The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-28

lOI SOilt llIHc WIN Ile GRANDSON OF |
this teacher, teaching him English.
and in return he taught me Chinese.
The study of English, the study cf !
the Bible and the foreign toys the E.m- /
peror had played with, including the |
great inventions which mark the prog |
ress Of the advancing civilization of |
these last years of the nineteenth CEN
tury, were not lost on the young man. |
They could not change his impetuous
disposition. but they did inspire in him |
a disposition to see the world md TO |
know more of what was going on In it !
than had ever been known by any |
other occupant of the Dragon throne. |
He. therefore, began buying all kinds
of books pertaining to foreign affairs.
1T was known to him that there
were various institutions of learning
connected with the missions of the
various churches and that each of
these schools had translated some of
the most important text books of the
countries they represented into Chi
nese. They were issued by tract So
cieties and societies for the distribution
of general and Christian knowledge,
and there were books prepared by sci
entists and physicians and scholars of
various kinds, together with learned
natives who had put out volumes both
in the Chinese colloquial and the class
ical language of the Empire, ana it
was these which he sought to obtain.
He got the assistance of foreigners
whenever he could and made no dis
tinction between the books of any sects
or societies but with an equal zeal he
sought them all. No miser ever watch
ed his gold with a more Jealous care
than this young man examined these
books: so a eunuch told me.
'One of the eunuchs from the palace
came to me every day for weeks to get
some new book for the Emperor, and
almost exhausted my patience with his
persistence. He was willing to pay any
price, and he would not allow me to
refuse him any book which the Emper-
or had not yet had if ii was to be got
under any circumstances l was forced
more than once to give him some little
sheet tract of a single page, and at
other times TO take my wife's Chinese
medical books out of the library and
turn them over to him, for the eu-
much declared, whether truly or not 1
cannot say, that he dared not return
at night without taking the Emperor
something new.
He bought my wife's bicycle and
took it to his Majesty, and 1t was af-
terward reported that his queue caught
in the beck wheel and he had very
lun- -EnII5rr5r like fall This led the
Dowager ia. deal severely with the eu-
nuch. One day shortly after the coup
d'etat man came to me with his face
scratched and his head SCARED and
wanted me to save his life. He desired
to join the church at once saying that
he was friend of this same eunuch
who had been banished for buying all
these things for the Emperor and
charging him dc Ible price for them,
and that he also was in danger of los
ing his head.
The Emperor set himself to study
ing the books he had bought, and the
more he studied them the more he be-
came convinced that China was on
+, the wrong road, and in dreadful need
: of reformation. The more he medi-
: tated the matter the more he became
: convinced that there was no hope of
. China so long as she was in the hands
of the old conservative party. He be-
4. gan to prepare for trip to Tien-Tsin
!, on the railroad. The home of Chang
: Yun-mao the present director of mines,
was fitted up for his reception, and it
=. was rumored that he might go as far
: as Japan. Several Han Lins with
" whom I was acquainted came to ask
me If j thought it would be safe for
/, him to go that far away from home
and they were as excited as he nc
: doubt was--they all made me think OF
. a sixteen-year- boy just about to
: leave his mothers and sisters for the
:. first time for college. These men, who
= were so cool under all ordinary cir
= cumstances. even in affairs of State
. had become transformed into school
: boys because the Emperor was goins
- to take an eighty-mile railroad journey
4 But the trip never was taken He
N began In a new line, not with the idea
Il. of giving up his trip. but with the
o thought of liberating his people from
\. the yoke that was upon them. On the
18th Of June, 1898, he issued a decres
establishing a university at Pekin, tn,
- - design being to open a way by which
. the young men of the Empire NIGH
become acquainted with all the book.
e he had been studying, and might them
L selves be prepared to issue other book.
&C of similar character. A few day.
= later he ordered the Foreign Office I,
sc report on the matter of encouraging
ie art, science and agriculture, at tn,
VI same time ordering any of those whc
y were opposed to the progress and re
70 form to appear before him and Civ.
&c their reasons. He proposed that the,
IN adopt Western arms and Western
ln methods of drilling the Tartar troops
a He abolished the literary essay as
~ leading part In the examinations fo