The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1904-04-04

Now that everybody's attention is turned
to Japan, certain sympathetic interest is
quickened towards the mysterious figure of
the woman whom Pierre Lott calls poetl-
cally the Empress of the Spring"
The Empress Haru Ko is a singularly at.
tractive figure; for in country of impas-
stoned conservatism she was among the
first to desire broader and deeper ciViliza-
ton.
Brought up in all the old ways-for she
belonged to one of the five great families
from which the emperors of Japan choose
their wives-she was no sooner empress
than she flung all her energies into the
effort to educate the daughters of the
aristocracy according to western ideas OF
upbrnging.
She became empress in 1868, and three
years later she sent five little girls to
America to be taught as ordinary Ameri-
can school girls. Later on schools upon
European plans were started in Japan it.
self. the imperial decree which set them
going laying stress upon the necessity of
japanese wives being able to follow the
mental developments of their husbands.
In consequence of this training, which
brought girls out from the seclusion of
their homes japanese women are already
shedding the servile submission which char
acterizes the position of their Chinese
sisters.
The courteous, smiling japanese wife,
with her exquisite art of pleasing, and her
inherited aptitude for keeping only the
gracious and comedy aspect of things on
the surface, is already beginning to realize
a new capacity.
1t is quite true she was by no means
incapable before. Her unconscious sense
Of beauty has strewn daintiness like flow
ers through all her surroundings. And
her education, which included a course of
lessons in the arrangement of flowers and
blossoms, was not entirely childish.
But the new principles encouraged by
the Empress Haru Ko bring a new con-
ception into women's lives-that of COM
panionship in the business of life.
The empress herself is already active
in carrying out this extension of the work
considered becoming to women. She
drives to the hospitals, and, like European
royalty, goes through the wards with sym
pathetic words to various of the patients,
and, more frequently than not, with gifts
she bestows with her own little white and
carefully-tended hands.
The hospital in Toxic for women and
children knows her well, and she seldom
goes without toys for the little mites, to
whom she is like a miracle of greatness
and power.
Yet her private life remains solitary, un-
eventful, and little sad and cold.
Western civilization has not yet been
able to penetrate beyond the state rooms
of the great palace. In the private apart
ments of the emperor and empress all the
old Japanese influence is intact. Its dain-
tness and beauty are happily here UNI
touched by extraneous conceptions.
The empress. discarding the ugly Euro
pean robes of public occasions, slips back
into the subtle grace of japanese costume
with its faint, delicate colorings its fut
tering sleeves its incompatible reserve
even in its richness. But along with this
artistic charm go the restrictions of old
japanese life. and with all her quick re-
ceptive intelligence the empress has to
obey the rules that leave her private ex-
istence a rather empty and cheerless one.
Unfortunately, the empress does not
speak any foreign languages. In conse-
quence her intercourse with the ladies of
the different legations is limited TO purely
formal receptions. Her own ladies in
waiting have little establishments built for
them in the grounds of the palace. which