New-York tribune., 1900-07-14
MRS. SCIDMORE'S "CHINA."
A TIMELY BOOK FILLED WITH FACT
AND OBSERVATION.

CHINA: THE LoNG-LIvED EMPIRE. BY Eliza
tury Company.
Mrs Scidmore seeing her new volume
through the press when the present difficulties
in China began. So the book was hastily
brought out 70 meet the demand for information
regarding the Chinese and their country. For the
purpose a more satisfactory volume could not
be asked for Mrs. Scidmore has not only seen
q good bit Of the Chinese Empire with the keen
eyes Of the practised traveller, but she has also
gathered a vast amount Of information from
talks with the people she met and from her
reading She is able. moreover, TO make clear
what she has experienced and to lend interest to
the more prosaic historical facts by the shrewd-
ness Of her comments. In many ways the
picture she gives Of the China Of to-day is de-
pressing Everything seems dead dying,
ruined or going TO decay in this great Empire
Ct one race and people. There seems no living
spring nor beating heart in the inert mass. Re
ligion morality. literature, the arts and finer
industries are all a least comatose. Their three
great religions are dead; two systems Of igno-
ble superstitions live. Literature is a fossil
thing all hollow form and artifce. the empty
shell Of dead conventions. The arts have died,
the genius of the race has fed. They have lost
the powers they once commanded and have
acquired no new ones. There is little JOY, light
heartedness or laughter in the race. and their
greatest virtue iIaI piety, is demoralized, de
graded by the sculless, craven cult of ancestor
worship II Mrs. Scidmore could have foreseen
the recent Chinese uprising she would doubtless
have given more space TO the Christian mis-
sions the brief chapter devoted to them, how
ever, is one Of the most interesting and sug-
gestive in the book She does give good many
pages to the Empress Dowager. who at the pres
ent moment is decidedly the most remarkable OF
living women. There have been expresses re-
gent before in China, but no precedents avail
for comparison with this masterful Manchu,
Tsze Hsi An, the most remarkable woman SOW
ereign and the most unbridled female despot
the world has known She rose from the harem's
ranks. uneducated. ignorant Of public affairs;
but by sheer ability. by her own wits, viii and
shrewdness she attained the supreme power.
Hers in the greatest Of personal triumphs. her
strength Cf mind and force of character and
dominant personality having won every step;
centuries Of precedent and all the shacIdes Of
Oriental etiquette overborne by her masterful
strategy and remorseless will Her enemies
have fallen away. sickened and died, and scat
tered as chaff; no one has opposed her VIII and
survived: no plot or intrigue has availed against
her; no conspirator has found her unarmed or
Of her guard: and hers has been q charmed
relentless terrible life
The original and forcefuI character Of the
Empress is shown by her methods Of procedure.
i explains how she has been able to keep her
hold On the Government so persistently. ITO
break the tedium of her life without visible
power. TO keep herself in sight, and to please
her Unsuitable vanity. the Empress Dowager
Jumped her age forward a few years, and began
preparations 70 celebrate worthily her siXtieth
birthday, that age Of especial honor IN China.
and IN October. 1894, she expected to rival and
Of the Emperor Kienlung's mother. Buildings
were reconstructed in the suburban pleasure
grounds she had chosen for her own and
broad, level stone road, equal TO the old high
ways was built out from the new northwest
gate Of the Tartar city to her palace gates.
Against the advice Of Ii Hung Chang and of
every one who knew the strength Of Japan
and remembered what foreign armies have done
in China, the Empress Dowager and her reac-
tionary ManchUs urged and provoked the war
with Japan. She wanted the spoiIs and trophies
Of war for her birthday triumph. to have the
Emperor Of Japan and a few captives brought
her IN cages Il was she who inspired the word
ing Of the Chinese declaration Of war. piece
Of inflated verbiage, long drawn out. inane,
coarse and vulgar"
Mrs. Scidmore wisely refrains from trying to
throw any light on the subject Of the possible
regeneration Of China. China is very old" she
says in her last chapter. very tired, sick. It
Graves rest and peace-anything for peace; peace
at any price" It is safe TO assume that these
words were written several years ago. It Ger
tainly looks if China has not wholly lost the
warlike spirit. In conclusion, Mrs. Scidmore
asks: VIII 1t rouse Itself from its long paralysis
and benumbed opium sleep or will it be rudely
awakened. broken up this time on the wheel
OF progress?" II would not require any great
gifts Of prophecy to formulate an answer to
this question. In fact, Mrs. Scidmores book
answers IL, although, It should, be noted it calls
attention 10 the fact that China has been
breaking up" in the opinion Of many pessmsts
ct many periods in the past.