Show A TACTFUL EMPRESS tha pretty act ot the natured empress of japan the empress of japan being that sweetest of all creatures a womanly woman has upon many occasions openly evinced her deep interest in the wee ones of japan giving freely to all institutions that exist to benefit them in any way even practicing all sorts of touching little economies that she may be able to swell her contributions to certain charities that most interest her the conduct of this ideal woman upon a certain sad occasion her devoted subjects are never weary of describing prince Iwa fearless japanese leader in the momentous days of the crisis from which the lovely archipelago is still trembling in its ab sidenia to what seems assured stability lay dying in his tho empress announced her intention of paying Iwa a visit in person the poor prince weak and aa I 1 have said about to die was thrown into a dangerous state of excitement upon receiving the news but he managed to borrow from some hidden nervous force sufficient strength to grasp his writing box and brushes and to paint her an urgent but most respectful request not to think of coming to him lie forced upon her as excuse for declining so great an honor the fact of his rapidly approaching death and his consequent inability to acknowledge her visit with even a sixteenth part of the homage it demanded ha begged her to kindly consider how ill he must be when it remained an impossibility to throw off the malady even for her entertainment in reply winged with speed came a dear little missive whose import was as follows 1 I come not as your empress but as the daughter of your fond well wisher and coadjutor and as your own anxious friend shorn of all ostentation and display the empress arrived and remained beside her grateful subject until his final summons some years ago when the imperial palace was burned the unselfish empress amid all the excitement and discomfort she was for the nonce called upon to endure in a hasty flight to a comfortless old hashika ya shika thinking first of her subjects natural concern for har comfort sat down and wrote them a dainty little rhyme which proclaimed as erroneous the report that sho had changed her residence it coyly asserted that her home had always been in the hearts of her people and that she sincerely hoped that neither by llamo nor cold could she be driven from the dear abode N Y journal |