The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-11-26
JAPAN HoNoRs PERRY.

JAPAN HONORs PERRY.
The wonder working ability of time
has, perhaps, eve received greater
or more complete illustration than in
the case of Japan. Rising within the
span of an ordinary life allotment
on earth from the level of a semi-civi-
lized people to the high plane of one
Of the worlds great and progressive
powers is an achievement Of which
few nations can boast. While other
people have attained their present
heights and power only through the
refining influences and mutations of
centuries, Japan with a single bound
attains that emminence and stands
forth like a pigmy transformed into
a giant by the touch of the magician's
wand. Not only has she become a
giant. possessed of a giants strength,
but she also has become a giant in in
tellect and a power in the worlds ad-
vancement and ~humanity's progress.
While she mas done all this largely
through her own efforts and her
achievements are her own and the
credit for which belongs to her, yet
she had her. magician, but instead of
touching her with the wand of the on
juror he Numbered his canon about
her ear and awoke her from the sleep
into which centuries had plunged her.
She resented the awakening, but when
she began to realize the greatness that
could be hers she joyously leaped from
her couch and at once began to avail
herself of the opportunities held out
and by strides left behind those who
still opposed progress and were con
tent to remain in darkness. She now
realizes the beneficence of the magi-
clan and his kindly intents and is
preparing to do him honor and accord
him place with the great men of her
own land.
Commodore Mathew C. Perry she re-
CARDS as her liberator and the land
that sen him to her distant shores
she considers her inspiration and pro-
tector as we'll as benefactor. Statues
have been erected to the one and the
names of both will be the thread that
shall run throughout the official his
tory of the Land of the Chrysan-
themum that its rulers and law max
ers have decreed shall be written.
They have sent ore CT their ahles.
men into Europe SO that he may study
the methods pursued by them in writ
ing their histories and he is now in
this country to conclude his research
and acquire the knowledge he seeks
sc that full justice may be done to the
mar and the nation whom above all
others the Japanese revere and re-
gard with the sincerese friendship.
Truthfully does DR.. Mitsukuri, the
Japanese historian, say of Perry: "He
sought only justice for his country
when the greatest opportunities for
the working out of sinister designs
on our nation presented themselves.
The students of u history shall know
him for what he was"
In years to come when a native Fill
Pine shall write the history of his
country, when like the Japanese the
people of those islands shall have
progressed from the condition of semi.
civilization which now marks them
and as a nation shallalso have attain.
ed the heights to which a true civil.
cation is capable of ascending, he, too,
will say of the Americans as the Jap
anese O say and thank the destiny
which decreed that the same nation
which placed the torch of civilization
into the hands of Japan also lighted
his own land into the paths of prog.
ress and greatness.