of no consequence at all.
Tell me, is not this so?" I replied that many foreigners had asked
me about him--as to what kind of man he was, but that they had never
expressed any opinion of their own regarding him excepting that they
understood he was in the best of health. "If any wrong impression does
exist regarding myself and my position at the Court," continued the
Emperor, "it is owing to the very conservative customs of the Chinese
Court. I am not expected to either say or do anything on my own
initiative, consequently outsiders never hear much about me and I am
regarded as being nothing more than a figure-head. I know this is
so. Whenever they ask you about me in the future just explain to them
exactly what my position here is. I have plenty of ideas regarding the
development of this country but you know I am not able to carry them out
as I am not my own master. I don't think the Empress Dowager herself
has sufficient power to alter the state of things existing in China at
present, and even if she has, she is not willing to. I am afraid it will
be a long time before anything can be done towards reform."

The Emperor went on to say how nice it would be if he were allowed to
travel about from place to place the same as the European monarchs, but
of course such a thing was out of the question for him. I told him
that several Princesses had expressed a wish to visit the St. Louis
Exposition and said I thought it would be a good thing if that could be
arranged as they would see for themselves the difference between their
own country and customs and foreign countries and customs. The Emperor
expressed doubts as to this permission being granted as such a thing had
never been heard of before.

We talked for quite a long time, mostly about foreign customs, and the
Emperor remarked that he would very much like to visit Europe and see
for himself how things were carried on there.

Just then one of my eunuchs came and said that Her Majesty was awake, so
I had to hurry off to her room.

We now arrive at the tenth moon.

The first day it snowed, and the head eunuch enquired of Her Majesty
whether it was her intention to celebrate her birthday at the Summer
Palace as usual. As previously explained the Summer Palace was Her
Majesty's favorite place of abode; so she replied in the affirmative and
arrangements were accordingly made for the celebration to be held there
as usual. The head eunuch then brought Her Majesty a list gi