The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-10-24
FROM THE ORIENT.
Continued from Second Pane.)

CONTINUED from Second Paoe.)
fact there is no class OF SUBJECTS which
they do not discuss. Their editorial ar
ticles CO. prise finance, Co nmerce,
Christianity and the thousand and one
nawisnbjecis which are now te!esting
old Japan.
The papers are taken by all classes
of people. from the Mikado to the
cooley and the number of subscribers
increase every day. Toxic has press
which FIRE gu -ntly entertains foreign
visitors.
There are three English papers pub
lished IN Japan. These are all issued
at Yokohama and their prices form
quite q contrast with those of the
Japanese newspapers. Thew cost 20
cents. a copy or from $l8 to $25 a
year, AID the news in them is almost
entirely Japanese and of other foreign
countries rather than America One
of these is before me and It's An erican
news is comprised in the following tele-
gram.
WASHINGTON. D. C.-The House has
passed the tariff BILL"
The Japan Mathis perhaps the best
Known of the English japanese news-
papers. 1t is edited by Captain Brink
| ley, an Englishman, who has been in
apan for score or more of years and
who Is one of the finest scholars as well
as one of the most influential foreigners
in japan.
note in one of the Japanese news
| p pers of late date announcing its
collection for the sufferers from the
recent eruption of Bandisan, in which
so many Villages were destroyed, that
the papers collect contributions here
as they do in America, and this paper
states that within a fortnight after this
eruption So 700 was thus collected.
There is movement going on in
Japan tor the throwing away of
Chinese characters and the adoption
of the same alphabet that we use. There
are two societies in Toxic in favor of
some reform in this direction and one
of them wants to adopt the Japanese
alphabet proper, which consists of
forty seven letters. There will probably
be change to one system or the other,
and | have heard it predicted that
English will eyentu ally be the language
of Japan.
/ saw shorthand writer in one u
the offices here take down Japa lese
conversation, and 1 could not see thai
his pot hooks looked any different from
those of the reporters of Congress. It
will be impo 9sible, however, for Japan
ever to use the typewriter while she
sticks to the Chinese charactere. In
the meantime large part of the empire
is learning English, and Japan has the
best educational system of any of the
oriental nations. School attendance is
compulsory and there are three million
children in the public schools More
than one million of these are females,
and Japan has 142 high schools. 1t has
sixty-five normal schools and there are
about l 500 pupils in the Imperial
University here. There are 103 tech
nicsl schools containing 8 600 Students
and 85} chools are maintained by pri
vate funds. The future of Japan it is
impossible to predict, save that with
this system Of education, it cannot but
continue to advance.
A look at the book stores of Toxic
gives some idea of the class OF lItera-
ture that the educated people of the
empire read, and there are no subjects
too high or abstruse for them. In one
of the book stores here tn, re is as good
collection OF M taph7sical works as
you will find in any book store in Wash
ington, and Mill and Spencer are
read by the thousands. All classes
of scientific works are sold
and there seems to be more
solid books than novels. l see
secondhand books for sale on the
street marked here and there with ia
panese notes bearing on such subjects
as biology, political economy and his
tory, and a number of the more noted
works have been translated into
the Japanese language Mr.. Mutzu.
the present minister from Japan to
America. amused himself during pc
litioal imprisonment, which he under
went several years ago by trans
lating Bentham's Spirit of the
Laws into Japanese, and 1 am sur
prised at the number OF public men l
meet who are good linguist5. Calling
upon the wee minister of war this
morning without my interpreter [ was
asked if | could spetk French or Ger
man as be fUnnd the E lgiish very hard
for him. replied in German and our
conversation was then conducted in
that language. | meet many Japanese
who can talk English. and the day will
come when the English will be as ia
mIliar a language here as the German
is in America.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.