Sistersville daily review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1905-1907, 1905-06-15

nifty forced upon Japan by Russia
and the powers of the West at
that time was met with scarcely
a protest. Japan had not yet been
awake long enough to stand up
right and defiant in the face of her
oppressors. But there would come
a time.
Patiently Togo waited. Patti
emily the people of Japan waited.
But while they waited they pre-
pared. The time came. Russia,
domineering. aggressive and false,
pushed the yellow men to close to
the wall. Then came the blow
straight from the shoulder. The
world woke up. 1t laughed, while
it cheered the island nation in its
defiance of the great Muscovite
empire which stretched its huge
bulk from the Baltic to the Pacif-
| ic, all the way across Europe, all
the way across Asia. 1t was the
defiance of Lilliput to Brobdignac.
It was the coming out of David
to meet the Goliath of nations.
From the moment of the first
blow in the harbor of ChemuIpo
to the obliteration of the Russian
fleet in the straits Of Corea, from
Port Arthur to Mukden. the yell
low men has known nothing OF
anything but victory, often hard
won, but always victory.
Russia has been hurled from
her place high up among the nav
al powers almost to the bottom of
the list, while Japan assumes a
position from which she may die
tate. with reasonable assurance
of being listened to. for the grim
Togo is not a commander to be
despised and the race from which
he springs is not one to be atfront-
ed.
What the world knows of the
Yellow Tiger of the Sea it has
learned from his deeds. He is not
a talking man. His dispatches to
the Mikado have always been
brief, to the point Of tersencss.
There has been no boasting, no
promising, and no 81 regret to re-
port lie has been his own war
correspondent. No newspaper
representative has been permitted
to interfere with his plans by pub
fishing them to the world. All
that we have known of Togo S do
ings is what he has donc-not
what he is going to do. He has
acted and reported afterwards.
And there has always been abso-
lutte thuth in his reports. There
has been no need for him to with
draw a statement once made.
He is a man Of silence. When
he received orders to take charge
of the fleet there was no word Of
bOasting as to what he would do.
When he sailed to meet and, as it
proved, destroy the Russian fleet,
he permitted no elaborate fare
wells to distract his mind from
the grim duty ahead of him. When
his daughter visited his flagship
lust before he sailed and asked
if he had any last word for his
family, his only command was for
them to expect no word from him
and to send him no word. Not for
one moment did he wish his atten.
ton drawn from his duty to his
country and his Emperor. even by
those he loved the most. To our
western mind such an attitude APP
pears stern to the point of cal
losity: to Togo and the japanese
it was merely the natural and 10y
al devotion of the man himself to
the matter in hand. to the last
atom. As wOrrier. he is that
and nothing else. As a man, apart
from the warrior, he is tender and
af'ectionate with his family. a
lover of flowers and music and
even a writer of poetry.
A small man physically is this
conqueror of the Russ. Even as a
Jap he is short. His shoulders are
slightly stopped and he has ten
dency to corpulency. His should
ers are broad and his chest deep.
He is built like a wrestler and
moves with the agility of a panth
er. He rarely speaks and almost
never laughs or smiles. His dis
pleasure is expressed by tight
enino of the firm laws and a lower