Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1904-04-29

was illustrated a few days ago when
SonOda KOkichi. formerly president OF
the Yokohama Specie hank Of Japan
during the course 81 a lecture before
the Kokumin Kouyenkai tthe Mutual
Aid Society For Ciiizens,. called upon
the assembled mobiles. merchants and
bankers To give their jeweiry for the
ameIioration Of the conditions among
the poor.
Instantly the audience was In an up
roar-gold watches. rings. pins. al
sorts of personal ornaments. were liter
ally being torn from their fastenings
and thrown at the speaker. Severa
hundred pieces of jewelry. valued at q
good many thousand yen. were con
tributed in a few minutes. and When
the meeting was over hardly a person
left the hall with hit Of jewelry
showing about him. Since then. as
one of the newspapers quantity puts
II. even the officials are afraid tt
wear rings for fear of being called the
models of fools"
Mr.. Sonoda has been one Of the heav
lest individual contributors 10 the ale
societies. The day after the demon
stration at his lecture he gave sever
gold watches. a chain and ls.On yer
in money. Mr.. Sonoda's liberality has
made him one of the most popular cit
izess of Tokyo today.
A banking. mining and dry goods
house. which has American and Lon
don branches. has. perhaps. made the
largest single contribution = 100000
yen, or $4,000.
BY reason of their contributions,
which have been made largely to the
Red Cross society. the foreigners are
universally acclaimed. Miss Ethel
Howard, the English governess in the
family of Marquis Shimadzu. feudal
lord, is being blessed by the soldiers
families, who have somehow heard OF
her letter to her employers attorney
in = hich she states that she declines to
accept her salary for six months, wish
ing it to be used to succor soldiers
families.
But the man who has given his all
for the succor of his fellow countrymen
is Kinebuchi Sei-ichiro. head of com
pany doing business in Manchuria and
Siberia. He was worth 10000 rubles
when the war broke out. He saw the
distress of his countrymen who were
in Hardin with him, and. he knew OF
their suffering elsewhere in the en-
emy's country. So he took his money
gave enough to each Jap to get him Out
of the country and arranged with Ger
man steamers to pick up the refugees
at the different ports and carry them tt
Nagasaki.
In this way hundreds of laps reach
ed home in safety. but Kinebuchi re
manned in Hardin, saying that III
would not leave until every Jap il
Manchuria was safe. Then, he said
| he would disguise himself as China
| man and escape. But no word ha:
come from Kinebuchi, and no trace cal
| be got of him, and the belief is gradu
ally increasing that he has been caugh
by the Russians and executed as ;
spy.
| If such is the case, it is safe to as
sumo from the way even the rick
shaw men are now praising Kline
buchis generous act that he will be
come one of the heroes of the war.
One of the most unusual features o
this ecstasy of giving is seen daily o.
the streets. The country people ar
bringing their horses by the hundred
into town as their contributions to tn
welfare of the nation. Before partin
with their animals they industriousl
comb their names, lavishingly cares
them, call them multitude of pc
names and bid them goodby at length
"And the horses" says the Jill Shin
bum, "seem to appreciate the words G
their masters and droop their heads i
sorrow"