The age-herald., 1900-10-07
M|KADO OF JAPAN
 AND CHINESE WAR
The Wiley Ruler Expects to Profit by the Late
 War.

The Mikado of Japan expects to profit by this war with China more than any Of the other rulers of Europe and Asia will profit. From the first he has spurred on his troops to the enemy's punishment, and at the initiative great ba ttle the Japanese bore the brunt of the fight
 The Mikado himself Is not in the fray, for the Japanese would not spare their ruler in war nor run the risk of his losing his head before the Boxers spear; but from afar he governs his troops and is the ideal minister of war, from the throne.
 Always slightly inclined to be warllke' the Japanese have insisted on thelr rlghts' where China was concerned, with per sistency that demanded the respect or the powers In the Japanese and Chinese war they showed what they could do at sea, and now on land they are showing thelr prowess again.
 Foreseeing the "serap" that must in- evitably come, the Mikado, like an excel lent general, has kept his troops prepared, and at a moments notice they went into battle.
 China lays all the blame of her troubles and her loss of prestige to the Mikado. This remarkable man, who has the power of coming to the front at the right time, Is stranger to the world, so quietly does he hide in his own kingdom.
 'The empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line or emperors' unbroken for ages eternal"
 These words constitute Article l or the Constitution of Japan promulgated Feb ruary Il, 1889, exactly to the day, almost to the very hour, thirty-fve years after the American treaty ships were sighted from Idzu. On November g. 1900, will occur the birthday of the Emperor of Japan, who In his hne-the oldest of existing political dy- nasties in the world-stands officially the one hundred and twenty-arst
 The emperor, whose name means literally "gentleman," opened his eyes in the sacred city of Kioto on November 3, 1852. Very curiously, in the view of Americans this was just about the time that Commodore Matthew c. Perry received his orders to proceed in the steam frigate Mississippi to make treaty with Japan. As all know Perry went to the Tycoon's headquarters, near Yeddo and never knew till the day of his death how real, though hidden, was the sentiment of the Japanese people to- ward the Mikado, who stood to them as the Son of Heaven and the representative on earth of the gods that created Japan first and the rest of the world afterwdrd.
 Mutsuhito was the second son of the Elm peror Komei, who reigned from lS41 to 1867, dying at the age of 37. His mother was the Empress Asako. Her family name was Fujiwars, she being of that illustrious family which, before the domination of the military classes in the eleventh century furnished most of Japans statesmen, ana which since then has given so many men and women of eminence to the court The name means wistaria meadow. The young Son of Heaven grew up within the pre- cincts of the palace and amid those sur roundings which have been so brilliantly set forth in color and detail by the Tosa school of painters and In the classic TO- nance of Murasad Shikibu in her still famous poem, "Genji MonogAtari," now to be read In English
 For six centuries since the lady wrote and the artists spread their brilliant coiors court life changed but astonishingly little, for the eyes of Japan, as those of China, were upon the past and not upon the fu- ture. Even In all the great papers Of state, including the Constitution, the pretense IS made that pretty much all the progress, wealth and blessing which the Japanese Of today enjoy Is not the result of contact with the West nor of the forces, literature or moral ideas nourshed by Occdentals but Is purely and solely the result of the "benevolent care and affectionate vigilance of the divine ancestors" or Japan, Who came from Corea and Tartary.
 Today the Emperor Is a man AS years old In sound health, with good powers of mind sensible, benevolent and devoted, according to his lights, to his peoples welfare. His subjects are now in all lands, restless, en- terprising ambitious, patriotic, burning to make Japan not the second but the first power of the world. He reigns over the united empire, containing, with the Riu Kiu Usoo-Choo) Islands, once clalmed py China, the Bonin Archipelago, on which both the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes were once planted in token of de- Sire, at least, if not a formal claim; For mosa and the Pescadores, ceded from Chi fla, and the lower half of the Kurile Isl- ands. containing in all 44,000,000 of people.
 His island empire extends from the fogs in latitude 50 degrees 56 minutes to the balmy breezes of latitude 21 degrees AS min utes and is set in a square or oblong be- tween the 18th and the 156th degree of lon- gitude.
 From the first the boy Mikado-for as early as November 10, 1860, he was declared heir apparent to the throne - showed sweet and winning disposition, gracious in manner but more pliant than strong. It IS very evident that thirty years of experi- ence in active government have greatly tempered and strengthened his character and will. a fact with which every cabinet and prime minister has now to reckon. When his father, the Emperor Komei, died. November g. 1s67 Mutsuhto was declared his successor on the mating throne. At this very moment the clans hostile to the anarchy of "rhe Throne and the Camp" having compelled the resignation Of the frveoon formed military combination ana nrenared for the coup d'etat of January 3, 1868.
 On that day they displaced the palace guard kept by the Aidzu clan, took posses sion of the gate and allowed none but those favorable to their views to come near the Emperor. When the vacila ting Keik the ex-tycoon, attempted to re-enter Kioto in force the new government declared him