THE MIKADO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 55, 23 July 1912, Page 5

THE MIKADO.

LITTLE HOPE LEFT. By Cable—Press Association —Copyright. Tokio, July 21. A pessimistic bulletin has 'been issued showing that the condition of the Mikado is worse. DETAILS OF HIS ILLNESS. , Received 23, 12.20 a.m. | Sydney, July 22. The Japanese Consulate has received a cablegram stating that the Mikado has ■uffered from diabetes mellitus since 1804. On July 14 enteric fever supervened, and he lapsed into a semi-coma-tose state oa the following day. On July 19 he became delirious, and high fever set in. Tokio, July 22. The Mikado's illness caused a profound sensation. The theatres were closed, and all traffic around the palace has been stopped. A bulletin at midnight announced a slight improvement. St. Petersburg, July 22. In consequence of the Mikado's condition, Katsura's mission has been abandoned, and he will return to Japan forthwith.

THE REAL MIKADO. AN INTERESTING SKETCH. A MAN OF STRONG WILL. To Togo to Kuroki, to every private is the army and every sailor in the ! navy, to the* Japanese man in the street, 1 Mutsu Hito, who ascended the throne of Japan in ISG7, is not only Emperor; he is God. For this reason, says Current I Literature, Mutsu Hito dare not be too j impetuously modern, 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 time 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 smallpoxall that was to be seen of him by those who took his orders was a long and lean back. He dwelt apart in a palace and acres of foliage, writing poetry and •tudying the classics, When Mutsu Hito first went out into the real 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 u cheer for their sovereign an innovation in ceremonial procedure justified only by it circumstance of especial sanctity. Mutsu Hito is five feet seven. His countenance is a grave one, stern in repose, yet capable of relaxation into the smile of genuine humor. It is a countenance so void of Japanese characteristics that a line from the forehead meeting with that from the ear to the tip of the nosd would constitute almost a right angle. The small black eyes are deep set, keen, restless, topped by thick brows earried over until they almost meet above the nose—sure evidence, say some authorities, of a secretive disposition. The ear is quite large in companson with the face as a whole, the mouth is wide, the lips thick but red and shapely. The squareness of the imperial chin accords with the universal impression that Mutsu Hito is a man of strong will held in proper subjection by an intellect of which his lofty temples attest the breadth and force. HIS ANCESTRY.

"The official ancestry of the 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-live hundred years. Jimmu. according to ethnologists, was a South Sea black.

"A poetical genius that awakens in ail Japanese minds emotions of purity and sweetness, a piety that takes him to the temple of Ise to report to the first imperial ancestor every glorv of his reign, a studiousness of disposition that impels him to take instruction iu the myriad leaves every morning and an athletic disposition to which he owes his renown as a wrestler, attest the versatility of Mutsu Hito.

'•"Wrestling, once the favorite sport of Mutsu Hito, attracts him no longer. Time was when he threw all the courtiers with the greatest ease, but since an unlucky fall' from a horse. Mutsu Hito challenged Tet-Su, a courtly noble, who punished his sovereign severely. His Majesty has kept out of the ring ever since.

"In the vast Imperial palace at Toklo, built over six acres of ground, and set in a hundred acres of enclosing flower gardens like a gem in a ring, ilutsu Hito often begins his dav with the rising of the sun. He has a "staff of instructors in economics, it being the business of these gentlemen to be ready for lessons a.s soon as Mutsu Hito has breakfasted. "His Majesty's afternoons are devoted to more personal interests HIS DOMESTIC LIFE.

"Mutsu Hito can read some French and speak a few words of English, but is otherwise no linguist. Mutsu Hito's

consort was a Princess Haru-Ko Ishijo, 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 gowns and picture hats at the palace garden parties. She is tiny, gentle, demure, never in haste, never weary, and divinely inspired. She stands for all that is best in the aspirations of modern Japan, hut when the diplomats have gone from the palace garden parties with their wives, when the last distinguished foreigner passes beyond the three-hundred-year-old portal by the still more ancient, tower, the springtime Empress runs from the apartments of state, kicks off her high-heeled shoes, throws the picture hat awav. and sits in her kimono on the floor. Mutsu Hito—his general's uniform gone the way of the picture hat—drops in for a cup of tea."