The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-24

While he was charging the enemy, he
found a child evidently forsaken by her
parents. Moved by compassion, the
young lieutenant picked up the child.
and tried to put her into the hands of
| a soldier who was retiring to the rear;
but the child clung fast to his neck
and wept. Come, DEAR" said the
young officer, only twenty-five years
old, and with the child in his left hand
and sword in his right, he charged
the enemy until they were routed.
When the cannon roars were hushed
and when the dewy twilight crept over
the battle field as If striving to cover
the work of human hatred, his tears
mingled with those of the child. The
reckless bravery and defiance of death
shown by the Japanese has been gross
ly interpreted by the foreigners. 1t has
been thought that the Japanese,
through ages of education under mar
tial feudalism, have been deprived of
refined sensibility and that they ap-
proach death without feeling. Nothing
can be greater mistake than this.
The Japanese is endowed with Hellenic
impressionability and Italian vivacity.
The japanese is alive to every fibre of
his being, vibrating with emotions of
sorrow, and joy, anger and fear. That
dull stoicism with which some nation
alities of dull intellect and sensibility
meet their fate. is sublime contempt
to the Japanese. They feaG all that is
inherently fearful No other people,
perhaps, feel more keenly the awfulness
of death than the Japanese, for they are
supersensitive. Their defiance and
fearlesSness of death is not due to lack
of feeling, but rather due to their sub
lime contempt for any demonstration
of fear. 1t is that philosophical resig-
nation, inspired by the fire of imagina-
ton, together with his scorn of being
scorned, that supports a japanese in
his supreme moment, even like Socrates
who drank the cup of fire in philosophic'
cheerfulness, to walk calmly into the
| jaws of death. He who does not fear
death because of his dull intellect and
senSibility, like some Chinese beggars
who sell their lives for 50 in order to
free criminals, is indeed an object of
contempt; but he who is not afraid
although he is fearful of death, for he
has mental and moral strength to mar
shall all emotions, excites admiration
and reverence.
When appearing in that noble emo
ton, love, Yamato-Damashu manifests
itself clad in the garment of a heavenly
race. No other human race, perhaps,
is more devoted toward the object of
love than the japanese. A japanese
poet, when his music sounds harsh in
comparison with the Silyery eloquence
of love, would throw himself upon the
ground in despair and cry,-"over the
| volcanoes and over the seas come to
thee, sweetness of my heart To the
shrine of love the japanese gives his
ali-comfort, wealth. and even life it
self. Longfellow's "Evangeline,'' beau
tiful and constant as she was, is but
one of many women of Japan. A beau
tiful woman once disfgured her lovely
features by applying to them red hot
IRON She promised, when young, her
husband never to marry again should
he die before her. Her irresistible love-
illness, after her husband was dead,
brought tempters. for she was now
| reaching her twenty-seventh year, like
rose just reaching its full beauty and
fragrance, upon whose shrine monarchs
offer their kingdoms.
Another most admirable attribute of
sKamato- Damashu is presence of mind
in time of great danger and suffering.
Once an outlaw was crucified. Just as
he was stabbed by the executioner, a
bird few over his head, singing. He