Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-01-12
HE'S A BLUE BLOOD.
THE MIkAoo OF JAPAN, HIS LOOKS
AND MANNER OF LIVING.

He Has Cafe Lait Complexion and
Thirteen Wives-Mannges to Exist on an
Income Of sa.5OO.c0O Year Az Inter-
view with the Chamberlain
have had most remarkable journalistic
experience | have interviewed the most
prominent of the mikado's court chamber
lains OH the home life of his majesty. Such
an Interview has, | believe, never been held
before. II would have been impossible TWEEN
ty years ago, and twenty-five years ago. If
successful, if would have been death to the
chamberlain and imprisonment to me. At
that time 1t was treason To name aloud the
personal name of the inikado In writing it,
it was against the law to pen the name In
full and one of the strokes or letters had to
be left ont. No one except the wives of the
emperor and his highest ministers ever saw
his face ( is divine features were never un
Veilesl to public gaze Kept in the seclusion
of his palace at kiota, he was revered as a
god by the people, and when he went abroad
Ia the city le roi9 III closely curtained car
drawn by hullocks His sacred feet never
touched the earth, and when lie died it was
supposed that he would enter the company of
the gods.
lie was at this time the emperor of Japan
but hc WIS only nominal emperor The
co;nnlande'-in-rhiefo OF the imperial army
under The title of the siogun administered
his affairs and these commanders-in -chief
who succeeded one another bv hereditary
descent, had for generations tlsurped the real
authority Cf the government, while they thus
KEPT the tHikado In sort OF glass case and
held him Up spiritual rather than a tenn
po"al ru!t He hal all tho titles and plenty
OF reverene Ills power, however, was linn
tied to the control of his wife and his twelve
concubincs, and the shoguns kindly relieved
him Of all Che duties of an emperor. They
managed his treasury, made the laws, gov
erncd the country and ate up the taxes.
SUCCESSFUL REVOLUTION
This stare of things went on for hundreds
OF years A fcudal system grew up undor it.
The lords If this system became enervated bv
luxury, and the chief officers under them
about twenty years ago, organized a revolu-
ton to give back the mikado his real power
The present emperor was then upon his
throne. He was just 10 years old
The sho,un was overthrown and the en-.
peror was taken by the erevolutionists to Toxic
and declared emperor in fact This was the
Japan. Tho young mikado came out of his
curtalned seclusion, and before the court he
promised that changes should be made in the
empire; that a deliberative assembly should
be formed, and that all measures should be
decided by public opinion He promised that
impartiality and Justice should be adopted as
basis of action, and that intellect and learn
ing should be sought fer throughout the
world in order to establish the foundations of
the empire
1t was upon this basis that the new gov.
ernmcnt was founded, and since then thou
sands of japanese have been travelling over
the world seeking the best of all kinds for
Japan. Since then many of the old customs
have been thrown away Railroads, tele
graphs and schools have been established. In
tercOursa with other nations has been kept
up, and he mikado rules the new Japan. If
l am correctly informed, he is deeply inter
ested III its progress, and he looks forward
anxiouSlT toward the opening of the parlia-
ment which takes place in 1890
Tho nIikGdo has the bluest blood Of anv
ruler on the face of the earth. The present
dynasty Of Japan runs back to the gods and
his imperial majesty is the one hundred and
twenty-iirst emperor of Japan The Japan-
ese have their history and their mythology,
and the present emperor comes from Jimmu
Tenno who was the first mikado, and who
ruled Japan 66O years before Christ was born
This man was a descendant of the sun goddess.
and Mutsuhito, the present emperor, traces
his descent directly from him
Japanese history gives the story of each of
tho l20 emperors between the two. and if YOU
viii think n moment you will see how far
back 65) 3. G. is. This was before Rome had
become an empire. England was unknown
even to tho Romans, and hundreds of years
were yet to elapso before Caesar penetrated
GauL The present emperor was born in
hlota, Nov. ), 1852. He was declared heir
apparent to the throne when he was 8 wears
old, and he succeeded on the death of his
father IN 1867. He was crowned in 1868. and
was married at the age of II in 1869
THE MiHADo'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE.
Ills imperial majesty is now 3S years old.
Let me tell you how he looks. He is taller
than the average japanese, and his appear-
ance is not half as imposing now as when be
wore the rich japanese costumes and sat cross
legged on his mats of state. He has dark
brown cafe au lait complexion, and his ewes
which -ook out through almond Sits, are of a
brilliant black His hair is very thick. and
he parts it in European style 1t is combed
well up from a good forehead, and his
majesty's eyebrows have the decided arch
which is Indicative of japanese beauty. His
nose Is large and inclined to flatness 1t
has the wide nostrils of the Japauese
and his majesty's lips are thick He is
OF me lium size, but is inclined to stoop
which | imagine may como from the earlier
part o. his life having been spent in sitting
upon the floor. He wears a mustache and
chin vhskers, and these like those of most
Of his race, are thin. The court chamber
lain lis me that for the past sixteen years he
has worn nothing but European clothes
and he has to large extent adopted Euro
pean vays His dress is that of a general of
the army, and he takes great pride in mill
tary Inatters He reviews his troops several
times year, and is thoroughly up in the
organization of his armies. When he goes
out to ride Ee is always accompanied by his
imperial guards, and he has lately purchased
several new state carriages which are the
wond 9r of Toxic.
The emperor of Japan is rich He is al
lowed $4,000 year for his household de-
partnlent, and his private fortune is large
and increasing. The chamberlain tells me
that he thoroughly understands business mat
ters and keeps himself well informed as to
his investments. Some of these are in the
publ, laniS and roads, and they ore, of
course, managed by men appointed by him -
Frank g. Carpenter.
Not just the Same
In modern usage, especially Newspaper
USAGE tho phrase anenCle honorable sicruifies