The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-02
A DAY WITH THE DIPLOMATS.
SPECTACULAR ARRIVAL OF THE
NEW MINISTER FROM CHINA.

SIR Julian PnuncefOte on a Tricycle..
a Real Prince and n Bogus One.
Sonora Dupuy de LONE One of tn G
Most Beautiful of Foreign Women.
The Most Dignified Man in Wash
fngton.
Washington, April 2S-The fortunate
few who happened to be at the railway
sta ton the other day when the new Chi
nese ambassador and his numerous reti-
nue. arrived, were treated TO a rare show
First came the retiring minister, Mr..
Yang Yu. with his tiny doll-like wife and
| her three painted midgets of chidren-a
! carriage load of Oriental quaitness; then
two or three more liveried carriages filed
with legation attaches: followed at a re-
| spectful distance. on foot, by every China
man in the District Of Columbia-siIlxen-
robed merchants and cotton jacketed
washermen, cues and bias eyes swarming
from all parts of the compass. When the
special train rolled in and the fresh i'm
portahons poured out of 1t, the scene was
as one in the heart of the
F9owery Kingdom. Besides the new am
bassador. Mr.. WI Ting Fang. and his
wife and little son, there were fifteen dis
tinguished Chinese gentlemen in the i'm
mediate suite, several ladies with their
maids, a troop of children, and a large
number of male servants. 1t Is said to
take a man years to learn to count sheep
and certainly it would take cycles to be-
come an expert counter of excited China
cisely the same cut, but of Kaleidoscope
variety in combinations of colors And
what a solemn, thing is Chinese etiquette!
These way-up Celestials did not exactly
wipe the depot floor with their faces in
the ardor Of greeting nor prostrat them
selves prone on their ample stomachs in
the dust as did those recent visitors, the
See Yups, before Minister Yang Yu, or
as did Mr.. Yang Yu before his superior,
the mighty II Hung Chang; but this is
how they do it in the upper circles of
China. When greeting one in the same
set but slightly inferior in wealth or
position, the proper thing is to
clasp ones own two hands ferv-
entity touch the others fore
head with them, then shake ones own
hands long and fast till ones cue wriggles
to its very tip, like serpent suspended on
a stick. If the other has precedence in
rank, as for instance, the new minister
over the old, one touches the Others cheek
with his rapturously clasped hands and
bows so low that his forehead gets a
smudge on it off the floor; then up and at
II again, the same thing over and over
each party shaking his own hands with all
his might. Fancy room full of people
all doing this at once; and talking so fast
in the Chinese sing-song infection, that no
ordinary American could possibly keep
up with them in speed of tongue.
The uptown hotel where the diStin-
guished party are stopping-the same
which lately sheltered Ii Hung Chang
and then, as now, had the gorgeous yellow
dragon flag, floating above it's another
peep into the Flowery Kingdom. One
whole wing of 1t has been given up to the
Celestials, their cooks and servants, and
its corridors are piled high with the oldest
looking luggage under the sun. There are
| hampers and bundles and boxes and bas-
| kets Of truly Oriental style; strange jars
and fowls and papier me chic things and
| stacks upon stacks of umbrellas big and
| little, in every conceivable fashion of pa
! per and cloth, Of color and alleged adorn-
| ment. Portly Cinnamon in petticoats, and
| diminutive hand maidens in trowsers
| whose sex can only be guessed from their
size, glide noiselessly a bout on their wood
| en- shoes; and small, brown lads and las
| sizes like animated comic valentines, dart
| in and out and are evidently up to as
much mischief as their Caucasian con-
| temporaries. The difference in the stand
! ing OF various members of the party is
! plainly to be read in their clothes. Those
/ of the ambassadors immediate attendants
| are of stiff satin, invariably a robe of
bright hue with a darker colored jacket,
| the latter having long full sleeves and gor-
! geous cuffs and Innings. A favorite COM
/ bination is a dark plum or purple, lined
! with sky-blue, over a robe of pale-blue.
! heliotrope or cherry. These are official
| them are topped with queer round caps,
! with black rims and red crowns and a
| little grass knob or bushy black plume
| on top, denoting their rank. Beneat
each silken jacket is suspended an elabo-
| rately embroidered fan case, an umbrella
or two, several gay ribbons and embroi-
| dered bags, and as many other odds and
| ends as a school boys pocket. These
| robes are all made open, back and front,
| like the bicyclsts divided skirt" to ad-
nit of riding on horseback. Several of
! these court dignitaries wear long, plain
| satin robes-one a cardinal red, another
| royal blue, another olive green-entirely
| untrimmed except the gay-colored cuffs.
| Most of them come from the wealthest
! and most aristocratic families of China,
| all are highly educated, and several speak
| English ''velly well" Among them is Mr.
| Sheu, who has been here before, and now
/ comes as first secretary of the legation.
with his wife and children. Several of the
I gentlemen, however, are only visitors in
| Washington and will leave in a few days
for their respective positions In the Chi
| nese legations in Spain, Peru and Cuba.
| The servants, a host of them, wear plain
| black muslin. or green and blue muslin,
made after the latest Chinese cut of short
| gowns and petticoats-not so very differ
/ ent in fashion from those our great grand
| mothers wore. Mrs. WI is gowned i'm the
costiliest brocades. so stir that every one
Of them would stand alone If her little
| figure were out of it; and at all times-ex-
| cept, perhaps. when she sleeps-she wears
a round cap. much like those on the heads
of her countrymen of high degree, only
| hers is wonderfully bedecked with jeweled
| ornaments. How does she look? Well
John c. SAKE drew an accurate picture Of
her in his description of the eldest daugh-
ter OF wise Wang Ke."
Her skin has the color OF saffron tea,
| And her nose was as fiat as nat could be /:
And never were seen such beautiful eyes,
Two almond-kernels for shape and size,
Set in a couple OF slanung gashes,