A People's King

A democratic Eastern potentate seems a contradiction in terms, but an American missionary, just returned to the U. S., gives the following account of H. R. H. Ras Taffari, of Abyssinia:

" When we got to the race track I noticed a big crowd of people coming along. . . . There were stragglers at first, then thicker and thicker was the crowd of men and boys. Some were dressed in rags, some in decent white clothing, some in native Abyssinian dress with blackpeaked caps, some in costly apparel and a few in European clothes. Many were carrying rifles. Some were prisoners in chains.

"' Some very great man is riding out today,' I thought to myself. . . . A little group riding together now came in the midst of the crowd. . . . Yes, it most certainly was, His Highness, Ras Taffari himself, the ruler of Abyssinia. . . .

" On my way back I met the multitude coming the other way, but their progress was somewhat slower. Every one was carrying a stone on his shoulder. . . . Yes, the ruler was with them, but surely he would not have to carry a stone. No, he would not have to do so, but nevertheless he was doing so!

" An officer said that he [the ruler] did not ask anyone to do a work that he was not willing to do himself. Ras Taffari was inducing his subjects to build roads."

H. R. H. Ras Taffari is not the Emperor of Abyssinia, but the heir to the throne. The nominal ruler of the land is Empress Waizern Zauditu (Ras Taffari is her second cousin). She was proclaimed the Empress of Abyssinia in September, 1916, after her nephew, Lij Yasu, was deposed by public proclamation. The Empress was crowned at Addis Abbaba, capital of Abyssinia, Feb. 11, 1917. The Empress keeps herself very much in the background and the affairs of the State are thus largely in the hands of Ras Taffari.