The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-24
The Great DOW0geY
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.

who was an official there. He was a friend of the dowager and he equeezed so much that the people niclSnamed him 'The Bottomless Bag.
 Was She a Demon?
 One hears all sorts of stories about the empress dowager. All acknowledge her ability and say she will rank among the great queens of all time. There is no question as to her strength of character. Some exalt her to the skies as an angel of mercy and light, while others say she was a demon incarnate, and they com pare her private life to that of the Rus sian empress Catherine the Great As to her demoniac character, her detractoors say she poisoned her husband, the Ern- porer Hsien Feng, and thereby became ruler in connection with another empress whom he married before her. They sus- pect that the death of that empress was caused by the dowagers machinations and plots, who then reigned supreme dur ing the minority of her son, the Emperor Tung Chieh, who was a baby when chosen.
 When Chieh had reached the age of fif- teen, at which time he might aspire to rule independently he died of smallpox, and there are some malicious enough to say that his mother, the empress dowager, assisted him on the fairy ride to far
 
 gun to resent her domination. and that the smallpox was really an overdose of opium pills. They say also that after his death the suicide of his wife. the em- press, who threw herself into well, was assisted by this same great woman, and that other crimes of a similar nature may be laid to her charge.
 How kwang-Su Was Punished.
 Take. for instance. story which is -t-t I ff~ AfFt la1 nE Pekin. It relates to Kwang-Su, the late emperor, and to favorite concublne of his whom the great dowager thought was melting him to rebel against her. She ordered the emperor to come before her and then had his sweetheart brought in. when the two were kneellng she charged them with treason and said to the ei1l- peror:
 q shall now show you how I treat traitors"
 She thereupon gave signal, and her executioners seized the concubine and with a sillxen cord strangled her to death before the eyes of her imperial lover.
 The power of the great dowager was supreme A word from her could slice off a head, and her followers knew 1t. They trembled in her presence and dared not resist her. When her majesty lay on her deathbed some of the grand council
  other prince than the one she had se- lected and to make Prince Ching regent. Thereupon the great dowager gathered her strength and rose up, saying;
 You officials think you can humbug me because I am old Verify, think the time for your death has arrived
 Possibly an Angel.
 Such is one view of this great rulers character. On the other hand. Miss Carl who wrote book giving her experiences in painting the empress dow agers portrait. says that she was kind and sweet and good. Mrs. Conger, tho wife of our former minister. speaks of her as a scholar and an artist, and there are many who will tell you that the charges of her being an assassin are false and malicious I know the story about her being slave girl is untrue. She came from one of the best of Manchu Tn VI flies Her father WAS Duke Chao, a military man, who was beheaded after she had married the Emperor Hsien-Feng.
 There Is no doubt that she was true to her friends, and that Pu Vi is now on the throne a living evidence of that trait of her character. The inside story of how this baby became emperor is yet to be told One of the highest officials gave me the bones of the matter as we chatted together last night He said.
 It had its birth in the coup d'etat of 1sos Kwang Su. the young emperor had entered upon his course as an imperial reformer, and had planned to put the great empress dowager out of the way. In company with his advisers. Kanf Yu Weh and others. he had planned to have her majesty and her most influential of- fiicials executed. For this purpose he commanded Yuan Shin Kai, who then had charge of the only modern army in the empire, consisting of about 5000 well drilled troops, to come to Pekin. As