"MY CELESTIAL,"

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19986, 28 June 1920, Page 9

"MY CELESTIAL,"

UNINE’S CHINESE < ADVISER. -3 MYSTERIOUS YELLOW BE* ' HIND RUSSIAN RED. (Correspondent Son Francisco “Chronicle.”; MOSCOAV. March 20. : Russia has boon treated to a. great. ’ many interior sensations lately, but it is sale, to say that tew ot them have ever reached tin; dimensions of the recent discovery by the proletarians that the Big Chief has a. Chinese “adviser.” - The people first suspected that some- ( thing was in the wind when someone noticed and reported the groat preparations and bonse-cleauings going on at tho Avein! in, tho palace of the exC;;or of Russia. j 1 hey scarcely had time to gossip and noncler, when in moved a Chinaman, hag and baggage, and lacquered table and incense and everything. And when the gorgeous tapestries and hangings and Louis Quatorae furniture and other emblems of the luxury that symbolised tho late regime, were piled on the sidewalk, waiting their turn for tho huge moving ran which toe aforesaid articles ot Chinese vertu, you should havo heard

the comments of the crowd. hor Nicoiai Lenine, real ruler of Russia, beloved yet tearcd by his peofile for his remoteness, bad come out of his shell sufficiently to engage n foreign viceroy, so to speak. At first it was Lonino’s definite nolicy to take advice from no one. Hut now ho has found this supremo isolation lonesome, as most humans do. and whether he thinks ho needs advice or not is not tho point. A BARBER’S ASSISTANT, Tho point is, ho is taking it, daily and hourly, from the man ho affectionately calls “My Celestial,” the man, Ipak Yen, lo'rmerly a barber's assistant, and whom he now “delights to honour.” That's the simple fact of it. Here was this obscure Chinese, horn and raised in a small town on the border between Manchuria and Siberia, wishing for no great things, and doubtless in ihose days getting his wish. Heaven knows it was hard enough to get to Lonnie before, entrenched as he was, like a Caliph, sending his many commands from his inner sanctum through the air by wireless, across high mountains in winged airplanes, or through couriers who conveyed his messages direct, straight to his followers awaiting his instructions in tho converted castles of former monarchies all over Europe. LENINE ENTRENCHED AS IN BARBED WIRE. Heavens! How that man did hedge himself m and about! Between swords and behind fixed bayonets, until your fept tripped over them, and your memory slipped over the dozen pass words from one ante-chamber to the next, past serried vows of watchful sentries, until the bristling difficulties of getting into “the presence'’ made running the Indian gauntlet look like a positre pleasure jaunt. And adding a, Celestial there, between all those guards and Lenine, wasn't apt to simnlifv matters either. You may bo perfectly sure he hasn't been elected to tho post ot “ first aid’* to the “ August One of all the Rushas ” for nothing. And if Oriental guile and outer simplicity combined with inner complicity, mean anything, they 'mean that it is going to take even move than the extraordinary subtlety and ingenuity it took before to get to tho car and eyo of Nicolai Lenin, arbiter of their fato and of all Russia. Now you know, some of the Chinese, particularly the Confuoians, of whom our Celestial professes to bo a votary, ■ arc pronounced ascetics, living a life of Spartan simplicity and repression. But Tpnk Yen, “ our viceroy,’’ doubtless against every inclination of his tra iuing, feels that he owes it to the high altitude of his position to put on the proper “ side,” as it were; to take on, however unwillingly, a little of the pomp and circumstance belitting Lis rank. ORIENTAL LUXURY. So he works In one palace and lives and plays in another. And tho greater simplicity of his working rooms gives way to the opulent Oriental imagery and luxury ot his homo address. Columns of onyx marble, screens and embroideries of every line and design, vases of Hawthorn, of purple black and midnight blue, caskets of jade and robes of priceless silk, hanging lamps and ytandard braziers, •wontfcrMly fash-j ioned cabinets of intricate inlaid design, with cunningly concealed compartments —these and sundry, ffll his wonderful house. So you sec his friendly patron has been liberal indeed, even to tho matter of his wives. 'White wives they arc, too. Russian girls-of low estate, it is whispered,-who were willing to divide, honours among them, rather than have no honours at ail. Of course comparisons are always odious, ami the nearer they hit the mark the more invidious they become. So nobody wants to throw stones nor say, “ I told you *o. ,r But do you remember the despised Gregory Rasputin and the, relationship lie bore to tho ill-1 ated late Czar? His name was Gregory. The common people, who despised him. added the “Rasputin” because ‘‘Rasputin” is Russian for “ The Rogue.” RASPUTIN, THE ROGUE. There was none of your immaculate-to-his-long-fingcmail-tip Oriental aboul your Rasputin. Not he! Greasy, dirty, unkempt and ill-kcpi from his long, black hair and beard past his fat, shuffling, unwashed hand: and nail?, to his knee-high, nnpolishei boots, into which he lucked a filth; mou,jik’s smocked hlouse. i t He ate like an animal. Disdainin' » knife and fork, he took his meat be tween his two huge pawing hands, hi white tooth glistening and enmehin] . like the fangs of a. wolf over his meal And his habits never changed. No even when he had exchanged the road ride for the politest and most fashion able dining rooms of Bt Petersburg and his woollen smock had grown int 3 a wonderful red silk blouse made- air embroidered by tho august hands of th former Empress herself, the blouse am hands remained just as dirty and th hair as tangled. Gregory Rasputin began with simpl deal furniture in his rooms in th Czar’s palace, and only one. wife. Our Celestial. Ipak Y en, is bogiimin: at the other end of the scale. Wh ' knows perhaps he "-ill finish in th inverse direction, and help Lenin® t - save Russia.