The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1898-12-09
ONCE A. SLAVE.
Wonderful History of the DowaEer
Emnress- of China.

Wonderful History of the DowaEer
Empress of China.
Fortune has played many strange
tricks in her time, but she was never
in a more mischieyous mood than
when, by her magic, she changed lit
tie slave-girl into the Empress of 400
million slaves and the focus of the
worlds eyes of to-day.
Her life story began half a century
ago, in the stormy days of the Tae Ping
rebellion, when the outskirts of Can
We're ravaged by lawless bands, and no
life was safe. Here she lived with her
parents and young brother in the dir
est poverty, glad If she could get a
modest share Of the daily bowl of rice.
and many days lacking even that.
Her father, Ii TZun, belonged to the
poorest grade of Cinnamon. and when
even the rich were reduced to poverty
his family were in danger of absolute
starvation. 1t was at this crisis in the
family fortunes that Yin Ling. then
pretty girl of IA, besought her father
to sell her as a slave that there might
be one less to feed, and something to
feed the rest on.
After long struggle and many tears,
the parents decided to part with her;
and one day Ii Tzun, taking his daugh-
ter by the hand, walked into Canton
and knocked at the door of a great gen.
eral, cousin of the Emperor.
The bargain was quickly concluded,
/, n c1a
becoming in time sewing maid of.}Ti-
doo's wife.
A year passed, and the girl slowly
blossomed into a rare beauty, which,
allied with a sweet disposition and
great intelligence, won the heart of her
master and mistress, who became so
attached to the winsome slave that
they adopted her as their own child.
Tutors were engaged for her, and
her mind quickly developed as her
beauty had done, until her fame
spread as that of the most beautiful
and attractive girl in Canton.
Tidoo, who was in high favor with
the Emperor, was anxious to give his
royal master a present of great value
in return for some step in promotion,
and reluctantly he decided to hand'oyer
to the Emperor Yin Ling, who thus
took her place among a thousand
slaves in the Imperial Palace.
Here again her. great beauty carried
all before it. The Emperor fell under
her spell, and made her his wife, CIV
ing her a rank inferior only to that Of
Tsi An, the titular Empress.
The young slave-girl was now En-
press in all but name. The Emperor
himself was her abject slave, and the
greatest in the land Frustrated them
selves at her feet.
Her crowning glory came when son
was born to her, and she received the
title of "Tsi Thr' and the rank of EN-
press.
When the Emperor died Yin Ling,
who had developed a strength of char
acter as rare as her beauty, made
short work of the Board of Regency,
and mounted the throne in the COM
pany of her 7-year-old son.
By this time her parents had died,
and her brother, who was a simple
farm laborer, was brought to the pal
ace and lowered with an income of
f25, 900 year.
The later history of this marvellous
woman is known to the world; and that
she retains her vigor if not her beauty
is proved by her recent coup d'etat, in
which she quietly deposed the Emperor
and took the imperial reins again into
her own hands.