Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-07-25
TRAITS OF JAPANESE.
AS Aviation They Are Clearly and In.
dustrious.

| QuStFlOuS.
To one who comes out of India ant
China, Japan is paradise. To one
who has experienced for four months
all the fell evils of an Indian fever, ia
pans atmosphere is the very breath OF
life. To one who has learned to know
the dirt and filth of India, it's monot-
oy, it's dishonesty, its lack of enter
prise, the cleanliness of Japan, its eager
advance in the ways of civilization, its
jollity, it's carefulness, its industry are
revelations of delight. The people are
good-natured, hard working and they
take things as they come with a VIM
| ming smile. They have worked Won
| ders since the revolution of 1863 put
the mikado upon the throne and in SUI.
preme power. They have shown g
| 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 dock yards the smaller
ships of their navy, but they have not
yet ATTEMPTED to build for themselves
cruiser or a battleship. They have
an infinite faculty for imitation 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 Toxic or Yokohoma refused
/ to sell any more tickets, as all places
in the railway carriages had already
been booked. When remonstrance was
made, and the suggestion proffered
that more carriages should be put on,
Or extra trains run, the railway officials
gasped. No such condition had ever
arisen before and they did not know
how to solve the problem. 1t was not
that they We're bound by precedent or
custom. 1t was simply that they did
not know how to act under the strange
conditions, They began their upward
road to civilization by taking France
for their model. Frenchmen built their
first railway. But today 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 ascen-
dant. 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 thirty-five years,
you cannot but have the greatest re-
spect and admiration for the people.
There is no similar instance in history.
1t is a romance of q great nation. And
looked at from this point of view. there
is nothing so absorbingly interesting in
the world today. The bronze and
lacquer work are real and great art,
judged by whatever standard you wish.
But when these things have been said,
I 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.
Every one has heard of the dishon-
esty of the Japanese. Personally. |
have received the best of fair dealing
from shopkeeperS and in keepers. But
| have asked men, Englishmen and
Americans. who have been in business
in Japan all the way from thirty to
seven years. and the verdict is unani-
NOUS. The largest percentage of hon
esty among Japanese merchants, man
ufacturerS and business men that any
one has yet Ventured is 10 per cent.
My informantS say that the higher po-
litical officers are honest and SpotleSS,
but all of the lower ones are open to
brides. Such statements, based, of
course, upon opinion and not upon sta
tistics. may be very misleading and
usually are 50. But when there is such
consensus of opinion among white
men one must accept it as substantially
frlIn ,,1ti hn ie.n to trnt l.
dence.
So much has been written about the
extraordinary and extravagant beau
ties of the scenery that it seems like a
voice crying in the wilderness to try
to write of it in other terms. The in
lend sea is pretty, nothing more. l
should say that the coast of Maine. al
m ost anywhere. could give it liberal
discount, and l am sure that neither
Eggenoggin Reach nor Fox Island
thoroughfare ought to be mentioned in
the same month with it, so vastly do
they surpass it. The mountain dis
tricts of Miyanoshita and Hakone.
whence one views Fuii-san Alright, are
attractive. with a mild and inoffensive
ruggedness that does not approach to
grandeur. Fuji-san itself is wolf
worthy of worship. In all its beauty
and peacefulness it raises its snow
capped head from the sea level with
the proud grace of a noble woman. 1t
Is as fortunate in its situation as in its
contoT. But even it has not the in
spiration of grandeur, beautiful though
it is. Kipling has said that one who
knows and understands F'uji-san Will
know and understand Japan. That, OF
course. is not true. But l think that it
is true to say that one who does not
see how the japanese have come to
hold their mountain sacred will never
have ADMIRATION for or sympathy with
them. Again at Nikko the traveller is
disappointed. The far-famed temples
there are outdone by those at Toxic,
about which little has been written.
But no praise can be too great for the
wonderful scenery round about Nikko
md Lake Chuzenji.-Boston Trans
cript.
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