The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-06-27

tempted to accomplish some changes
in the personnel of his staff. Where
upon rumors were sent abroad that
he was in delicate health. Prince
Kung was reinstated in his hereditary
rank, and Isl An at once began
high handed campaign against her en-
emies. Shortly after lunches death,
his widow, Empress Ahluta was
thrown into prison and died a horrible
death before her child and heir to the
throne was born.
A NEW HEIR APPARENT.
The empress thereupon proclaimed
the son of Prince Chung, boy 4 years
old, the heir apparent. Having settled
this important question, Tsi Ans pow
er was again supreme. She then turn
ed her attention to matters ouside the
palace, and entered into negotiations
with Russia, ending in the treaty of
st. Petersburg in 1881, afeat of diplo-
macy engineered by Ii Hung Chang,
who was made ambassador to Russia.
The rightful dowager came to mys-
terious death about this time.
Fourteen years after the selection of
Kwang-Su to succeed Hienfung as en-
peror of China, he was permitted, at
the age of eighteen Gn 1880, to marry.
The empress regent carefully selected
his wife, the daughter of a Manchu
general. The empress made show of
resigning her authority, but it was
only nominal, in recognition of the
hue and cry set UP against her. She
remained in the palace and ruled the
court with a rod of iron.
Ii Hung Chang was disgraced and
deprived of his yellow jacket and pea
cock feather by Kwang-Su, but after
| the Japanese war and its frightful
disaster and loss to China, the empress
came out openly, took the bull by the
horns, and reinstated Ii and sent him
| to Japan to negotiate the terms of
| peace.
Since that time the contention in the
palace has been bitter, and kwanG-Su,
| in attempting to assert his authority,
has lost it. Ii has been removed from
| the scene and sent to Canton, where
he is the viceroy of the two KwanG
provinces, but this concession only
strengthened the power of the en-
press, who took advantage of the tenn
porary lull in the family fight to quiet
! ly cement the bond with Russia
Kwang-Su pitched his fortune with the
reformers, who We're springing ur
throughout China like mushrooms, anC
issued ar imperial vermillion rescript
embodying a project for educational
reform which included the displace-
ment of the Confucian classics for the
study and introduction of modern
sciences and languages.
Kwang-Su, by this act, erected his
own scaffold. He offended the ancient
literati of China and struck a blow
| at Confucianism that the scholars OF
the Flowery Kingdom could not con-
done. They went over in a body to
the empires, who seized young Kwang-
Su in August, 1898, and forced him to
sign an edict restoring her. to power
ANOTHER PROSPECTIVE RULER
The arrangements for this coup were
carried out with great ceremony
Kwang-Su's principal crime aside
from his proclivities for reform, was
his age. The empress had no use fol
an emperor who was old enough tC
think. She, therefore, looked around
for another child to keep under hel
regency. she discovered Pu Ts'uan, a
-yar-old STRIPPING, the son of the
Duke Tsai Lau. 1t did not matter
that he could speak only Manchu, in
fact. it would not have mattered if he
had been deaf and dumb. The en-
press mode of procedure was worthy
of her stategic ability. She forced
Kwang-Su to draw up memorial ad-
dressed to her, asking to be allowed