The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-06
CHINA'S RULING POWERS.
DOWAGER EMPRESS BOSSES THE
ia SON OF HEAVEN.

S. ArroWs-The Grand Council, the
Ministry of War, the TsunE-Ii-Ya-
men and the Men Who Constitute
Them-Daily Diet OF the Brother OF
the sun.
From the Westminster Review.
There is a young man in Pekin who
would be trembling just now in his skin
If 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 feren-
! ties. He is the Emperor luang Hsu,
ephemistically known. among other out
rageous titles. as the Son of Heaven and
Brother of the Sun. He is the most Sc
Guided monarch on earth. When he APP
pears in public, which is very rarely, mat
ting 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 procession must pass. He is in
variably accompanied by vast retinue Of
| soldiers and an army of courtiers, and the
man who peeps around the corner or has
his eyes fastened to hole In the mating
j
| row. When he Is at home he is carefully
hidden away in the center of a hig Tartar
| city (Which is in the center of the Chinese
city, al Pebin, and you have to go through
| three sets of walls simply an impossible
| task for European visltor-before you APP
| preach the building in which he is kept,
| guarded by eunuchs First, there are the
immense walls of the great Tartar city.
| which are sixty feet thick and as tail as a
eLondon fiat. These inclose large area fill
ed up with the houses of Tartars and gov
eminent buildings, which run round a
space the middle of which IS known as the
| Imperial City. This has a high wall Of
/ gray bricks about six miles in clrcumfer-
| ence, and it includes the outside palaces,
! the pleasure grounds, and the temples of
| the sacred city The Emperor is kept in
side this, and his exclusive quarters are
| known as the Purple Forbidden CITY. The
walls Of this last pen are rigidly 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
round the sides of a ridge of palaces rum
| hhg from the north 10 the south Inc
Emperor himself lives In the northwest
ern part OF the pen, and the Empress Dow
| ager has palace near by. In another part
| of the inclosure is the hall of literary
| abyss or The imperial library, and in this
| the cabinet officers (about whom more
! anon hold their sessions. Pekin is huge
city, credited with l,5oOOO inhabitants, but
| apart from the euuuchs, the toadles, and
| the women VINO haunt the Purple forDid-
Den CITY, IL IS douptIui II 3DO q ms Nasl
! NUMBER nave eVerkset eyes upon me mon
arch, ana among. Europeans ana Ameri-
cans 1t is only the ambassadors VINO are
permitted to gaze upon his august counte-
nance
Though he is generally, credited with the
| possession or very ugly temper, whlcf
| hcites hlm 10 Smash the Drle-a-brac OF me
| apartments Wheh ne cannon nave mas oWr
| way, MS eHorts at ruling go no further
than doing what ne rs told to do. He is
Kept IN order-ancestor worship being q
strong point IN the CELESTIAL moral code
by the old Empress Dowager, who prac'
lcally runs the state SHOW, and who Il
lnhuehced sometimes by Whim working
through thin leaven of diluted statesman
llke teehng' and sometimes by that back
stars palace intrigue which works
through the favorable medium of her ia
Vorlte eunuch, Pltsian-h, kuang Hsu-
which means the Illustrous Succession
has been under the old lady's thumb since
he was years OF age, when he was cho
sen to succeed Tung-chi. She supervised
his education. She picked out his wives
FOR him, and she makes the ladies' of hi
harem skip to-day IL they don't walk chall
in her presence. OF course she took bel
own friends when she selected his wives
and she has him so hemmed about viii
! her officials and girls that if he had viii
Of his own he wouldn't know how to us'
IT.. The Empress Dowager, who has boss
ed the Tsung-h- Yamen for a generation
is now 63 years old. She was the second
airy wife of the Emperor Hsien Flung. Sbt
was at the head OF the empire during
greater part OF the Tapping rebellion. She
managed its affairs during its war viii
France, and she has had more than ont
taste Of Russian diplomacy. She Is said L
have O mind of her own, and all of tn,
Chinese respect and fear her. She is
stickler as to form, and insists that al
business shall be done through the youns
Emperor, though she really directs wha
he is to do. She Is even more secluded
than the Emperor, and when she receives
her officials and the cabinet ministers hel
~