The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-18
CHlNA'S GRAND OLD WOMAN.
Likes to Have Her Own Way and Gener-
ally Has It.

amy IT,
Catherine II. of China is not mere
ly great empress, says Golfers
Weekly, and historians of the future
may be trusted to regard her as a
great man. dispatch recently ca
bled from Pekin to the Herald de-
Scribes her as seated on a dais receiV
ing the ladies of the diplomatic corps.
The emperor is reported to have been
also present. but unimpor,antly at her
left. He is but the nephew of his aunt.
1t is the lady VINO reigns and has
| reigned for 81 years. Said Confuclus:
Man is to woman that the sun is to
the moon; he orders, she obeys, and
harmony is the result" Confucius was
wise in his generation, but not in nine
teenth century Cathay. There the moon
orders and not the sun merely, but the
nephew also obeyS. 1t is well, perhaps.
There are predecessors of his who
baked and who because of it rejOined
their ancestors instanter. Catharinc
II. of China is a lady who likes hel
own way. That. however, is natural.
Catharine I. Of Russia began life as
a servant. Catharine II. of China be-
gan as a slave. 1t is said that contrary
to the local custom the face is not
painted. But everything about her is
contrary to local custom. Never till
she emerged from her scullery has q
woman dreamed of usurping the drag
on seat. Fancy an 0dalesquc stepping
from the seraslio and busting the sui
tan from his throne. Such a perform
ance is unima ginable and yet this
lady has done better one might even
say worse
The empress dowager is by birth a
Tartar. The fact is worth noting
Tartars do not mutilate their daugh-
ters' feet. The girl had free use of
hers. At the age of II she was sold
to a mandarin. In and about MS
household her feet took her where her
superiOrS could not go. A Chinese girl
who marries passes from one prison
to another. Of the outer world she
knows nothing. OF that outer her
slaves know all. 1t was this way with
little Isl An. What she did not know
she guessed and what she could not
guess she learned. She learned TO
dance. A been could not equal her.
She learned to read On the tip of
her tongue We're a hundred stories,
each more diverting than the other.
On the tom-tom she learned to strum.
The three notes that are dear to the
Orient she repeated surprisingly. She
learned more difficult things too; how
to arrange a basket of fruit, how TO
touch flowers. how to smile and how
to mold her tongue. AStOn1SheQ at the
prodigy, the mandarin sent her as a
curiosity to his sovereign al Pellin.
One day the Son of Heaven noticed
her. The slave became a favorite, and
becoming a favOrite aatwM ytfOnfffH
becoming a mother, became also a
secondary wife. There, one might sup
pose that had she ambitions they
would have rested. 1t was there they
began. Though that is 81 years ago,
they have been increasing ever since.
AS recently related here. there Sue
cnssively departed this life the Son of
Heaven, the Son of Heavens Son. 9TH
crs who wErc in the way. Thereafter
she Was supreme. The week before
last when the ladies of the diplomatic
| corps parad7d before her, she patted
the wife Of the British ambassador On
| the check. I'll" Herald states that in
| so doing she wore a charming smile.
| one may readily believe it. Her hand
! is as s,rong as her rise is prod gious.
! In modern times both are unparalel-
/ ed. There is, indeed, another instance
| IL a slave attaining imperial power.
| but il occurred in Hayti, and what uc-
| ours in llaNti does not count Even
| otherwise, this woman is unique. Re
| garded merely As Il Chinese fircCracker.
| she is destined to burn into history
| with a flame intOlerably vicious. per-
| haps, and yet entirely her own.