The Oregon daily journal., January 06, 1918, Page 49, Image 49

" ' " ijrf ' " ' -i.'mj- -
1 : flM(Qf f iiiimiil
Tft -SUNDAY.r JANUARY' 6 1918' '",.,'- t V' ; '
By ARTHUR JAMES HAYES
Illustrated by J. Allen St. John
AM a man of maay
years and memo
rle, monsieur. I
recall with the
strange blind eye
of the mind many
interesting: things
the grlory of the
court of theDow-ag-er
Tze Hsi, the
eplendor of moonlight on the Taj Mahal
and the wonder in a woman's eyes when
she makes prayers to her gods or whis
pers love words in the ear of a man.
In the great cathedrals of Paris, when
the afternoon silence was'like, a whisper
from eternity, I have watched the nuns
at prayer. They pr&yed not themselves,
with whom indeed even the gods could
not -find fault, but for the salvation of
the world. And outside the gay -world
rushed by, drunken and heedless and
hectic, caring not to be saved.
As attache with a Turkish army, la
my youth, I have seen Armenian Chris- .
tian mothers raise their bloody hands to
heaven and implore their God to save
their children from the Infidels. But the
sun only smiled back out of the blue
dome of heaven and their blood trickled
and blackened into clotted pools on the
sand. In Tahiti I have seen the wife of a
missionary kneel on the moonlit beach
and pray for the souls of savages who
danced around a great fire, chanting to
their devil' god Bju-Maurl.
Should not, I thought, the Paris grl
settes and the naked savages know best
what gods they like? I, who worship no
god and crave only the passionless sleep
of Nirvana, cannot understand why
women should have this zeal for gods.
To love men and pray to gods is the com
iron lot of all women. I, who come out
of the East and return again to the East, .
have seen.
Up in the San Chan plateau, where , .;
the Nakhir gorges deepen and the purple
shadows linger as well by moonlight aa
at dawn, Li Seng had his white mansion.
I knew Li Seng in the days when- we
were bothf younger men, high in the fa
vor of the. Dowager Tze Hsi. I think in
time he would have become prime min
ister, save that during the Boxer days &
strange whisper came to the ears of the
old dowager.
She shook at the words and spat upon
the dais and summoned the chief eunuch
"I would have the 'presence of that
devil's spawn, Li Seng," she said. "And
if perchance he comes with little willing
ness in the flesh, I will compromise on
his head alone!"
But Li Seng came willingly, and
kneeled in her presence. His face was
it pcru table as your neurasthenic occi
dental's never could be. But his long
finger nails rustled against the silk of his
jacket and In his, black eyes I read the.
craven message of fear. I marveled at
that, for it was the crafty Li Seng who
coined the expression, "Lao Fo-Yeh"
the "old Buddha" which had pleased the 1
empress mightily. To have so signally
won her favor and then to fear so great
ly seemed to me first evidence of grave
offense.
He was a small man, already inclining
to girth, and he looked very ridiculous
kneeling there before the yellow dais, at
the feet of an old woman who spat and
screeched and shook with unintelligible
rage. The five cushions had been re
moved and LI Seng knelt upon the bare
marble floor.
The dowager spoke. Her tones were
harsh and her language as little elegant
' as the vituperation of a Hongkong fish
vendor.
'lecherous rat!" she creamed. '.'I
have had my ears and stomach affronted
by a whisper current in the Tartar city.
It is that a female foreign devil has
whelped with half-caste brat of yours!"
; ,L1 Seng bent lower, and were it not -for
his being a mandarin of the third or
der it would be easy on my tongue to .
say he groveled. But he made no an
swer. The froth that was on her lips
when she died foamed again at the cor
ners of Txe Hsi's mouth.
'r'
"She 4s a Russian," pursued the doV
- ager, "and the thrice accursed black
beards are already clamoring at our gate
for all Manchuria. Would you have us
crowded to the farthest sands of Gobi by
these foreign devils? Letbut your cap
ture of that Russian girl get back to the
country that cast her out and set her on
the dirty cobblestones of Tlen-Tsien to
cry her shame to the stars" and she will
straightway become of first Importance
t and reason for vast indemnity. ' .
"All highest said Li-Seng, "the girl
came willingly.
She had been sufficient-:
ly starved before. ' I think--" 'r '
,-WUlijftglyr screechedthe all bignwrt.
"Dog! Spirit of swine! It were better
had you dragged her by the hair of the
head! Shall, a mandarin of the Yellow
Banner traffic with public women to the
shame of his ancestors' tombs and the
peril of his country?"
Ll Seng expected death, no doubt, and
: desperation puts brave words on a man's
lips.
"Would you have me always a 'sleeve
dog?" he asked. "I have traveled'
abroad, I know other beauty than the
charm of yellow faces and 'noble noses'!" .
