eir petition, and the students then sliced the {107}
living flesh from their arms and thighs as evidence of their
earnestness, coloring their petition with their blood.

{105}

[Illustration: PU YI, THE SON OF HEAVEN AND EMPEROR OF THE MIDDLE
KINGDOM.]
The baby sovereign of one of the vastest and oldest of empires is
shown here in the lap of his father. Prince Chun, the Regent.

{106}

[Illustration: HOW CHINA IS DEALING WITH OPIUM-INTEMPERANCE.]
Burning a pile of pipes of reformed smokers at Hankow. The amazing
success of China's crusade to free her people from the opium curse
may be justly reckoned one of the greatest moral achievements in
history--a challenge to our Western world.

{107 continued}

At this period of our drama there came upon the stage a new actor, at
first little heeded, but quickly becoming the dominating figure--the
Tzucheng Yuan, or National Assembly. This body, consisting of 100
nobles and men of wealth or scholarship appointed by the Throne, and
100 selected members of Provincial Assemblies approved by the
viceroys, was expected to prove a mere echo of the royal wishes. "It
is evident that the government is to have a docile and submissive
assembly. Mediocrity is the chief characteristic of the members
chosen." So wrote one of the best informed Americans in China, some
weeks before it assembled, October 3. Reuter's press agent in Peking
predicted through his papers that a few pious resolutions would
represent the sum total of the Assembly's labors.

And yet the first day that these two gentlemen went with me to look in
on the Assembly we found it coolly demanding that the Grand Council,
or imperial cabinet, be summoned before it to explain an alleged
breach of the rights of Provincial Assemblies!

From the very beginning the course of this National Assembly in
steadily gathering unexpected power to itself has reminded me of the
old States-General in France in the days just before the Revolution,
and I could not help looking for Danton and Robespierre among the
fiery orators in gown and queue on this occasion. Significantly, too,
I now hear on the authority of an eminent scholar that Carlyle's great
masterpiece is the most popular work of historical literature ever
translated into Chinese. May it teach them some lessons of restraint
as well as of aggressiveness!

Be that as it may, the Assembly has proved untamable in its demands
for an early parliament, not even