in the
Chinese military service, suppressed the Tai-Ping rebellion, organised
the "Ever-Victorious Army"--for whose exploits "Chinese" Gordon always
gets credit in history--and died fighting at Ning Po for a nation of
which he had become one, a fair daughter of which he had married, and by
which he is to-day worshipped as a god. Very far certainly did this
soldier of fortune wander in the thirty short years of his life from the
peaceful red-brick Townsend mansion (now, alas! a steam bread bakery),
at the corner of Derby and Carleton Streets, Salem, in which, in 1831,
he was born.

This house was built by Ward's grandfather, Townsend, and during
Frederick's boyhood was a charming place of the comfortable colonial
sort, to which was joined a big, rambling, old-fashioned garden, and
from the upper windows of which there was to be had a fascinating view
of the broad-stretching sea. To the sea it was, therefore, that the lad
naturally turned when, after ending his education at the Salem High
School, he was unable to gain admission to the military academy at West
Point and follow the soldier career in which it had always been his
ambition to shine. He shipped before the mast on an American vessel
sailing from New York. Apparently even the hardships of such a common
sailor's lot could not dampen his ardour for adventure, for he made a
number of voyages.

[Illustration: TOWNSEND HOUSE, SALEM, MASS.]

At the outbreak of the Crimean war young Ward was in France, and,
thinking that his long-looked for opportunity had come, he entered the
French army for service against the Russians. Enlisting as a private, he
soon, through the influence of friends, rose to be a lieutenant; but,
becoming embroiled in a quarrel with his superior officer, he resigned
his commission and returned to New York, without having seen service
either in Russia or Turkey.

The next few years of the young man's life were passed as a ship broker
in New York City, but this work-a-day career soon became too humdrum,
and he looked about for something that promised more adventures. He had
not to look far. Colonel William Walker and his filibusters were about
to start on the celebrated expedition against Nicaragua, and with them
Ward determined to cast in his lot. Through the trial by fire which
awaited the ill-fated expedition, he passed unhurt, and escaping by some
means or other its fatal termination, returned to New York.

California next attracted his att