Morning journal and courier., 1889-01-31
THE EMPEROR OF CHINA.


 How His Consort Was seIected-The
 Young Mans Amusements.
 Shanghai Dispatch to the London Standard.l
 At last, after many delays, consort has been selected for tho ruler of China The choice was left to the Dogager Empress, who has found helpmate for the boy Emperor in her own niece. The firet detachment of fair competitors numbered several hundreds, all daughters of Mancnu mandarins of not less than the third rank.
 After several inspections, in which the beauty, family influence and intellectual att tainments of the young ladies were taken into grave consideration, the list of fair as- pirants was reduced to thirty. The discard ed ones were eonsoled with present to each
 of yellow silken purse, with tael (one
 and half ounces) of pure silver. The
 thirty were again sent back to their homes
 to await the final choice, and the eagerness
 with which they looked forward to their
 next appearance in the palace, on which de-
 pended their chance of winning seat on
 the throne, is best left to the imagination.
 At length, after many weeks of waiting, the
 imperial messenger summoned the thirty
 candidates to the palace again on the 27th of
 last month. The rites prescribe that upon
 such great occasions each of the ladies should
 be dressed in silken robes of great richness, and that each should carry an embroidered tablet showing her clan, the name and rank of her father and the date of her birth. When we are told that the ages of the ean- didates varied from eleven to fifteen, we can readily understand that there could be none of the wonted difficulty of the west on the latter tender score.
 More than a week elapsed before the final -soI . cree, dated the 2d of November, announced that the Empress Dowager had selected a young lady of great beauty, the daughter of her youngest brother, General Kuei-hsiang, as the future empress. This fortunate lady l is about thirteen years of age and her name ! is Yeh-ehnala. After her marriage with the young emperor, which is fixed for the 23d of ] February next, she will of course take an- other title. From the remaining fourteen l two sisters, the daughters of high civil off | cial, aged fifteen and thirteen respectively, were chosen for the imperial harem. The legal number of ladies in this latter estab- lishment is seven; but the emperor is not tied down by any arithmetical limit. | Whether the choice of the Empress DowageI | is wise one remains to be seen: that she was guided by natural leanings to her own I clan IS obvious enough. But It the young | empress proves to have the family tact, wis l dom and legislative ability of her royal aunt l the nation will have no reason to regret the selection.
 The young emperor, of whose life few l little incidents have of late crept through | the high walls of the sacred city to the out side world, is described as of juvenile and simple appearance, very fragile, and very un- | like his early warlike ancestors, who wrested I the throne from the Mings. The lakes in- side the palace grounds have lately been dis- | turbed by numerous steam launches and a 1 miniature iotilla of steamers, which were l presented to his majesty, through Ii Hung l Chang, by enterprising seekers after con- ' tracts.
 The boy emperor has taken the greatest in terest in the strange little vessels, and great alarm was caused the other day by his insist ing on jumping, like any other boy of sev- l enteen or eighteen, on board without wait- ing for the gangpiank to be laid down, and l insisting on remaining till steam was got up. Unfortunately there was no one among the | crowd of high officials who knew anything | about working such craft, and his majesty l had accordingly to forego his excursion, l much to his chagrin. So infatuated has he
 been with the toy railway sent to him from France that he has, it is reported, or dered larger one to be laid down inside the
 palace, and he spends much time in riding in the miniature but beautifully furnished little French carriages.