Evening star., 1898-10-22
Tales of Queer Doings Now Going
on in Pekin. 49,
EMPRESS STILL RULES SUPREME
The Nominal Ruier is but Clay in
Her Hands.
AN INCORRUPTIBLE VICEROY
FINN The I.undnn Mail.

can SAY whether the young emperor is alive
or dead? No foreigner is allowed to PEN
citrate into the forbidden city, and short
of som, foreigner seeing him, whom could
We believe?
His predecessor, Tung Chi. passed away
IN the course of palace convulsion. Short
of capins in disguise to the protection Of
the British fleet. it is difficult to see how
the present emperor could possibly find
safety anywhere. And how could We ex-
pect him palace born and bred TO have en-
ergy for such flight? On great state oc-
casious. when. alone, he has gone abroad
to offer worship at the Temple of Heaven.
in accordance with the most ancient ritual
still i'll uubrJken use, the roads have been
remade before his passage. windows bar
ricadct. and all people bldden 10 keep with
in doors.
There are few things that appeal more to
the imagination than these progresses of
the Emperor of China. Tremendous out
lay. crowds accompanying him. both before
and behind. and not an eye to see the gor-
gcouS spectacle. Can We conceive what
the jubilee procession would have been
with all the Onlookers removed? 1t IS thus,
and thus alone. the Emperor of China has
moved about.
An Able Woman.
He has also been brought up by a great
aunt who has never intended Kim to be of
vigorous character. She must have been
a very able woman to have retained power
since ISL when Hien Funs died, and she,
Tszc chi. together with the elder Tsze An,
became regent. and this the more so be-
cause she appears generally deteSted by
the Chinese people. who accuse her of car
ing for nothing but gambling and money.
She does not seem suspected of having
brought about the death of her husband;
but the two expresses together are sup
posed TO have brought about the death OF
the late Emperor Tong Chi, when he was
twenty in 1STj and to have removed his
younger brother, also incOnvenienty near
to coming of age. They then selected as
heir to the throne the youngest son OF the
youngest brother.
In 1881 Tsze An died. and since then Tsze
Chi has held the power alone, till now,
when the present emperor, having nominal
~ been emperor for tWenty-three years,
has tried TO take the reins, and at once
been forced to abuIcate.- What more it
may have been found convenient to force
him to 10 We do not know. He has been
described by one of the few Europeans who
have seen him in official audience as en-
d0wed with preternatural dignity. and yet
Of 50 melancholy a cast of cOuntenance as
10 sadden those who do but see him. The
Chinese report him well disposed. but given
To violent fits of temper. Some say an
tllirptiC.
Wild Stories Current.
Anyway, the Empress Tsze Chi still rules
pect to submit to a woman-women there
being esteemed of neither use. comfort nor
ornament. but merely necessary evils.
There are wild stories current about the
Empress of China-that she studies boxing.
that she is half an English woman, that
she Is. anyway. not the child of her reput-
ed parents. Needless to say, these are but
told in WhiSpt rs.and never in d loom where
some one might be listening behind the door
~ through the partition.
Whatever the empress has done in the
Way of wrong or violence has so far al
WAYS been done with the help of Ii Hung
Chang, and both alike have grown rich.
BOtH are hated: both are feared. But who
is TO Withstand them, for the whole Chinese
people are without arms. There is no car
ridge of arms permitted in China. When a
German died in the interior three years ago
50 impossible was il TO find any means con-
sistenj with law of sending his three guns
10 his consul at the coast that the officials
had in The end to bury them, so as to save
further trouble
And il is owing to this want of arms en-
forced by the power of the foreign customs
with Englishman at its head that il
may now fare so badly with the whole par
" Of progress Through this foreign
sistanCe they may al be cut off and their
party destroyed as the Tai Ping rebellion
against the devastating Manchu rule was
put down. thanks TO English armed inter-
ference Nations rightly struggling to be
free d" not always meet with sympathy
in England. When their home is in the far
east. who understands their needs their as
FIratiOnS2
Chang Chih Tung.
II only remains for the empress and Ii
Hung Chang to succeed in getting the one
incorruptible viceroy, Chang Chih Tung.
into Pekin. aud to all appearance the hard
working frugal. patient Chinese people will
lie powerIess in their hands Chang Chih
lUtg Ne see by telegram is summoned to
ftkiu- tie was summoned in June. He
Delegated his authority, left his provincial
capital of Wuchang. and even got as far
a. Shanghai; but riot broke out at
ShaSZi All foreigners there had been
driven out Of their burning houses his
presence was required. and he turned
around and went back again. Possibly an
Other riot will break out now. or Chang
thib Tung's always frail health will forbid
travel Il IS difficult to believe ne Will in
aiy ease trust himself within the walls of
Pekiu. -
or all strange characters this of Chang
Chin Tung seems the strangest AS small
and puuy as his rival Ii is tall and massive
"a" - reported TO have killed his wife. and
ever since then to be so haunted by her
EIioSi as never TO venture to lie down in
hrd.
Respected for His Poverty.
30 the great viceroy. but frail old man.
has cushions always kept in readiness by
onSegulous attendants, and drops off asleep
Tor a few minutes whenever he can. sitting
Ih MS chaIr. his attendants meanwhile suf-
i"FInS all the agonies Of fatigue fnsepsra-
bir from the service Of sleepless master
f' u respected everywhere for being Door
III spit" OF the high offices he has held We,
ruins the finances of any province he ad-
ministers by his gigantic undertakings He
j. Ffputsd to dislike foreigners more even
lhan most Cinnamon: yet when in difficult
li"S IL Is TWO foreigners he sends fora for
H..I "lhcer IN the English army when the
SlHtuIty concerns either army or navy
a!ta NF Timothy Richard of the Raptist
mission when IL is about a question of
STATE And though supposed to be an enc
my to Christianity. yet he. of all the vice
T"ES OF China, has given large sums OF
Ih3i'F 10 missionary enterprises
he writes in that beautiful literary Chi
itSe- OF which he is master uurivaled
eAh'f'atlons to the people to forswear
CP'tA'' ana give up mutilating the feet of
A1tH women, so that the race NAV once
h-,it necoine hardy and able to fight
ME at Nankin he laid out a carrisss
nriVe right through 1.-THE only Chinese
CITY thus favored-and possibly thus began
70 prepare for the only step that can Vet
gave the chinese empire-the removal Of
the court from Pekin. on its extreme nor,h-
ern boundary back 10 Nankin, IT'S ancient
capital.
Might lef he saved