Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-12-03
REAL EMPRESS DoWAGER.
Quick in Thought and Action ana E<-
+r.vanant Beyond Measure.

QUICK III N
travagant Beyond Measure.
| prof 7 T. Headland in Alnsiee
saws: MANY CT the stories clrculateu
about the empress dowager to the Ell
foot that she was slave girl or came
| of moor family are untrue. My VIE
has been called as physician TO hel
Niang CHA that is her mother s nome
! She was the daughter OF an ofhclal'
was taken into the palace and became
/ the concubine of the emperor Hsieh
Feng The empress his wife has no
children. The son of this woman on
the death of the emperor became the
Emperor Tung Chih, during whose
minority the reins OF government
we're held by his mother. When ne
died without issue, she selected
Kwane Hsu to become his successor,
holding the reins of government from
his infancy to his majority. Him she
has now dethroned and she mas Sc
| lected the son of Prince Tuan as sue
cessor, not to Kwang Hsu, but TO ner
own son. During the whole reign OF
Kwang Hsu he was compelled 10
kotoW to her at least once every nVe
DAYS. If she was at the summer
na1ace twelve miles away he must go
there every five days during the hot
summer and knock his head to hef.
During his whole reign she has com
PEELED every official appointed to
viceroyalties to thank her at the same
time with the emperor She is the
greatest tyrant in the world and the
strongest female character on any
throne.
"She has never been seen by
foreign man, but she has been seen by
the wives of all the ministers In
Pekin When she has an interview
with a Chinese official, according to
Chinese custom she sits behind a
screen. Among the presents she gave
the wives of the ministers were lot
of ivory combs-fne combs as we'll as
coarse-a present which, it is to be
hoped, these good ladies will not have
use for outside of China. During the
interview with these ladies she in
troduced them to the emperor. She
DcOSGQ IllS LCct " CIlC1ll 1Cl oCII, CelHAi0
a sip from each of the cups before
she gave it, evidently to show them
that it was not poisoned. They came
away infatuated with the Old Lady
as the Chinese sometimes call her.
The Empress Dowager's chief charac-
teristic is quickness of thought and
action. When she comes to crisis
l.
acts at once, and awes by her very
presence. She does not take time to
reckon what the consequences will be,
/ but when she has gotten the reins
well in her own hands she plans at
leisure how to avoid consequences.
She has always been hand and glove
with Lii Hung Chang, and he would
Go anything to protect her. 1t was
formerly supposed that she was for
reform and so she might have been
had she not been compelled to put
herself behind the conservative party
when she deposed Kwang Hsu. She
is extravagant beyond expression. Her
sixtieth birthday fell during the
Japanese-Chinese war. To celebrate
| it she had a stone road built to the
summer palace, while the public
| road to Fungchou was in dilapidated
/ condition. When 30,000,000 taels
were ra.sed for the construction CT
railways it is said, she used a large
part of the money in the decoration of
the imperial gardens, stopping the
| railway at Shanhaikuan instead of at
Monkden, according to the original
plans