Evening Star Newspaper, June 30, 1894, Page 17

THE EVENING STAR PUBLISHED DAILY EXCEPT SUNDAY. AT THE STAR BUILDINGS, neL rlvania Avenue, Cor. llth Street, by The Evening Star Newspaper Company, 8.H. KAUFFMANN, Pres’t. ema 6 nn sone Few York Office, 49 Potter Building, feonth. Saturday Quintuple Sheet Star, $1.00 year; ie rien age oaeek, Oe a cond-clasa mail matter.) — io cor [> All mail subscriptions umst be paid in advance. Rates of advertising mate Known on Application LIFE IN BRUSSELS Why That City Has Gained the Name of Little Paris, THE GAY ROUND OF THE GILDED YOUTH Some Features of the Theaters and the Restaurants. ROYALTY’S PLEASURES Correspondence of The Evening Star. BRUSSELS, June 12, 1894. N THE PLATFORM Oz the Brussels rail- way station there is a valise. Its owner hails an employe. The latter approach- es and looks at the valise. He lifts it by one end, lets it down on the ground, looks at it again, walks around it and lifts it up by the other end. It might be filled un- evehly. Then he lets it down on the ground a second time, looks at it once more, and goes away without a word. The traveler scolds. The porter Keeps on tranquilly and disappears. Then he returns, accompanied by a brother ar- tist, always calm and unhurried. He had taken account that the valise was too heavy and had gone to look for help, think- ing it useless to spend time in vain words. It is your first taste of the temperament of Belgium, a land where what is not exact- ly Dutch but Flemish mingles with what is not precisely French but Walloon. This makes these Belgians an easy people to get on with—once you learn their ways. One evening, in front of the Brussels bourse, two drunken men were fighting. Siowly, regularly, heavily they let their ce fists fall on each other's heads. A gardien Se la paix drew near and tried to separate Des them. Understand that he exhorted them to separate themselves and did not intro- @uce himself into the row. “Go home!” ‘The drunken men continued thumping each other. “Go home,..L,tell you!” The fists Kept falling with a trandifl-regularity. “I @hall be forced to arrest you.” No effect. The crowd stood listening, looking at the fighters, and they did not interrupt their work. Without any impatience the gardien insisted, explained to them the penalties to which they were exposing themselves, and once more said, “Go home!” At last, as if to make an end of argument, he added, be- seechingly, “Pour me faire plaisir! Go home, to please me!” The drunken men stopped, looked at him, separated, and each went his own way. The Bruxellois is gay enough, and yet he has something about him not exactly heavy, but reflective. He moves a little slowly, but he moves; and when he moves it is without unseemly haste and undue e: fort. Some time ago the citizens of Brus- sels thought they had a reason to complain of the king. They got up a demonstration. To the number of several thousand they T WASHINGTON, D. OC. SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1894-TWENTY PAGES. HE QUEEN DRIVES. TO ADVERTISERS. Advertisers are urgently re- quested to hand in advertisements the day prior to publication, in order that insertion may be as- sured. Want advertisements will be received up to noon of theday of publication, precedence being given to those first received. with its Rubens, Teniers and Van Eycks. They leave the traveler unconvinced. All | Eyes are beautiful and the skin lL the famous gayety and charm of Brus- sels center round the pleasures of the well- to-do. The theater and opera, horses, so- cial Mfe—right-handed and left-handed—eat- ing, drinking, sleeping, these are the pleas- ures of the Belgian capital. French a Dutch Decorum. ‘There are two theaters which give you @ first glimpse. The first nights at the Pare are very curious. All the cocottes appear there in their splendor, and these delightful ladies form a very special feature of the Belgian capital. Not one of them would miss a first night at the Parc. It is their drawing room and their assembly. They go alone or with a companion or servant. On the other hand you scarcely see these dam- sels at La Monnaie, which is the Royal Opera House. There is a certain reserve in Brussels and the gilded youth would fear to flirt too openly under the eyes of gens du monde, who do not trifle in this chapter, as they say. This distinction strikes the keynote of elegant life in Brus- Kino At the Opera. sels, which is a mingling of Parisian light- ness and heavy Dutch decorum. The au- ditorium of La Monnaie is very pretty. The height of the balcony and the boxes above the parquet give it a peculiar ele- gance. As to the orchestra, its value is know Only opera is given; and it is no- torlous that in its recognition of new ar- tists and new pieces the Theater Royal de la Monnaie of Brussels is well ahead of the Grand Opera of Paris. It fostered Sibyl Sanderson and many another before the world of Paris knew them. ‘The public is very, Parisian. There is no one in the royal box. In the bourgmes- tre’s box there are two admirable Flemish heads. The military box is stuffed with officers of the Guides. The house box is full of pretty women and young girls and solid-lcoking men correctly dressed. In a box to the left, looking toward the stage, there is a delicious little lady, round, rosy and dimpled, with plump shoulders and a little head surrounded with a glory of blonde hair twisted together a la Grecque. It is very amusing to watch her during the piece. She tries to listen, but every instant she turns aside, says a word to her neigh- bor or to one of the gentlemen in the back of the box. She takes a peep through her opera glass to the right and to the left. She leans over and gives a little nod of recognition across the hall. Then, again, she is all given up to the music. Then two mirutes of attention, which is all that she is capable of, a few words to her neighbor, and a few more greetings in the hall. You can imagine that her little feet are mov- ing. It is tiresome to remain immovable so long. But here {s the ballet. We will look at the ballet. But no, this little lady is more interesting than the ballet. She says a couple of words to her friend, as if to tell her something, and then the opera glass is attentively fixed on the danseuses. She has found what she is looking for. She whis- pers in her friend’s ear, leaning over so that they can’t hear in the back of the box: “That one—thi big one.” As the friend does not ‘see all at once, she shows her plumply with her finger. “Is it really she?’ She is not sure of it. It is better to ask. There is a question to her husband and the two men smile and look. “Yes, it is she.” And this is how, the next day, a certain officer or a ccrtain attache will be teased on his relations with the corps de ballet. They All Ride Horseback. The life of a gilded youth of Brussels 1s not so different from that of Paris. From 10 in the morning to noon he is on horse- back at the Bois de la Cambre. The Bois is really charming, not very large, but skillfully laid out. It is very gay toward 11 o'clock, as are the boulevards and ave- nues which lead to it. There are many officers, and they are very pretty. They are, indeed, superb. There are few troops in Europe as elegant as these guides de la garde, with their green dolmans, heavy erie. palace. There was a moment of silence. Then, with a single voice, they cried—or rather said, with Belgian accent: “A bas le rol! Down with the king!" (A pause) “A bas la reine! Down with the queen (Another pause). “A bas le Comte de Flandres! Down with the Count of Flan- ders” (brother and heir of the king). Then ney walked off. But suddenly, as if seized and drew themselves up before the remorse, they came back and, with the | same aussi! calmness added: “Et la comtesse And also the countess.’ The Pleasures of Royalty. ‘They were understood. Although the poll- tics of Belgium at the present moment are in a state of chaos, they do not touch the king, who goes his way. His way is two- fold. @) He is a man of pleasure in the geod old-fashioned sense. (2) He is a man of business, owning personally half the Congo Free State, which our lamented H. M. Stanley got for him. The pleasure of the queen fs in the thea- ter. It is known that she is a great mu- sician and attends all the first nights of the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie. The king is more moderate in his taste for music. He remains in the palace, and they pretend that sometimes a certain little door which gives on the garden of the palace opens in the evening. The second pleasure of the king 1s horse- back riding; and he rides a great deal, with no other guard than one horseman, who is much more solemn than himself. The sec- pleasure of the queen ts to drive a four-in-hand. There are two horsemen in front of the carriage, a man on the seat, and two horsemen behind. Formerly it seems she drove six in hand, but after a few accidents she gave it up. The court is very simple and very tran- quil. The outward show, except for official ceremonies, ts reduced to, the strict mini- mum. There ts a post of carabineers in front of the palace, sentries at the different gates, and nothing more. The Comte de Flandres gues out walking with his wife, limping a little and saluting cordially those whom he meets. Brussels is sometimes call- ed a little Paris. If the tourist has man- ed to choose a hotel patronized by the —and takes the table d’hote—his ssion will make him think it is Paris. The street life has not of Paris or of anything at all, ex @ certain emptiness, as if the people gone out of town. It is useless to in- sist upon the curiosities, the Church of St. Gudale, the little cherub of the fountain, the statues of the martyrs and the museum ent to the park, without tumult, without | with embroidery, and their amaranthine pantaloons. Nearly all these officers are handsome fellows, of good family, keeping from their Flemish blood only a kind of balance and solidity. They have fine horses, which they ride well, and wonderfully well. It is @ treat to see them pass. Their serv- ice cannot be exacting, for you meet them everywhere, at every hour. You make the turn of the Bois and stop at the Dairy to take a glass of sherry. It is a little rustic chalet with a pleasant view. There are a few petites femmes here, who have come to find the cheris de leur coeur. These Belgian women seem, after the Vien- nese, the most completely beautiful i Europe. But, according to the Frenchman htens me, they lack the unique ‘the good God's dear little Parisi- He says: “Belgian women are very pretty im general, and superior to our Cafe Riche. Parisiennes from the point of view of strict beauty. At every moment, in the streets, you run across women whose type is ulws about the saine and might end by b monotonous, but it is of remarkable bea In regard to complexion and form—to what might be called the great outlines--they de- serve every vote. But it is in the art of serving up beauty that our Pa without rivals. Here in Bru: is too loud. The lingerie is too and noisy. There is an excess in elegance, adornments and perfumes. The hands and feet are @ little too massive. Shoulders are omplic superb, but the figure is a little heavy, is rosy and _ The King Rides. fresh, but there should be a little more ex- Pression in the faces.” At 11:30 our young Belgian and his vis- itors mount their horses and start back for Brussels. From 12 to 3 is the lunch, usually at home, then a rest, and then a turn on business or for calls. From 3 to 5 they are again in the Bois, either on