ugham to bid us good-bye, a thing
which could not have happened a few years ago, and an indication of how
wide open the doors in China are now standing.

On the whole, therefore, Prince Chun begins his regency with a brighter
outlook for his foreign relations than any other ruler China has ever
had. What shall we say of his Chinese relations? Being the brother of
Kuang Hsu, and himself a progressive young man, he ought to have the
support of the Reform party, and being the choice of the Empress
Dowager, he will have the support of the great progressive officials
who have had the conduct of affairs for the last quarter of a century
and more, and especially for the past ten years, since the Emperor
Kuang Hsu was deposed.

XII

The Home of the Court--The Forbidden City

The innermost enclosure is the Forbidden City and contains the palace
and its surrounding buildings. The wall is less solid and high than the
city wall, is covered with bright yellow tiles, and surrounded by a
deep, wide moat. Two gates on the east and west afford access to the
interior of this habitation of the Emperor, as well as the space and
rooms appertaining, which furnish lodgment to the guard defending the
approach to the dragon's throne.--S. Wells Williams in "The Middle
Kingdom."

XII

THE HOME OF THE COURT--THE FORBIDDEN CITY

During the past ten years, since the dethronement of the late Emperor
Kuang Hsu, I have often been asked by Europeans visiting Peking:

"What would happen if the Emperor should die?"

"They would put a new Emperor on the throne," was my invariable answer.
They usually followed this with another question:

"What would happen if the Empress Dowager should die?"

"In that case the Emperor, of course, would again resume the throne," I
always replied without hesitation. But during those ten years, not one
of my friends ever thought to propound the question, nor did I have the
wit to ask myself:

"What would happen if the Emperor and the Empress Dowager should both
suddenly snap the frail cord of life at or about the same time?"

Had such a question come to me, I confess I should not have known how
to answer it. It is a problem that probably never presented itself to
any one outside of that mysterious Forbidden City, or the equally
mysterious spectres that come and go through its half-open gates in the
darkness of the early morning. There are three parties to whom it may
have come again and again, and to