LAST HOURS OF CHINA'S EMPRESS DOWAGER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 323, 14 January 1909, Page 4

LAST HOURS OF CHINA'S EMPRESS DOWAGER

it lia.s been learned that the Emperor I made a speech less than an hour before | his death, and passed away amid the greatest excitement and confusion. The native physicians gave orders in accordance with the Imperial custom that <he Emperor should be dressed for death iu the Imperial yellow, and that day should he spread on the roads leading from the Winter Palace to tlu» Forbidden City. The Dowager Empress's illness dated from Xovember Ist when the Court was h'rrified by a hurst of uncontrolled temper, and on November 12 Her Majesty sull'ered a paralytic stroke upon being intormed of the precarious condition of the Kmperor. The next day Prince filing returned from the Dowager Empress's mausoleum on the eastern hills, whither Her Majesty had sent him to make an oJl'ering in the hope of propitiating the ghost which she thought was beckoning her to those hills. On the night of the Uth the Dowager Empress called the Onind Council together and conferred with ihein. lying prime and /ally dressed during the audience. After assenting to the ediWs she exclaimed :

" I can bear no more !*' and relapsed into unconsciousness. A high ollicial say.» that the Empress died of apoplexy, and was able to walk up to within a few hours of her demise. As soon as it was known throughout the palace that their Majesties were dead a condition of panic ensued. The widow of Tung Ching attempted to commit suicide on, perceiving tint t she would not be Dowager Empress. There was an outbreak of wailing and a general pandemonium. Ye lie Xa La (the new Dowager Empress) was one of the few to retain her presence of mind. Her .Majesty ordered ihe gates to he guarded, and gave instructions for the maintenance of order. The principal concubines of the late Emperor have been pensioned.