Waterbury Democrat., 1900-10-27
REAL EMPRESS DowAGER.
Greatest Tyrnnt fin the worId-QutcE % in Thought and dAction-Extrav-
 aEant Beyond Measure.

Many of the stories circulated about. the empress dovager to the effect that she was a slave girl or came of poor family are untrue. My wife has been called as g physician to her Niangchia that is her mothers home. She was the daughter of an official, was taken into the palace and became the concu. bine of the emperor, Hsien Feng. The empress, his wife has no children. The son of this woman, on the death oi the emperor, became Emperor Tun2 Chin, during whose minority the reins of government were held by his moth. CT. When he died without issue, she selected Kwang Hsu to become his sue, cesSor, holding tke reins of government from his infancy to his ma jority. Him she has now dsthroncd, and she has SC. lected the son of Prince Yuan as sue. cesSor, not to Kwang Hsu, but to her own son. During the whole reign ot hwang Hsu he was compelled to kotov to her at least once every hvo days. Ii she was at the summer palace, 12 miles away, he must go there every five days during the hot summer and knock hi, head to her. During his whole reign she has compelled every official ap-
 
 at the same tima with the emperor. She is the greatest tyrant in the world and the strongest female character on any throne, says Prof. I. T. Headland. in Ainslee's.
 She has never been seen by q foreign man. but she has been seen by the wives of all the ministers in Peking. When she has an interview with Chinese of fcial, according to Chinese custom, she sits behind Q screen. Among the presents she gave the wives of the min isters were a lot of ivory combs-fine combs as we'll as cCarse-a present which, it is to be hoped, these good ladies will not have use for outside ot China. During the interview with these ladies she introduced them to the emperor. She passed the tea to them herself, taking 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 dowagers chief characteristic is Quickness of thought and action. When she comes to crisis she does not wait to think twice. She 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 ct leisure how to avoid consequences. She has always been hand and glove with Ii Hung Chang, and he would do anything to protect her. It was formerly sup posed 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 cXtravagant be- yond expression. Her si2stieth birth day fell during the Japanese-Chinese war. To celebrate it she had a stone road built to the summer palace, while the public read to Fungchou was in dilapidated condition. When 30 LOCO, GOO taels were raised for the construction of railways. it is said, she used a large part of the money in the decora tion of the imperial gardens, stopping the rail way at Shanhailluan instead Of at Mohl1den, according to the original plans.