My blood chilled for Li Seng. The
"noble nose" is broad at the base, and
eo-called because the great dowager her
self had it.
Her face grew purple and the eunuchs
closed in, expecting summons to drag
him hence. But though the foam drooled
down ,her wrinkled cheeks the dowager
held" herself well in hand.
"So may the god of lies consecrate it,"
she said. "Henceforth you will never
pass the sacred gates. Up in the moun
tains of San Ghan, where the sand rats
cfinge and the lizards drowse in the sun,
you shall build yourself a house of por
phyry. And there shall you lrve with ihe
female foreign devil who has whelped
your blood. There the foreign devils,
with their cry for reparations and in
demnities, shall never seek you out to
make more claims on my land. And let
you but once venture-hence and I shall
proscribe you. for such an end as will
startle all Pechill!"
So Ll Seng went but from the court in
disgrace, and the dowager went forth
with into another screaming fit where
th lobes of the ears grow black and the
tongue sticks out like the poison orchid '
from the clay of the Nangwhei hills. The
chief eunuch carried, -her out under his
arm", a strange, shriveled old hag who
kicked like a child and for all her royal
robes screeched like a wailing 'devil In
the hades of Lao-TzseJ ' v
To me that last scene was si revolting
. thing. In my heart 'I knejv we were at
the nd of the empire. It was before the
- Chinese dogs dared question Manchu su
premacy; but the scent of that sacrilege
was even then in the air. It stunk in my s
nostrils, and I left the country living" for
several years In Paris and for five more';
in New York. My hoards of silver taels
a4 'ancestral gold and jewels I Toad the
excellent prescience to take with me.
Coolie mobs have since fingered the
silks and the ivories in the Mansion of
the Seven Orchid Petals, but their vile
claws have not touched the ancestral
jewels. In the sandalwood cases I sprin
kled the essence of death, that left more
than one of their number carrion in the
halls from which the rest fled In super
stitious terror. ; So when I went back,
urged by homesickness and curiosity
about the republican regime, it was with
noncommittal American traveler?
cheques and shaven head.
I felt more than ever the Manchu of
the White Banner without the queue, be
cause after all it was a Chinese institu
tion, borrowed by, the conquerors from
the conquered. Rebel troops were em
barrassing the republic, but I bad seen the
sun set in a purple mist on the day that
the Son of Heaven worshiped the sacred
tablets in the Hall of Ancestors, and 1
knew that any restoration must be brief.
A longing came upon me to see Ll
Seng, aloof from all the humiliation that
attended upon the end of the Manchu
dynasty. It took much Intriguing of
timorous men to arrange an expedition
through that wild country in the unset
tled state of affairs. But the fifth week
' taw us staring at the sunset over the pur
ple ridges of the wonderful Khjangai
mountains.
For 4.000 years men have fled to these
fastnesses, because they favored different
gods from those then.. fashionable x be
cause they had aspired to thrones or to -the
smiles of others' wives or concubines.
- Everywhere in the silent passes and still
gorges one finds the crumbling ruins of
their little stone huts; and at night it is
not hard to fancy tbat the wailing (winds
.of Gobi carry their ghost-shrieks over -tho
moon-mantled crags. (
Far up in the lonely Nahkir gorges Ll
Seng's man si oh of 'exile gleamed like a,
pearl on dusky hair. The hills are very
black at this point with flinty obsidian,1
and (the .house itself was of mllknnarble.
carried on camel back from distant quar- .
ries in Imlakar. s I stared unbelievingly
at that, mansion. ;Then I marveled at Ll
Seng's audacity For the place was built
In three great superimposed towers, with
the green tile .roofs, and architectural dl
... xnensiona of the Temple of Heaven! -
It was a daring thing to do, even In
ghostly Nahkir. where the moonlight
makes men mad and their subsequent
tales generally discredited. The moon
light danced now on the green tile and
shimmered over the marble walls in a
molten flood until the structure was
radiant as pearl.
A dog yapped In the first terrace and
lights .danced about In front of the great
gate as we approached.'' A voice called
upon us to halt I called out that I was
Moy Yang Fo, mandarin of the third or
der. Manchu of the White Banner and
Harvard friend of the great Prince Ll
Seng. Immediately.the gate swung open
and my little cavalcade filed in.
Li Seng himself met me on the third
terrace, older and stouter and very white
ot head and beard. He greeted me warm
ly, but of gossip that he did not know X
Take me, Lao
Tzse!" she
cried, "beyond
the starlight,
where it is al
ways morning
and the rose
petals are
bright as the
Bye of Aznrf"
had little indeed. His own secret emis
l saries kept him Informed regarding the
chaos in the Forbidden City.
