AN AMERICAN LADY AT THE COURT OF CHINA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8375, 22 July 1905, Page 3

AN AMERICAN LADY AT THE COURT OF CHINA.

2?aiatias tie Portrait of the

Empress Sow-age?.

Miss Katharine Carl, the American artist who painted the picture of the Empress Dowager of China for the St Louis Exposition, told an interviewer on her recent return to America that she found the terrible Empress a kindly and intelligent woman.

Miss Carl was visiting her brother, the Commissioner of Chinese Customs at Chefoo, when she obtained the commission to paint the portrait and three others. She had then to go and live in a palace assigned her near the summer palace of the Empress, who posed whenever .Miss Carl desired, and never showed any weariness. The work took eleven months, and all through that time the Empress, displayed the most wonderful interest in the portraits, often saying to me that she wished she could sit behind me and see me work, that her having to be placed in a position excluding her from a sight of the work was a sore trial. Conversation during the sittings was carried on by means of two interpret ters, one for each of us. • Miss Carl describes her as shrewd in uae sense of intelligent, but she never saw any evidence of the tempestuous qualities so often attributed to this aristocratic lady.

Miss Carl further describes the Empress as a woman whose age is most gracefully concealed.

"Like all the women of her na.tion, she does not begin to show the wear and tear of life as early as the women of tho West," said Miss Carl. "This is due principally to the mental attitude common to Chinese women. Repression is the keystone of their characteristics, and worry with its attendant facial marks is carefully guarded against. A face without tho lines of worry is necessarily a younger face than one with those lines."

Miss Carl speaks with great enthusiasm of the young wife of tho Emperor, whom she describes as a most exquisite creature," considerate of everyone, even in that unselfish country, where courtesy is the breath of life.

Miss Carl many gifts. The one she valued most, Melah, is one of tne famous palace pugs, celebrated throughout the world, for blue blood. Melah was given her by the Empress,, and got its name^-" Melah " means "golden amber" — from its markings.

"The Empress Dowager presented me with two entire costumes designed by herself," said Miss Carl. "They are not absolutely true to the Chinese fashions, va.rying a little to suit /the taste of the American. They are made in two pieces, skirt and jacket. They are lined with beautiful soft furs, and one of them is oornpieted with" a sabie cap ornamented with a streamer on which is embroidered the Empress's own crest.

"One of the costumes, of exquisite silk, is heliotrope; the other is blue, and both have bands and trimmings of embroidery. The costumes are made by tlie palace tailors." Besides the other gifts, the Empress gave Mies Carl the decoration of the Order of the Double Dragons, an honour never given before to a woman.

"The palace in which I lived during my eleven months of work," Miss Carl said, " was a huge affair, and I was told afterward that I had four hundred servants. I never counted them. I knew, of course, that there was always a servant at hand whenever anything w&& wanted, but just what the size of the retinue was I never had time to inquire.

-"The Empress's palace, which contains 10,000 people, was near the oije I occupied. Beth were constructed of many buildings, or, as I called them, pavilions, all connected with corridors so that the whole may be traversed without ■going into the op&n air. They are built about enormous courts, with lakes, flowers and bridges, forming the most exquisite picture imaginable. " Whenever I wanted to walk, a Chinese attendant went along with tea apparatus, co that if I became tired, 1 could be refreshed."

Asked concerning the life led by the ladies of: the Chinese, court, Miss Carl said : —

"In a way, perhaps we should call it a luxurious lijfej for it certainly is not strenuous. They are used to innumerable servants, and are not reared to do for themselves anything that comes under the head of manua3»labour.

"They have always their attendants, but one is impressed by J>be underlying simplicity of what outwardly seems luxury. They do riot keep late hours, they are always busy with, their embroiderying their household tasks, the rearing and* companionship of the children, the cultivation of their flowers. The .attendants of th© Empress are aocbinplifihed women, fine artiste, tK&ir embroideries ranking beyond anything we have ever seen. .

" The personal appearance [-. of the' Chinese women I. met at the court was most exquisite. Their hands and feet

are carefully manicured and pedicured. None of the women have bound ieet, rcr tho Maiichu women do not submit ZQ that form of torture. "Their hands are beautifully formed, fhe hands of many generations of re£iaed women who have never used them for menial service. Their hair is elaborately coiffured, and the word dainty expresses the ensemble as well as any I can think of for the moment.

"The mere fact that I was painting the port-rait of the Empress made of me a sacred person in the eyes of evovybcUv. It w as a sentiment that even extended to my implements, my brushes, my canvas, paints, everything 1 used in my work, and my personal belongings. " But a deeper feeling— or one certainly as deep — actuated their conduct. They are the most gentle, considerate and unselfish people in the world to the stranger in their gates. Every day I saw exhibitons o f this wonderful courtesy."