The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1898-04-21
BEHIND cHrNA,s THRONE.
'he Emperor IL = Mere Nonentity
the Dowager Empress Being the
Controlling Power.

d There IL young man In Picking VIII,
would be trembling now In his skin /
d ne were only able 70 realize properl,
!. the danger that is threatened to him ant
his empire. He is the Emperor Kuanl
e Hsu, euphemistically known as the sor
OF Heaven and brother Of the sun. HI
. is the most secluded monarch on earth
When he appears in public, which Is
e rarely mating 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 invariably
! accompanied by vast retinue Of SOL
diers and an army Of cour:iers, and the
J man who peeps around the corner or
has his eyes fastened TO a hole In the
mating is liable TO be blinded by bull
let or an arrow. When ne In at home
he is carefully hidden away in the CEN
ter OF big Tartar city (which is in the
center of the Chinese city, at Picking,
and you have to go through three sets
OF walls-simply an impossible task for
q European yisitor-before you APP
proach the building in which he is kept,
guarded by eunuchs.
Though he is generally credited with
the possession of an ugly temper, which
incites him to smash the bric-a-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.
lie is kept in order-ancestor worship
being strong point in the celestial |
moral cod"-by the old empress dow
ager, who practically runs the state
show, and who is influenced sometimes
by whims, working through a thin
lcaven of diluted statesmanlike feeling,
and sometimes by that backstairs pal
ace intrigue which works through the
favorable medium of her favorite
eunuch, Pitsian-li. Kuang Hsu-which
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 SUI
pervised his education. She picked out
his wife for him, and she makes the la r
dies of his harem skip to-day if they '
don't walk chalk in her presence. OF q
course, she took her own friends when
she selected his wives, and she has him ;,
so hemmed about with her officials and a,
girls that if he had will of his own he p
wouldn't know how to use it. The en- 81
,ress dowager, who has bossed The
sung-li-yamen for a generation, is now
- years old. She was the secondary X
wife OF the emperor Hsien Fung. She
vas at the head of the empire during a
reater part of the Tapping rebellion. y
he managed its affairs during its war ~
Nth France, and she has had more than
ne taste of Russian diplomacy. She
) said to have a mind of her own, and he
IL of the Chinese respect and fear her. oil
he is stickler as TO form, and insists
lat all business shall be done through r.
he young emperor, though she really ir
reefs what he is to do. She is even
ore secluded than the emperor and
hen she receives her officials and the lor
binet ministers her practice is to sit Wv
hind screen while they talk at her
rough it-unless she has something
rong to say 10 them.
The emperor is q, lean, understood
d unhealthy. His features are Tar Ii'
as contradistinguished from Chi Cal
Sc; the reigning family being las ho'
eryone should know, but probably
es mott Tartar He does all his bust IN IN,
IS at night and he sleeps in the day. Flo
he. He begins his work about two in Dh5
morning after midnight breakfast.
EN- he receives his cabinet ministers.
o, on. being ushered into his pres HAY
e, go down on their knees and per- my
IN the seven-faced "Ko-tou''-that is But
mp their heads again and again on APP
hoor. They also remain on their POT
es while before him. Everything
Ut and connected with Kuang Hsu Flo
egulated by law, even to his meals. o"lS
ording to the old Chinese books COR
e must be placed before him daily PoR
ounds of meat in basin and seven LAR
nds boiled into soup. He has
allowance of about a pound Of VIII
S lat and butter, and he has the corr
10 oruer TWO sheep, two fowls and HtTs
ducks, while his drink for the day PORl
stricted to the milk of so COWS and LAR
sleeping of rs parcels of tea. It's TT y,
able that his real diet is different. GRA1
-hese are the regulation provisions. -
II he desires anything that is not O
he menu the board having charge of h, K
imperial table has to be consulted. HOG:
more than doubtful whether lis
sly realizes his exalted situation GRAZ
ms power. lie has been hemmed o.
nd fooled all his life. He knows
ing of modern civilization, and, in FLOJ
of the recent war, next to moth ShA Al
II modern warfare. He has never Ca
wed, and is not capable of review fu4RRTn
his army, and his common amuse. So
is to shoot with bow and arrow.
ever had in him the makings of a
lcter they must have been ruined
since by his mode of life and his Expo
nj