horseback or in carriages. In summer the people unite where the music plays. This is the time for flirtations among people of the grande monde. Fond of Eating. From 5 to 6 Marchal’s Patisserie is in vogue among young men. It is a curious cake'shop. First there is the shop proper, with two great counters. On one are cakes, on the other is a prodigious number of glass jars full of bonbons. In the rear there is a little room opening from one side on the shop and from the other on a sort of winter garden paved with colored tiles. It is ex- trergely smart and bright and gay. It is here, toward 6 o'clock, that the gilded youth and the youthful dames whom they cild make their appearance. They eat and chat- ter and flirt. It is an elegant amusement, more Parisian than Paris. After 6:30 our rich young Belgian may take a little glass at the Bodega and then look in at his club. The “Bodega” is nomi- nally a Spanish wine shop, run by a big En- glish company, and it has become a feature of every European capital by reason of the splendor of the fitting up and the strong character of the drink. Clubs are very numerous in Brussels, beginning with the Cercle Noble, which is the most chic and ex- clusive—the club of the court. At § o'clock dinner is eaten by the ele- gants. Among the ordinary people meals are oftenest taken in the German fashion—a The Streets of Brussels. heavy dinner toward 1 or 2 o'clock and the supper, relatively light, toward &. It is only in the great world that they have adopted French habits and hours. They eat much in Brussels and they eat very well. Here is 4 menu, copied at the door of a tavern near La Mcnnale: “Oysters, soup, bouchees a la reine, Holland cod with boiled potatoes, filet de boeuf chasseur, noisette de veau and green peas, roast chicken, salad, floating custatd, cheese and dessert.” Three francs. The Swell Restaurants. The two most elegant restaurants at Brus- sels are the Cafe Riche and the Etoile, where different bills of fare and prices reign. The Cafe Riche has nothing very peculiar. It is a French restaurant, where they skin you as is proper. The visitor should ask for snipe au cham- pagne and wash it down with Romanee. Music, horses, social Hfe—right handed and left handed—eating, drinking, sleeping, these are the pleasures of the Belgian capital; and they are very much in one small round. These make the “little Paris,” and the visi- tor who finds them loose and vapid or is not disposed to pay out well for them will find the “very little Paris” of the tourist. In the Wiertz Gallery, where the govern- ment has placed the works of that unbal- anced genius, horrors may be seen which baffle bad dreams in their dreadful fancy. Gothic architecture, civil and religious, may be studied in the churches and the old town hall. The picture gallery may be haunted, the ndtrow streets may be explored in the Old Town. But then the capital of Belgium becomes like any other European city—tiat, flavorless and stupid—after a few days. STERLING HEILIG. ——+oee______ LONDUN’S NEW TOWER BRIDGE Will Be Opened on the 30th by the Prince of Wales. From the New York Times. London's new tower bridge, which will be opened on June 30 by the Prince of Wales, is near the famous old Tower of London, and connects Bermondsey, Walworth, Cam- berwell and Peckham, on the south bank of the Thames, with the western part of the old city, on the north bank. According to the lord mayor of London the bridge has cost the corporation over £1,000,000. The bridge was begun in 1896. From 500 to 800 men have since been con- stantly employed upon it. Seven men have been killed since its construction was_be- The bridge, with approaches, is half a mile long. The high-level spans are 142 feet above high water; the short spans are 270 feet, the middle one 200 feet long. The “bascules” weigh 80 tons each; the lead ballast on the “short leg” weighs 290 tons. About 2,000,000 rivets have been used in the construction of the bridge. The bridge was designed by the city architect, the late Sir Horace Jones, who had associated with him Mr. J. Wolfer Barry, who had been engineer to the unde: taking, and it has been built for the cor- poration of London under the direction of the bridge house estates committee. It consists of three spans. The roadway is a lifting bridge on the bascule principle; that fs to say, the two leaves rise in a ver- tical direction, and are counterpoised on their inner ends. The opening between the piers is 200 feet. The leaves of the bascule or roadway bridge are to be moved by hy- draulic machinery placed In suitable cham- bers in the plers. The center of the pivot is thirteen feet three inches Inside the face of the pier. The total length of each lift- ing part from the cente: of the pivot to the end is 113 feet three inches. The short end is forty-nine feet three inches, and the bal- ancing is by kentledge. see Thoughtful of Her. From Puck. Clara (who is going to Europe).—Won't you come down to the steamer and see me off tomorrow?” Maude.—"What's the use? It would only make me feel badly.” Clara.—‘‘But I thought you would like to meet some of the men.” L!1 HUNG CHANG An Interview With the Greatest of Chinese Statesmen IN HIS OFFICIAL PALACE A? TIEN-TSIN How The Bismarck of China” Looks, Acts and Talks. ABOUT THE FUTURE OF CHINA ae oe ee (Copyright, 1894, by Frank G. Carpenter.) Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. TIEN-TSIN, China, June 6, 1894. HAVE JUST RBE- turned from the pal- ace of the greatest man in China. I re- fer to Li Hung Chang. He is the premier of the Chi- nese government, the viceroy of the impe- rial province of Chill, and the power be- hind the _ throne which governs the fate of nearly five hundred millions of Peopl2. In his own province ne has almost supreme control of a population more than half as large as that of che whole United States, and here a wink of his eye can cut off a head. He has more power than any ruler in Europe, with, perhaps, the single exception of the czar, and he is almost the sole representative of the government in its dealings with foreign nations. He has control of the Chirese navy. His army is by all odds the best in the empire, and he has at his beck ten thousand more troops than the standing army of the United States. These troops have been trained by European military officers. They are armed with the latest of modern guns, end they know no master but Li Hung Chang. They are, in fact, practically his slaves, and when an officer of the army disobeys his orders or makes a false move he is called to the palace and asked to explain. When he cannot the viceroy sometimes grows very angry, and there are instances, I am told, in which he boots the kneeling official clear out of the yamen, Li Hung Ch: Li Hung Chang is the most progressive Chinaman of today. Gen. Grant spent some time with him here during his tour of the world, and the two talked over the future of China together. They discussed military and civil matters, and Gen. Grant said he considered Li Hung Chang one of the greatest statesmen of the age. He called him the Bisn arck of China and was wont to compare him with Gladstone. The two men fell in love with each other, and they corresponded to the day of Gen. Grant’s death. Now, on every Decoration day, the Chires: legation at Washington sends, by the orders of Li, flowers to place on Gen. Grant's grave, and during my talk with the viceroy he was very solici- tous as to the heaith of Mrs. Grant. The two men had a great deal in common. Their careers were somewhat similar. Li was the son of a great scholar in the province of Anhul. His father was, how- ever, poor, and he had no official rank. A Great Scholar, Li was given a good Chinese education, and he soon jumped to the front as one of the great scholars of China. He passed three public examinations, which means that he was three times one of the two hundred successful men out of the fifteen thousand competitors, and at his last ex- amination he took the highest degree of the whole fifteen thousand. He is a mem- ber of the Hanlin College, the most learn- ed body of China, and he had a great deal to do in the education of the emperor. His scholarship gave him the position of mili- tary secretary to Gen. Tseng Kuo Fan, one of Chira’s most famous statesmen of the past, and from here he rose to the governorship of the state of Kiangsi. He was acting as such during the Tal Ping rebellion, and it was he who, in connection with the American adventurer, Ward, and Chinese Gordon, put down this rebellion. Li Hung Chang was the commander-in- chief of the imperial forces, and the rebels were slaughtered by the millions. It is estimated that ten millions of people were killed during this rebellion, and when it was over Li's fortune was made, This was away back in the fifties, and Li Hung Chang has since then the leading figure in Chinese history. He rose from his governorship to be viceroy of Wuchang, and as such controlled millions of people in central China. He was next made the viceroy of this, the imperial province. His capital here is one of the biggest cities of China, and it contains more than a mil- Hon people. It is the center of the north- ern trade of the empire, and Li has con- trol of everything that comes into North China. This trade amounts to many mil- lions of dollars a year. Something like $3,000,000 in revenues pass through Li's hands, and he spends vast sums in all sorts of ways. No one knows how much he is worth. Some reports put him high in the tens of millions, while others say he is comparatively poor. There is no doubt, however, but that he has a vast in- come, and his investments include steam- ship companies, cotton factories, gold and silver mines, railroad enterprises and real estate. A Modern Chiaam: He {‘s a pure Chinaman, but he has adopted many modern methods. He man- ages his great official force much lke one of our western executives and he has a staff of interpreters who keep him posted on what is going on over the world. He subscribes to the clipping bureaus, and everything that is printed in Europe or America concerning China {s sent here and translated for him. He has control of the Chinese telegraph system and it was he who introduced the electric wire into China. From his capital run now more than eight thousand miles of wire connecting him with the emperor and with the governors of all the provinces, and he has the news of all the world cabled to him dally. Last night a dispatch came which created a great excitement among the people here. It was that the President of the United States was dead. The consuls were all ex- pecting telegrams corroborating it and a dispatch was sent to Peking stating the fact to the American legation there. Late in the evening, however, the message was repeated and it was found that it was the president of Peru, which country has a Chinese name much like that used for ne the United Staftes, who had died instead of President Cleveland. Li had the news of the Chinese treaty with America cabled him before the Amer- {can consul or our minister knew anything about it, and during my talk with him I was surprised to find that he was well up in all news matters connected with the United States. Going to the Interior. But let me describe the interview I had with this great statesman in his palace here today. It was arranged for me through our consul to Tien-Tsin, Mr. Sheridan P. Read, and the secretary of the Chinese Tavy, the Hon. Lo Feng Luh. This last man is the Dan Lamont of Earl Li. He is his private secretary and confidential emissary in all