Evening star., 1931-12-06
Continued From Third page. }

had been recently carpentered. Soon
I learned the reason; it had been done
that the Son of Heaven might go from
can bicycle. Of this machine he was
very proud and showed it TO me with
all the ingenious enthusiasm of =
small boy. During this and later in
terviews he was very affable. He
talked English, though with little
hesitation.
Before I drove home through the
vermilion gates an engagement had
been made for me to paint the i'm
peria1 portrait. was to put on canvas
the likeness Of the last Manchu En-
perorl
Alasl had reckoned without tn.
war, which was still pursuing its ruth
less way. Although 1t appeared re-
mote from the fantastic, almost comic
opera gayeties of the foreign colonies
OF Peking and although within the
secluded walls of the Forbidden City
its din seemed muted and far away.
the seeming detachment was not real,
as we were to learn with startling
abruptness. In October, 1924, Feng
Yu-hsiang, ''the Christian general"
suddenly got control of the city. He
abolished the terms under which Pu-yi
had been allowed to abdicate, declared
him a private citizen and took posses
sion of the Forbidden City and the ac-
cunulated riches Of centuries Of Man
chu rule. The Son Of Heaven, now
Mr.. Henry Pu-yi," and his wife were
bundled out Of their home with less
than an hours notice He left behind
most Of his Jewels. fortune In Jade
q -Tyh{ Hn
found it difficult to find a safe harbor.
but finally he and the former Empress
made their way TO Tientsin, where they
were received and given a place TO
live in the japanese concession. There
they remained until recent events In
Manchuria forced a second flight and
made them once more important
though helpless actors on world stage.
Evidences OF Character.
Pu-yi LEFT behind him In Peking many
evidences Of his naivete Of character.
Part Of the terms of his abdicatior
made for him when he was a child
had been a considerable, though 1t
must be confessed rather theoretical, al
lowance from the Republican govern
n1ert. This allowance he did not al
ways receive, but nearly always spent
One Of his enthusiasms was for foreign
clothes, even though most Of the time
he wore the Chinese. Just before he
left for Tientsiii he had ordered 50, 900
worth of tailored clothes, suits for every
conceivable occasion, even q complete
Western riding habit
Shortly before this he had decided
that he wanted a band of his own, and
the band had been assembled piece by
piece. When he fed from Peking he
is said to have left behind him debts
totaling s1,5o0,o Mexican, then $780,
900 in gold
The precipitous departure Of the i'm
perial pair interrupted for a while my
plan for making portraits Of these last
two Manchu rulers. But these plans
were revived when two years later
visited Tientsin. "Mr. Henry Pu-yi'
and his wife were living there under
tho protecting wing of the Japanese
legation. The former Empress invited
six other women and men to dinner
Sitting at the head of the table in her
Manchu costume and elaborate head
dress like a frosted Christmas tree,
with her sparkling black eyes, her
charming smile and her quaint, youth
full dignity, for she was still hardly
more than child, this little lady
seemed to me one of the most fascinat-
ing who had ever graced a dinner table
Her English was still hating and shy.
although she understood 1t better than
at first realized, but In other ways,
particularly her graceful use of heavy