The Meeker herald., 1905-07-01

His FUND of fears0me ghost stories was
inexhaustible. Behind the dilapidated
house stretched bamboo grove, in the
direction Of moss-ccvesed graveyard
OF an ancient temple. The old man
counted the number Of his boy guests
and took us many candles into the
graveyard. There he lit them, and hid
them In all sorts of corners among the
tombstones. Then he came back to
tell the most horrible ghost storfes
When the midnight hour came we drew
lots, and the boy who drew No. / went
through the 300 yard stretch Of the
thick bamboo grove, in the thick dark.
ness Of midnight, to ind one of the
candles and bring 1t back. The nights
selected were always stormy. Many a
night do I remember having wsded
through the mud Of the bamboo forest
to pass into the graveyard. But in
more remarkable and virile days than
ours, our sires went through stu more
trying training. for when they were
not quite ten years old they had to
visit, in the still hours of dark nights,
the decapitated heads of criminals ex-
posed on the highway for the ethical
education Of the passersby. and they
were told to leave mark upon the
scaffold to show that they were not I'm
a hurry to escape from the grim sight.
At the beginning of the present war
Admiral Togo, in conversation. said:
Il am not learned scholar, but from
my youth up my masters compelled me
to examine, and carefully follow, the
teachings Of the School of Yomai. 1t
seems to me that soldier can derive
great deal Of benefit from the School
of Yomai." What is this famous
School Of Yomai, of which such won
derful things are told by others, az well
us Kinnosuki? 1t was simply the
course of soul-training in which multi
tudes of the soldiers and sailors now at
war with Russia graduated. Ii IL the
system of the Chinese philosopher,
Yomai, carried out to final issues. The
fourth step taken by the disciple of
the old Samurai traditions IL his intro,
duction to this school Of philosophy.
Yomai emphasized above everything
else what he styled the dominant
weight of the SOUL" BY this the jap
anese understand the poise Of nerve
that can be shaken by nothing In life
or death. The keynote of this strange
philosophy Is exactly the opposite Of
the dominant note in Western atheism,
for 1t II identical with a conviction Of
absolute deathlessness Of the sQall. To,
the Far Eastern mind life 10 notAina
but one Of the many passing expires.
sions OF the eternal entity, the anou.
mena." M
Therefore, as Kinnosuki puts It,
when you say you have plucked a
flower or killed man, you have only
destroyed one Of the countless expires.
sions OF the eternity which you have
never touched-which never can be
touched. 30 there is no death to the
Nippon warrior, except a phase Of
sleep. Vivid illustrations of this con.
viction have been supplied during the
present conflict. There lies before me
a Japanese print representing the meet
ing under the sea of Admiral Makaroff,
who was blown up with his ship, and
Commander Hirose, the hero of the
bottling up Of Makaroff iii Port Arthur.
Hlrose, who was blown to pieces by
Russian shell during his effort, said,
before he met his fate, III die this
time. shall come back nine times
over, until I see this work Of mine
completed" That is the old samurai
accent, expressing the spirit that fIamea
in millions of Japanese souls to-day.
1t luridly explains why the Russian
press. aftsr deriding their foes at first
as little brown MONKEYS" have
changed the epithet to little yellow
devils. Pail Mall Gazette.