t of the Chinese woman make us the
laughing-stock of the world.'

"'I have heard,' said the Empress Dowager, 'that the foreigners have a
custom which is not above reproach, and now since there are no
outsiders here, I should like to see what the foreign ladies use in
binding their waist.'

"The lady was very stout, and had the appearance of an hour-glass, and
turning to her daughter, a tall and slender maiden, she said:

"'Daughter, you show Her Majesty.'

"The young lady demurred until finally the Empress Dowager said:

"'Do you not realize that a request coming from me is the same as a
command?'

"After having had her curiosity satisfied, she sent for the Grand
Secretary and ordered that proper Manchu outfits be secured for the
lady's daughters, saying:

"'It is truly pathetic what foreign women have to endure. They are
bound up with steel bars until they can scarcely breathe. Pitiable!
Pitiable!'

"The following day this young lady did not appear at court, and the
Empress Dowager asked her mother the reason of her absence.

"'She is ill to-day,' the mother replied.

"'I am not surprised,' replied Her Majesty, 'for it must require some
time after the bandages have been removed before she can again compress
herself into the same proportions,' indicating that the Empress Dowager
supposed that foreign women slept with their waists bound, just as the
Chinese women do with their feet."

The first winter I spent in China, twenty years ago, was one of great
excitement in Peking. The time of the regency of the Empress Dowager
for the boy-emperor had ended. I have explained how a prince is not
allowed to marry a princess because she is his relative, or even a
commoner his cousin for the same reason. That is the rule. But rules
were made to be broken, and when the time came for Kuang Hsu's
betrothal the Empress Dowager decided to marry this son of her sister
to the daughter of her brother. It mattered not that the young man was
opposed to the match and wanted another for his wife. The Empress
Dowager had set her heart upon this union, and she would not allow her
plans to be frustrated, so an edict was issued that all people should
remain within their homes on a certain night, for the bride was to be
taken in her red chair from her father's home to the palace. So that in
this as in all other things her will was law for all those about her.

She was a bit below the average height, but she wore shoes, in the
centre