The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-02-24
POWER BEHIND THRONE.

Though he is generally credited with
the possession of a very ugly temper,
which incite him to smash the bric-a-
brac of his apartments when he can
not have his own way. his efforts at
ruling go TO further than doing what
he is told to do. He is kept in order
ancestor worship being a strong point
in the Celestial moral cOde-by the old
Empress DoWager, who practically
runs the state show, and who is influ-
enCed sometimes by Whim working
through a thin leaven of diluted states
manlike feeling, and sometimes by that
backstairS palace intrigue which works
through the favorable medium of her
favorite eunuch, Pltsian-li. kuanS
Hsu-which means The Illustrious Sue
cession'-has been under the old lady's
thumb since he was 4 years of age,
when he was chosen to succeed T'ung-
chi. She supervised his education. She
picked out his wives for him, and she
makes the ladies of his harem skip to-
day if 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 if he had
will of his own he wouldt know how
to use it. The Empress Dowager, who
has bossed the Tsung-li- -Yamen for a
generation. is now SO years old. She was
the secondary wife of the Emperor
Hsien Fung. She was at the head Of
the empire during greater part of the
Tapping rebellion. She managed its
affairs during its war with France and
she has had more than one taste Of
Russian diplomacy. She is said to
have mind of her own, and all of the
Chinese respect and fear her. She is a
stickler as to form, and insists that all
business shall be done through the
young emperor, through she really di-
rects 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 a screen while they talk at her
through it-unless she has something
strong to say to them.
The emperor is 27, lean, understood
and unhealthy. His features are Tar
tar as contradistinguished from Chi
nesc; the reigning family being (as
every one should know, out probably
does not) Tartar. He does all his busi-
ness at night and he sleeps in the day.
the morning, after n midnight break
fast, when he receives his cabinet min
listers, who. on being ushered into his
presence, so down on their knees and
perform the seven-faced "Ko-tOu"-
that Is, bump their heads again and
again on the floor. They also renal on
their knees while before him. Every
thing about and connected with Kuang
Hsu is regulated by law, even to his
meals. According to the old Chinese
| books there must be placed before him
daily thirty pounds of meat in a basin
and seven pounds boiled into soup. lie
has a daily allowance Of about a pound
| Of hogs fat and butter, and he has the
right to order two sheep, two fowls and
| two ducks, while his drink for the day
| is restricted to the milk of eighty COWS
and the stepping of seventy-five parcels
| of tea. 1t Is probable that his real
diet is different, but these are the reg
ulation provisions, and if he desires
anything that is not on the menu the
board having charge of the imperial
table. has 10 be consulted. 1t is more
than doubtful whether his majesty
realizes his exalted situation and his
| power. He has been hemmed in and
| oil 10