The morning journal-courier., 1908-11-16
DOW AGER EMPRESS DEAD, OFFICIALLY
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sign her authority, but she received from them the reassurances which she coveted The dowager empress was, In China, foreigner being Manchu, and was under the ban of Chinese pa. trlots, and an increasing anti Mauchu dynasty which sought the suppression og the dynasty and at the least, the restoration of the Manchu emperor to ments, but her speech was Chinese, She was dominating to the last degree and magnetic, and seemed to be all- seeing to her courtiers who stood as if on rgss in her presence, She was theatrical In public, exhibiting the stage training she had acquired in pr- yate, Her officials did not hesitate on occasion to speak of her fierce temper, her Tartar character and to refer to h1r as q terrible woman"
 She was a law unto herself She vio. lated the constitution of the dynasty that forbids a woman ruler, and broke the sacred customs given by the Stages She relentlessly ordered all betrothalS aNG marriages in the imperial house. hold, family and imperial court, and supervised scrupulousy the conduct of Individuals, Age did not seem to hlyt embitterod her at the close of a strictly terrible career although the past de- cede had intensified her saguinary rec. ord, She entered the palace as an in. ferior concubine and authority came tc her by virtue of fecundity. She became the mother of an emperor and her DO. litlcal career began with the whole sale beheading of princes in 1861 by which she established her son on the throne A slaughter of reformers and others took ilacc g. years later Two years after thls she deib rately, upon advice. set about slaughtcrlng al Christians and foreigners. giving 100 OOt tacls from her prIvate funds toward carrying on the work But. even wltt this, 1t Is said Of her reign that 1t has been free from the bloodthIrstiness that characterized the reiGns of her prede. cessors
 Two nominal superors succeeded tc the title held by her husband and she was responsible for both She put hei son. Tung-ChIh on the throne and upor his sudden death enthroned the son o her dead husbands brother Tho lat
 fer was the late emperor, Kuang- Hsu
 She dethroned him in 1900 and made Pu Chun, son of Prince Tuan heir apparent without authority. a, the succession in Calna ls only rlgat. i fully determined by the emperor. Pt Chun again she degraded in obedience to the mandate If the allies. because his father was the leader of the Box. CTS, in the palace, restoring Kuanl Hsu During tho minority of her owr son she ruled through her appointed 1 regent, Prince KunG She was thor an undisputed iyrant who forbade anyone consulting the eastern em. press lIsien Fcngs real wife-upor 1 political matters.
 But in 1881 the eastern empross' died leaving her nutocrat in botl name and deed As ta political wis dom. her talents appeared to b, strictly limited 10 the narrow field O
 tho palace This ground she kncp
 we'll She personally passed. however
 5n much of the business with foreigr nations, which shc would decide upoi ] tho advice of tho councillors. But il the realm of international polite,
 ners was q long record or wayward
 ness and lack of knowledge She In spircd the declaration af war in iSG. and, although it reroilcd upon tht
 throne, she apparently took to hcrsei l no lesson from the defeat hy the Jap Ianege for m 1900 shc entered upon 1 struggle for a third time. and Inf