wait for the procession, which was headed by the priests playing

mournful, wailing music on large and small horns and drums. The
priests were followed by the mourners and their friends. When

they arrived at the place of the burning, the mourners prostrated
themselves upon white cushions before the paper furnishings amid

the shrieks of the instruments, the wailing of the hired
mourners, and the petitions of the priests for the spirits to

assist the departed on her way.
While this was going on, fire was applied to various parts of the

paper pile, and in a moment a great flame sprang up into the
air--a flame that could be seen from miles around, and in less

time than it takes to tell it the whole was a heap of glowing
ashes, the mourners had departed, and the little street children

were stirring it up with long sticks.
The first three days after death, the spirit is supposed to visit

the different temples, going, as it were, from official court to
official court receiving judgment, and cards of merit or demerit

to take with it, for the deeds done in the body. On the third day
it returns to say farewell to the home, and then leaves for its

long journey, and all this paper furniture is sent on ahead.
They continue forty-nine days of prayers by the priests,

alternating three days by the Buddhists, three by the Lamas, and
three by the Taoists, after which the Buddhists take their turn

again. Everything else remains much as I have described it. The
family, servants, everybody in mourning, and all business put

aside to make way for this ceremony of mourning, mourning,
mourning, when they ought to be rejoicing, for the poor old

Princess had been a paralytic for years and was far better out of
her misery.

The Princess frequently sent her cart for me during these days.
Once when I was going through the court where there were vast

quantities of things to be burned for the spirit, all made of
paper, I noticed some that were so natural that I was unable to

distinguish between them and the real things. Especially was this
true of the furniture and flowers like that which had been in her

apartments. There were great ebony chairs with fantastically
marked marble seats, cabinets, and all the furniture necessary

for her use. Among these things I noticed on the table a pack of
cards and a set of dice, of which she had been very fond, and a

chair like the one in which the eunuchs had carried the crippled
old Princess about the court, and I said to the young Princess

who accompanied me:
"You do not think your grandmother will require these things in

the spirit world, do you?"
"Perhaps not," she replied, "but she enjoyed her cards and dice,

and the chair was such a necessity, that, whether she needs them
or not, it is a comfort to us to get and send her everything she

liked while she lived, and it helps us bear our sorrows."
XIX

Chinese Princes and Officials
In any estimate of the forces which lead and control public

opinion in China, everywhere from the knot of peasants in the
hamlet to the highest officers of state and the Emperor himself,

the literati, or educated class, must be given a prominent
position. They form an immense body, increased each year by the

government examinations. They are at the head of the social
order. Every civil officer in the empire must be chosen from

their number. They constitute the basis of an elaboratesystem of
civil service, well equipped with checks and balances which, if

corrected and brought into touch with modern life and thought,
would easily command the admiration of the world.

--Chester Holcomb in "The Real Chinese Question."
XIX

CHINESE PRINCES AND OFFICIALS
One day while the head eunuch from the palace of one of the

leading princes in Peking was sitting in my study he said:
"It is drawing near to the New Year. Do you celebrate the New

Year in your honourable country?"
"Yes," I replied, "though not quite the same as you do here."

"Do you fire off crackers?"
"Yes, in the matter of firecrackers, we celebrate very much the

same as you do."
"And do you settle up all your debts as we do here?"

"I am afraid we do not. That is not a part of our New Year
celebration."

"Our Prince is going to take on two more concubines this New
Year," he volunteered.

"Ah, indeed, I thought he had three concubines already."
"So he does, but he is entitled to five."

"I should think it would make trouble in a family for one man to
have so many women," I ventured.

He waved his hand in that peculiar way the Chinese have of
saying, don't mention it, as he answered:

"That is a difficult matter to discuss. Naturally if this woman
sees the Prince talking to that one, this one is going to eat

vinegar," which gives us a glimpse of some of the domestic
difficulties in Chinese high life. However it is a fact worth

remembering that the Manchu prince does not receive his full
stipend from the government until he has five concubines, each of

whom is the mother of a son.
The leading princes of the new regime are Ching, Su, and Pu-lun.

Prince Ching has been the leader of the Manchus ever since the
downfall of Prince Kung. He has held almost every office it was

in the power of the Empress Dowager to give, "though disliked by
the Emperor." He was made president of the Tsung-li Yamen in

1884, and from that time until the present has never been
degraded, or in any way lost the imperial favour. He is small in

stature, has none of the elements of the great man that
characterized Li Hung-chang and Chang Chih-tung, or Prince Kung,

but he has always been characterized by that diplomacy which has
kept him one of the most useful officials in close connection

with the Empress Dowager. It is to his credit moreover that the
legations were preserved from the Boxers in the siege of 1900.

Prince Su is the only one of the eight hereditaryprinces who
holds any office that brings him into intimatecontact with the

foreigners. During the Boxer siege he gave his palace for the use
of the native Christians, and at the close was made collector of

the customs duties (octoroi) at the city gates. Never had there
been any one in charge of this post who turned in as large

proportion of the total collections as he. This excited the
jealousy of the other officials, and they said to each other: "If

Prince Su is allowed to hold this position for any length of time
there will never be anything in it for any one else." They

therefore sought for a ground of accusation, and they found it,
in the eyes of the conservatives, in the fact that he rode in a

foreign carriage, built himself a house after the foreign style
of architecture, furnished it with foreign furniture, employed an

Englishman to teach his boys, and as we have seen opened a school
for the women and girls of his family. He therefore lost his

position, but it is to the credit of Prince Chun, the new Regent,
and his progressivepolicy, that Prince Su has been made chief of

the naval department, of which Prince Ching is only an adviser.
The most important person among either princes or officials that

has been connected with the new regime is Yuan Shih-kai. He was
born in the province of Honan, that province south of the Yellow

River which is almost annually flooded by that great muddy stream
which is called "China's Sorrow." As a boy he was a diligent