The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-03
With Iron Bars They Break the
Arms and Nose of a
Foreign Officer.
RUss1A's BIG Modified FLEET
The Bear Is Master of the Situation
in the Far East-England's
Display of Indifference.


press of China arrived to-day with the fol-
lowing Oriental adv1ces:
The sinking of the German warship Iltis
still attracts attention in the press. Ac-
cording to the Peking Times, after strik-
ing all hands were called on deck, three
cheers were given for Emperor William,
and then all joined hands and sang
hymn as they went down.
Several instances OF mutiny have &C.
Cured on board vessels of the Nippon Yu-
sen Kaisha lately, arising from an anti
foreign feeling on the part of Japanese
seamen as against their foreign officers.
Recently the second engineer of one of
this compaEy's steamships, who had his
orders disobeyed, filled the places of the
recalcitrant Japanese with Chinese substi-
tutes. On this, fourteen Japanese sailors
attacked him in his cabin and with iron
bars broke both his arms and his nose. 1t
appears that the law makes it felony to
attack a captain, but does not include
subordinate officers, hence all the insubor-
dination is shown to lesser officers.
1t is thought this steamship line will
suffer greatly unless this state of affairs
is altered, as insurance companies Will
charge higher rates to a company which
permits cargoes to be endangered by add
ing mutiny to the other insecurities of the
sea, and timid passengers will embark on
better disciplined lines.
The Japan Herald alleges that there is
a new and widespread anti-foreign feeling
just now showing itself in Japan. Officers
of the Japanese garrison at Unrin, For
mosa, have been arrested and charged
with cowardice in having deserted their
posts without offering any real resistance
to the Formosan rebels when the latter
attacked Unrin. The general sentiment
seems to be that If the charge is true their
conduct deserves the strongest condemna-
ton; but if, as some say, they are to be
tried on the entirely different charge of
massacreing the natives the feeling is that
they should be treated with leniency. as
the Formosan natives are very fierce and
difficult to control.
The North China Daily News says that
the Japanese are flooding Formosa with
paper money. which the Chinese buy at a
discount and then send back to Japan and
convert into silver at par.
The Japanese Government and the banks
of issue make an enormous profit on their
notes by the destruction of the latter. 1t
is calculated that thousands of ven of
paper money was destroyed in the late
seismic wave disaster, while the conhagra-
tons that are so common in Japan are
accountable for the disappearance of a
very large amount annually.
The Japan Herald says of the seventeen
American sailors and hunters OF the seal
ing schooner Saipan, who are under arrest
at Vlad1Vostock for poaching at Robber
Island that they will not be in a position
to return to Yokohama this year but their
friends need feel no uneasiness about them
as they are having an infinitely better time
Russian nriSOn than
joyed in the forecastle of a sealing
schooner. They are very well treated by
the Russian prison authorities and are
especially in clover when an American
ship touches at Vladivostock, as they are
allowed to visit her in charge of Russian
soldiers.
As tobacco, drinks, etc., run free on
board the American ships when such Wis
its are paid, the worthy soldiers of the
Gar encourage the pastime of paying
calls. 1t ends by casting a SINGER at the
California papers that recently went into
exaggerated commlseration of the poach-
ers.
Dense fogs greatly interfered with the
work of the American, British and Jap
anese Government expeditions, which had
made elaborate and expensive prepara-
tons to watch the recent sola1 eclipse At
Kobe, however, good view was had of
the phenomenon, and also ar Yokohama.
eclipse for coming and going on schedule
time-"wherein it differed from the ma
jority OF scheduled occurrences in
Japan"
They also say that thousands of natives
who would have quivered with supersti-
tious awe only thirty years ago at seeing
the sun swallowed up, on this occasion
calmly smoked little, bits of glass and
gazed through them, simply calculating,
'Mah!" and "DomoW during the occuIta-
ton. q
Notwithstanding this superstition is not
entirely dead yet in Japan, for an Osaka
man is doing a thriving business by means
OF 1t. he has purchased at @ great price
beautiful white snake and enshrined it
in temple where the superstitious flock
to pay it homage and tribute, believing it
to be the god of wealth. He might do well
to bring the silvery scaled beauty to-
America just now and herald it as a cam
paign mascot.
Sho Nemoto, the Japanese commits
sioner sent to the United States to inspect
commercial prospects, is re ported to be
favorably impressed with the inducements
held out by San Diego as terminal point
for japanese line OF steamships.
If the iron from the iron fields at San
Isidor, Lower California, proves of requi-
site quality for steel making the indica-
tons are that it will be utilized in great
quantities for building the new Japanese
navy.
Public curiosity is on the qui vive in the
Orient as 10 what Russia will do with the
many ships of-war modified at Vladi-
vostock. The bear seems TO continue
making extensive preparations for eventu-
alities and it is limited that Russia desires
to constrain Japan to go to war with her
before japan has completed additions to
her navy and her military power. Russia
alone, tits Intimated, is master of the sit
uation in the far east, and it is believed
it will not be long Eow before that power
will throw off her inscrutability and act
Great Britain's display of indifference is
barely commented on in the Oriental
press, which is, on the whole, very al
mond-eyed. watchful and sapient lynx
that allows little to escape it