that she refused to give me any compensation for the portraits, and a number of other statements, equally false, were daily appearing in the papers. The London Times , in speaking of the Empress Dowager, said: “Someone has said ‘she has the soul of a tiger in the body of a woman,’ and Miss Carl found the old lady shrewd and tempestuous.” The latter statement, which I never made, seemed to me enough to have on my shoulders, but the article was copied in American papers and I was put down as the author of the first, as well as of the second statement. The power of the Press has become such that it cannot be ignored. It is of no avail to say nothing in such a case as mine; when you do this, words are put into your mouth and sentiments ascribed to you at the will of the newsmongers. If a correction be made, it never seems to get the same circulation or publicity as the first statement. These erroneous statements continue to appear, and I have finally decided that, in justice to my August Patroness as well as to my humbler self, it is incumbent upon me to correct them, and it seems to me the only proper way to do so is to write a full and true relation of my life at the Palace and my experiences while painting the portraits of Her Majesty the Empress Dowager.
I know I publish this account at the risk of offending the sensibilities of my Chinese friends, for many of them will never know what called it forth. I know that by so doing I may change any favorable opinion they may have formed as to my good-breeding and discretion. I was on sufficiently intimate terms with Her Majesty and the Ladies of the Court to know that this account will be looked upon by them as an “indiscretion,” to say the least of it.
In this story of my life at the Palace, I must naturally give some description of Their Majesties and necessarily make some comment upon their characters. In doing this, I will transgress another long-established rule of Chinese Propriety, which makes any comment, favorable or unfavorable, upon the Sacred Persons of Their Majesties, a