The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-25
INTO THE FORBIDDEN CITY.
The Unparalleled Achievement o Three Daring Young Japanese.

Three Daring Young Japanese.
 Japan and America. t- .--
 The Sacred City of Lassa, the Capital city of Tibet, hitherto a forbidden city to all foreigners, has boen entered re- gently by three daring young Japanese explorers. They are Capt. Yoshnteru Ma hita Hiroshi Nomi and Keikai Kawa- guchi, a Buddhist priest of Honganti, Kyoto.
 Capt. Y. Narita is a promising young soldier and a son of a Samurai of the Satsuma clan. He went to China sew eral years ago, staying in that country for several months while he was prepar- ing for his arduous expedition. After many dangers and hardships he succeed ed in reaching Lassa, having taken sev- eral years to accomplish his self-appoint- ed task. He stayed in the holy city foi eighteen days and then returned to Ja- pan about two months ago. About the same time that Captain Narita visited Lassa, Mir Hirosh Nomi reached the in terior of Tibet. There has been no newi from him for some time and he Is sup posed to be on his way home He Is g vory young man. but brave and cool and quiet in his ways. MT. Keikai Kawasu- chi. the third of the Japanese explorers, had the hardest experience. He went by way of the Himalaya Mountains. and suffered 6 severe attack of snow bltnd< ness. He was totally blind for some time, but has entirely recovered from this mountain disease. Once he was mis- taken for a robber by the Tibetans. who came very near making him pay the penalty, which Is in Tibet, to put the robber on a horse and then shoot him MT. Kawaguehi, who Is a Buddhist priest, at last succeeded in reaching Lassa, and Is still residing In that city.
 These achievements, remarkable il. themselves. are significant in another way. In the first place they show tn, tremendous energy and indomitable bear ing of the Japanese. It will be found in the case of others who have tried to reach Lassa, that they were men who had fitted themselves by long study and experience for the attempt, and who made the fnal effort under the most fa- vCrable conditions possible. All of them, with one or two rare exceptions, failed lamentably. Missionaries who have won the confidence of the Thibetans, and who have learned their lan- guage, failed to penetrate even to the vicinity of the sacred city. Some succeeded in getting within "a day s march. and were tortured or turned back or killed. Even the most accomplished explorer of modern times. Sven Hedin. the incomparable Swede. who had fitted himself for his work by years of study and travel, could not pass the Thibetan guards that protected the sacred precincts of Lassa. Yet the Japanese, young and untried adventurers, with the exception of Captain Narita, who prepared for this expedition by living in China for several months succeeded in attaining & goal that has been denied to the most daring and experienced travellers in the world.
 But the chief significance of these re- markable achievements is the relation of a new force and energy in the world of action. It reveals an awakening in Ja- pan such as occurred in Spain when there dawned upon her early greatness. and when she was preparing to send forth into the world her explorers and ououerors--Columbus. CorteZ, Pi2arro. De Soto, or in England. when Drake and Howard and Hawke led the way to the glories of England on sea and land and transformed her into @ world explorer and world conqueror. It reveals the birth of tremendous national energy and an in domitable national spirit. Japan is no longer a group of islands, a collection of people but a nation possessed by fiery national spirit. These things reveal IL just as 1t was revealed by the greater things of the war with China. and by the splendid heroism of her soldiers in the advance on Pekin and by their more than splendid chivalry and ciurtesy toward the conquered Chinese.
 We must now look to Japan for the Spekes Burtons. MagellAns, Livingstones, Cooks, Marco Polos. We find some of