matters connected with foreigners. He speaks English and French perfectly and is well posted on English and French literature. It was he who acted as my in- terpreter with the viceroy and it was he who notified me that his excellency, the viceroy, would receive me at half-past four this afternoon. I rode to the palace in state in a box like chair covered with fin- est of blue cloth with linings of ight blue satin. This was swung between two poles euch twenty feet long and was carried by four Chinamen in a livery of blue and red cotton. They wore high black caps with turned up brims and on the top of each cap there was a tassel of silk of the gaudiest red. In front of me marched the Ting-Chi of our legation, who was also gorgeously dressed, and he on horseback cleared the streets for us. It is about four miles from my hotel to the palace and the route lies through the busiest part of this one of the busiest cities of China. Leaving the hotel we went past mountains of merchandise stored in bags and lying on wharves along the Pei-Ho and cut our way through the narrow streets of Tien-Tsin. We grazed chairs with mandarins, who with their ret- inues and bands pompously pushed their way along. We stepped over ragged bee- gars lying on the streets clad only in coffee sacking and exposing their self-made wounds to our disgusted eyes. We passed hundreds, I might say thousands, of Chinese stores and workshops of all descriptions and going through wall after wall and gate after gate, crossing great bridges which closed to let us go over them, until at last we came to a big one-story building, the front gate of the wall which surrounds the hundred odd houses which make the residence of Earl Li. These houses are of one story and they are built about courts. The first court $s guarded by soldiers and by two greea wooden Hons with hideous faces, and beyond this there are great doors on which are painted the Chinese gods of war. Before these my chair was set down and the Ting Chi went in to announce my coming. My Chinese card, a strip of red paper six inches long and three wide bear- ing the Chinese characters “Kow Ping Teh” (Carpenter) and meaning, I was told by the man who wrote the card for me, “energetic, bright, brilliant,” was carried into the yamen and a moment later an official motioned me to enter. The Reception Rooms. I was first led into two reception rooms and was given a seat in the more honored one of the two, the place reserved for Chinese mandarins of high rank. It was rather ragged for a palace and for the ruler of such a vast people. It was, I judge, thirty feet square and twelve feet from floor to ceiling. Around the wall ran a divan three feet wide and so high that when I sat upon it my toes just touched the floor. This divan was covered with the cheapest of red cotton cushions, each of which was about an inch in thickness and about three feet square. Above these against the wall there a strip of Jana- nese and blue flowered goods, perhaj a@ yard wide, and from the ledge of t divan hung down a Turkey red cotton cur- tain a foot and a half long. There was no carpet on the floor and the paper on the walls cost, I venture, eight cents a roll. The whole outfit of the tion room could be knocked up in America for => and there was nothing ostentatious abou! Jt. The callers, howeyer, made up in the gorgeousnéss of their costumes for the lack of splendor in their surroundings. There were mandarins in furs which must have cost hundreds of taels. There were offi- cialis in the finest of silks, wearing the costliest of jewels, and a moment after I arrived a servant brought in two cups of tea of a variety too precious to be ex- ported to the United States. This tea was placed upon a little table which rested upon the divan, and it had not had a chance to cool before the secretary of the navy en- tered. He was clad.in dark silks lined with the finest of fur, such as our belles use for the lining of their opera cloaks, and he had on his head a cap with a button of rank. He chatied with me as we sipped our tea, making a loud noise with our mouths in doing so, according to Chinese etiquette, and the conversation ranged from politics to photography, the naval secretary being much interested in stereopticons and want- ing to know the best American makes, Im the Great M. '® Presence. After a time the word came that the viceroy was ready to recelve us. We rose and walked out behind a gorgeous but somber official, wno held my red card high up in the air before him and strutted like a drum major. We passed through hall after hall, going by lackeys who saluted us like so many automatons as we went by. We walked through long corridors running around open courts and at last came into a large parlor furnished in half Chinese half European style. Here near a Japanese screen by a table stood a tall old man to whom the secretary of the navy bowed low as he introduced me. It was Li Hung Chang, the great viceroy of China. His per- sonality impressed me even more forcibly today than when I met him in that same room five years ago. He is now seventy- four years of age, but he stands firmly and his long gown, which reaches to his feet, makes him look like a giant. He is in fact six feet two inches in his stockings, and the thick soles of his Chinese shoes add another inch to his stature. He has a slight stoop. His shoulders are broad and in his prime he must have possessed great mus- cular power. He is by no means an old looking man today. There are few wrinkles in his cream-colored face, and his strag- gling beard ts black mixed with silver. His eyes are black, bright and piercing and the eyelids are of the pronounced almond shape. He has high cheek bones and a full fore- head. His cheeks are rosy, partially due to his health and partly to