"And the Hell Cat of Hslen Feng." he
croaked, "has gone to "join him! May
she find the souls of her ancestors slaves
to an imbecile Canton coolie! Yet I miss
her. Every day I ascended into the tow
er of Lao-Tzse to curse her memory. It
is rather a deprivation not to have such
a pastime, but I manage somehow."
s "Lao-Tzse!" I exclaimed In astonish
ment. "Are you then embracing Tao
ism?" "Yes," he replied seriously. "I have
studied all godst and he Is not the least
among them. When I was summoned for
the last audience with that drooling hag
of the Western Place I made a propitia
tion to Lao-Tzse. Surely after these cenl
turles In Paradise he Is himself aIelty!
I should have made & second offering,
but delayed. Yet for the first was I saved
from execution! So out of my owl hand
I have wrought aii image of the Old One
as an Infant. And before it Melana prays
daily." ' ' - -
"Melana?" I queried.
He smiled.- '
'I , believe you were present when
some allusion was made to a brat born
of a foreign devil? Weil,' that Is Melana.
It is a foreign and outlandish name, but
her mother insisted. . and my Manchu
pride In a half-caste offspring is not
great. Melana!" - -
He touched a great gong that roared
throughout the , whole ; building. " There
was a patter, of feet, and. through the
e great silk portieres stepped the girt, .. ;
' - Her face was' as" while ' as v camel's
.-, milk.' her hair as black as tho groat cliffs
of the Ko-wang.: Her lips were fall and:
the tint of ripened pomegranates, and
her eyes were large and black as a pool
In the moonlight. She smiled upon her
father and stood there In the jacket and
.trousers of gray silk that he was pleased
to have her wear. I never knew the
woman of the streets that was her moth
er, but she must have been of large
frame and handsome.
For Melana the Beautiful was taller
than her father, and at 17 her form was
fairer than the fairest of the north prov
ince Manchu maidens. Her feet had
never been bound, and she walked lithe
and graceful as the tigers that roar In
the Nahkir gorges. She stood -a moment
in the doorway and then came over and
smiled and placed her arm around her
father.
It was a singular familiarity. It was
not Manchu etiquette. Li Seng read my
thougWs.
"Uut she is not a Manchu," he said,
smiling. "We have the hissing hell cat's
word that she is half-caste spawn! And
because her mother was as beautiful aa
she of the Western Palace was ugly I
have reared her In Occidental customs.
Have yod ever seen finer?" He turned
her around, grasping her slender shoul
ders, so that she must stare up at me.
She did this Impudently and with a moue.
I was revolted.
"I will do the girl the honor of assum
ing that she is no slaye for sale," I said
stiffly, ''to be exhibited for curves and
grace! Yet it is not good form for her
to thrust out her tongue at elderly men
when they, come to have bread and salt
under her father's roof!"
I had spoken in English, which we
both knew so well. The girl Interrupt
ed me.
"You are a funny old man." she said,
coolly, "with little eyes,ad pock-marked
features. Did you think I should want to
love you, old leather face?"
I was startled that the girl should
know English.' But teaching the foreign
devil tongue to her was no doubt part of
Li Seng's mad scheme of revenge. And
It occupied dreary hours as well. (
"If the gods had seen fit to burden me
with one such." I said severely, "she
should achieve her choicest wit at the
expense of the bastinado! Where is the
reverence and humility that is the veil
for female unworthiness?"
Li Seng laughed, and the Same of
madness burned In his eyes.
"For the great god Lao-Tzse she is
reverent enough," he said. "As for mor
tals, I myself have encouraged her free
dom of tongue and quick disdain. WThat '
has become of those who taught us man
ners In our youth, Moy Yang? The fish
eaters defile their halls and the rabble of
the street hoot their names. The old or
der passes. Let the new have new pre
cepts." After she had gone we stood in the
chnr moonlight and stared over the great
gorges and up at the tremendous peaks
of the Khangai. Li Seng spread out his
hands and the light glinted on his rus
tling robes and long finger nails.
"Here is a wilderness kingdom," he
said. "A desert of mystery with only the
tigers and moonlight and mad Buddhist
hermit monks to keep us . company. I
love the stillness when Lao-Tzse whis
pers to me, and the white play of the
moon which creates strange purple
shadows and ghost shapes that wail in
the ceaseless night winds.
A cat a great green-eyed, tailless crea
ture from Gobi sped across the third
terrace. Li Seng stared after it. , The
lifcht in his eyes was wild, and I feared
almost to stand beside him. 1 heard the
r-ervants singing In the mad huts behind
the marble magnificence of the tower
and knew that my retainers were being
entertained.
Beyond us, on the right, the first ter
race crept to the very edge of the gorge.
Below the hawks wheeled of summeriaft
ernoons and the sun glinted on their mo
tionless wings like gold foil on the Sacred
Pheasant.
"What are the petty Intrigues of the
old court days to this?" he said. "Here
one breathes in philosophy rather than
reads it from ancient scrolls. I work in -metals
and chemicals. Come, I will show
you the Eyes of Lao-Tzse!"
