Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-30
day for the republican party when Web
ster Davis left It.
TsI-AN,

-
Providence Journal: With all tile des.
pera.e enorts of the feminine portions
OF civilized humanity to exploit them /.
selves In these closing davis nf ther ran
Jury, with all the advances in wornan.s
education, with all the women's clubs
Ior the intellectual awakening of the
oIotime contented sex, and with some
.m.as actually accomplished in the evo-
luton OF q new species Of mankind
known as the new or progressive woman.
~ IS rather remarkable that the only
woman VINO has In recent times attained
the position of q real force in the polit-
lcai aItairs Of the world is Tsi-An, ex-
concuDine OF q desplsed Eastern poten-
tate, and daughter OF unnumbered CEN
1urles OF what from the Occidental point
OF view Is called dense .~barbarism. The
empress dowager of China is the one
c~onsplcuously great woman in the world
today; and it is at least a matter of GU.
rious interest to not that she is quite
IN the class with Boadicea, Cleopatra
andAthe other most prominent women of
history, none OF whom has possessed
eitner the intellectual or the moral quail
tues tnat are commonly considered de-
slaerata Tor the women of Christendom.
Tsi-An, however one sense of prupIf-
ETY. may revolt at the fact, is ffle fore
most OF the worlds women today, meas
ured by any Of the common standards
OF greatness. The civilized world has
SsopPeu ACS BUSINESS ana Supended Its
desires to look with amusement and
alarm on what she has done and to
await with fear n trembling her next
move. Napoleon himself did not more
1mperatively command the worlds at
tention. She is in every way a remark
fact that she Is doomed to failure in her
enterprise in the long run does not de-
tract from the worldwide fame that she
has won FOR herself hus far. She is re-
by reason of her unprecedented
and ~self-caused ascent from the posi-
ton OF a common concubine to the throne
of an immemOrial empire; she is remark
able by reason Of her present distinc-
ton of virtual sovereign OF a quarter of
the earth's population, and she is remark-
able by the splendid audacity she has
shown In defying the military establish
ments of all Christendom III in IN
dertaking to cause as great an overturn
in the affairs of mankind as followed
the flight of Cleopatra from the Bay OF
Actium.
We should all of course be glad to
know more of the personality and meth
DDS of this imperious woman, who. with
u any of the aids of modern education
or any of the impulses supposed to be in
herent in a liberal civilization, has made
more of a stir in he world than n
other woman of her time In any country.
But the desire Is vain. Outside the pal
y CuAuCAASs ACW iFlIA6
ever seen her face, and only one living
white The latter is Prince Henry
of Prussia, and he has frankly confessed
that the inscrutable Tartar empress
completely baffled his curiosity and
turned back his questions upon himself.
Her personality has been effectually hid
den behind the walls of the Prohibited
City; and even her one-time favorfte,
THE shre,wd and powerful Ii Hung Chang,
at the moments of his greatest intimacy
with her was allowed to MYERS with
her only at infrequent intervals, and
the eye.
At this critical time there Is nothing
of SO profound concern in the chancel-
tories of Chrfstendom as her moods and
whims: yet she is to all of us almost
as a being form some other planet. whose
character ds q hopeless enigma and whose
mental processes and moral views are
as sealed books. Only fleeing glimpses
of her personal traits may be seen in
her acts and her edicts. We may fancy
that we see outlined a character Of
splendid vigor and barbaric resolution
in the successive steps of force or in
trigue by which Tsi-An has raised her
self from the head of the harem of HEN
lung to sovereignty on the Dragon
Throne, her upward progress marred by
the ruthless overriding Of every obstacle
and the easy submerging of successive
III liC oSloAA6CoI ~ oAAlo16
their followers; but we can only infer
what it was caused the precipitate
flight of the reform leaders from the
jurisdicti on of the Pekin government after
the coup d'etat of 1898. One thing only
is perfectly clear. that Tsi-An has been
the marvellous possessor of a personal
ity that has been strong enough to make
her the leading figure of three successive
reigns and one of the leading figures, If
not the very foremost one, in the world.
TIC say that her career has been a dis
astrOus one for all who were brought in
to contact with her is only to say that
there is another kind of greatness be-
sides that of a world benefactor. No
person who has stood in her imperious
way has long survived to trouble her.
Her husband, Hienlung; the succeeding
emperor, Tungche; his widow. Ahluta.
who was about to bear an heir to the
throne; the associate regent, Tsu-Tshi;
Prince Chung, father Of the present en-
| peror-aH these died suddenly and in
| the prime Of life, while all the lieuten-
| ants and friends of the reigning' sover-
eion have one after another lost their
heads on the block. The direct connec-
| ton which Tsi-An undoubtedly had with
| these and other bloody deeds makes, of
| course, a record on which she n
| appeal to the human sympathy or moral
lectual admiration cannot be withheld
| from the remarkable force and masterful
executive ability hat she has SHOWN in
superlative degree from the time, 40
!, years ago, when she fled with her con-
sort to the hunting lodge at Jehol, on
| the advance of the A~nglo-Frenc- expe-
| dition on Pekin, to the goyernment-in-
| stigated Boxer outrageS of this last year
| of the century. That so masterful a spirdl
it should have been developed in a Wo-
| man and in a woman of a race that has
| studiously kept itself out of the cur
| wants IF modern intallactua1 life. ia one