South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-08-18
RULER KILLS BABY
ON HIS DEATH BED
Yuan Shi Kai'S Last Days Are
Marked by Cruelty and
QuarreIing.

PEKING. Aug as. Mail 10 New
York Some CHASTITY stories Of the
last days of President Yuan
Yuan Shi-kai are now passing
from lip II lip in Picking and
are even finding their way into the
Chinese newspapers. Between wives
and children he leaves. il is said.
81 mOurners in his family. bIt few
of them really lament his loss. Quar-
rels between them embittered his
last hours and his name is disgraced
by revelations of the greed and dis
honesty OF the princes designate
who were 10 have inherited the
dragon throne.
But the most gruesOme story IS
one that tells how the old man. mad
dened by the desertion of a trusted
general. with his own hands killed
his favorite concubine and her new
born babe in the palace a few days
before his own death. This story is
given on the authority OF the Pc
king Gazette. the leading Chinese
journal It was related TO the Ca
zette by an eyewitness in the palace
as follows:
1T is evening. a telegram is
handed TO Yuan: II is Chen Yi's dis
patch declaring the independence Of
the great province of Szechzuan.'
Kills Child.
The news moves Yuan powerful
" and his body shakes under the
passion rising in him. His eyes grow
cruel. and with the telegram i'm one
hand like a death warrant he passes
swiftly into the chamber of his IA
vorite concubine and Stays her and
the child she has lately borne him"
Blood and the death of the one he
loves breaks the passion that might
have choked him 10 death in an cpl
leptic fit, and saved him in a mys-
terious way for a few days more
from the death that might befall
him through his hatred of the man
who failed him at the last moment.
Those in the dead rulers conf
dence say that he trusted chen vi
greatly 1t was chen vi who first
spoke TO him of the throne and who
helped him 10 remove Ii Yuan Hung.
now president from the stronghold
Of Wuchang as well as Tsai 40 from
Yunnan TO Picking He staggered
under the news of chen Yfs deser-
ton. and his death followed fast.
quickened by mighty hatred
against his late general and remorse
at the death of his favorite concu-.
bine Accompanying Yuan's bier 90
its resting place in his native PROV
ince was coffin in which lay the
remains of the dead woman and her
chill
Inccssant Quarreling.
"Yuan's last days were troubled
by incessant quarreling among his
family He was given a great vari-
| ETY. of medicines. The eldest son be-
| lieved in foreign doctors but the
other sons and concubines believed
in native doctors and their drugs.
The result was that the patient was
dosed with al sorts Of medicines"
The fifth concubine insisted that
/ the medicine offered by one Bind
I %" was the best but the fifth son
/ said that the drugs Of Pu Chang WI
were better The quarrel went on
continuously and the advocates Of
/ the various quacks are supposed 70
have given the medicines they ia
vored 10 the patient unknown 10
the others"
Finally a foreign doctor proposed
to bleed the president and extracted
six tubefuls. This so disheartened
the other sons that they asked Yuan
Ko-ti the eldest. if he wanted 10
Kill his father When he died at
length there was a violent dispute.
each blaming the other for his
death"
"Ylan's device for nominating his
succe ssor was to write the names of
three candidates from whom his
successor was 10 be chosen and de-
/ posi- them in a gold box 10 be open
| ed after his death, This was actual
! " Incorporated i'm the revised presi-
dental election law The names
were written on a gold plate in
Yuan's own unscholarly handwriting
and the box was sealed up and
stored i'm a stone room in the palace.
/ The box was opened by President Ii
Yuan Humid and General Tuan Chi
/ Jul the premier. and the names they
found were those of Yuan Ko-t cg.
the presidents eldest a. Hsu shin
| Chang. and LANG Shih-yi. The new
president is said 10 have shown no
! sign of emotion at the names but
General Tuan was visiblv angry. es-
pecial!y at finding the name of
/ LANG. who was the presidents
herchman in some of his most secret
enterprises.