St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-22
SELECTING ImPERIAL BRIDES.
The Chinese Emperor tn Inspect the
naurhters of the KingdOu,

The Chinese Emperor tn Inspect the
Daughters of tho Kingdom.
Pekin Correspondence London Times.
Much interest is awakened in the coming
events in the imperial family. The en-
peror is approaching maturity. being now
16. His guardians have been letting him
out gradually, and during the present
winter he has enjoyed much recreation on
the ice on the lakes which form the most
beautiful features of the palace grounds.
Her imperial majesty the empress regent
has also spent much of her time out
of doors. But the time has now
arrived to prepare for the marriage of the
young emperor, and all Manchu families
above certain rank having daughters be-
tween the ages of ID and Is must bring
them to the palace for inspection by the
officials charged with the duty of choosing
a consOrt for the sovereign. These pilgrims
of love have in many cases to perform long
and arduous journeys from their homes,
and it would not be difficult to construct
romance out of the incidents of such pill
grimages, the ,hope which sings in the
maiden's bosom each fresh morning when
she resumes her journey, the disgust and
despair which serve her for pillows each
night as she bemoans her aching limbs in a
dismal, dust-begrimed roadside inn, with
not even Turkish bath on the premises.
The girls are said not to be detained long
in suspense-the worst part of hang
ing, according to the Hibernian SAYING
but the rejected ones are promptly restored
to their parents and guardians, and return
TO their homes perhaps sadder. ifnot wiser,
but probably in most cases thanking their
diviniJies that the ordeal is over and that
the interdict against their marriage is at
length removed. For year at least before
the empress is chosen no Manchu girl with
in the prescribed limits of age and of eligi-
BILE rank is allowed to marry.
Another pilgrimage shortly to be under
taken attracts great attention, for it, too,
marks an epoch and Iaay have wider-reach-
ing practical consequences. The empress
regent, the emperor and the seventh
prince" the father of the emperor, with
all the court, will leave the capital on the
LIST of April to visit the tomb of the late
empress dowager, who was known as the
eastern empress, the childleSs widow of
Hienfung. The annual festival or anniver-
sary of ''Tsing Ming" falls this year on the
5th of April by our calender. en- which day
the whole people of China visit the graves
of their families. This is called, in the Of
fensive parlance of the missionaries, the
worship of ancestors and is held by
them as horriblespecies of idolatry, which
they think themselves commissioned to de.
nounce with all the terrors in the biblical
repertoire. Pure nonsense. Filial piety,
or ancestral worship-it is the same thing
is the healthest moral sentiment the Chi
nese have got, and the missionaries, if they
knew their business. would build on that
foundation instead of breaking their heads
against it. But, meriterious or not, here
are the great emperor and the court show
ing the example to all thepeople of paying
respect to the memory of the departed,
And on the very same day, when the whole
nation is engaged in the like service. the
greatest personages of the empire will pros
trate themselves before the graves of their
Sainted predecessors.