Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-03-11
BEHIND THE THRONE IN CHINA.


There Is n young man In Pekin VINO
would be trembling just now in his skin
~ he were only able to realize properly
the danger that is threatened To MN
and his empire by some Of thos. very
kind friends who have come 10 MN
dona ferentes. He IL the Etnptlui
Kunng Hsu, euphemlstically known,
among other outrageous tltlss. us w
son of heaven and brother OF the sun.
He ia the most secluded monarch on
earth. When he appears IN pubic,
which is very rarely, mating y nung
up In front OF all the houses. ana strlps
OF cloth are stretched across the aiieyS
and side streets through which the I'M
perinl procession must pass. He " M
yeriably accompanied by vast retinue
OF soldiers and an army OF courueIh,
and the man who peeps around the
corner or has his eyes fastener 10
hole in the mating is liable 70 pe
blinded by u bullet or an arrow. Wnen
he il at home he IS carefully hidden
away in the center of a big Tartar CITY
(Which is In the center of the Chinese
city1 Mt pekin, and you have 10 go
through three sets of wnlls-simply an
impossible task for n European NlsltVI
before you approach the QUITTING ~
which he is kept, guarded by eunuchs,
First there are the Immense walls OF
the great Tartar city. which are W ieet
thick and as tall as London nat
These inclose largo area niieu up
with the houses OF Tnrtars ana gov
eminent buildings, which run round
space the middle OF which Is Known
az the IMPERIAL city. This has high
wall of gray bricks about six miles IN
circumference and It includes the out.
aide palaces the pleasure grounds, ana
the temples OF the sacred city ING
emperor is kept inside this, ana ms
exclusive quarters are Known ~ wv
..ttN The wnllS OF
this last pen are rigldly guarded. They
Inclose the quarters Of the emperor, ms
family. the ladies' Of the royal hnrcm
and the thousands of eunuchs VINO
make up the servants. ana incluue
buildings for court ceremonies, Whlcn
are arranged around the sides OF
ridge of palaces from the north TO the
south. The emperor himself lives IN
the northwestern part OF the pen, ana
the empress dowager has a palace near
by. In another part OF the inclosurr IL
the hall of literary abyss, or the I'M
periai library, and In this the cabinet
officers tabout whom more anon hold
their sessions. Pekin IL huge city,
credited with 100000 Inhabitants, put
npnrt from the eunuchs. the toadies,
and the women who haunt the Purple
Forbidden city, 1t Is doubtful II b.ooo
OF this vast number have ever set eyes
upon the monarch, and among Eu-
ropeans and Americans II IL only the
ambassadors who are permitted TO gaze
upon his august countenance,
Though he IL generally credited with
the possession of an ugly temper, which
incites him to smash the bric-n-brac OF
his apartments when he 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 n strong point In the Celes-
tini moral code--by the old empress
dowager, who practically runs the state
show, and who II Influenced some
times by within working through thin
leaven of diluted statesmanlike feeling,
and sometimes by that back stairs
palace intrigue which works through
the favorable medium Of her favorite
cunuch, Pitslan-ii. Kuang Hsu-whlch
means the illustrious succession-has
been under the old lady's thumb since
he was four 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 today III
they don't walk chalk in her presence.
or course she took her own friends
when she selected his wives, and she
has him no hemmed about with her OH
ciais and girls that II he had n will OF
his own he wouldn't know how to use
II. The empress dowager, who has
bossed the tsung li-yamen for a gener-
alton, Is now 90 years old. She was the
secondary wife OF the emperor Hsien
Fung. She was at the head OF the em-
pire during n greater part of the
Taekping rebellion. She managed It's
affairs during Its war with France and
she has had more than one taste OF
Russian diplomacy. She IL said to have
n mind OF her own, and all OF the Chi
nese respect and fear her. She Is n
atickler as to form, and insists that all
h,tuInauu hnn lac IA.
young emperor, though she really d.
reefs what he IL 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 het
through it-unless she has something
strong to say to them.
The emperor Is %. lean, understood
and unhealthy. His features are Tartar
as contradistinEuished from Chinese;
the reigning family being Gas every one
should know, but probably does mott
Tartar. He does all his business al
night and he sleeps In the daytime liz
begins his work about > In tho morning
after n midnight breakfast, when he
receives his cabinet ministers, who, on
being ushered into his presence, GO
down on their knees and perform the
seven-faced "Ko-tou"-that is, bumr
their heads again and again on the
Huors iHty ulsu remain on Ihelr Knees
while before him. Everything about
and connected with Kuang Hsu Is reg
ulated by law. even to his meals Ac-
cording to the old Chinese books there
must be placed before him 30 pounds OF
meat In basin and seven pounds boiled
Into soup. He has n daily allowance
OF about pound OF hogs fat and but.
ter, and he has the right to order tive
sheep, two fowls and two ducks, while
his drink for the day IL restricted to the
milk OF SO cows and the stepping of II
parcels of tea. II is probable that his
real diet IL different, but these are the
regulation provisions, and IL he desires
anything that Is not on the menu the
board having charge of the imperial
table has to be consulted II is more
than doubtful whether his majesty
realizes his exalted situation and mis-
power. He has been hemmed In and
fooled all his life. He knows nothinr
or modern civilization, and, In spite OF
the recent war next to nothing of mod
ern warfare. He has never reviewed
and is not capable Of reviewing. his
army, and his common amusement is
to shoot with bow and arrow. II he
ever had In him the makings of a char.
acter, they must have been ruined long
since by the mode OF life and his sur
roundings.
The supreme bodies which. by the
grace OF the empress dowager and tho
favorite eunuchs have the direction of
the country's affairs, are the grand
council, the mini stry OF war, and Tho
tsunG-li-yamen. The FIRST, which is
enormously COMPOUNDED with the last
CORE spends TO orr cabinet ,p1 80,