The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-06-17
Chinese Rnlers.

The death of her Imperial Majesty
Tsze-An Tuan-Yu K'ang-Yi Chao-Yu
Chuang King Huang Tai Hou, Empress
of the East, the Empress Dowager oc-
curing some time since, is not very
important event. for the dead lady was
only the weaker one of two Expresses
reigning-not in their own right, but
only during the minority of the Emperor.
But it is not little curious to be thus
reminded that nation numbering one
third of the population of the world, and
in which murder of girl babies is far less
than crime and not much less than
custom among the poor, should permit
itself to be ruled by two women, and
that, too, with barely show of right.
When Tung Che died of the smallpox,
in 1875, Or, to put it in Chinese, when,
in that year, His Majesty the Emperor
assembled upon the dragon to be guest
on high" without leaving a son, his
widow ought, according to the prece-
dents, to have adopted a son and heir.
But the fair young Empress Ah-lu-te
survived her lord only brief time, and
died without having borne or named
successor to the "Great, Pure Dynasty"
Here was an opportunity which was
promptly seized by the two women who
had been Regents during Tung Che's
minority. One Of them, named at the
beginning of this paragraph, and called
Empress Dowager, though she was child
less, was the first wife of Tung Che's
father and predecessor, Hen Fung.
The other and surviving Empress Re-
gent is her Imperial Majesty Tsze-Ch'i
Tuan-Yew Kang- Ching Chao-Hoh
Chuang- Ching Huang Tai Hou, Empress
of the West She was concubine of
Hen Fung, and was raised to the rank
of Empress because of having borne to
him an heir to the dragon Throne. !"
For that reason she was commonly, and
perhaps for short, called the Empress
Mother The titles Expresses of the
East and of the West come from the
respective positions of their palaces
within the imperial inclosure. The EN-
press Mother adopted Tsai Tien, the
present Emperor, as the heir of Hen
Fung, the deceased Emperor and her
husband, and the Empress Dowager
joined with her in proclaiming him.
The formalities were peculiarly Chinese
and intensely amusing. Tung Che was
a weak, effeminate young man, and his
death was sudden. But after his death
proclamation was published over his
signature in which he narrated in the
finest language the chief events of his
life from the time that the ''Divine
Vessel the throne was bestowed upon
our keeping" until he was seized by the
fatal disease, the rise and progress of
which were duly set forth. Accompany
ing this last and greatest effort Of his
life was another proclamation from his
infant successor, in which that three
year-old potentate, in curiously similar
style, depicted himself as ''prostrate
upon the earth, bewailing grief to
Heaven, and vainly stretching out hands
in lamentation, but was, nevertheless,
able to set forth his claims to the throne
with formal minuteness and equal
maturity of expression. This princeling
is now some ten or dozen years of age,
and his reign is to be known as the
Kwang-su, or Continuation of Glory, !"
as that of one of his immediate predeces-
sors was ''The Glory of Reason" A
terrible mystery hangs about this young
man. A year or two ago it was reported
that he had two pupils to each of his
eyes. And not long after there was a
rumor that he was not himself, some
Buttercup having mixed him up most
successfully. The author of the rumor
committed suicide soon after spreading
the report, doubtless from perplexity in
wondering who the Emperor was if he
was not himself, and now the whole
truth may never be known.-NeaO York
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