SERIOUS ILLNESS OF THE MIKADO.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1498, 22 July 1912, Page 5

SERIOUS ILLNESS OF THE MIKADO.

IN A CRITICAL CONDITION.

HIGH FEVER. STOCK EXCHANGE AFFECTED. By Telosrapli—Press AfEociation—Copyrislit (Roe. July 21, 5.5 p.m.) Tokio, July 20. The health of the Mikado is causing m'y grave anxiety. At midnight on Saturday his condition was loosed upon as critical. The stomach and brain are affected, and he had been ■unconscious on Friday. ■ THE LATEST. A LONG-STANDING DISEASE. (Rec. July 22, 0.25 a.m.) Tokio, July 21. ■ It now appears tha,t tho Mikado's illness is closely related to a long-standing disease of tho kidneys. Ho was delirious and in high fever yesterday, and was drowsy to-day. There is still ground of licpe. There has been a constant stream of callers at, the Palace. Prayers have been offered in the Buddhists' temples and tho Russian Cathedral for the Mikado's recovery. Tho earlier bulletins were viewed with misgivings, owing to the custom, now less frequent, of postponing tho announcement ■of the Emperor's death. Prices on the Stock Exchange fell fivo points, but rallied at the close.

THE REAL MIKADO

AN INTERESTING SKETCH. .A MAN OF STRONG WILL. To Togo, to Kuroki, to every private in tho army and every sailor in the navy, to tho Japanese man in the street, Mutsu Hito, who ascended the throne of Japan in 1867, is not only Emperor; lie is God. For this reason, says "Current Literature," Mutsu Hito dare not be too impetuously moderii, however he would like to. A National Duty. "Conservative Japanese are scandalised, as it is, by the unrestraint with which the rising generation , gazes upon his Majesty every tiino he appears in public. About forty years ago, when Mutsu Hito assumed the divine nature—it had not protected his father from the ravages of a fatal attack of smallpox—all that was to bo seen of him by those who took his orders was a long and'loan back. Ho dwelt apart in a palace amid acres of foliage, writing poetry and studying the classics. When Mutsu Hito first, went out into the Teal world of Japanese men and things, all the shops in his capital had to be closed, all the porcelain kilns ceased to glaze, and in every dwelling blinds were drawn down.

• "Now, when the plentiful hair and thin beard of the Emperor are streaked with grey, his people still consider a cheer for their an innovation in procodure justified only by a circumstance of especial sanctity. Mutsu Hito is five feet seven. His countenance is a grave one, stem in repose, yet capable of relaxation, into the smile of genuine humour. It is a countenance so void of Japanese character--istics that a line from the forehead meeting with that from tho oar to tho tip of tho nose would constitu.te almost a angle. The small black eyes are deep' set. keen, restless, topped by thick brows carried over until they almost, meet above the nose—sure, evidence, say somo authorities, of_ a accretive disposition. The ear is quite largo in comparison with the face as a whole, tho mouth is wide, the lips thick but red nnd shapely. Tho squareness of the imperial chin accords with the universal impression that Mutsu Hito is a man of stains will held in propsr subjection by an intellect of which his lofty temples attest the breath and force.

His Ancestry. "The official ancestry of tho Mikado | shows that no other ruler can approach his Majesty in length of ancestral tree. The records of the Chinese rulers travel back to a remoter antiquity, but dynasties at Pekin have changed." Mutsu Hito, on the other hand, is directly descended from Jimmu, whose progeny have reigned over Japan in unbroken succession for twenty-five hundred years. Jimmu, according to ethnologists, was a ijouth Sea black. "A poetical genius that awakens in all Japanese minds emotions of purity and sweetness, a piety that takes him to the templo of Iso to report to the first Imperial ancestor every glory of his reign, a studiousness of disposition that impels him- to tako instruction in tho myriad leaves every morning and an athletic disposition to which he owes his renown as a wrestler, attest the versatility of Mutsu Ilito., "Wresting, once the favourite sport of Mutsu Hito, attracts him no longer. Time was when he threw all the courtiers with tho greatest ease, but since an unlucky fall from a horse, Mutsu Hito challenged Te't-Su, a courtly noble, who punished his sovereign severely. His Majesty has kept out of tho ring ever since. "In the vast Imperial palace at Tokto, built over six acres of ground, 'and set in tho hundred' acres of enclosing flower garde,us like a gem in a rinp, Mutsu Hito often begins his day with the rising of the sun. He has <a staff of instructors in -..diplomacy, in international law, and in economics, it being the business of theso gentlemen to bo ready, for lessons as soon m Mutsu Ilito has breakfasted. "His Majesty's afternoons are devoted to more personal interests. His Domestic Life. "MuL«u Hito can read seine French and speak a few words of-English. Hut is otherwise no linguist. - Mutsu Hito's consort was a Princess Hnru-Ko Ichijo, two years his senior, whom he married when he was sixteen. There are no children of this union, although the two sons and four daughters of the Emperor are nominally the children of Haru-Ko as well. She wears well-laced corsets, princess gawns and picture hats at the palaco gardem parties. She is tiny, gentle, demure, never in haste, never weary, and divenly inspired. She stands for all that is best in the aspirations of modern Japan, but when tho diplomats have from the palaco garden parties with their wives, when the last distinguished foreigner passes beyond the tliree-lumdred-year-oUI portal by the still more nnekint tower, the springtime Empress runs from the apartments of state—filled up with all the are nominally the children of Haru-Ko library—kicks off her high-heeled ?ho?s, throw's the picture hat away, and sits in her kimono on the floor. Mutsu Hito— his general's uniform gone the way rf the picture hat —drops in for a cup of tea."