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. He played
with them as toys until overcome by curiosity, when, like many
another child, he tore them apart and discovered the secret
spring. This was as much of a revelation to the eunuchs as to the
child, and they went and bought other toys of a more curious
pattern, and a more intricate design, and it was not long until,
at the instigation of the enterprising Dane, the toy-shops of
Europe were manufacturing playthings specially designed to please
the almond-eyed baby Emperor in the yellow-tiled palace in
Peking.
As the child grew the business of the Dane shopkeeper increased.
His stock became larger and more varied, and Tsai Tien continued
to be a profitable customer. There were music boxes and music
carts--real music carts, not like those from the Chinese
shops,--trains of cars, wheeled boats, striking clocks and Swiss
watches which, when the stem was pulled, would strike the hour or
half or quarter, and all these were bought in turn by the eunuchs
and taken into the palace. As the Emperor grew to boyhood the
Danish shopkeeper supplied toys suitable to his years from his
inexhaustible shelves, until all the most intricate and wonderful
toys of Europe, suitable for a boy, had passed through the hands
of Kuang Hsu,--"continued brilliancy," as his name implied--and
he seemed to be making good the meaning of his name.
We would not lead any one to believe that Kuang Hsu was an ideal
child
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