A FEMALE BLUEBEARD.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9342, 11 January 1909, Page 6

A FEMALE BLUEBEARD.

The London Daily Telegraph, in a remarkable memoir of the late Dowager Empress of China, reported to have been written by Sir Hobert Hart, says:—“Tse Si, in the" zenith of her power and the flower of her age, is described by those Mandarins who saw her, as one of the most, charming ladies one conld meet in a journey shrough the Middle Kingdom. She had grown into the perfection of womanhood, as Chinamen understand and appreciate it. She bad become fully harmonised with her Imperial smronndings, for, despite her lowly origin, she possessed the instincts of a queen and the charms of a sorceress. There was nothing feverish about her activity, nothing impulsive in her manner. She was sometimes in baste, but never in a hurry. Her type of face was that of a Greek or Italian, rather than Mongolian woman. Her eyes were bright and piercing, but her presence inspired confidence. In her dealings with her attendants she could draw with unerring precision the line between ceremonial stiffness and undue familiarity, and she compelled them to keep well within it; but she was served by all with a degree of derotedness bordering opon affection. Her voice, wbiob was too strident and harsh to please a European, seemed to the native, accustomed to loudness in superiors, to have been expressly created for a female ruler. Her powers of adroitly feigning and seasonably forgetting were unsurpassed, and her self-control was uncommon even in China, where it seems inborn. Her authority was usually bidden by grace, her fury often masked in meekness, and her set purpose disguised when necessary by simulated wrath. Her finely chiselled features were but a screen for a soul that would have suited a tigress. Such was the Chinese Becky Sharp, who presided over the destinies of the moat ancient kingdom of the globe. If ambition were the mainspring of this lady’s public acts and power, the only god she worshipped, she was not by any means insensible to other emotions, and her cult had room for lesser idols. So long as her lake protector was living she was as faithful to him as a , model wife. But her fidelity was common prudence and love of life. Once she had the reins of government in her own hands she felt that the baser appetites were no longer restrained by motives of prudence, and ber oode of morals knew none other. In judging a woman like Tse Si it .would be unfair to employ European standards of oonduot. Still even in heathen ethics there are degrees and limits, and the Chinese parvenu outran them all. She was wont to select her favourites from among the crowds of students who flocked to Pekin from ail corners of the vast Empire to .pass the four examinations which should throw open to them the portals of fortune and favour, but which for these chosen ones opened only the gates of death. She treated all these temporary husbands as Bluebeard dealt with his wives. As soon as she was tired of one, ho passed from the presence of bis Imperial mistress into the hands of the executioner, and was at once succeeded by another. Love with her was but a “sighing of hearts and filling up of graves.” She played with human happiness and human lift as a naughty child with her pretsy toys. Her love was as fierce and as cruel as her hate, and brought certain death to all its objects. The paramours and tbe enemies of this Chinese Faustine died in untold numbers, “unpitied, unreprieved.” Still there were some few exceptions else China would have early lost hergmost wily diplomatist. 'Strange to say, Tse Si manifseted traits wbiob usually bespeak a tender and emotional side in human character. She wus fond of such rnaaio as she was able to appreciate, and she was at tbe pains to learn to play an instrument. Sbe also possessed a taste for the art of her own country, and sbe acquired some skill in painting, if tbe pictures attributed to her brush were indeed her own handiwork. In truth, she was curious in all branches of culture, and read many Chinese books, including numerous translations from European tongues. Singularly devoid of prejudices., she eschewed nothing because it was new, and was quite ready to adopt any innovation which to her own thinking had anything to recommend it. From physical fear she was absolutely free.