Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-21
CATHARINE III OF CHINA.
Grand Old Woman Who Has So Long
Ruled the Celestial Empire.
From Golfers Weekly.

ioih 'oiiitr eekIy.
Catherine III of China is not merely
great empress; historians of the future
may be trusted to regard her as a great
man. A dispatch recently cabled from
Pekin to the Herald describes her as
seated on dais receiving the ladies of
the diplomatic corps. The emperor is re-
ported to have been also present but un-
importantly at her left. 1t was nice of her
though, to let him be there at all. He is
but the nephew of his aunt 1t is the lady
who reigns and who has reigned for thirty
seven years. Said Confucius: Man is to
woman what the sun is to the moon: he
orders, she obeys, and harmony is the re-
suit. Confucius was wise in his genera
ton. but not in nineteenth century Ca
thay. There the moon orders, and not the
sun merely; but the nephew also obeys
1t is well perhaps. There are predeces-
sors of his who baked and who because of
II reJoined their ancestors instanter
Catherine II of China is a lady who likes
her own way. That, however. is natural
Catherine | of Russia began life as q SER
want. Catherine IL of China began life as
a slave 1t is said that contrary to the To-
cal custom her face is not painted. But
everything about her is contrary to local
custom. Never till she emerged from her
scullery has woman dreamed of usurp-
ing the dragon seat. Fancy an odalesque
stepping from the seras Clio and ouStiug the
sultan from his throne. Such perforna-
ahce Is unima2inable, and vet this lady has
done better, one might say even worse.
The empress dCwager is by birth a Tartar
The TACT is worth noting. Tartars do not
muti!ate their daughters feet The girl
mad free use of hers. At the age of
eleven she was sold to a mandarin In and
about his household her feet took her
where her sUpcriors could not go a Chi
nese girl who marries passes from one
PRISON TO another. Of the outer world she
knows nothing. OF that outer world her
slaves know all. 1t was this way with
little Isl Au. What she did not know she
guessed, and what she could not guess she
learned. She learned to dance A bee could
not equal her. She learned to read. on
the up OF her tongue We're a hundred
stories, each more diVerting than the other
On the tom-tom she learned to sgrum. The
lnree notes that are dear to the orient she
repeated surprisingly. She learned more
GlIncuit things, too; how to arrange bas-
ket OF fruit, how to touch flowers how TO
smile and how to hold her tongue Aston-
lshed at the prodigy. the mandarin sent her
as curiosity to his sovereign at Pekin
one day the son of heaven noticed her
The slave became faVorite and bacom-
ing mother, became also a secondary
WE Ihere, one might suppose that had
she ambitions they would have rested 1t
Wa. there they began. Though that is
thlrty-Seven years ago they have baan in
GfeaSlng ever since As recently related
mere, there successfully departed This life
me son or heaven, the son of heavens SON
o.hers VINO were in the way. Thereafter
she was supreme.
j., me week before last when the ladies of
me olpiomattc corps paraded before her
she patted the wife of the British amhas-
Sauor on the cheek. The Herald states that
~ uoiiiS so she Wore charming smile
one may readily believe it. Her hand is
as strong as her rise is prodigious. In
modern times both are unparalleled. There
IS lndeed, another instance of slave at
tanning imperial power, but it occurred in,
tfaltl' and what occurs in Haiti does nor
count Even otherwise this lady is unioue.
Regarded merely as Chinese firecracl,nr
sue sue Is destined TO burn into history with
entirely her own N-'' -