the application of electricity, which they receive daily to cure him of the facial paralysis, from which he for a long time suffered. His black cue is mixed with gray and his head when I met him today was crowned with a black satin Chinese cap, in the front of which glittered a solitaire diamond as big as the end of your thumb. Li Hung Chang has a slender but power- ful hand. His fingers are long and thin and on one of them I noted a magnificent ring of diamonds and opals. His costume was, in fact, a gorgeous and costly one. His gown was of the finest yellow satin, and his coat, which covered his body to his thighs, was of rich seal brown velvet, fa: tened with buttons of gold. His trousers were also of wadded satin and they were tied with satin strings about his ankles above his black satin boots. The stories I had heard of his kicking his officers made me regard these with interest. I had no fear that he would try them on me, but I noted their white soles were two inches thick, and that they might easily break a leg if vigorously applied. The Viceroy’s Personality, Li Hung Chang received me with a stately bow, slightly bending his body, but not of- fering his hand. He then motioned me to follow him and conducted me into the sec- ond parlor, where he receives visitors of state. Here he seated himself at the head of a long table and placed me on the left, which is the Chinese seat of honor. The secretary of the navy sat on his right and acted as his interpreter. The American consul laughed at me when I told him 1 expected to get an interview out of the viceroy. He said the viceroy would do the interviewing and that I would be the sub- ject. I found it even so, but between his questions I managed to interject enough of my own to get a deal of information concerning himself and his country. The talk commenced with his asking me how old I_ was. I told him and thereupon said that I hoped that if I lived to be seventy- four I would look as healthy and be able to work as hard at that age as he did. I said to him that he looked no older than he did when I was here five years ago, and him what was the secret whereby he was able to retain his wonderful youth. As this transla! to him the vic- eroy’s eye itened. I could see the re- mark im and he replied: “You are right when you think I have good health. 1 do a great deal of work and I expect to do a great deal in the years to come. In your country people say that a man should divide his day into three parts. Eight hours should be devoted to sleep, eight to out of dwor exercise and eight to work. I sleep only five hours a day. 1 work about twelve hours and I take a regular amount of exercise every day. I think my health is largely due to my temperance and to the regularity of my habits. I do every- thing by rule and I plan my work systemat- ically. I don’t worry and I sleep well. I required eight hours sleep until I was thirty years of age, but now I find that five are sufficient for me. I do not exercise in the open air, but take a walk within the yamen every day and Nmit myself to a certain number of steps.” Here Mr. Lo, the inter- preter, added: “His exceliency takes five thousand steps in the way of exercising daily and he finds this exercise keeps his muscles in good condition.” I hear else- where that he does not lke to go out of his palace because of the pomp which must always attend him. He is as much of a curiosity to the people as the President of the United States is in one of our country towns. The people of Tien-Tsin look upon him with as much awe as they do the em- peror, and when he thied the other day to take a quiet walk the crowds blocked his way and he had to return. Now whenever he goes out he has to take a large body guard of soldiers with him and he rides in a chair with officials going in front to clear the way. I asked as to his diet. The question was repeated to him and his answer, as trans- lated, was: “I believe that man should be very careful of his eating, and I never over- lcad my stomach. I know by experience what agrees with me and I take nothing else. The foreign doctors tell me I ought to eat more heavy meats, but I find that a mixed Chinese and Buropean diet suits me best. I believe in eating plenty of vege- tables. I think well of beef juice and eat considerable of it. I do not drink much pony a think man is just as well off with- out it.” The Futute of China. The conversation here turned to other matters, and after referring to the treat- ment of the Chinese in the United States the viceroy spoke rather sarcastically of the treaty which has lately been concluded be- tween the two countries. Said he, in re- sponse to my question as to how he liked it: “I do not think it gives China all that she should have, but @ poor treaty is better than no treaty. As it was we had practi- cally nothing. Now we have something, and scmething is always better than nothing.” I referred to the future of China, and asked the viceroy whether he thought the country would be developed by Europeans or by the Chinese. He replied that there would undoubtedly be a great development and that railroads would cover China as with a net. He believes that it will eventu- ally do all its own manufacturing and that in the future it will enter the markets of the world as a great manufacturing nation. Already, he told me, the statesmen of the empire are making experiments of all kinds in this line, and their cotton factories are today among the largest of the world, and other vast works are planned. He gave me to understand, though he did not use these words, that the motto of China from now on would be “China for the Chinese,” and intimated that the Chinaman could hold his own against the world as a worker and manufacturer. He was very gracious in his treatment of me, and