The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-19
EMPRESS AND Ii HUNG CHANG.
How They Met When One Was a
Slave and the other Sailor.
From Lhe Nav Ynrl IIaraIA

From The New York Herald
kuan Foy, scholarly Chinese mer-
chant, and one of the most prominent
members of his race in this city. yester-
day told the history of the romantic rise
of the Empress Dowager from the lot of
a slave girl, and of her first meeting with
Lii Hung Chang while he was a poor sail
or lad on a river boat and she was on her
way in bondage 10 the imperial city in
which she rose to supreme power
Now, the resident manager of Yu Lung
& Co., large importing firm, Kuan Foy,
in his native land of mystery and millions,
was a military official So far as NAV
be in his own words his story OF the En-
press and the statesman is here repeated {:
'Tueu, the Dowager Empress of China
was once slave. Her story is strange,
and one of The most remarkable features
of il is that Ii Hung Chang, China $
greatest man, was at the same time a
rough, ignorant sailor lad earning a liv-
ing on one of the boats of the Hun-Ho,
and that to the slave girl fell the chance
Of rewarding him for a very brave deed.
Strange indeed, that these two met by
chance while both were in obscuritv
should rise to play two such different and
important parts in what promises to be
the last scene of the drama of the Chinese
Empire, or a least of the Manchuran
dynasty. The events of the past year point
with certain finger to the end.
'Tuen, being a girl child of a Manchu-
Iian 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 tif-
~ 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 dis
trict rendered her family destitute, and
though but eleven years of age she pc
titioned her father to sell her as a 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 Manchurian prince
and received great estates
soon otter she was taken into the Vice
roy's household she heard her master
mention an elaborate tunic he had seen at
court. She listened 10 his description of
its elaborate embroidery and twelve
months later her childs hands had finish
ed one which was a duplicate by d.
scription. The Viceroy was astonished and
asked her to name any wish she had and
il should be granted.
She hesitated, and then, kneeling a. his
feet begged to be taught to read. He told
her that it was impossible for girl TO
learn to read she said 1t was not her
fault that she was born a girl, and that
the sods had been cruel to her. The Vice
III
however, that he sent for masters TO be-
gin instructing her. and to his astonish-
ment 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 ten years she has added English
secretly.
THE Viceroy was very proud of his
clever little slave. and as she was de-
Velopng into a comely damsel he sent
her as a complimentary gift to the EN-
peror She became the favorite slave of
the father of the present Emperor, and
when his mother the imperial consort,
died she became the Empress and saw to
his bringing up, and was regent of the
empire following her husbands death un-
I'll she took tho reins of government from
Kwang-Su's hands, less than two years
ago.
while she was on her way to Pekin
occurred the incident in which Ii Hung
Chang figured, The party conveying the
pretty little slave girl in sedan chair
had occasion to cross the Hun-Ho river
and one Of the young men fell off the
boat He was drowned, and Tuen en-
plored the hoatman to save him, offer
Ing q ring she wore as a reward Lii
plunged into the muddy current. and with
a fine muscular effort saved the drown
ing man. She gave him the ring and
many years afterward recognized II on
the hand Of an official who came 10 court
He had won his way up thu ough four
teen degrees Of officlaldom. and since she
was then E,1press regent and she had
found him nc was very quickly advanced
to the first places of the land.
Degraded time and again, IT has never
lessened his influence. for his mind and
might are the greatest in the Middle
Kingdom.
From the day the slave girl T1Ien en-
tered the walls OF the imperial city,
tract within Pekin about six miles square.
she has never left IT up to the present
time, and there are no Cinnamon but the
very highest officials who have ever seen
her In the last twenty years. for in her
section OF the VASE enclosure she has liv-
ed alone. exceput for eunuchs and ladies
In waiting, the latter some 200 In num-
ber."