Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-09-16
JAPAN AND The JAPANESE.
Pure Atmosphere, Beautiful Scenery
and Traits of the Progressive
People.

To one who comes out of India and
China, japan is a paradise, says
Yokohama correspondent of the Bos-
ton Transcript To one who has ex-
perienced for four months all the fell
evils of an Indian fever, Japan's at
mosphers is the very breath of life.
To one who has learned to know the
dirt and filth of India, it's monotony,
it's dishonesty, its lack of enterprise,
the cleanliness of Japan, it's eager adj
vance in the ways of civilization, its
jollity, it's carelessness, it's industry,
are revelations of delight. The people
are good natured, Woodworking and
they take things as they come, with
a winning smile. They have worked
wonders since the revolution of 1868
put the, mikado upon the throne and in
supreme power They have shown
a marvellous selective faculty as to
what they should do themselves and
what they should get white men to
do for them. For instance, they are
building in their own dockyards the
smaller ships of their navy, but they
have not yet attempted to build for
themselves a cruiser or a battleship.
They have an infinite faculty for imi
tation, but very little, if any, inventive
or creative genius
A week before the naval review at
Kobe, which began on April 10, the
railway at Tokyo or Yokohama re-
fused to sell any more tickets, as all
places in the railway carriages had
already been booked When remon-
STRANGE was made and the suggestion
proffered that more carriages should
be put on or extra trains run the
railway officials gasped. No such con-
d1tion had ever arisen before and they
did not know how to solve the prob
lem. 1t was not that they were bound
by precedent or custom. 1t was sim
ply that they did not know how to act
under the strange conditions. They
began their upward road to civiliza-
ton by taking France for their model.
Frenchmen built their first railway
But to-day the only things of France
that survive are the uniforms of the
police and army and the constitution
1t is no secret that the latter will
have to be materially changed, and in
all things else the United States seems
to be in the ascendant From the
land of the stars and stripes the Jap
gets his engines, his machinery, his
tobacco, his trolley cars and his civil
and mechanical engineers.
When one considers the vast stride
intelligently and deliberately taken by
Japan during the last 35 years, you
cannot but have the greatest respect
and admiration for the people There
is no similar instance in history It
is romance of a great nation. And
looked at from this point of view,
there is nothing SO Accordingly in
teresting in the world to-day. The
bronze and lacquer work are real and
great art, judged by whatever stand
ard you wish. But when these things
have been said, l conceive that the
tale of legitimate praise is ended both
for the country and the people, and it
is time to turn to the other side of the
shield.
Everyone has heard of the dishon-
esty of the japanese. Personally, l
have received the best of fair dealing
from shopkeepers and innkeepers. But
have asked men, Englishmen and
Americans, who have been in business
in Japan all the way from 80 to Z
years, and the verdict is unanimous
The largest percentage of honesty
among Japanese merchants, manufac-
turerS and business men that anyone
has yet ventured is ten per cent My
informants say that the higher polit-
ical officers are honest and spotless,
but all the lower ones are open to
brides. Such statements, based of
course upon opinion and not upon
statistics, may be very misleading and
usually are so. But when there is
such a consensus ofFopinion among
white men one must accept it as sub
stantially true until he is able to get
oetteR evidence.
So much has been written about the
extraordinary and extravagant beau
ties of the scenery that it seems like
voice crying in the wilderness to try
10 write of it in other terms. The
inland sea is pretty, nothing more. l
should say that the coast of Maine,
almost anywhere, could give it lib
eral discount, and l am sure that
neither Eggemoggin Reach nor Fox
island thoroughfare ought to be men
toned in the same month with it. so
vastly do they surpass it. The noun
tain districts of Miyanoshita and Ha-
zow whence one views Fuji-san
Alright, are attractive, with a mild and
noffensive ruggedness that does not