The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-10-05
1t Is the Dowager Empress, Ii Hung
Chang and Russia Versus the
Emperor and England.
MISERY OF "A MONARCH
Who, Theoretically, Owns the Earth, But Actually
Is the nost Utterly Ensaved and
Miserable of lien.

New York, Oct AThe Journal describes
the situation in China, previous to the re-
lorted assassination Of rhe emperor
The Journal begins as follows. by tell
ing lust shy the emperor Of China is the
snost miserable man in the world
The emperor Of China is a prisoner in
his own palace.
He has been dethroned by an old wo-
man.
He has 10000 slaves, but no power.
He rises at two in the morning to con-
sult his ministers.
He spends forty-six days year sacrt-
fcing to the Gods.
Every year he offers up hundreds of silk
balloons 10 the memory of mis- ancestors.
THE doctors viii not allow him to eat
anything he likes twice.
He is called the son of Heaven and rul-
er Of the whole earth.
at is death to look at him without per-
mission.
1t is a crime to speak his proper name
He has a batch of new wives every
three years.
when he goes out the streets are drap-
ed in black
"A dgnatory on approaching him must
kneel three times. and knock his head on
the floor nine.
He is likely to die suddenly"
This last mentioned probability seems
now to have become an actual fact
The Journal then proceeds, more in de-
tail:
The emperor of China, absolute master
Of more TIM S00,0O009O subjects, has been
deprived OF his power BY a woman, the
Dowager Empress Isl An. This fact alone
IS enough TO call the attention of the
whole world to him.
Although tn eemperor is able 10 com
mand the death of any person in his en-
pIre, one old woman exercised so great
a power over him that she could force
him to abdicate.
The emperor lives the most remarkable
life Of any human being. No man may en-
ter his palace. When he goes abroad none
may look at him. He spends his life hon
oring the memory of his ancestors. His
diet is regulated by immemorial tradition.
lie cannot eat anything he likes twice in
succession.
The Chinese call their Emperor the Son
of Heaven. It is death to gait upon him
without permission. 1t is a crime to speak
,lis proper name
He dwells in a forbidden city within a
still more forbidden palace. Ten thousand
slaves wait upon him. No man may ap-
proach him without making obeisances
that would exhaust an athlete. His wives
are beyond counting. The most elaborate
ceremonial ever recorded envelopes him.
Withal he is the most miserable wretch
alive.
The Emperor has now been deprived of
the last vestiges Of power that remained
to him. In future he will have all of the
ceremonial and mono of the authority. He
viii have TO awtch a thousand servants
kowtowing and realize that he is not able
TO cut off the head of one of them. In
fine. he will have all the misery and none
of the ation-except such as innum-
cradle wives may procure him.
The Dowager Empress Isl An has usurp-
ed the imperial power. She is not the EN-
peror's mother, but was a wife politely
termed secondary Of Hen Fung, the last
Emperor but one, and uncle of the pres
ent one. She is wonderful person. She
rose from a slave girl to her present
height.
The Dowager Empress favors Ii Hung
Chang. machine politics and an alliance
with Russia. For a brief period one Kang
Nu Mel obtained possession of the emper-
or's ear. He is q reformer, a believer in
political liberty and honest finance. and
favors an alliance with England. While
he was in the ascendancy the Dowager
Empress and Il Hung Chang were under
q cloud.
Then the old Empress intrigued for the