New-York tribune., 1921-08-14
Anomalous Conditions
in Peki1.g, Where the
Boy King Is q Prisoner.
but Still q Son of
Heauer,, and Where the
Manchu Mobiles Drink
the Dregs of Poverty

that did not his experiences would.
His experiences are far from easily borne.
The rightful heir to the untold millions of
fabulousy rich court must scrape for means
Of subsistence. When the republic pro-
claimed a yearly pension Of 100000 taels
was voted to him (about 2,700,O0o at nor
NAL exchange). This later reduced
to 81, 600. 900 in silver. 1t was still later re-
duced to a Pickwickian sense. The Chinese
government in the last two or three years
not even paid the salaries Of its officials.
Naturally, it has not paid the court its PEN
SION And the court he's had hard lot, and
its creditors an even harder one. For the
lesser eunuchs and the like, it has been
desperately hard. Surely here is the OUT
standing example of general poverty.
If hard has been the lot of the imperial
household, bitter has been that of the Manchus
living in Peking, most of them former Off
cials. Since their conquest of China in the
middle of the seventeenth century the Manchus
have lived on the country as parasites. Thou
sands of civil officials and many more of
soldiery have been quartered on the country
at its expense. All were allotted annunities,
even when not in service, and all had some
connection with officials or official life. The
old Banners, the Manchu corps d'elite had
become a mere shell, but the descendants Of
those who composed them continued to re
ceive government pay. To all intents and
purposes there were no Manchus who were
not officially supported out of the national
exchequer.
Suddenly they were cut off No pension
has been given them. Nor have they means
of subsistence. In the generations Of parasit-
ism they had become decadent Occupation
of any kind except in the official yamens was
beneath their dignity. The perquisites of Of
flee, the limitless opportunities for corruption,
made occupation unnecessary. Even the lesser
breed had enough for sustenance. An extrava-
CANT and luxury-loving people the result CT
their generations of ideness, those who had
wealth squandered it, recking little Of the lean
days to come.
pages
fiction. The overwhelming majority of Man
chus in and around Peking live in the most
shocking direst of poverty They have no
skill, they know no trades most Of them are
too weakened by lazy living to do physical
work. They exist on the perious road from
hand to mouth on the sharp dividing line be-
tween life and death as only Orientais can
exist. The garishy painted and powdered
H.
board scaffoldings of headdresses daintily-
tread the most noisome alleys and spend their
days in the meancst of novels.
TIE broad stream Of mandarin coats. snuff
bottles porcelains jades and what tourists
call curios that has found its way into Ameri-
shops of recent years all has its source IN
Manchu poverty. The wealthiest Of the Man
chu families, the higher nobility, sell their
treasures to support themselves. When the
treasures are gone--
There was one prince who had one of the
most famous palaces in Peking, hard by the
Hsichimcn, the northwest gate. 1t was &
fairyland, famed over Northern China,
dazzling in the riches it held. And the riches
scattered with the lavish hand Of the
Manchu arstocracy. Four years ago the
prince died. He left three sons One is now
a ricksha coolie During the day he remains
in seclusion, his pride greater than his
hunger. At night he prowls the lanes for
a chance fare, content with few coppers for
the most back-breaking work known to man, a
human horse. Another son is buyer and
seller Of junk and old rags The third, an
emaciated opium smoker and morphine
addict-morphine is cheaper than opium
lives off the dubious earnings of his wife.
In this there is nothing uncommon. One
of the kitchen helpers in one of the foreign
hotels here is descendant of an iron-capped
prince. The translator of one of the foreign
correspondents is the son of noble. The
nephew of member of the one-time privy
council is garden coole for one of my neigh
bors. Such is the fate of the descendants of
Nurhachu, Cesar Of the Manchus one of the
worlds great warriors, who led his race
through the Great Wall and left them to make
themselves masters of one-thrd the worlds
population. In their end is infinite pathos.
1t is one of the lesser tragedies of mans his
tory.
The path of the conqueror in China leads
but to ruin, as Asas chronicles for twenty