The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-11-18
CRIMINALS OF JAPAN.
SUBJECT OF The MIKADo A
WELL BEHAVED PEOPLE.

WELL BEHAVED PEOPLE.
Japanese Crimes and Criminals Com
pared to Those of other Countries
Effect of Observation-Disclosures
ness Has Increased Since the eau
cassians Went.
l have not been able to get the sta
tistics for the different cities of Japan,
but those for the empire are given
ia detail and in a most Intelligent
manner showing 591 homicides for
the last year, lG4 being committed by
women and 427 by men, writes William
e. Curtis, in the New York Globe
This is the smallest number for sever
al years, except in 1S99 when the total
was 582. During the last 10 years the
average has been about 600 for a
population of 100000.
The motives of the crimes are given
in all but As cases. The largest num-
Der of murders-247-are attributed in
the candid japanese way to domestic
discussions and discussions involving
the Interests of the family'-in other
words, to family quarrels; 1862 homo
cides are attributed to vengeance, 1O6
to jealousy, 81 to debauchery, Z to
ambition and 248 were committed
while the assailant was under the in
tluence of liquor.
The records Of the police department
in Japan show striking contrast 10
those Of American and European cit
les. Last year, out of total Of 49,
239 convictions in the criminal courts,
only 1923 were for what are called
crimes that is, penal offenses--
while 1913 were for what we would
call misdemeanCrs, and what the Jap
anese term ''offenses against proper
ty," including petit larceny, grand lar
ceny, burglary, obtaining money under
false pretenses, forgery, and embez-
element. The offences against the
public peace, what we would call disor-
DERBY conduct, were comparatively
few, furnishing little more than 10
percent of the entire number of cases
in the criminal court. If you will
compare this with the statistics of the
courts of New York, Chicago and Phil
adelphia and other cities, you will
see that the Japanese are remarkably
well-behaved people, for only 1858
persons out of total population of
over 45,000,000 were convicted OF dis
turbing of public peace. This is, Of
course, accounted for by the temper
ate habits Of the people. There is
comparatively little drunkenness in
Japan. 1t was almost unknown-mir-
bile dictu!-before the foreigners
came to introduce modern civilization,
but it is increasing year by year, until
now temperance societies, which were
unknown and unnecessary, are being
organized in Japan.
Compare, If you please, the number
of convictions in the criminal courts of
Japan-14S,239 for population of AS
900 ,000-and those in India and other
countries of the east, with similar
statistics of England, France, Ger
many, the United States, and other
Christian countries, and wonder what
is the advantage or the purpose of our
universities, colleges, and other means
of culture; our churches, Sunday
schools, prayer meetings, Young Mems
Christian Associations, Christian En-
deavor societies, Epworth Leagues, and
Women's Christian Temperance
Unions. We send missionaries to
teach them the way of salvation, but
they might properly send missiona-
ries to teach us temperance, manners
and morals
There has been a decided decrease
In the convictions in the criminal
courts of Japan since 1895, when the
number was 1S4,062. 1t has been grad
ual but regular, and while it may not
mean that the Japanese are growing
any better as people, it must have
some significance.
The total number of persons con-
victed last year of criminal offenses
was 40, 1877, of whom 1906 were wom-
en-, 106,559 were illiterate, 53,G74 could
read and write, and 1854 could read
only. Regarding ages 4407 were I'M
der 16, 1894 were between '16 and 20,
69,373 were between 20 and 80, 1884
were between 80 and 40, and the re-
mainder were distributed among the
different ages. Two-thirds of them
were old offenders. There are said to
be 10000 professional criminals in
Japan, who are responsible for so per-
cent of the offenses against property,