the interview lasted for nearly an hour. It was closed by the bringing in of three glasses of champagne, after the sipping of which the viceroy walked with myself and Mr. Lo Feng Luh out to the outer door of the yamen and shook my hand in American fashion as he said good-bye. His Basiness Methods. -Fromp.afiitther inquiries I learned some- ttiiag more of the habits of this wonderful man. He is, you know, the Gladstone of the orient—the grand old man of all al- mond-eyed humanity. He does as much work as Gladstone, and at more than three score and ten he is intellectually and phys- ically sound. He works all day and lies down at night and sleeps like a baby. He rises very early, and his first meal is taken atv a.m. This consists of birds’ nest soup, race congee or rice soup, and a cup of coffee without milk or sugar. He adds to this one or two grains of quinine and takes these at the close of the meal. After breakfast he goes at once to work. His office is next to his bed room. He finds about a bushel of dispatches from all over the empire and the world on his table he comes in. He glances over these, rapidly telling his sec- retaries how they should be disposed of. Sometimes he jots down a note in Chinese characters upon them, indicating the action to be taken in regard to them, and at others calls in the men who have charge of the de- partments to which they refer, and gives his orders orally. By 11 o'clock he has looked through the pile and has passed upon such others 48 come in. His private business now commands his attention for a Ume, and at 12 o'clock he is ready for his luncheon. This is a sort of Chinese dinner and it usually comprises about eight courses. First, there is @ soup served in a little bowl. Next, some shark's fins, which he eats with his ivory chopsticks, and fol- lowing these, other dishes of meats and vegetables, all cooked so Well that they may be picked apart with the chopsticks, and so that his teeth have practically nothing to do. After dinner he goes again to his work. At 2 o'clock he takes his three elec- trical shocks. He is a great believer in eleccricity, and thinks that this treatment has saved his life. He next takes his ex- ercise, and during the day when he wants to rest his brain he amuses himself in copy- ing the best specimens of the Chinese char- acters. In other words, he writes the al- phabet over and over again. The Chinese language, however, contains, all told, some- thing like 40,000 characters, so you will see he has variety even in his play. He goes back to his work after supper, but spends @ part of every evening with his family. His favorite wife died a year or so ago, but his second wife, a Woman of about forty, is sull living, and I am told he manifests no disposition to take a third) He has now three sons and two daughters, and about a dozen grandchildren. He is very fond of his grandchildren, They play with him, crawl all over him, pull his beard and cue, and tyrannize over him just as do their kind in the humblest families of the em- pire. His children have all had good edu- cations, and they have been brought up under a foreign tutor, an American, who is @ graduate of one of our best colleges. The brightest of the lot is the younger of the two boys, Lord Li Ching Mai, who is still with his father, but who has been given a place in the official service of China by the emperor. He is only seventeen years of age, but he speaks the English as well as any American college student and he has already a good English educ: jon. He takes after his father in his physique and in his intellectual w: He is already nearly six feet in height and I see con- siderable resemblance between his features and those of the oid viceroy. He is, 1 am told, possessed of great natural abilities, and it is predicted that he will do much for thodern progress in the China of the future. Fank A, Cadens —> Fit Teachers Needed. From the School Journal. Will any 6f the associations that meet this summer pass a resolution commending the utterances of the New York Tribune? ‘Let there be an end to teaching by the young women who have no aptitude and ttle training, and who take up the work as a thakeshift until their marriage day No one should teach in the schools who has not an enthusiasm for the work, a natural capacity for it, and a thorough training.” How long will the great state of New York go on in the rut it has been ever since the public school system was inaugu rated? Not a teacher should be employed ) who has not been trained in a county normal school—this for the second and third grade certificate holders; (2) in a state normal school; (3) in the state normal coi lege. The great sin now ts that persons are allowed to hold third, second and first grade certificates with no fitting for teach ing. SLEEP WALKING There Are Said to Be Four Kinds of Som- nambulism. Some Stories of Curious Things Done by Those Addicted to the Habit= One Game That Didn't Work. Written for The Evening Star. According to scientists there are four kinds of somnambulism: 1. Those who talk while sleeping, but do not walk or otherwise act. 2. Those who walk or otherwise act while sleeping, but do not talk. 8. Those who both act and talk while sleeping. 