The Empress Dowager’s Charities, Sense of Justice, Extravagance, and Personal Characteristics
The Empress Dowager’s charities are extensive; she feeds the poor and succors the unfortunate. When her sympathies are aroused, she gives freely and generously. Her edicts are constantly ordering sacks of rice and food to be distributed among the poor and sent to districts where famine reigns. There is a great refuge in Peking, which she supports, where ten thousand poor are succored and fed during the year. During the winter, edicts are constantly appearing similar to this—commanding “The distribution from the Imperial granaries of fifteen hundred piculs (133⅓ pounds to the picul) of rice for refuges and gruel stations for the poor in North Tung Chow.” Edict of November 6, 1904.
She also sympathizes with misfortune, tries to right the wrongs she knows of, and correct the abuses that come to her ears. From the North China Herald of November 19, 1904, I copy the following, and this paper cannot be accused of viewing any of Her Majesty’s acts with a partial spirit (much to the contrary):
“During the Boxer troubles a bad character, by the name of Wang, owed money to a certain Chinese Mohammedan. Wang had been frequently dunned, and was finally condemned by the courts to pay the debt; he was, besides, ordered to be beaten, as he had been insolent to the Mandarin trying the case. This incensed Wang, and he swore vengeance. When the Boxer troubles were in full swing in Peking, he became the leader of a band of insurgents and led his band to the house of