itself to her Majesty as the most feasible method of procedure. The
result is, that a sum of 8,446 yen, 90 sen, and 8 rin has just been
handed over to Dr. Takagi, the chief promoter and mainstay of the
hospital, by Viscount Kagawa, one of her Majesty's chamberlains. There
is something picturesque about these sen and rin. They represent an
account minutely and faithfully kept between her Majesty's unavoidable
expenses and the benevolent impulse that constantly urged her to curtail
them. Such gracious acts of sterling effort command admiration and
love."

Not very long ago, on one of her visits to the hospital, the Empress
visited the children's ward, and took with her toys, which she gave with
her own hand to each child there. When we consider that this hospital is
free to the poorest and lowest person in T[=o]ky[=o], and that twenty
years ago the persons of the Emperor and Empress were so sacred in the
eyes of the people that no one but the highest nobles and the near
officials of the court could come into their presence,--that even these
high nobles were received at court by the Emperor at a distance of many
feet, and his face even then could not be seen,--when we think of all
this, we can begin to appreciate what the Empress Haru has done in
bridging the distance between herself and her people so that the poorest
child of a beggar may receive a gift from her hand. In the country
places to this day, there are peasants who yet believe that no one can
look on the sacred face of the Emperor and live.

The school for the daughters of the nobles, to which I have before
referred, is an institution whose welfare the Empress has very closely
at heart, for she sees the need of rightly combining the new and the old
in the education of the young girls who will so soon be filling places
in the court. At the opening of the school the Empress was present, and
herself made a speech to the scholars; and her visits, at intervals of
one or two months, show her continued interest in the work that she has
begun. Upon all state occasions, the scholars, standing with bowed heads
as if in prayer, sing a little song written for them by the Empress
herself; and at the graduating exercises, the speeches and addresses are
listened to by her with the profoundest interest. The best specimens of
poetry, painting, and composition done by the scholars are sent to the
palace for her inspection, and some of these are kept by her in her own
private roo