Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-22

Doubtless many who received cards at
! tended the services largely to crafty per-
sonal curiosity. But it is not too much
! to say that even these, before their de-
parture. must have caught at least a
! hint of the character and meaning of
| the strange formal function.
| Perhaps it did even more. and brought
home to all that all over the world the
| people of this strange race. even those
unbound by official ties to the court with
! in the pink walls of the inner city I'M
mourned. in this queer. impersonal way.
The passing of the real and of the nom-
| nal rulers of their vast, far-eastern ma
| ton
Simple Services at Legation.
Simple. indeed were the services at the
| legation The visitor was met at the door
| by one of number of slim. grave. pale
| faced Chinese students and escorted down
| a long. crepe-draped hall to the west
parlor.
| There in the bay window which faces
| 18th street was a floral altar. In the
| center of the altar, side by side-even as
| they dwelt in the forbidden palace of the
rulers of their ancient land-were the two
memorial tablets of royal blue bearing.
| in hieroglyphics of bright gold. the va
rious ranks and titles of Kwang-Hsu,
son of heaven. and Tsi-An.
Beside the tablets four waXen candles
burned their yellow cones of flame
waverins in the windOw-borne breeze. AT
their base silver pot of incense
smoked. perfuming the air with its laZily
ascending spirals of ashen gray. All about
the black-hung room were great palms
and punches of deep yellow roses and big
| long-stemmed chrySanthemumS
1t was here, in this room. to the right
of the floral altar. that Minister WI. DR..
| Linn of China. a legation guest, and the
seven secretaries of the official staff. all
clad in rustling robes of dead-black,
sheenless silk. received all callers. q
Marching on the arm of one Of the
young students. before the calm-eyed.
grave-faced attaches. each guest paused
at the altar. with it's tablets and candles
and pots of incense. to make bow of
reverence and respect. Then the visitor
was expected to shake hands with Min
lister WI. murmur formal word OF SYM
pathy. bow individually to each of the
OF her Chinese diplomats in the group and
make his exit
And probably there was not one to in
cline his head before the bloom-inclosed
tablets that did not think. in f1eeting
way at least, of those two vanished rulers
whose manifold titles they bore-of
Kwang Hsu the gentle the incompetent.
who, ruled and swayed by a hand and
will of lower place but greater potency
than his own. dawdled away his life
among his women to die mental weak
ling. and of Tsi An. the merciless, the
one-time slave girl of baser race and
BIRTH who rose to hold. over more than
four hundred million people. the power
of the high justice, the middle and the
low.
Certainly to those who, on mission of
diplomacy or pursuit of pleasure, had
paused to rest while in Picking. returned
he memory of the Inner City as seen
from without the gates, from amid the
dust or mud, the smells, the swarmins
| thousands the cackling tongues For the
outer walls of the Inner City are pink
and CLEAN in the rays of the sun that
ever shines.
And within, ring upon ring, breadth
upon breadth. are more walls and more
until back. out of sound and sight and
smell, nesting in gardens of whose fOun-
tains and flowers and fragrance one may
only dream, is the vast and terraced pal
ace of mysteries in which dwelt these
two that have passed--Kwang HSu, the
weak. and Isl An, the strong.
And there were those. too. who. as they
bowed before the Powered altar and
whitfield the orient essence of the Spiraling
incense, doubtless dreamt an instant of
the manner of their deaths. Did they die
of nature in their palace within the pink
walls, in due course, at peace, com
PLEASANT of mind. were there whispers
of evil in the dusk of the 1abyrinthine
corridors where the SeXleSS ServitorS pa
| troll and the wondering face of an i'm
prisoned concubine CLEANS white an in
slant at a shoruded doorway and is
gone"
Visitors Many and Distinguished.
But there were no riddles asked or an
| Swered at the legation yesterday. Invited
guests came, entered, bowed before the
altar, murmured a formal word and were
| gone. And all afternoon Minister WI
and the seven grave attaches of the Ie-
CATION stood beside the altar in their
! Sheenless Somber robes
Among the visitors were practically all
| the members of the diplomatic corpS Vice
president Fairbanks raj IF
| the Supreme Court and assistant secre-
tarfeS of the various executive depart-
ments. President Roosevelt did not call
In person. but sent Capt Butt ore of his
military aids. who left the President $
card and those of the secretary to the
| President and Col. Bromwell. superintend-
| ent of public buildings and grounds, and
| also White House aid
secretary of State Root was not well
Yesterday and sent message of Sympa-
thy by Huntington Wilson, an assistant
secretary of state. Admiral Dewey also
| sent an aid with regrets
kogoro Takahira, the Japanese ambas-
sador. remained longer than any of the
other visitors, exchanging some remarks
with Minister WI in addition to the pure
~ formal expressions of coincidence
Among others who attended were:
the British ambassador and Mrs.
James Bryce, Or. Luis MILAN Lafinur.
minister from Uruguay and Nine. La
hnur; Senior Luis Felipe Carlo, miri.;-
ter from Ecuador: Alvey A. Adee. SOC
ond assistant secretary of state: Senior
1snaclo CalderOn. minister from Be-
llvla: Forster linden. secretary of the
Swedish legation; Senior kelsch. score
tary OF the Brazilian embassy: Baroness
Won Paum2artten. Senior Amoval. Score
tary of the Brazilian embassy: senior
Julian l.. Portela. secretary Argentine
legation: Elmer Murphy. Mrs c. p
Grandfield. John c. Scofield. Senior Estiban
Carlos attache t,cuadorean legation: the
Rudolph Garfield.
| Capt. Archibald W. Butt. t. $. g.:
Miss Marie Won Paumgartten Justice
Brewer of the Supreme Court of the
United States; Mrs. David j. Brewer,
Senior j. n Leger. minister from HIT! ;
Ambassador Nabuco of Brazil rJ;ss
Anne Y. Portner. William NJ Gov.
rad Justice Holmes of the ST.
preme Court of the United States:
Gen. Morteza Khan. minister from Per-
STA: Mrs. j. G. Scofeld, Sonora Eleana
Calderon Senior Antonio Monterro, sec
ond secretary of the Cuban legation
Count Moltke. minister from Denmark
f. II. LOTUS. secretary of the Siamese
legation: Huntington Wilson. third as
sistant secretary of state; Gen Robert
Shaw Oliver assistant secretary of war:
Viscount De Chambrun. secretary French
embassy: Senior Alberto Yoacham first
secretary of Chilean legation: Senior j.
Gustavo Gurrorro, secretary Salvadorean
| legation: Prince Nicolas koudacheff sec
rotary of Russian embassy: 3. kroupen-
sky, chare daffairs. Russian embassy
Commissioner Henry B. F. mcfarland.
Sisnor Roberto Centurio, secretary of the
Italian embassy; Senior Anibal Cruz.