The Portland daily press., 1895-08-22
sHIzNo KoNDo,JAPANEsE LECTURER
His Fascinating Lecture at the Y, ID. G. A.
Last Evening.

small an audience &Teebeu SulAHO AOuuOs
A. NJ, at his lecture on the Chino-Japs
anese War at the Y. NJ O. A. rooms last
evening. Here was an educated and In.
telligent Japanese with plenty Of lantetn
slides illustrative of this most interest,"
ing and extraordinary war and with all
the information about it that only q
Japanese could have, and yet very few
people went to hear.
Those who did will never forget it and
do most earnestly congratulate them
selves that they went.
Shizno Kondo is very intelligent man
and also a very prepossessing one. He
is admirably good looking, good natured
aged his own lantern and explained the
pictures in broken English that was
sometimes eloquent, frequently amusing
and always. interesting. The slides were
the most wonderful pictures that were
ever thrown upon screen in Portland
Most of them reproductions of native
drawing and were vivid and grotesque in
the extreme, yet nevertheless gave a fairly
good idea of what they were meant to
convey.
Great splashes of red on the wall Of a
fort were very vivid illustrations of the
of cannon ball, and the naval scenes
were simply tremendous. Well might
the enthusiastic lecturer declare that
they represented the most terrific naval
battle of the world. They certainly
looked it, Well might he also declare
that Nepoleon's army in Russia knew
nothing of distress, compared to the ex-
periences of the japanese army in Man
tchuria. The il lustrations in their bright
coloring and expressive outlines Ger
tainly ind ic ated as much
Mr.. Kondo leaves no doubt of the SUI
periority of the japanese over the Chi
nese, nor of his own pride thereat. He
declared that Port Arthur was q strong-
er fortress than Gibaralta, thatfthelCh1-
nese had recently.. expended $500. 700, 900
upon it, yet that in 25 hours the Japanese
captured it. Thus in one day, said he,
the japanese took possession OF over
s40O, 00O 900 worth of property. He de-
clared that 1t was theibiggest commercial
transaction in the history OF the world.
He also declared that during the first
expedition. lin Manohuria the Japanese
might have taken 90, 900 Chinese prison
ers, but did not do so because 1t was
good deal cheaper to let them run away.
He said tha5 the Chinese committed
suicide because they were shot by their
own guns, which they threw away and
which the japanese picked up and used
against them.
The following is a sample of the lectur-
er's broken English. He showed a picture
Of Japanese soldiers with their arms
thrown wildly in the air. It was after
one of their victories and they wefe re-
ioioine. after having "drank hearty and
eaten merry"
| AS a whole Mr.. Kondo's command OF
the English is extraordinary and his
little mistakes only enhance the interest
| of the lecture.
| His views, of which there we're over
100. were all beautifully colorad and
mostly from native drawings. The port-
rats of the Emperor and great Japanese
Generals. also colored, were very excel
lent and were undoubtedly made from
photographs
Next to being on the scene Of this ex-
traor6inarv war itself, Is the listening
TO Mr Kondo's vivid description and tho
seeing Of the real native pictures. The
yery defects of these pictures mace the
war seem more real than II they had
been per feet photographs.