The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-04-27
Cheap Living in Japan.

A correspondent of the New York
Ecentng Post visited the Imperial School
at Nagasaki and records his observa-
tons as follows: The school consists
of two parts, besides a normal school,
contiguous in site and, in n measure,
allied to its neighbor. The school is
supported by Governmental %appropria-
ton, and is under official direction and
inspection. A native director, a man
of superior wisdom, who stands sixth in
consequence among the national educa-
tional officers, is in personal charge of
this school and is its active superin-
tendent. lie is assisted by a corps Of
native instructors and by Messrs. Cav.
amor and Arnold, the former Il native of
Ireland and the latter n son of New
England. Mr.. Cavanor has had m ex-
tended experience rs n teacher in the
United States, the Sandwich Islands
and Japan, and is entrusted with the
English departments of the school, Mr..
Arnold being his assistant.
The two parts into which the school
is divided are the boarding and day sec
tons, the former with about sixty at
PENDANTS, the latter with more than two
hundred. The scale of charges seems
at first ridiculously low, the tuition be-
ing only one dollar and a half II month,
and the expenses of the hoarders only
two dollars and a half a month addi-
tional. This rather exceeds in modesty
some of the bills of Dotheboys Hall
but we must recollect that every expense
and every income as well is proportion
ally small. 1t is astonishing to see how
little man really wants here below,
when it is a bold alternative between
simple existence and non-existence. A
very little rice, a few turnips and some
thing that shall be both cheap and
strong ''to makee drunk come" will
last, if it must, n long time.
Every thing in Japan is tiny. The
people are, the houses are, the utensils,
the playthings, the farms, the roads,
oNc'y thihS IL oihai IL We iiuc, We
crowd our persons into a baby cart; if
we dine, we eat and drink from dishes
that are no larger than those our chill
dren play "party'' with in the nursery.
We smoke out of q pipe that holds only
a dozen whiffs; we pass through the
country on foOt-paths instead of roads,
between rising terraces of cultivated
land, cut into patches whose area is less
than that of an ordinary parlor, AID
when we die our bodies are packed in
the most economical way and buried in
a snug little family lot from ten to
twenty feet square. Four dollars a
month for board, lodging, instruction
and incidental expenses is therefore con-
sidered not unreasonably low in Japan
in fact, some of the brighter scholars,
who have learned sufficient English to
pun, say it is u high school in more
sense than one. To the natives, ac-
customed rs they are to this low scale
of expense, the salaries paid to the for
eign teachers may well seem enormous
for although these salaries are but rea-
sonable, according to our standards,
they are entirely out of proportion to
those paid the native teachers, whose
duties are as arduous and presuppose
as much preparation. The average pay
of these Japanese instructors is seven
dollars a month, whilethe director him
self receives less than half the sum paid
Mr.. Cavanor. W. may imagine, there
fore, that the services of foreigners at
these large rates of pay are regarded
by the government and people as a tenn
porary e~xpedient, and that they look
forward with eagerness to the time, not
far distant, when the pupils who are
now receiving this costly education can
turn it to the benefit Of their fellow
countrymen.