsey"; my sphere was the gaieties of Paris and the
gaming-tables of Monte Carlo--a sphere which has made short work of
fortunes compared with which mine would be insignificant. The pace was
fast and furious; I threw out my ballast liberally as I went along,
and the harpies, male and female, who surrounded me, picked it up.
Bright and fair enough was the prospect as I started on th