The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-12-19

interpreter: He was my guest while
in Japan"
For a moment 1 was speechless. If I
had been at home it would not have
been so, but in that distant land, a
! thousand emotions possessed me and
took me far across the waters, upon
cory battlefeldS, in council halls and
what was greater, among the people he
| loved, and who loved him, the Silent
Soldier" Yes, there was General Grant
whose memory was alike preserved in
the halls of princes and in the huts of
peasants. How had this modest man
so commended his memory to the pa
| triotiSm of every country whose people
are moved by the common instincts of
humanity? AS his Highness looked upon
the picture l thought that he would
| have given all the jewels of his line
rather than not have known that
| American citizen. AS for me- 1 had
realized the emotions of pride as had
seen the Stars and Stripes wave Ger
those distant seas. Yet strange and
unaccountable, memory and patriotism
so conjured as to make me feel that |
was in the living presence of the apos-
tie of liberty as he stood supreme amid
the storms of the battle of the Wilder
| ness.
| let we cannot wonder lOdl the Jdp~
anese are hero worshipers; they have
for centuries been fighting out their
own destiny, at times repelling invad
ing armies; again carrying war into
the hearts of other countries; or with
civil broils devastating their own fer
tile fields in the unhappy strife for
power. Almost everybody who has
travelled in Japan comes away prepared
to write book about the country, and
! they seem to speak with more aSSur-
ance than people who have lived there
twenty years. Heretofore the export
ing business has been carried on by
foreigners.
There has been an ancient caste pre-
judice against commercial life which
has in large measure prevented in
| vestment of money and development
of trade. Now it is going into the
hands of the Japanese, and few years
will revolutionize commerce. They
are a seafaring people; they will own
their own vessels, and the great Pa
cific will bear everywhere upon it's bill
lows the Rising Sun of the East, har-
binger of commerce and trade. This
will surely come about when the rich
| Of Japan engage in mercantile pur
suits and money is invested in enter
! priSes.
1t is said that the japanese are not
mechanical and will always be at our
mercy in this regard. They are me-
chanical in their own way, and to the
extent of supplying their own needs.
| Their skill has so far been directed,
not speaking of the arts. toward those
small things sufficient to supply the
smaller wants of the nation. They
! have never made hay press or thresh
ing machine, because necessity has
never driven them to it. The feudal
! system has kept them engaged in the
| thousand things that beautify the En-
| pire. The mason'S art has been be-
| slowed upon the construction of i'm
menSe walls surrounding castles. Great
| stones have been broken from island
! quarries and transported to the main
land; stones beyond the capacity of
modern steamers, perhaps, upon wood
en- RATS when time and labor were not
| supposed to be elements in the econ
Omy of life. They have in all this as
we'll as in a thousand other things,
| shown a genius for construction, and
we have no right to assume that it will
| not develop.
Amid the wars and rumors of wars
it becomes interesting to contemplate
the position of Japan in the family of
| nations. Will she be as England,
hemmed in by the seas, simply a ma
val power? If the war with China had
| given her a foothold on the continent
| she would have peopled Korea and
| Manchuria and begun the building of
| new empire. With Notifications and
| standing army on the mainland, with
the accessory of a powerful navy and
command of the seas between ia
pan and Asia proper, she would have
become the champion of the East.
She simply demonstrated her power
and reused portentous jealousies. The
| increased strength of other nations be-
comes a menace to her England
lies encamped on China's southern
| shore. Russia will soon complete her
| trans Siberian railway and be able in
quick order to throw an immense army
into Korea and Manchuria. Current
| dispatches Indicate that France and
| Germany desire to attend this feast
of the nations.
The fate of China becomes import
ant to Japan. AS Milton so graph
cally describes that ancient realm
! where sat enthroned sable vested
night, eldest of things" encroached
upon by the new powers gradually
weakening the scepter of old night"
so these modern forces of civilization,
year after year, little by little are en-
croaching upon the realm of that
monarch old until prophecy fore
shadows dissolution. Japan is being
surrounded by the greatest armies and
greatest navies of Europe. Yet there
she stands, unique in position, the CEN
trail figure of the East, with the bal
ance of power, a brave and warlike
people, and time may prove her a con-
queror.
~