The times., 1898-02-17
cHINA's REAL RULER.
The Dowager Empress the Head
OF the State.

(From the Westminster ReyieW)
There is young man in Pekin who
! would be trembling just now in his
| skin IL he were only able to realize
| properly the danger that Is threatened
| to him and his empire by some of
| those very kind friends who have
| come to him dona ferentes. He is the
| Emperor Kuang Hsu, euphemisti-
| caliy known, among other. outrageous
titles, as the Son of Heaven and Broth
er of the sun. He is the most Sc
/ cluded monarch on earth. When he
! appears in public which is very rare
| ly mating is hung up in front Of all
the houses and strips of cloth are
stretched across the alleys and side
streets through which the imperial pro-
cession must pass. al He is invariably
accompanied by q vast Tetinue of sol
diers, and an army OF courtiers, and
the man who peeps around the cor
ner or has his eyes fastened to a hole
in the mating is liable to be blinded
by q bullet or an arrow, When he is
at home he is carefully hidden away
in the center of a big Tartar city
(Which is in the center OF the Chinese
city), at Pekin, and you have to go
through three sets Of walls-Himpiy an
impossible task for a European visit
or-before you approach the building
in which he Is kept guarded by eu-
nuchs. First, there are the immense
walls of the great Tartar city, which
are sixty feet thick and as tall as a
London fiat. These inclose a large
area flied up with the houses Of Tar
tars and government buildings, which
run around a space, In the middle of
which is known as the Imperial City
This has a high wall of gray bricks
about six miles in circumference, and
il includes the outside palaces, the
pleasure grounds and the temples of
the sacred city. The emperor is kept
inside this, and his exclusive quarters
are known as the Purple Forbidden
City. The walls of this last pen are
rigidiy guarded They inclose the
quarters of the Emperor, his family,
the ladies of the royal harem, and the
thousands Of eunuchs. who make up
the servants, and include buildings for
court ceremonies, which are arranged
around the sides Of a ridge of palaces
running from the north to the south.
The Emperor himself lives in the
northwestern part of the pen, and the
Empress Dowager has a palace near
by. In another part of the inclosure
is the hall of literary abyss, or the
imperial library, and in this the cabi-
net officers (about whom more anon,
hold their sessions. PelSin is a huge
city, credited with 800, 900 inhabitants
but apart from the eunuchs. the toad
les and the women who haunt the
Purple Forbidden City, 1t is doubtful
IL 5000 of this vast number have ever
set eyes upon the monarch, and among
Europeans and Americans il is only
the ambassadors who are permitted to
gaze upon his august countenance.
Though he is generally credited with
the possession Of a very ugly temper,
which incites him to smash the brIc-s-
brac of his apartments when hs cannot
have his own way his efforts at ruling
go no further than doing what he is told
TO do. He is kept in order-ancestor wor-
ship being a strong point in the Ceies-
tial moral code by the old Empress Dow
ager, who practically runs the state
show, and who is influenced sometimes
by whim working through a thin leaven
OF diluted ststesmanlike feeling, and
sometimes by that backstairs palace in
trigua which works through the favora
BILE medium OF her favorite eunuch,
Pitsian-li. Kuang Hsu-which means
The Iliustrious Sucession-has been un-
der the old lady's thumb since he was 1
years OF age, when he was chosen to sue
ceed T'ung-chi. She supervised his ed
him, and she makes the ladies Of his
harem skip today IL they don't walk
chalk in her presence. OF course she
took her own friends when she selected
his wives, and she has him so hemmed
about with her officials and girls that
II he had a Will OF his own he wouldn't
know how 10 use it. The Empress Dow
ager, who has bossed the Tsung- -ii-Ya-
men for a generation, is now 63 years old.
She was the secondary wife of the En-
peror Hsien Fung. She was at the head
of the empire during greater part of
the Topping rebellion. She managed its
affairs during Its war with France and
She has had more than one taste OF Rus
sian diplomacy. She is said to have
mind Of her own, and all of the Chinese
respect and fear her. She is a stlckler
as to form, and insists that all busi-
nsss shall be done through the young
Emperor, though she really directs what |
he Is to do. She is even more secluded |
than the Emperor, and when she receives |
her officials and the cabinet ministers |
her practice is TO sit behind screen |
while they talk at her through it--unless |
she has something strong 10 say to them. |!
The Emperor is twenty-seven. lean |
and unhealthy. His fea- |
ureS are Tartar as Contradistinguish- !
I'd from Chinese; the reigning family |
being tas every one should know but |
does not) Tartar. He does all |
his business at night and sleeps in the
daytime. He begins his work about |
n the morning, after midnight break
asst, when he receives his cabinet min
sters, who, on being ushered into his |
presence, go down on their knees and |
perform the seven-faced "Ko-tou'-
hat is. bump their heads again and |
igain on the floor. They also remain |
N their knees while before him Every
hing about and connected with kuang
isu is regulated by law even to his
meals. According TO the old Chinese
books there must be placed before him
laily thirty pounds OF meat in basin
md seven pounds boiled into a soup.
lie has daily allowance of about a
,ound of hogs fat and butter. and he
las the right to order two sheep. two |
owls. and two ducks, while his drink
or the day is restricted to the milk of
lightly cows and the sleeping of sew
parcels Of tea. 1t is probable
hat his real diet is different, but these
re the regulation provisions, and if he
lesires anything not on the menu the
BOARD having charge of the imperial
able has to be consulted. 1t is more
han doubtful whether his majesty
ealizes his exalted situation and his !
,ower. He has been hemmed in and
ooled all his life. He knows nothing
f modern civilization, and. in spite of
he recent war, next to nothing of mod
IN warfare. He has never reviewed
nd is not capable of reviewing his ar
ny, and his common amusement is to
hoot with bow and arrow. If he
Yer had in him the makings of a char
cter they must have been ruined long
ince by his mode of life and surround
ngs.
The supreme bodies which. by the