The sun., 1905-10-01
HOW TOXIC TOOK THE NEWS.
PICTURE FROMl A JAPANESE PEN
THAT'S THEi REAL THING.

-
THAT'S THEi REAL THING.
Might Have Been Drawn In the United States'
in Our wartime ,tOnty We Didn't Use Fans
=, Mr. kOnO o Hir naka the HeadCenter-A
Black Spot on dhe'Ris!ng sun OF Japan.
A friend Of mine in Toxic wrote me
letter, which 7 have just received by the
last mail, describing how the news OF peace
made in Portsmo1th was received by the
people Of Japan. The description is, 80
vivid that eecidedSoo translate.
JIHEI HAsHIoUcHI.
e. Sept. 7. 1905.
3 sMY DEAR HAsHIo,vcHI You must be
In New York by the tiroe this letter reaches'
you, although I understand from your
last letter that you have been in Ports
mouth during the peace conference between
the Russian and Japanese peace ENJOYS.
So directed this letter to your New YORK
ad 1ress. .r
you may already know through des-
patches that there wore disturbances in
this city. But as youNlsed to tell me that
the dispatches do not convey in vivid
picture as in mutascope the scene OF the
occurrence Of any event prevents, thought"
II write to you describing, however poor
nv power Of description may be, the cir
cumstances In which the disturbances
occurred, my effort may not be vain.
-You may not realize how eagerly l andi
NV countrymen here were waiting to hear
from Portsmouth, ever since Baron ko:nuran ~
who by the way is your fellow townsnan,
in whom we have reposed our highesttrust,
has left Yokohama for America. From the
high officials down to the Kurumayas,
we were all skimming day and night the
reports in the daily papers OF the progress
OF the ENJOYS. I noticed that some oi'the
Kurumayas, who are'by nature very ex-
citable and therefore very interesting to-
watch have at times been arrested for hdv-
ing gone bang against their fellow kuru-
mayas on the streets, thereby causing in
iuries to their guests. The simple cause of
it all was that the kurumayas were carried I
away by their curiosity to know what was'
on the bulletin boards ,in front Of the news
paper Offices But they'would soon be re-.
leased after staying in the headquarters
OF the police for q night, on the plea Of their
guests who have been injured that they wish
TO have the culprits released, for they knew
not what they were about on account OF
their patriotic zeal
!@Cnder such circumstances you might
guess what was going on every night here
in Toxic Why, my friend, if you were
here during these days you would not
have stayed at home for one night, for
everybody went to some gathering or
other held in the tea houses or in the halls
for political gatherings. You know me
very well, and I could not keep myself at
home at night for the last two months
These gatherings we're Of extremely demo-
cratic nature. Everybody was admitted
who wished to come, and as for the e1-
penses for hiring the meeting places, every
BODY was anxious to contribute money
according TO his own ability. AS usual,
1T each meeting there was more money
contributed than we knew what to do with.
The surplus money was left in the hands Of
trusted treasurers whom we elected for
each gathering, to be used in case OF ne
&essity
an these meetings we discussed the
terms OF peace and Passed resolutions
Is to what our peace ENJOYS should do in
Portamouth. Once In a week or some
times oftener, we sent dispatches to Baron
Komura informing him of Our decisions.
I believe there were about five thousand
telegrams sent from Toxic gatherings
alone, not TO mention about the teiegrams
sent from the other cities and towns In all
Japan. What these telegrans contained |
it is not necessary to tell you, as you may
Already know through dispatches what
the general expectation Of the Japanesel
people was But let me tell you this much
Of it, that all the gatherings in the city OIL
Toxic, Of whom there we're more than
five hundred, we're unanimous in declaring
that Japan must take indemnity and the
entire Island Of Sagkalin. ! was of the
opinion that these demands would not
be enforced till the last by the Japanese
ENJOYS But my dissenting voice was
drowned in the general acolamation Of the
members present in the gathering to which
went. / knew from the earliest period
Of war that we could not expect to take
indemnity from Russia, however victorious
we may be. / used to write articles in
magazines in Toxic exposing my reasons
for thinking as / do. l wonder whether
you have read them or not.
BE that as it may, such was the atti-
tude Of the people here toward the peace
conference. And when the conference
was actually begun the enthusiasm OF
the people became so intense that the
500 gatherings in all Toxic had to be
brought together TO grand mass meenng
once in two or three days in the Hibiya
Park, which park is the most convenient
place for such meeting purposes, as it is
in the heart Of the city When the ENJOYS
reported to the Government that they
came to a deadlock in the conference, a
man stood upon platform in the midst
Of the mass meeting OF several thousand
men and made stirring grafton. I could
not see his face very clearly from a dis
tance. But found out afterward that he
s a member of the Progressive party under
Okunaa. He urged the gathering to pass
a resolution to send message to Baron
Komura telling him to break off the con-
ference, and il he cannot do so to resign
his Office as the peace envoy. There were
students, politicians Of different persua-
sions, merchants, Kurumayas and what
not. They all forgot their political diff
NJ ,,nttad in