The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-12-17

mother or the present Khedlve, a strong
minded and in every sense of the word ,e-
markable woman, has frequently been the
power behind the throne during the s,~1c Z
what stormy events which have succeeded
one another in Egypt since the time of her
marriage. Her husband, the late Khediye
Tewfk, was altogether subject to her rule.
Whether this was owing to hds apprecaa-
ton of her intellectual superiority or due
to fear: have been able to discover.
There Is reason, however, to believe that
apprehension had something to do with 1t:
For his wife took after her mother
Turkish princess, who Is asserted to have
presented to her husband on a golden
salver the head OF ONE Of her odalisuues
that @he had Sventured 10 admire, and who,
then had him fastened up In sack and
Pitched into, those swiftly Aowing watsset
OF the Bosphorus, which have Witnessed
so many other tragedies Of the same kind
khed1ve Tewfikgdid not relish the idea Of
sharing the fate Of his fathercin- law and
ch1ef1y on this account restricted his at
tfections exclusively to the khediviah in
stead of taking the usual number Of wives
iailoWed by Mahomet and filling his harem
with lovely slaves. 1t was this, too that
iled MIN to obey so implicitly her advice
an advice which is accountable for the
somewhat suspicious role which he played
at the time of the Arfbds dnsurrection in
Ilee2. Owing to the TACT that the khedi-
wan had some near and dear relatives
among the leaders OF the rebellion against
the European element she induced her
husband to favor their cause as much as
possible, and hts loyalty to England was
IN consequence to .snch an extent ques-
toned In London that I'm 1888 Lord Ran
,dolph Churchill demanded in parliament
that he should be deposed.
! With the advent of Lord Cromers to
Cairo, however, matters there underwent
change. The khediviah, who ia an ex-
tfemely stout woman, entertained the
Warmest affection for the late LadysCro-
,,mer; the latter had befriended her at
times during the reign OF Isrnail. when
no one dared to visit Tewfik's palace for
rear OF mourning the displeasure of his
rather, who was eager to put him out
or the way, and who hated him. The khe-
div1ah never forgot the kindness of Lady
Cromer ,(Mrs:; Barring, AS she was them
IN those days of her peril and loneliness,
and the loyalty toward the English which
: from 1884 on became the distinguishing
trait or khedive Tewfk was largely due
to the friendship Of the khediviah for
Lady Cromer and the kindly, healthy IN
nuenoe which the latter exercised in the
vice-regal harem. 30. "a &
Lady Cromer, however, found 1t impos-
sloie to establish relations of the same
Kind with the wife of the present khedfye
potentate whom she had known from
babyhood, and on the subject of whose
ln1ant Ills she had oftentimes been con
suited by it's mother. His consort is not
highly educated Turkish great woman.
like the widowed khediviah, but a former
ooalsQue, Or slave, who was merely
raised by her husband toSthe rank Of wife
because she was the first woman of his
seraglio to afford him the joys of father
hood. She is relatively ignorant wom-
an, possessed of no intellect or breeding,
and is entirely subject to the influence OF
RUSSIAN woman established at Cairo
and married ian italian, the influence
OF this woman being largely responsible
for the antagonistic attitude Of the young
kdedlve toward the English. =.
IN Apysslnla woman, is likewise the
FACTOR. For it is the empress who is by
TAR the most important personage her
influence over the negus is unbounded,
and ne consuls her in everything that he
does, preferring her advice to that of
everybody else. Indeed. it is to her clever
Craftsmanship that is ascribed the extra
ordinary manner In which he succeeded
In not only freeing himself from the pro-
tectorate OF King Humbert but likewise
IN driving the Italians out of his land
All those who have visited his dominions
are united in declaring that she is far and
away the most important figure in the
contemporary history Of Abyssinia, and
that she Is far more dreaded by the peo-
PIE and by the great ctieftains than her
alleged ineal descent from King Solomon,
and from the Biblical queen of Sheba, is
universally admitted to be distinctly in
ferior to her own. - ~ : g
The British authorities in India have
always found the Begums, or sovereign
processes OF the Deccan, far more diff
cult people to deal with than the <Maha-
rajah and native kings. And both tho
great duke of wellington and Lord Give
are on record as declaring that the Be-
gums had offered a more stubborn resist
ance to the English conquest Of Hindoo-
stan than any Of the more celebrated In
dian potentates. It is likewise an unde-
riable fact that in the present day, as
in the past, the native states subject to
feminine rule are more wisely governed
and more progressively administered than
those controlled by male sovereigns. True.
some Of the Begums have achieved an
unenv1able celebrity for cruelty, and none
of them seem to have erred on the side
of leniency.. But with all that, their do
minions have always been superior, 50
far as prosperity and the maintenance of
order are concerned. to those of their
reighboring brother chiefs
Every one knows how for tho last thirty
years the dowager empress Of China
has exercised sovereign sway at I'eking,
bending TO her own will every one, even
statesmen OF such acknowledged skill and
worldwide fame as Prince Kung, the late
Marquis Tseng, and old ii Hung Chang.
sta! ting life as a mere slave girl, with
nothing in the form of family prestige or
influence or even Of extraordinary beauty
to assist her. she has managed bysidint I
OF tenacity OF purpose and statecraft to
secure and retain supreme power over an
empire of four hundred millions of human
beings, and on her birthday the other
day the court of Picking was treated to
the altogether unprecedented ard astound-
ing spectacle of the emperor l,inself per-
forming the act Of kotow, or self-abase-
ment before the ex-slave girl, who is not
even his mother, bat merelya deputy wife
of one of his predecessors on the throne.
Like the empress doWager of China the
empress of Japan is childless, and what
ever children the mikado has are the on
spring of members of his immense serag-
Ito. II mention this It lis because in the
Orient hildlessness Is regarded as almost
a crime, on the part Of women, and the
raere fact that the two expresses OF China
and Japan should In spite OF this draw
back, have acquired such predominant IN
!lIence speaks volumes for their clever
ness The empress OF aJpan is in every 4
.s.lmse of the word remarkable 5w,man.
her husbands most sagacious and en-
.Tghtened counsellor and responsible In no
small measure for the astounding progress
AID development In a modern and Visit
ern sense OF the land of the Rising sun
Indeed, If Japan is t1-day almost in tn.
front rank Of civilization. according tc
Western Ideas. 1t 10 quite as much due
ITO Empress Haruko as TO the mikado.
This, think, will sa1fnce TO demopstrate'
that woman plays ina fhess 0xiaRt. IL fAt1
more .weighty and predominanf role than
people In America have imAs lined: that
the contempt which has hitherto been pro
llectual capacity Of the inmates. Of the
ihareYn IN based an gfRl10ras1ce -axk6 q III