The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-12
DEPOSING AN EMPEROR.

The following letter Is from member
 of the Reform party in Picking, who 90
 his information from an eye witness
 one of the Empress Dowaser's eunuchs
 It is translated literally as follows by
 the North China Daily News of Marcf
 8, which remarks that perfect reliance
 may be placed on the statements:
 ITO begin with the beginning ore
 vious to January 22 last Picking was
 filled with disquidting rumors, whicf
 gradually filtered into the palace. Some declared that the emperor had already
 been secretly deposed; others again
 stated that the emperor had been made
 away with by poison; but when the em- press dowager heard of them she sim
 ply smiled in that grim way of hers
 which to the terrorized eyes of those
 around her meant that she had decided
 on some course which, even if it were I paved with the blood of thousands,
 would not deter her from her subse-
 quent goal. It is also significant of the
 woman that none-except, perhaps, her
 favorite eunuch, Lii Lien- Ying, and
 Prince Ching-of those who daily at
 tended on her knew exactly what the empress dowager actually intended to do, although it was quite clear that some sort of a coup was on the tapls.
 But when the Hateful January "A, 190O came, every one knew that, only few
 hours before, the emperor had been
 forced to sign his abdication, and a gloom spread over the capital like a | pail, accentuated as it was by chilly, | lowering skies.
 q was one of those who stood around with ink slab and pen for the emperor to use, while the empress dowager her self held out the pen to him. Even
 then his majesty hesitated to take 1t and sign the ready prepared imperial
 decree of abdication held out to him,
 but an imperious stamp of the right foot and those piercing, menacing eyes of the empress dowager drowning upon him seemed to enthral and fascinate the emperor, who immediately stretch ed forth a trembling hand, and the next moment, with groan and gesture of despair, as 1t were, the fatal deed was done, and the empress dowager tri- umphantly snatched the decree from her nephews hand.
 "Then a sudden change occurred, which those around her were too accus- toned to see to be startled or astonish- ed at The empress dowager's face be- came instantly suffffused with smiles, her eyes became soft and benevolent, and she was all kindness and motherly solcitude for her imperial nephewl He, poor, fallen majesty! had sunken down on his chair after signing the fatal pa- per, while sudden deadly paleness manifested itself in his countenance, and moment after he had dyed his robe and the carpet beneath with his life blood. His majesty's excitement had been too much for his weak health. and it seemed that he had burst one of his lesser blood vessels
 "Very kindly and gently the empress doWager herself attended to the emper- or, and when he seemed to have some what recovered himself she supported him on one side, waving away the eunuch who had come forward to do so, and with surprising solicitude for his health and comfort arranged the pill lows and cushions in his majesty's se- dan chair, which was to carry him back to his usual prison, the water surround ed kiosk at the Southern Lake palace which is very near the empress dowa- gers own residence of Eho Park. She herself escorted the emperor to his place of retreat called the Ying-t'ai, and hav- ing seen him securely confined within it's high walls and the drawbrdge once more brought over, her face resumed that hard look usual to 1t as she and her numerous retinue returned to Picking. All the way from Picking to his prison heard the emperor weeping at his hard fate. He was so utterly broken down and oppressed. Poor majesty! His meanest subject among his four hundred million people would have re- fused to exchange places with him on that day Many of us who escorted his majesty dropped tears of sympathy, and I peeped at the author of all his evils to see how she took 1t. Her heart seemed to be of stone, There was that set, stern look in her eyes, but not the least sign of softening.
 q can assure you that the empress dowager had everything prepared for the crowning of the new emperor on the first day of the new year (January 31), but on the 27th of the month the Tsung If Yamen handed to her Kin Lienshans praying that the emperor be allowed to resume the reins of govern ment, even in his illness, for that was the only way to satisfy his majesty's millions of subjects throughout the em- pire.
 'Oh, the rage of the empress dowager when she read that obnoxious telegram! | have seen many of her. displays of | temper and anger, but none like this | ,ne-it surpassed ever her rage at Rang | Yu Wei and his reformers. We eunuchs | md even the Prince of Lii, who brought | he telegram, were simply terrified and | rembled lest her anger should fall on my one present, Who dare send such telegram?' at last came her question: Kin Yuan-shan (T<in's official name), | If Shanghai, and over a thousand oth- l ITS, was the Prince of Lis reply. Very | yell. We'll show them how we deal with traitors who cross our path And | he Prince of Iii backed out of the pres nee with a sense of relief clearly de- ,icted on his face.
 "As a matter of fact, I really think if his had been the only protest sent the impress dowager and her advisers l would have tried to brazen it out and ave ignored the telegram; but unfort- nately for their schemes, no less than orty-six protests of the same kind + anne to Picking, one after the other, ome dozen in a day, until the em-