Evening star., 1900-08-18
Eventful and Successful Career Of
Her Majesty, Tsze Hsi An.
1.-THE ONLY MAN IN CHINA
Three Usurpations Accomplished
by This Remarkable Woman.
TRICKING THE ENVOY

From Eliza r. Scidmore's China, the Long Lived
Empire" the Century CO., 1900.
To 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 few
years. and began preparations to celebrate
worthily her sixteth birthday. that age of
especial honor in China. and in October.
1894 she expected to rival and surpass the
celebration of the sixtieth birthday Of the
Emperor Kienlung's mother. Buildings
were reconstructed in the suburban pleas
ure grounds she had chosen for her own.
and a broad level stone road. equal to the
old highways. 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 reactionary
Manchus urged and provoked the war with
Japan. She wanted the spoils and trophies
of war for her birthday triumph, to have
the Emperor Of Japan and few captives
brought her in cages. 1t was she who in
spired the wording of the Chinese declara-
tion Of war. a piece Of inflated verbiase.
long drawn out, tnane coarse and vulgar.
A Rude Interruption.
terrupted. and in magniloquent phrases the
dowager posed to the empire and discounted
a greater Jubilee celebration after the war
by assigning to military purposes some
thousands Of taels that had been high hand
edly diverted for her contemplated holi-
day. As reverses came, and yellow riding
Jackets and peacock feathers were lifted
from iceroys and generals without stop
ping the advance of the Japanese, the en-
press dowager became frightened-.he worst
frightened one of all the imperial clan.
Jehol was not a possible asylum, since tho
japanese army was coming from the east:
and Mukden, the old home and citadel of
the Manchus. where 1t was said they had
been storing treasures for generations
against the day of their expulsion from
China, had fallen to the Japanese. The en-
press dowager grew frantic, remembering
the fight to Jehol and all that had followed
thirty-odd years before, and implored the
recall of Prince Kung, the Intervention Of
the European ENJOYS. help from any one
anything for peace. The emperor exposed
the dowager's frame Of mind In edIct after
edict, and peace was desired. he said. if
only as a panacea to the elderly lady's 8
nerves. The empress dowager and her con-
servative, foreign-hating faction had en-
| tirely lost face and all stomach and heart
for war. There was no overbearing pride
left in them then.
Reaction.
When the danger was past, the humil!at-
Ing peace concluded, and the three heaven
sent allies in Europe had wrested back
from Japan the Liao-tung peninsula. Chi
nese insolence and self-suficiency rose
again, and an audience was given the en-
voys in a small outer hall in the palace
grounds. The old contemptuous attitude
| WAS resumed ohtwardly. while provinces.
ports and concessions were wrung from
| them by the Christian powers, as Chris
| tian knights in the middle ages used to
| despoil the Jews. The great viceroy on
| the 'Yangtse urged the removal Of the
! capital to either Hankow or Nanking
| since the old memorialists warnings
| against Russia were more than coming
| true. But the chagrined Manchus. still
| smartirs from their humiliation. and fear
ing the Chinese as much any other outer
| enemy, fatuously suggested moving the
capital to the heart of the mountainous
| province of Shansi, where foreigners
could not follow" bound themselves faster
! in Russta's debt. yielded more and more to
| her demands.
The war had taught intelligent and pro-
| II their country was to survive, and the
awakening sense of the long sleeping people
| at last made itself heard in Pekin. AL
| though progressive ones in high places fell
| Ill. died. or went into retirement. the
young emperor. once freed from his bigoted
| foreign hating, tutor, continued to read for
| eign books and summoned to him the
Modern Sage Karg Yu Wei, a Canton
ese scholar of the highest degree who. as
| secretary Of the tsung yamen, had
had an opportunity of making himself
known. Then the palace filled up with pro-
gressfve young reformers. unsuspected ad.
| vocates of reform declared themselves and
the Manchu conservatives were in panic.
Prince Henry's Visit.
| Prince Henry of Prussia came with his
terrible fleet, took formal possession OF
the German principality- ty-on-leasehold OF
| Kiao-cflau and with refinement Of satire
| paid his respects to the despoiled land
owner at Pekin. The emperor stood up tc
| receive the visitor as equal in the audi
ence hall of the summer palace. and re-
| turned the visit with due courtesy. The
| traditions of insolent conservatism were
broken and while innovations were in the
air. and all sacred precedents and custom:
were being disregarded, the empress
dowager received Prince Henry face t.
face, instead OF listening from behind 6
screen. as she had usually given audience
to Chinese officials. The young Empires:
Yehonala was not heard of at either o.
these audiences. but Prince Henry sug
gested to the empress dowager that she
should receive the ladies Of the diploma til
corps, ignoring the reignins empress In {
way that could not be thought Of in Ber
lin. nor hardly In St Petersburg.
Short Era of Reform.
| All through that summer of 1898. sue
ceeding Prince Henry's illuminating visi
|
ing for changes by wholesale, for progress
posthaste and for regeneration over night
! for foreign studies to be made the tests il
the great examinations; for foreign drill
/ to be introduced in the army, foreign sys
! TENS In the departments Of the govern
| ment. A host Of incompetents and useless
| hangers-on were swept out of office in brie
| edicts and there was CONSERVATION a
| provincial capitals. 1t Is said that an edic
| permitting or commanding the cutting o
the queue and the adoption of foreign dres
was written, but not given out. School
! Of western learning were authorized AM
the many newspapers and magazines, tina
had been the first agents in the work Of re
form. were subsidized and encouraged an,
others projected The emperor announce,
that he would end his life of seclusion, g
by railway train to Tien Tsin in Septembe
and review his army in person, and becom
modern ruler.
Tszc Hsf Ans DuD1icfty.
The empress dowager's feelings may easl
ly be imagined, but that shrewdest woma
in Asia, "the only man in China" sh
has been called. having protested and In
terfered in vain. soon let It be known tina