The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-13
Japan as hipling Saw 1t;
Leaves from Briton's Notebook
Casual Observations the English Author
Intere During These Days of Turn in he East

screens and paper partitions. Kipling tells
of a burglar who entered house in Toxic
with a pair of scissors instead OF Jimmy
and stole the consuls trousers Before en-
tering a teahouse he was compelled to take
off his boots and the interior was "para--
disc OF cleanliness" He and the professor
were much embarrassed at being compelled
to recline on rugs and eat with chopsticks
from toy tables few inches high. The
chopsticks are described as wooden knit
ting needles.
For local and occasionally for loag-dis-
lance travel Kipling used the jinrickisha.
which is a two-wheeled vehicle having a
hood and springs and drawn by one or two
men.
A theater which Kiping visited was en-
tirely constructed of wood and highly in
fiammable material, and every other per-
son in the house was smoking a tiny pipe
and knocking out the ashes every two min
utes." This suggested cremation and thea
ter horrors to him. and he hesitated about
remaining, but the professor pointed out
that they could easily kick themselves out
of the building. and he decided TO take the
risk Picked fish were sold between the
acts. The orchestra consisted of one GUITAR
and something that clicked. but IL was mot
castinets." The actors changed in public
and any one who liked might shift seem
cry" They could understand but little of
the play, but recognized every trick and
mannerism of the English in that place
magnifed thirty diameters."
The books say that Japan is composed OF
four main islands and about four thousand
smaller ones, and Kipling recorded that the
town of Osaka is built into and over and
among 1884 canals, rivers. dams and water
cuts. The whole OF Japan is not as large
California by ten thousand square miles,
As the population Is now between forty and
nifty millions, the tillable portion OF the
soil is necessarily broken into very small
pieces The cultivation is done mostly with
spade and hoe. 1t seemed TO kipling that
bullock at rest would cover about half
of a japanese field He and the professor
estimated, while looking from their rick
shaw, that the ground supported about 225S
people TO the square mile. As the populs-
ton has since vastly increased, there must
now be between three and four thousand
10 the square mile. Notwithstanding her
swarming millions. they could learn of no
actual poverty in Japan Four cents a day
would keep the agricultural laborer I'm
rice, and the price of fish was nominal. ia
Portable. The japanese were entirely free
from worry. They did their work SO
easily and deliberately that Kipling
described them as playing at every
nothing that looked like labor or
hurry. "A potter sat on a clean mat with
his tea things at his side. When he had
turned out a vase body he saw that IL was
good nodded appreciatively TO himself. ard
poured out some tea ere starting the next
one. Somewhere in dirty England men
tions which shall help and not stifle the
half-formed thoughts. Would they have
their dreams realized, let them see how they
make pottery in Japan" The Japs will
take a saucer of pebbles and rub away for
a year polishing a vase four or five inches
high. They were wonderful artists. and
when he saw their patience he did not mar
vel at il, but he could not reconcile art
and the constitution and continental cloth
ing that did not nj.
AS Kipling neared the end of his sight
seeing in Japan he reviewed a small part
of the army. He could not obtain many
facts about II, but what he saw did not i'm
press him. The cavalry amused him. The
officers were incompetent and the horses
were mere ponies. small even for Japs The
riders had much difficulty in keeping their
seats. The officers OF infantry were '-as
miserable a set of men as Japan could fur
nish." but the privates gave promise OF
efficiency. IF the changes and chances
of military service ever send YOU against
japanese troops, be tender with their cav
airy. They mean no harm. But IL you meet
Japanese infantry. led by a continental Of
ficer commence firing early and often and
at the longest ranges compatible with get
ting at them They are bad little men who
know too much
japanese attempts at modern civilization
kipling regarded as the wholesale adop-
tion OF imperfectly understood arrange
ments. pathetic and misdirected. The aban-
donment OF their picturesque costumes.
their architecture and time-honored Gus
toms. and the introduction OF the fOlles as
well the virtues OF other nations struck
him painfully. His artistic sense was
shocked ar the commingling OF the Oriental
and the Occidental Il have read the entire
Constitution OF japan, and IL Is dearly
bought at the price of one OF the kakeid-
oscopic omnibuses plying In the street
there" He predicted certain disaster for
the Japs. and when these have come 10
pass. they will be sorry that they began
tampering with the great sausage machine
OF civilization. What is put In the re-
ceiver must come out at the spout. but tt
must come out raincemeat