Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-05-09
A PRINCE IN RAGS.
Romantic Story of Chinese EN-
perOr's Son.


From the San Francisco Chronicle.l
Almost every day at the entrance of
the Occidental Hotel, on Bush street,
may be seen an old, lame Chinaman, who
importunes us for aims A countenance
traced with the furrows of care and star
vation is in no way improved by its total
abstinence from water And yet, who
of the many who bestow passing glance
on that weather-beaten dirt-begrimed face
think for moment that in those shrlv-
eled old veins courses blood of royalty?
Yet this is even so.
Fifty-one wears ago all the bright
dreams of Oriental luxury were his He,
the youngest of FIVE brothers, had for his
father no less parsonage than the SOW
ereign of the Celestial Empire. Until
his tenth year, reared in the splendor of
that court of which so much is told, and
yet so little known, he had not wish
that was not at once gratified. Manda-
rims of high rank were glad indeed TO
wait on this scion of royal house. He
with his brothers, had each their little
court. To one was allotted the care of
the royal fowls; to another, the royal
sheep; to another, the royal goats; and
to him belonged the care of his mother S
pet peacock. t'.A+
Sinecures that exist in all well regu-
lated Governments are by no means un-
known in China. So he grew up happy
in the execution of his duties and the
paternal commands. Already had he
been promised the commend of the Thi-
betan frontier.
Far from the capital, in the country
where the rebels were most powerful, we
can well imagine the CONSERVATION
caused his mother at this intelligence
impaired to her by her favorite son. Even
at that early age he was eager for this
martial life He dreamed only of great
deeds and wars alarms; and when his
mother gently braidng his tiny little
queue, would gaze into her boy s bright
eyes and read there the language which
they spoke, her heart alternated between
hope and fear. A gentle little maiden
had long been his betrothed She, too,
felt keenly the pangs of parting, which
his hopeful, chaiing heart had not time to
feel Bright, bright indeed, was the fu-
ture for him; and yet, one short night
cast him from his airy hight even to the
depth into which he is sunk
One of those sudden revolutions to
which that kingdom is so subject hurled
his father from his throne, and caused
the murder of all who loved and honored
him. Through the fidelity of an old ser
want this young Prince was saved from
the general butchery, Still, his name
alone would have been his death warrant
at any time So he lived in poverty and
constant dread, Stunned by all and shun-
ming all
When the first eargoes of Chinese were
sent to our State he, welcoming this as
an opportunity for escape from an at
mosphere of death to him, smuggled
himself on board one of the ships. The
close confinement which he had to un-
dergo, and the tossing of the cargo in
the hold, ruined his health and crippled
him for life. Too weak to beg and too
honest to steal, nothing was left him but
to accept the bounty which the stranger,
in the strange land, saw fit TO bestow
upon him. Who can tell the pangs It (
cost the proud heart before it. could 4
descend to this? As you see him now, so
has he lived for the past ten years.
Through the aid of an interpreter, we
cleaned the sad history of this poor old I
prince That hardship and want may
have effected the brain of the unfortu-
nate creature is more than likely; but
his tale was told with so much apparent
so much earnestness, that
we have thought it worthy the hearing of
our readers Bright, brighter was his
starting in life than one in ten thousand;
dark, darker, perhaps, is its closing than
one in ten million.