the service of ungrateful and lazy children.

_Page 152._

The bed on which the Empress sleeps is made of heavy _futons_, or
quilts, of white _habutai_ wadded with silk wadding. The bedclothing
consists of as many similar _futons_ as the state of the weather may
require. Every month new _futons_ are provided for Her Majesty, and the
discarded ones are given to one of her attendants. The happy recipient
is thus provided with wadding enough for all her winter dresses for the
rest of her life, as well as with a good supply of dress material.

_Page 157._

Only those who have seen the inner life of the court can realize the
difficulties which have attended every step of the Empress Haru's way,
for the court has been the scene of great struggles between the
conservative and radical elements. Mean and petty jealousies have moved
those surrounding the throne. The slightest word or token from the
Empress would be used as a weapon for private ends. To move among these
varied and discordant factions, and to move for progress, without
causing undue friction, has been a task more difficult than the conquest
of armies, and to do so successfully has required almost infinite
patience, sympathy, and love.

_Page 168._

And now, after thirty-three years of the enlightened rule of the present
Emperor, and of the beneficent life and example of the Empress Haru, is
there any assurance that the progress made during their occupation of
the throne will be continued in the lives of Japan's future rulers?

Prince Haru, or Yoshihito, is now a man twenty-two years of age, with
character sufficiently developed to be used as the basis for a guess at
what his qualities as a sovereign may prove to be. "As far as the East
is from the West" have his life and education been from the life and
education of his illustrious father. Instead of the curtained seclusion,
the quiet and calm of the old palace in the old capital, the present
Crown Prince has known from babyhood the sights and sounds of the
stirring city of T[=o]ky[=o]. He has driven in an open carriage or walked
through its streets; he has been to school with boys of his own age,
taking the school work and the drill and the games with the other boys,
learning to know men and things and himself too, in a way in which none
of his ancestors, since the days when they were simply savage chiefs,
have had opportunity of knowing. As he grew toward manhood, his delicate
health required that