The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer

CHINESE LEGATION
Most Interesting Family in the Diplomatic Corps.

MINISTER'S WIFE IN SOCIETY
At Washington - A Description of Mrs. Yang Yu - Wives of Former Chinese Ministers Have Generally Eschewed the Pleasures of the Social Set.

Washington Times: Of all the foreign legations in Washington, the Chinese - located out in the west end, on Fourteenth street - is the one that awakens the most interest in the public mind, and this past season the attractiveness of the legation has been greatly increased by the fact that there were ladies there and that they were mingling in society - a thing unheard of before.

The exclusiveness of the Chinese has been proverbial since the beginning of written history, and the seclusion of their women of rank has always been one of the inexorable laws of the empire; but even Chinese conservatism has been overcome by American Democracy.

Prior to the coming of the last Chinese minister - Mr. Tsin Kwo Yin - but very few women had ever come with the representatives of the Celestial Kingdom, and they were kept in the strictest seclusion, and it was understood that Mme. Tsin Kwo Yin would live in the same manner here as she did at home; but even the unimpresionable Celestial cannot escape the influence of his environment, and gradually the rigid retirement of the women of the legation has been overcome.

Mr. Foster's Influence.

Hon. John W. Foster was Minister Tsin Kwo Yin's legal adviser, and to his gracious wife must be given the honor of being the first lady in America who was admitted to see Mme. Tsin Kwo Yin, and it is no doubt due to her courtesy and tact that the doors were opened, allowing the ladies of the legation the same privileges that the American women enjoy.

It is rather funny now to recall with what solemnity Minister Tsin Kwo Yin sent word to Mr. Foster that he would bring his wife to return Mrs. Foster's call on such a date, and requested that all male members of the household be in non-evidence - and they were banished, every one of them, from Mr. Foster down to the bell boy.

A maid was stationed at the door, and a maid conducted them to the drawing-room, where Mrs. Foster received them. That was the first little opening, and you can always trust a woman - whether of the Orient or of the Occident - for the rest. If the slightest entrance is made for her. From that time Madame Tsin Kwo Yin was seen more or less in public as long as she remained in this country. Madame Yang Yu, the present minister's wife, has been going everywhere since she has been here, and seeming to enjoy it all as thoroughly as a girl just out.

A Cultured Gentleman.

Minister Yang Yu is a cultured gentleman, an honored scholar of distinction in his own country. He entertains broad and advanced ideas for his land and people and he is most hospitably inclined. They have outstripped any previous minister's record in entertaining. Madame has had her day at home; they have given numerous dinners and other entertainments during the season, and she has dispensed the hospitality of the legation at the great house on Fourteenth street with a grace and dignity that would do honor to any American woman.

During the past season Fridays were madame's day at home, and after this was known her receptions rivalled Mrs. Cleveland's in popularity. Minister Yang Yu received with his wife and seemed to enjoy the jam, and regard it as the proper way to be hospitable.

To most persons it was a disappointment to find that the legation was furnished just as hundreds of other houses are out in the West End, with the exception of some curious Chinese scrolls that are hung on the walls, and some handsome Chinese vases and pictures. But madame expects to remain in America a good many years, and she has plans of her own of a house that is to be built when the legation owns its own property - which, it is anticipated, will be pretty soon now - and when that time comes she will doubtless show us what a real Chinese home is when planned and furnished after the mother country style.

Very Popular Receptions.

But by far the most interesting feature of their receptions were Minister and Madame Yang Yu themselves and their Chinese attendants. They invariably create a sensation wherever they go. They were at most of the swell affairs last winter. Madame was always the center of an animated group, making out surprisingly well with the language, while her liege lord was sure to be standing smilingly observant somewhere close by with his hands run away up the flowing sleeves of his loose jacket.

At one time Mrs. Cleveland's receptions during the last season Madame Yang Yu came with her interpreter, Mr. Sze, an attache of the legation who came to this country with the present minister and who is attending the city high school - a very bright young gentleman and exceedingly obliging in his capacity as madame's interpreter. She glanced around the room and saw that there were no gentlemen present, she immediately dismissed Mr. Sze and courteously went in alone, and really seemed to get along as well as if she could talk English like the proverbial nightingale.

She was dressed in rich brocaded blue silk, made in the never-changing Chinese style of a long, sacque shaped tunic, with the flowing sleeves, and the narrow stiff skirt. Her hair was done in the conventional oval puffs that one always sees in the Chinese pictures and on her head she wore that striking-looking cap, with its flaring bunch of feathers on each side.

Her Personal Beauty.

This cap must indicate something of high degree, unknown to the uninitiated, as she always wears it on all state occasions. She has beautiful black eyes, if they are almond-shaped, and clear-cut, regular features. Of course, in America we are not quite up to admiring the very evident pink flush, which extends from madame's eyes to her chin, nor the bright dash of carmine on her lower lip, but no doubt that it is as much admired in China as our ladies' "touch" of powder is in this country.

Her features are clear cut and fine, and she has pretty shaped ears, but the poor lobes are fairly elongated with the weight of the great carrings they carry. The ear-rings are of pearls and emeralds. My! the size and quality of those jewels are enough to make one break the tenth commandment.

Mme. Yang Yu is as proud of her babies as any American mother would be who had such fine ones. She often takes them with her on her rounds of calls, and all three of them frequently receive with her, certainly adding much to the picturesqueness of the scene. The little girls would stand close to their mother, and in the most dignified way give a high hand-shake that Ward McAllister himself couldn't beat.

They dress precisely like their mother - in fact, they are miniature editions of her - and are charming little bits of humanity. Their black eyes are as bright as stars, their hair is of midnight blackness. There in a bald spot on the crown of the head, and the hair is braided in four little stiff braids, which stand out at right angles from the bald spot.