4. Those who act and talk and have the senses of touch, sight and hearing—and it is alleged, in some instances, the senses of taste and smell. This fourth kind is never found except when induced by mesmeric or hypnotic tn- fluences. It is of the third kind that there are most queer developments, independent of voluntary external influences. Often the somnambulist will rise in the night walk through the various rooms of house, go out on porticos and, in cases, on steep roofs, when he dare go when awake; frequently leave the house and walk through or field and will return and go to bed out knowledge of anything having pired. The celebrated French physician, Bernheim, tells, in his work on “Sugges- tive Therapeutics,” of a photographer of his acquaimtance, who rose in the night and finished the work on which he had been engaged during the previous day and was astonished on finding it finished when he went to work on the following morning. Painters have been known to do work while asle=p and essays have been written and poems composed in the way. tek rh #3 Fei Fishing in His Sleep. A young countryman related an incident occurring in his own family. His brother was a sleepwalker, and also fond ing. For a number of nights in he would get up and go long meadow to @ creek of a walnut tree growing on pull and tug with all his might, ané at the same time to help him land a sald house. As I passed by the picked up the ax and when we got to creek and he began tugging aginary fish, I cut the root backwards into about two feet warm water. He came out er organized and somewhat frigh I have never heard of him otherwise walking in his ducking. Sometimes sleepwalkers where they would not dare and the fact that such things ly done with safety has lieve that they never hurt dinarily that may be true, least one authentic record sulting in that way. The walked off of a high portico and the fall. A Singular Case. One of the most singular same time, sad i ERs oe lf i if i 5 & #8 ; i i g: ee ; bei c & land had been a sleepwalker from hood. His ramblings had always without harm to himself or others, that reason his wife usually paid tention to his nocturnal eccentric! a new phage presented itself when to stay away longer at a time and al return “wringing wet,” as the men say. His wife determin: him and explore the myst left his house he followed the river and then took a rough, trail leading up the river. He way through the tangled hemlock and laurel and over stones and falien trees an@ along the summits of precipitous cliffs. His wite kept in sight by means of the moon- light wavering through the trees. For more than a mile the sleeper trudged on until he came to a large tree which had fallen with its topmost limbs far out in the river. He walked the log tll he came to @ large limb extending from it over the water, then he got down and began crawling out on the limb. The now thor- oughly trightened wife screamed and called to him to wake wp and come back. He was awakened by the cries, and, do startled and confused by the situation, fell into the river and was drowned. He been getting up in his sleep, going up the river, crawling out on that limb, jumping from there into the river, swimming to the bank and returning home unconscious of anything that passed. These facts are well known to @ number of people now in Washington. Som of A er Sort. A different phase of somnambulism is tolé cf the son of a Baptist preacher residing in a southern siate. The preacher rises to his vighest flights of eloquence when inveighing against the sin of dancing; he likewise in- dorses the proverb “Spare the rod and spoil the child” just as much as if it were in fact an utterance of Solomon instead of the New England almanac. The son was, after the tradition of preachers’ sons, the worst Woy in the country. He would swear, and fight, and fish on Sunday, and go to hoe-down dances when the elite of the neighborhood by no means predominated. The preacher religiously whipped him from seven to four- teen times a week for various infractions of parental authority. For bis last attendance ut a hoe-down he had been given a dose of the buggy whip, with the advice that it would be doubled in case he repeated the offense. A big candy pulling and dance was set for a night im the near future. He swore he would go, but just how to escape the whip was a problem of Archimedean proportions. He had heard the irresponsi- bility of sleep walkers discussed and he hit on the bright scheme of working that racket im the event of discovery. On the night of the candy pulling and hoe-down he retired early and listened till he heard his father snoring. Feeling that all was quiet along the Potomac he crawled out on top of the portico and slid down a post and hurried to the hoe-down, where he did valiant service to make up for the lateness of his arrival. When the dance was over he hied himself homeward and was soon shinning up the post of the portico, exulting in the hope of having worked the rabbit foot on the old tit Her : 5 5 Le Fy ER i ‘Come here, Louis,” but he climbed on, as though he did not hear. A second stern command fell from parental lips unheeded. He was ruthlessly yanked down and say- agely shaken and asked if he was deaf. He seemed to come to himself, shake himself together, as it were, and asked, in mild sur- prise, here am Why, 1 must have come out here in my sleep.” “You think you've been sleep walking, do you?” sked his father, as he grasped the y whip a little more firmly. ‘Why, yes, I reckon so; 1 don’t know how I got here.” you've not been over to Bill Allen's * asked his father. was the reply, with @ fair simulation of surprise. This was too much for the preacher, who had heard him leave his room and crawl out and who had followed him to the dance, had heard him making merry with the rev- clers, and on his way back had heard him relating to some of his chums how he bad “worked the rabbit foot on the old man.” All this the parson expleined and empha- sized with the rapidly descending lash of ihe whip on the boy,who signified his under- nis howls and the execu- beat the hoe-down out »mised double dose was ad- i, with n extra fh eles. It is reported on the best of authority that he has never attempted to simulate somnambus jism since. am I — OO OL eeeeeeeeeeeeeeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennEOEe