The Canton times., 1900-11-02
REAL EMPRESS DOWAGER.
Greatest Tyrant in the World-Quick
in Thought and ActiOn-Extrav-
agant Beyond Measure.

| Many of the stories circulated about
the empress dowager to the effect that
she was a slave girl or came of poor
family are untrue. My wife has been
called as physician to her Niang CHA,
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 of
the emperor, became Emperor Tung
Chih, during whose minority the reins
of government were held by his moth
er. When he died without issue, she
selected Kwang Hsu to become his sue
cessor, holding the reins of government
from his infancy to his majority. Him
she has now dethroned, and she has Sc
lected the son of Prince Tuan as sue
cessor, not to Kwang Hsu, but to her
own son. During the whole reign of
Kwang Hsu he was compelled to kotow
to her at least once every five days. If
she was at the summer palace, 12 miles
away, he must go there every five days
during the hot summer and knock his
head to her. During his whole reign
she has compelled every official ap-
pointed to viceroyalties to thank hel
at the same time 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 foreign
man, but she has been seen by the wives
of all the ministers in Peking. When
she has an interview with Chinese of
fetal, according to Chinese custom,
she sits behind screen. Among the
presents she gave the wives of the min.
listers were lot of ivory combs-fine
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 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 dowager's chief
characteristic is quiclness 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 viii be,
but when she has gotten the rcins we'll
in her own hands she plans at leisure
how to avoid consequences. She has
always been hand and glove with Ii
Hung Chang, and he would do anything
to protect her. 1t 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 extravagant be-
yond expression. Her sixtieth birth
dny fell during the Japanese-C Chinese
war. To celebrate it she had a stone
road built to the summer palace, while
the public road to Fungchou was in a
dilapidated condition. When 10000, 900
taels were raised for the construction
of railways, it is said. she used large
part of the money in the decoration of
the imperial gardens, stopping the rail-
way at Shanhaikuar instead OF at
MonkdeD, according to the original
plans