The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-03-10
Impressions OF Japan.

..I,n,,rossjnns Of japan in the Marth i
,-,,t1,fv- is the second OF BIShop - ~
,,aners on the East OF ie-aaE, 9'iu
en6rroyy. The style is declaeo'S
,csquc. ,.,,of,ro. s1,on-
,,-i,,.;o1y. moi unlike such a one az might
ra found in our OWN Third OF tISiiI ~.
Syenne-tf1e window of q place pf1llialliS
for The sale Of newspapers ana peIi I|,
b4It incidentally for almost ahNbni"7 80 ~
everything else. Here, cohSPlcuor@S
,7;sr,iayed among other prints ana PIC
49, WIS s,lsDended :. huge broadslde,
s,,cb as GENES sometimes with the Lon
don t-raphic or illustrated News, repre-
ze1,tipc- the assembled soVcreiSnS anu
rulers Of the world. Their grouping hao
In il a large suggestion, ana 1uFiiiSileu
10 The student OF political history d very
useful lesson. In the celllrc o. .'ilS
august .roup WAS seated The Emperor OF
1a1,an and gathered about HIM IN
resneCtfui attitudes We're kings ana
queens and presidents, among whom was
,rlr own Chief Magistrate, placed IN what
apparently. according To Japanese ai''
MAS :. position Of appropriate obScufit3
~, tho extreme left of the Emperor,
while standing behind the Imperial chalr
il, which the Aiillado was seated thiS
struck me. l confess. as curiouSiy CON
7ravcning the Japanese traditions ol Soou
3nafluers) was the venerable and Ncnef-
:.fnd Queen Of Great Britain ana IFeidHu
and Empress Of India, whose years ana
Inexanplcd reign, If not her SEX "oulo
seem to have entitled her to one oil Inc
chairs in which. as l observed, the young
German Emperor and our own Mr.
McKinIcv were represented as lounSinG-
IS1It The chief value of the picture lay
III the help which it gave To the traveller
in recovering his political perspective IL
= modern publisher should make i litho-
of world
American consumption [ presume he
would put our own President in the cen
ire Just as in the TfansVaal q Bocr
publisher getting out anything of the
sort would Put Dom Paul there The
Thing in other words, for the traveller
TO learn from such an incident is that
Japan-only like the rest of the world.
after all. in that-tal1es itself quite scri-
ousIy. Ne Americans. on the contrary.
do not. as a rule, take Japan at all
seriously The thing that irritated me-
in my countrymen, and quite as often
in ntiler foreigners, wherever met them
5n Japan, and often, too, in what l read
in the books about Japan, was that SO
many people thought it necessary 10 take
everything that they saw or heard there
as q part of a huge opera bouffe-
II was my good fortune when in Toxic,
through The courtesy of Colonel Buck,
our most able and capable Minister Pleni-
1pt1ntl3ff 10 Japan. 10 HdNG Inc rare
privilege of witnessing the opening OF the
japanese Parliament by the Emperor in
propria persona My companion and I
We're. with tho exception of the diplomatic
corps The only foreigners present; and
/ confess / thought the occasion one of
most impressive dignity and interest.
albeit the costumes both of the mobiles
anu of the members of the House of
Commons We're European instead Of those
OF the charming outlines and cooring
usually worn by persons of distinction in
Japan Speaking, however, of the occa-
sion 10 a member of a. foreign legation,
2 little later, his only observation was,
Did Won ever see such a dron collection
of ola hats" ] could not refrain from
replying that. if the hats We're old. the
ideas inside OF them, as their wearers
swarn1ed in to their places. were both
new and already ferInenting; and /
should be tempted TO say that the man
nation that does mot take JaDan seri-
ously Is ON the way to considerable
Furprisc