The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-03-13
JAP AN WILL TAKE
 PART IN THE FAIR War Will Not Interfere With
 Her Exhibits MANY WONDERS PREPARED World Will Be Given an Opportunity to See the Remarkable Progress Made By the Yankees of
 the East.
MANY WONDERS PREPARED D
! BY JOHN c. SMALL.

the Orient will not interfere in the slight est with the participation of Japan in the worlds fair, either in commercial or official plans.
 Fifteen car loads of exhibits have al- ready been installed in the different pal aces and a cargo has just been unload ed at Tacoma. All of the SO,0OO exhibits to be shown by Japanese people have left the island and will arrive at St. Louis in ample time before the opening of the exposition on April 30.
 Something of the magnitude of the dis play to be made by this country may be realized when it is learned that 20O0 dlf- ferent exhibitors have contributed to the array Some exhibits consist of only one article, while others number more than a thousand. Some of the articles are worth only a few cents, while the value of others can be reckoned only in the thousands of dollars.
 More than 10000 different specimens are shown in the palace of manufactures. In | the varied industries palace $40 exhibit ors have combined in showing 24000 diff 1 ferent kinds of handiwork. Exhibits from 1 the farm, orchard and forest aggregate more than 1000 different kinds and were contributed from more than 300 sepa- 1 rate sources.
 l Sixteen hundred varieties of fans and 1 paper umbrellas alone are shown and there are as many different kinds of quaint Japanese toys. Brushes of all kinds, endless textile fabrics, toilet arti- l cles, satchels and all manner of trinkets are among the collections. In the manu- factures department will be exhibits of mating and carpets, straw work, bam- | l. ticles for household and industrial uses.
 Silk Will Be Shown. l Fine Japanese silk of every color and texture, in its raw state and made Into beautiful kimonas and other garments, will be shown in the textile department Waterproof clothing and fabrics of vari- ous kinds will be included in the display, showing the superior quality of Japanese weaving and the patience required in the making of garments worn by the Japa- nese people.
 Rare bits of the cloisonne art will be seen in the varied industries palace. Del icately made vases and ouner ornaments, priceless in value anu that required years of artistic labor to perfect, are to be shown by the Japanese in this collec- tion. There will also be various | specimens of porcelain articles and | ltcquered wares, the whole forming such an exhibit of Oriental wares as never before made at any exposition in this or any other country.
 | Japan is not far behind the largest of nations in mineral production and a dis play of her resources is made in the mines and metallurgy palace In addition mod els of Japanese mining plants are install- | ed in "The Gulch," where various meth ods of extracting riches from the earth are to be exploited. Coal, copper, iron, silver, gold and sulphur are all mined in l the little island.
 | During the last severe weather, when American and even Swedish laborers were driven from their work by the cold l the native Japanese continued to apply | themselves vigorously to the task of l building the structures and creating the | landscape features of the Japan reserya- | ton. When the ground was found to be frozen so hard that their picks could not penetrate it, dynamite was used and the | construction went on.
 l In the midst of winter there has been transplanted to the worlds fair a typical | Japanese summer garden, and when the | last of the snows have melted and the | sunshine comes to stay a wonderland of l flowers will burst into bloom. The same energy which emphasized the work on 1 the reservation has been present in in- | stallng the thousands of exhibits In
 
 Is done by Japanese artists, forty of them having been brought to St. Louis for that purpose
 | Japanese Colony Two Hundred Strong. | Two hundred persons compose the Jap anese colony in St. Louis and all of them are engaged in worlds fair work. Their | social life has had a greater effect upon l the community than that of any of the other foreign commissioners. The recep- tions given by the mikados representa-
 tives are gorgeous functions, a recent one at which the prominent society peo-
 pie of St. Louis were entertained, cost ing 5000.
 When the present emperor of Japan as- | cended the throne thirty-seven years ago. just after the famous visit of Com modore Perry to his shores. an edict was given to the Japanese people that they must go forth into all parts of the world and seek knowledge This was the light of a new civilization which led the Japa- nese people from an Oriental isolation in
 which they had been enshrouded for many centuries.
 | In the years that have passed since that memorable epoch the Jap has been
 abroad and accumulated a vast amount | of knowledge. He is coming to the world s fair to see and learn more, but he Is
 also coming to show to the world some-
 thing of its own progress.
 Railroads have penetrated every part of Japan and steamships from every for eign land have touched its shores Cot | ton factories have been installed, ma- chine shops built and improvements or every kind made among the Japanese people. They have combined that which was found useful with their own ideas and that which was not adaptable was rejected. Without abandoning anything traditional and without accepting any ob-
 jectionable foreign innovation, the Japa- nese enjoy as do no other people on the
 face. of the earth. all of the advantages
 of both the Occidental and Oriental civ
 lization.
 Education is Impor.1nt. Education is a subject extensively
 treated in the exhibits sent by the Japan
 csc government. Model schools will be
 conducted to show the method of teaching
 Famous university buildings will be re-
 produced in miniature and displays will
 be made of the work of pupils in the va