The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-24

A f least. had little reason to complain,
 for the people who were put out of the
 way on this occasion were or the uitra
 conservative Chinese class, whose main
 notion of statesmanship is to exciuoe
 foreign ideas from the country.
 This E,mpress mother would not be,
 among us. considered as an advanced
 liberal in politics. It gives us some
 standard by which to gauge the con
 seryative Chinaman that this particu
 lar lady should. in her own country
 have been regarded as a dangerous rad
 ical, if not a revolutionary brand.
 Was Thought a Radical.
 She has that rare quality of states
 manship which consists in limiting our
 efforts to attain, not theoretical idea
 but the best that is possible under
 given circumstances. She was forum
 ateIy for China from social circle
 more in touch with real things than
 those bred in the poison of Court life She brought to her task superb physi
 cal health, much tact, good sense, en- ergy, and ambition. Such a person, af- ter having been chased from Picking with the Emperor by troops, officially pronounced to be harmless, was not likely 1o return to her official post without new ideas on the invulnerabil- ity of official residences. Whatever the bulk of Chinese peasantry might think touching the cowardice and helpless ness of the foreign devils" she at least recognized on their side power wllh which she would have in the future to reckon; and, while she might snare with others of her race a cordial dis taste for white mans domination in China she was equally convinced that the white man can be fought only witi' | the white mans weapon. and that' l yl toward a higher level of material. II not intellectual or moral civilization. To March With Her People. Her violent veto to the reform plans of the Emperor in 1898 sprang so much from her innate Chinese canser- vatism as from a profound statesman like appreciation of the fact that re- form so sweeping as had been planned would be followed by correspondlnS reaction It was her duty, she argued to march with her people; not too Tar in advance of them.
 l, Any one who has seen the Chlna ol 1860 and has been able to compare II with the China or today cannot but note the immense progress-reiatiVely speaking. And at the same time Know ing the great powers which have beer wielded by this little Bismarck in pet ticoats it would be wholly unfair no | to credit her with full share in the good work that has been done during 1 her reign-or dominion-or whatever word Is best fitted to describe an as tendency so complete.
 The great power she has ever exert l ed is owing of course, mainly to hel own innate force of will and capacity | for work. She was fortunate in nav ing no serious rivals in her field r. of a S1OthfnI pleasure loving nature. and cheerful, allowed the energetic Empress mother | to indulge her passion for work-f passion which distinguished her pre- l eminently.
 Looking Back over History. Looking back over Chinese history | of the past half century we can but wonder that the vast empire held to | gether under the repeated blows whicf | it received. That it held together even tolerably well remains as mon ument to the energy and the sense O this lady.
 In 1861 the Taiping rebellion, whicf | had risen in 1850. was still menac' | to the Picking government, particularly ] in conjunction with the European war! of 1858 and 1860. The Taiping Elm | perera held court at Nanlsins and hi: forces were plundering and killing III and down the valley of the Yang-tse Even as late as 1876, when I applied | for a pass to travel in the interior oi l China. I had to promise the Chinese authorities that I would have no deal 1 ings with the rebels, and this sixteer years after the outbreak of the rebel l lion!
 In Yunnan, a province on the edge: | of Tibet and Burmah, there had brok en out in 1856 a serious Mohammedar insurrection, which along with the | Taiping and the foreign invasions kep' | the Picking administration pretty busy at least with plans for future resi-