100 YEARS AGO
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 1908
Their Late Chinese Majesties
Not only one of two events most sorrowful to the Chinese Court and nation, which formed the theme of our comment in our last issue, but both have turned out to be facts. In the demise of His late Majesty the Emperor Kwan Su, the world sees the end of a wearer of the crown whose lot for thirty odd years has been the object of deepest sympathy among all right thinking people. In that of the Empress Dowager, China loses one of the most remarkable women the world has ever produced, who has stood out most prominent among her sex during the last quarter of a century and more. If the late Emperor's was a life of constant struggle against enfeebled health and extra-sensitiveness, indeed against fate itself, that of the Dowager Empress was a living example of the old, old proverb that, however low in birth a woman can rise to ride in a chariot of gems. In thinking of the one, none can help thinking of the other, as lives intertwined like cause and effect, and it is a strange irony of fate that these two Imperial personages should pass away to the grave in quick succession. If the demise of the Emperor and Empress Dowager has any message, we believe it is that their nation before the awfulness of death should forget the past and unite for the future. We at any rate would persuade ourselves that such is the thought which is now filling the Chinese heart, and the world will agree that they deserve the deepest respect at this moment.
50 YEARS AGO
Friday, Nov. 28, 1958