Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-08-20
A SLAVE GIRL EMPRESS.
Career of the Woman Who Has Ruled
Chinese Affairs

Kuan Foy, a scholarly Chinese mer-
chant, and one of the most prominent
members of his race in the east, told
for the New York Herald the history OF
the romantic rise Of the empress
doWager from the lot Of a slave girl,
and Of her first meeting with Ii Hung
Chang white he was a poor sailor lad
on river boat and she was on her
way in bondage to the imperial city in
which she rose to supreme power.
Kuan Foy, in his native land of mys-
terry and millions, was military Of
fetal So far as may be in his own
words his story of the empress and
the statement is here repeated:
'@Tuen, the dowager empress Of
China, was once a slave. Her story is
strange, and one of the most remark
able features of it is that Ii Hung
Chang, China's greatest man, was at
the same time a rough, ignorant sailor
lad, earning living on one of the
boats Of the Hun-Ho, and that to the
slave girl fell the chance of reWarding
him for very brave deed. Strange,
indeed, that these two met by chance
while both were in obscurity should
rise to play two such different and i'm
portant parts in what promises to be
the last scene Of the drama OF the
Chinese empire, or, at least, OF the
Manchurian dynasty. The events OF
the past year point with certain figure
to the end
"Tuen, being cir. OF d Mancnurian
low-grade official, suffered the con-
tumely of Chinese females. However,
her feet were not bound and to this
fact, a seemingly minor circumstance,
the great things in Chinese history
for the last so years are due. If her
feet had been bound she would never
have risen from slavery to the rule Of
the empire.
"a rebellion in her fathers Yamen
district rendered her family destitute,
and though but II years Of age, she
petitioned her father to sell her as
slave so that her brother might be
educated and her mother fed. Her
father consented and sold her to the
then viceroy of his district, and little
Tuen passed away from her family,
never to know them again until years
later her agents sought out her brother
and she took him to live inside the
imperial city, though she could not
take him within the purple forbidden
city. He was made a Manchurian
prince and received great estates.
"SOOn after she was taken into the
viceroy's household she heard her
master mention an elaborate tunic he
had seen at court. She listened to his
description of it's elaborate embroidery,
and IL months later her child's hands
had finished one which was duplicate
by description The viceroy was as
founded, and asked her to name any
wish she had and it should be granted.
f'She hesitated, and then, kneellng at
his feet, begged to be taught to read.
He told her that it was Impossible Tor
girl to learn to read. She said it was
not her fault that she had been born
a girl, and that the gods had been
cruel to her. The viceroy was so i'm
pressed with her request, however, that
he sent a master to begin instruct1ng
her, and to his establishment they
found she already knew much and was
well along, self-taught. She mastered
Manchu, Mongol and Chinese, and
there are some who say that in the
last 10 years she has added English
secretly.