Evening star., 1902-03-22

being about three million on the island. The
| chief towns are Tamsui and kelung in the
north and Tainan and TakoW in the south.
, Taipeh Is the capital.
The Japanese are now building railroads
in the northern part Of Formosa and one is
TO go from kelung on south to Tainan-fu.
IhlS Will pass through the most thickly
populated portion of the island, including
the richest of the sugar and rice regions.
1t is at Tamsui that our consul lives This
place has club. several banks and a num-
Der OF merchants and exporters. One of
the great products of FOrmOSa is camphOr
made from the camphor tree. 1t is shipped
to all parts Of the world.
The Japanese have had considerable trou-
BILE with the FOrmOsan savages who live In
villages scattered throughout the noun
tains. These people are much like our wild
men of the philippines. They live by hunt
ing and fishing and a little agriculture.
Some villages have small farms about
them. A few acres are enough for one hun
dred people. each family having its own
plot. The men are head hunters not un-
like those Of Borneo. and it is said that a
man cannot marry until he has brought in
at least one head.
The Chinese are the game of the head
hunter. He sneaks up on them while they
are at work In the fields and spears them
to death After this he cuts off the head
and goes home rejoicing. The tribes are
continually warning with one another and
the japanese soldiers have to conquer them
tribe by tribe. So far no great progress has
been made in civilizing the people.
am told that Formosa has rich minerals.
Coal Is found in different parts and there
are evidences of petroleum. Not long ago
some Chinese employed two Pennsylvanians
to test certain oil fields. They sank a shaft,
but their drills broke at 300 feet from the
surface and SO far the work has not been
resumed.
Where Japan Gets Her Money.
The japanese are by no means a poverty
Ctrtr
aires among them and they are gradually
building up great financial institutions
which will enable them to compete with
u.s. They are good financers and their
banking system Is modelled on ours Mar
| quis Ito. who organized 1t, came to Wash
1ngton and spent some time studying our
| government finances and then went back
and formulated the policy of the empire
Today Japan has paper currency which
Is at par with it's silver. and the country
is nominally on gold basis. 1t has one
bank which acts as the agent of the gov
ernment. having much the same place here
as the Bank Of England in Great Britain
This Is the Bank Of Japan 1t has a cap
ital of DOOOODO yen. divided into $50 600
| shares, and it's dividends range from ff-
teen to sixteen per cent per annum The
shares are all registered and can he owned
only through the consent of the Japanese
secretary OF the treasury. The bank has
a half billion dollars OF deposits and its
loans amount to about $500. 600 900 It's
bank building in Tokyo cost more than q
million yen.
Another large bank is the Kokuritsu
Ginko. which has capital Of about s24,-
m0,Mo in gold. 1t has deposits amount
ing to about $500 600 900 in gold and loans
of more than half that amount The na.fe
Bank has capital of less than $4,000 600,
but its deposits amount to $50 OOO, 900 and
Its loans run high into the millions.
In the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
l have spent some time in the stock ex-
change watching the Japanese bulls and
bears The exchange is right in the
heart of Tokyo. 1t Is three-story Luild-
ing. more like a great barn or warehouse
than anything else. 1t has a cement floor
and about the walls are great galleries.
AS You go In you have to take off your
shoes. and there is a room at the right of
the entrance where the brokers check their
clogs and where they are given straw SAN
dals in exchange Every one in the house
dresses In gowns, although some Of the
more swell brokers wear OvercOatS as well
When / entered the exchange there we're
at least one hundred Japanese yelling end
pushing each other as they crowded this
way ana that that' betting on the various
their hair stuck out like the black
bristles on shoe brush. The sleeves
or their gowns were loose and their
arms showed bare to the shoulders as they
ing their bids. Their almond eyes were
full Of anxiety and their mouths of noise.
I was interested in the signs which they
used in bidding. Putting up one finger
indicates an advance Of 10 cents, two fin
gers 20 cents and closed fist so cents.
The president was an old Japanese In a
black gown, embroidered with a white
coat-of-arms. He stood on a rostrur1 in
the rear Of the chamber and directed the
selling. The quotations were written in
Japanese on black and white strips of
wood. The white strips gave the face
value of the stocks and the black strins
| indicated the selling prices
The president tells me that the stock cx
| change has a capital of a million and a
quarter yen, and that it is now paying
| dividends of % per cent He saws thai
| seats are worth about $4,000 each, and
| that the daily sales approximate 80 OOC
| shares. Most of the business is small
There is no such watering of stocks as In
| the United States. and the result is that
| some shares pay high dividends. The Tokyo
tram cars, for instance. pay 35 per cent
the Yokohama iron works . per cent and
| some other stocks equally we'll
| FRANK G. CARPENTER.
/