The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-08
M4RoU1S ITO OF JAPAN.

MARQUIS ITO or JIP1N.
The biography of great men becomes
the history of the world The hewers Of
wood and the drawers of water, the men
OF bone and Drawn, the great mediocre
majority, follows the few divinely select
ed leaders. Divinely selected only by
reason of superior intellectual strength
combined with moral and physical cour-
age. The pathfnders of the world are
not numerous and they are confined to
no cline or country. They come with
out a herald. They do their work as only
men can who have work to do, conf
IDENTIFY persistently. They open the way
for the coming ages. die. and take their
placs among the immortals-the makers
of history.
Marquis Ito of Japan is one of the
great men of the closing years of the
last century. He has accomplished such
a work as no man ever accomplished
Before him. He, aided by few other
daring souls, has accomplished for ia
pan in forty years what has required
centuries among European nations. Di-
rectly TO Marquis Ito is due the regenera-
ton of Japan. Under his magical touch
Japan has sprung full armed from the
trunk of Asian static exclusiveness.
The story of Ito and the awakening of
Japan reads like a medieval romance.
The breaking of the seal which had for
centuries held one of the oldest civ
citations of the world inviolate and sta
tionary, While the Western world was
big with events; the dramatic invasion
OF this Oriental eXclusiveness by Commo-
dore Perry; the interest in all things
Western awakened in the minds of the
young by this great event; the deter
mination of young Ito and his friend
1nouye to eXpel the foreigners from the
sacred soil of 1.-The empire; their flight
to England and their sojourn there, study
ing the arts Of these wonderful foreign
ers; their change of heart regarding the
people Of the West; their determination
to remodel Japan on the lines of West
ern civilization; their almost hopeless
struggle and their narrow escapes from
death and their final triumphs, would
each furnish settings for an historical
novel Of absorbing interest.
Nations are lot remodeied in day,
especially nations which have known no
change from a time whence the memory
OF man rUnneth not. Those who have
faced the difficulties experienced in this
country Of mutations, by those who have
undertaken administrative or municipal
reforms, viii appreciate the almost super
human effort it must have recorded to
change the current of a nations thought
and re-establish the monarchy on for
eign model in such land and amid such
people as Japan and the japanese.
Ito can recount more hair-breadth
'scapes than Othello. What Peter the
Great was to Russia, Ito is to Japan:
what Bismarck was to the German en-
pire, Ito is to Japan. He is the Tanner
lane the Metternich, the Pitt the Ham
hton, the Diaz, the Bolivar and the Ii
Hung Chang of the island empire of the
East.
In his visit to this country, the country
to which Japan looks for sympathy and
aid IN her national and social evolution.
he should receive the honor due one Of
the greatest of modern men. He should
be honored as one of the worlds nation
builders, for his worth as man. for the
deeds he has done, as we'll as for the
nation whose living exponent he is. Aside
from personal and sentimental considera-
lions, the reception of Ito in this country
should be most hearty. 1t will be a pay
ing investment from a commercial and
diplomatic standpoint. Japan holds the
diplomatic key OF the far East.
Marquis Ito is expected in st. Paul to-
day. and will honor the city with a
somewhat extended visit He is making
tour Of the United States for purposes
of observation and recreation. A more
distinguished character than Marquis Ito
has never been within our gates