Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-21


third class are chosen from these same ex-
pectant expresses. This oriental institu-
ton is as fixed and is regulated by as strict
rule and ceremony as any other thing about
the court.
A Relic of Past Ages.
Friar Odoric found Kublai Khan sitting
In state. with the first real wife or empress
at his left. and two inferior wives a step
lower down. All OF these imperial favorites
have their distinctive dress and marks Of
rank. their particular coronals of flowers,
their symbolic pastrons embroidered
their coats. Father Ripa describes the En-
peror Kanghsi moving about the grounus
studying and reading in the pavilions in
the summer palace and in the Jehol gar
dens. always surrounded by groups of wo-
men. Herr Won Brandt, who was German
minister for so many years at Pekin, has
published a German transcript of the me
mofrs of one of these supernumerary wives
or palace ladies, which gives some idea of
the lie and the gilded miseries those
women, widowed but remaining still Sc
cluded when the emperor dies cut off from
their own families and sedulously excluded
from all part in the court life of the SOW
ereign who succeeds. Only Tsze Hsi An
could lift herself from such estate and
escape the penalties of plural imperial
Widowhood.
kwanRsu Indifferent
The Emperor Kwangsu had no interest in
his own wedding, and heed ] little of the
teachings of the two women professors of
matrimony" duly assigned him in prepara-
ton for the long-drawn-out, awesome cere-
mony. The same order of formalities, the
professions to and fro with Fits and tab
lets and golden name cards. and finally the
torchilght procession eScorting the bride to
the palace in her gorgeous red wedding
chair, We're followed at the wedding of
Tungchfh in 1871. After the little Yehonala
disappeared with her paraphernalia into the
n nf.- ~
emperor was indifferent to the plant AM,
pretty niece whom the acknowledgements
aunt had chosen for him in the place of the
bride he wanted only to fasten the ham
pering family chains and claims the more
closely around him.
The Eunuchs.
1t is said that there are 1900 eunuchs
and wait on the expresses and the great
company of lesser wives and widows in
the palace-repulsiye creatures in gorgeous
garments, often to be met at the foreign
shops in Legation street and in the neigh
borhood of the east palace gate Some of
them have been slaves or prisoners of war,
or were bought from their parents for
such palace service: some retire with old
age and often with fortunes since they do
all the palace purchasing There is
special cemetery for the eunuchs in the
northwest part of the city, where their
graves are tended, incense burned and the
tablets worshfped by pious ones of the
palace fraternity. The eunuchs have been
in and at the bottom of every palace in
trigue and crime for some nineteen CEN
turtles. kanghsi and other sovereigns tried
to suppress them, to restrict their numbers
and authority, but in vain. One of the first
acts of the expresses regent In 1861 was
TO punish and deport the eunuchs who had
taken part in the intrigues at Jehol, and
eunuchs went to the block after the coup
detat of 1898. but the chief of the eunuchs
is still the power at court, the one behind
the throne, to be placated and feared by
all.
The Lonely Young Emperor.
No individual in the empire had less lib
erty of action than the lonely Kwangsu
during the few years he went through the
form of ruling. Tied down by the pom
derous etiquette of his station. he could
neither live nor move of his own volition.
Every act from birth to death, at any hour
Of the day or night. in the life of Chinese
emperor is prescribed by custom and reg
uIated by minute rules. Any deviation par
alyzes and alarms the retinue Yet, eX-
cept for the burden and forms of sover-
eighty. kwangsu was puppet and minor
even after he had married and had ascend
eG the dragon throne. The empress dow
ager. in the assumed retirement of E-ho
Park, still did it all: still terroriZed and
W
Noticed of the Vermilion Pencil pro-
testing, signed, and sometimes never saw
at all BY the specious pleas of fflial de-
votion she lured him to repeated visits to
ner beautiful retreat at a time when her
influence had Waned and the young en-
peror was seeking a means of Kidding him
self of such pettcoat tyranny. There were
quarrels with Prince kung. the faithful
old guardian was exiled from court for
years and all the advisers of progress We're
degraded or disposed of less happily.
A Warming From the Grave.
One great statesman, Liu Min Chan,
dying left memorial to the throne which
he would not have dared to present in life
The old general urged reforms, railroads
and western learning, and in a few para
graphs wrote a warning that should have
been kept always before the imperial eyes:
I'VE feel her Russia 81 grip on our throat
and her fists upon our back, and our con-
tact with her is a source of perpetual
uneasiness to our hearts and minds. But
our long season of weakness and inaction
disables from making show of
strength, and our only alternative, there
fore, is TO bear patiently insult and OBJ
loquy. When quarrel occurs we have to
yield to her demands and make a compro-
mise regardless of money, in order to avert
the dangers of war.
Now, Japan is an extremely small coun-
try-like pill Her rulers, however. have
ing on her possession of railways she at
tempts now and again to be arrogant, like
a mastis when it assumes an air of de-
fiance, and to despise China, and gives us
no small amount of trouble the smallest
Dretext.
The reasons why Russia is overbearing
and Japan undertakes are to be found In
the fact that China has only one corner of
her vast possessions protected. is afraid to
face difficulties, and is incapable of rousing
her energies because possessed Of an in
ordnately pacific disposition.
Foreign Ministers Insulted.
Others felt the same dread but dared not
speak. The young emperor's interest in
foreign peoples and ways was stilled and
thwarted, and the most impossible ideas Of
foreigners were conveyed to him The for
cign ENJOYS, who had to wait through an
other long minority before having audience
with the sovereign to whom they were ac-
credited, had to insist strenuously before
that small courtesy was granted. Tung-
chih's famous audience of 1873, the first oc-
cason upon which any foreigner in this
century had gazed upon the dragon coun-
tenance. was held in the pavilion of Purple
Light in the detached western garden, with
the deliberate intention of belitting the for
eign representatives in the Chinese eyes-a
coarse sort of practical Joke. The same