The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-03-04
JAPAN OF TODAY
Curious Facts About The Mkados Couny-Bicyces, TeIe
phones and Acknowledgements Numerous Progre.'
in Lerature-Sx Ways to Kill a Man Barehandsd.

I
eral brand-new books on Japan some o
the more striking facts about the Ian,
of the Rising Sun"
One of the most useful of these book
is Il. w. Clements thoroughly up-to
date Handbook of Modern Japan GA
C. McClurg). One gets good idea o
the size of Japan from the Statement
that 1t is only a little larger than Cali
fornia. 1t lies between the same paral.
lels of latitude as the States of the
Mississippi Valley, and presents ever
more varieties and extreme climates
than may be found from Minnesota tc
Louisiana. How densely the country is
populated may be seen from the state
i ment that, while the area of Japan is
only one-twentieth of that of the
United States, the population is more
| than one-half as great. 1t was 47,646, SIC
in 1900, and the females exceeded the
males by 100000. The foreigners then
resident in Japan numbered however,
| only $4,000, of whom one-half were Chi
nese. OF Japanese, 123,79l were then
| living abroad, of whom 90,146 were in
the United States. So mountainous is
Japan that only twelve per cent. of the
land is level ground, and a farm of five
dSIts-"oIhSu NIlIlout Cetllc-lso SolSit-
cred large. Tobacco, which is largely
smoked by both sexes, is not native
plant, but was introduced by the Por-
tuguese.
In his chapter on Industrial Japan"
Mr. Clement speaks of the fact that at
the Uraga Dockyard large American
men-ofwar have been satisfactorily re-
paired; and on October Is, 1902, a small
United States gunboat was launched,
the first instance in which Japan has
got an order of shipbuilding from a
Western country. The new civilization
of the West has carried into Japan the
itch for gold and the desire for more
numerous and more expensive luXuries.
A troublesome importation from the
West is the labor union Some of the
trades are well organized, and there are
frequent strikes. Japan has already
1900 miles of railway, most of which
the government owns. In Toxic, there
are in use 1864 telephones. Bicycles
are very popular, and are cheaply man
ufactured. To show the extent of
Japan's shipping interests, we may
mention that the Nippon Yusen Kaisha
alone has seventy-six ships totallng
242,000 tons. The foreign commerce of
Japan has increased from s13,OOO,00 in
1868 to $265,000,O00 in 1902-twenty fold
in third of century.
The typical Japanese house, wooden,
w-thatched, without furniture, and
with its floors covered with mating, is
said to be giving way, in a measure, to
houses in the Occidental style. 1t is
now common to find in houses of we'll
TODD people a foreign room with carpet,
table, chairs, beds, stoves, CRATES, pic |
lures, etc. Schools, churches, stores,
and other such places are also being
constructed with doors on hinges, glass
windows, etc. The Japanese eat little
meat, and it is sold in small quantities.
Beef is cut up into mouthfuls and sold
by the ounce; chickens are carefully
and infinitely dissected and sold by
parts, as the wing, the leg, or an ounce
or two of the breast.
The Occidental games of cards have
become quite popular in Japan, as also
tennis and baseball. In the latter great
American game they have become so
proficient that they frequently win
against the Americans and British who
make up the baseball club of the Yoko-
hama Athletic Association. They have
also taken to Western plays, Shake
speare's "Othello' being put on the
stage in 1903 with marked success.
Under the head of Manners and Gus
TOMS" Mr.. Clement tells of some
Japanese superstitions which exist side
by side with things most modern. For
example:
On the seventh day of the first
month if male swallows seven, and a
al hams thew will
be free from sickness all their lives;
If one bathes at the hour of the dog
IN the tenth day, his teeth will become
hard. A child begotten in the fathers
forty-thir year is supposed to be pos
sessed of the devil. When such
child is about one month old it is,
therefore, exposed for about three
hours in some sacred place. Some
of the family then goes to
get it, and bringing it to the parents,
says: This Is child whom 1 have
'ound and whom you had better take
md bring up" Thus having fooled The
devil the parents receive their own
,hld back.
Here is a paragraph regarding arse
halls, etc, from Mr.. Clements book:
The guns for the artillery service
lsed to be purchased abroad but are
low chiefly manufactured in Osaka.
There is an excellent arsenal in the
Soishikawa District of Toxic. where
he once famous Murata rifle was for
nerly manufactured but that has been
by the "thrtieth year" (of
MeijD rifle; and both of these are jap
anese Inventions. The arsenal is also
turning out ammunition at the ordi-
nary rate of a million rounds a day
The development of the newspaper
Is one of the interesting features of
Japanese life. Thirty years ago there
were none. Today there are more
han a thousand newspapers and mag
izines, INDUCING in woodcuts, even
cartoons. The newspapers are almost
Ill morning journals, but go to press
Early in the evening The largest
the Talyo. prints monthly
wo hundred and fifty pages of Japan
,Sa matter and 10 finally illustrated |