River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-11-01
TAUGHT CHINESE EMPEROR.
Danish ShOpkeeper Revealed West
ern Civilization to kwang Hsu
Through Toys,

Nnen hWang HSu was q ch1lQ there
were two foreign stores in Peking
which had been established without
permission from the Chinese govern
ment. As they were on Legation
street, they seem to have been too
unimportant to attract official atten-
ton. Yet these same stores were des-
tined to have mighty slfluence on
the future of China. One of them was
kept by an illiterate Dane, who sold
foreign tops, notions and dry goods
such as might please the Chinese or
be of use to the scanty European pop
ulation of the capital. By chance,
some eunuchs from the imperial pal
ace bought toys in this shop for his
infant majesty, writes Prof. l. T.
Headland, in Ainslee's.
"As the baby emperor grew, the
business of the Dane shopkeeper in
creased. His stock became larger and
more varied. And the emperor re-
manned a profitable customer. Music
al cats, dogs and sheep, horns, guns,
trains OF cars, striking clocks and
Swiss watches, all were bought in
turn by eunuchs from the palace. AS
the emperor grew to boyhood the
Danish shopkeeper supplied toys suit
able to his years from his inexhaust-
ible shelves. To understand how
searching an influence these products
of far-distant lands must have had
on the growing mind of the emperor,
you must know that he was shut out
from the world, shut out even from
his own people, by three strong walls.
He never left the Forbidden City ex-
cept in a closed chair or in closed
cart. Every side street was barred
from him by hanging canvas or mats.
He was prisoner and slave in the
palace of his birthright.
IF custom forbade his going out to
see the world, it did not prevent the
world from reaching him in the shape
of wares sold by the Dane in Legation
street. These were no longer toys,
although such they seemed to the
emperor. An electric railroad was
built for him in the palace grounds,
on which he rode as our children ride
on merry -go-rounds. For him an cleo
trio plant was built in the Forbidden
City, and the palace was lighted with
incandescent lamps He experimental
with miniature telegraph and tele-
phone instruments. Officials that
sought imperial favor secured the
port cities to find new toys for his
majesty. They came to Picking uni
versity and bought our monograph.
They got for him gramophones, music
boxes, aeolians and magnificent clocks
that struck the hours with music or
with the song of birds, All the re-
sources of modern invention in the
west were tapped to procure toys for
the emperor, Kwang Hsu. Once the
assiduous Danish shopkeeper had a
sleigh made for him in Europe. The
sleigh was marvel of ingenuity with
its foot-warmers, mirrors, clocks,
cushions of yellow silk and figure
heads in the shape of golden dragons.
"As the boy grew older his tastes
changed. There were clear indica-
tons of mental growth as the years
advanced. He began to wish to know
the literatures of the countries that
produced the fairy toys and wonder
full devices of his boyhood pleasures.
He had two teachers appointed to in
struct him in English. One of these
teachers was the grandfather of a
young man to whom l had taught
English in return for lessons in Chi
nese. In this way / learned much of
what was going on in the recesses of
the palace, | was informed by those
who had been into the emperor's pri-
vate apartments that they were more
like museum than like living rooms,
so crowded were they with compli-
Gated mechanisms and toys"