Desert silence and much brooding will
do that to .the minds of men. I knew
that Ll Seng's madness was a progressive
thing. I was glad that my stay would bo
brief.. But. I followed him through many
passages and up the . winding marble
stairs. Finally We emerged in the third
- tower, arched, like the sky and decorated
sacrilegiously . in the very same blue
tints that adorn the dome of the Temple
of Heaven In distant Peldnff. " i. V?
;.j f. 'Across .from. us. In tho center of tho
:: area and on a great circular onyx altar.
Vv,' -, stood the Image of the Old One, Lao-Tzse.
It was a grotesque thing, for the mad .
' mandarin had seised upon the legend of
his birth. A monstrously fat Infant
squatted upon the altar, with long white
hair and board. It was the Lao-Tzse of
legend, the Old One born at 72 years of
age, an old man! 1 would have laughed,
but Li Seng watched me, and I feared
the consequences of mirth.
"The eyes," he said; "what think yon
oi them?"
I had been staring at those eyes. On
was green and one was white, but both
burned luminously and cast a faint radi
ance over that grotesque baby face and
the long beard. I marveled that those
great eyes could gleam so uncannily, and
an awed feeling crept Into my bones.
"From the family gems I took the Or
chid of Asur, the great purple diamond.
said Ll Seng, "for one of the eyes. Ths
other is a huge emerald that I found In
the gray rock back of the mad hermit's
monastery. I ground At with flake obsi
dian until there were facets enough to
gleam. Then with the radium I had ren
dered out of pitchblende a whole hand
ful I made them bright. For two years,
vhiie I graved the Image out of blade
mnrble, they remained in the leaden
flr.sk with the powdered chemical hurl
Ins its mysterious light rays through
their substance. When I took them out
they shriveled the palms of my hand
black before I could Insert them In the
sockets. And now by night they gleam
with the light which is as the soul of the
Old One himself. Has anything been so
strange?"
I could not humor such useless ingenuity-
"Even at school in America. Li Seng,"
I declared, "I knew you were a genius
with chemicals, 'but I have come in my
gray hairs to learn that you are also, a
fool!"
He gripped my arm. the silver sheaths
of his finger nails tinkling.
"Stop," he whispered, "Melana comes
to pray." '
We receded into the shadows, and the
girl, all robed In white silk, stepped soft
ly into the room. She made the three
fold obeisartce to the image and then
knelt huddled "before IL Her black halj
rested upon her hands and gleamed like
polished ebony in the moonlight.
"Oh. Lao-Tzse. lhe Old One." she said
in kind of a chant, "thou heaven blest!
Answer the prayer of the maiden of two
bloods. Make me always wise, Lao-Tzse
and take me away from here!"
She straightened up and looked at the
great radium-fevered eyes of the idol,
and the expression on her face froze the
smile on my lips. Hitherto I had smiled
nt that truly feminine prayer "take me
sway from here." It was the naive flat
tery of a child asking a great favor. 8he
was lonely. She wanted youth and love
and excitement, for that Is the nature of
Russian blood, however diluted with tho
more emotionless Mongol strain. But tho
look in her eyes as she stared at the bulb
on face of Lao-Tzse? Hoer may I write
that?
It ls difficult in gray hairs apd rheu
matic twinges to write of the light la a
woman's eyes when she talks to her man
or her god! But if I could have seen
such a light In the eyes of a woman of
another generation I would have faced
. the brimstone of the Christian hell smil
ing. No band may write description of
that look. It was the ultimate In faith
and trust and love! There was not finer
in the faces of the nuns who prayed In
the Cathedral of Notre Dame!
Ll Seng did not smile. But after we
crept away hrough another arch he
laughed.
To her. he said, as If It were a cap
ital jest, 'ithere is no Invisible Deity.
That is Lao-Tzse. Her mother tried to
teach her otherwise, but one sight she '
walked straight over the edge of the first
terrace, out, into the space where the
night hawks wheeled and soared.
. -
"Melana was very young. 8he was
chubby and red cheeked and merry. Had
w'f lived in Peking I might never have
noticed her, for it la not tho. Manchu
method to rejoice in- female children.
But here In exile, she was a constant
companion.' When she Is a few years
oldor we shall go north, perhaps, and
west to UliassutaL' and thence through
to P.ussia. In tho meantime It Is just as
well that she prays to sn Image of the
- Venerable One. - .
I was seized with a sudden loathing
for Li Seng. I was' sorry that I bad
braved the heat of tho deserts and. tho
chill of tho mountain passes to visit him.
' For . to sneer at one's own race and cus
. . terms Is the least conceit annan out own.
To have educated tho girl to be a dupa
'; to superstition was also but feeble Tarn- r
f 5-r-V.; Wj.V--V'- . ' . '
H
s j-