River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-12-22
JAPANESE PIRATE BOOKS.
"Little Brown Polyglots" Are Adopts
in the Art Of Appropriating
Modern Fiction.

The first western novel Translated
into Japanese was Ernest Maltravers,"
by Bulwer Lytton. This was in 1879.
1t was published under the poetic title:
"a Spring Story of Flowers and Will
| lows" The latest fiction over which
Japan is poring-in stores, banks, COM
mission houses, railway and steamship
houses-is ''The Letters of Self-Made
| Merchant to His Son." and plrated at
that! The lack of an international
copyright law and the lax literary
morality of the Japanese has robbed
Mr.. Lorimer of royalty on more than
100000 copies which have been sold in
the Sunrise Kingdom. But Mr.. Lorimer
has some revenge; the japanese clerks
have to read it as a text book! In the
Japanese appraisemGnt of the book"
says Harold Bolce, in his article, What
the Japanese are Reading in the Book
lovers Magazine, 'its humor was en-
tirely overlooked. The production was
accepted solely as a serious gospel to
overconfdent young manhood" And
yet Japan is not so far astray in its esti-
mate of the book, which does preach
a first-rate business gospel in homely
language. But piracy and even plag1ar-
ism are not considered more than venial
offenses in Japan Many a hard-worked
preacher or editor will sympathize with
the literary workers of Japen who make
no bones about appropriating good
thing when they see it, without the
formality of using quotation marks.
Only we Occidentals are not so honest
about it.
The JPps-'the little, brown poly
glots, as Mr. Bolce appropriately and
picturesquely calls them-look upon
plagiarism las an indication of extern
sive and tenacious memory" and re-
gard the use of quotation marks as IAN
exhibition of questionable taste"
American fiction is not popular in
Japan, but science, philosophy and
poetry are. The writings of Ira Rem
sen, Simon Newcomb, Edward Holden
and David Starr Jordan are well known,
and appreciated. Emerson, Whittier
and Longfellow are enjoyed. Mark
Twain so far, ''has failed in laughing
his way into Japan" whereas in Rus
STA he shares the honors with Grover
Cleveland! Japan is an empire OF
poets"
The present Mikado has written near
ly $4,000 odes, but as Japanese ode
consists of only 81 syllables, and as
rhyme, reason and metre are alike ig-
nored" the imperial output may be
reverently discounted. The mass of the
people, however, like western nations,
are great newspaper and magazine
readers. More than a thousand news
papers and magazines are published in
the empire. The Imperial Public Ii
brary at Toxic has 500,00 volumes,
nearly 1000 of which are printed in the
languages of Europe" Notwithstand-
ing this avidity to read, the daily press
is not enterprising. It does not push
its circulation or sell it's wares on the
streets To get copy you must go to
the Office of publication.
But Japan is ahead of the west in that
nearly every newspaper has prison"
editor, whose duties consist in going to
Jail and standing trial for any offense
committed by the journal. This repre-
sentative of some of the more indie
pendent papers spends large portion
of his time in prison, either awaiting
the hearing of his case or in serving out
the term of his sentence. Even when
out of the tolls, he has no editorial
duties to perform. His salary is larger
than that of most of his colleagues, and
his position is in demand. He enjoys
the sonorous title of editor-in-chief,
and when he is behind the bars the
actual editor is classed by the journal
in question as merely contributor"
No wonder the makers of comic opera
go to the east for their ideas. The west
cannot match its serious whimsicality
or its sophistical subterfuges!