The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-02-24


 beginning of the late war The crowds that lined the way from the legation to the Shimbash railroad station was courte- ousy respectful Though Russian ships had just been sunk there was no exulta- ton. Many in the crowd bowed and those who wore hats took them off as the diplo- mats carriage passed. At the Shimbashl railroad station there were troops to give him a military salute. Under simi- lar circumstances what would have been the conduct of a street crowd in New York or in London or say of Paris foule? I doubt if a crowd in the capital of any other country in the world would have shown the same dignity and consid- eration.
 The Russian missionaries who work in the great Greek cathedral on Surugadai in Tolxo were unmolested throughout the war. They remained at their posts and went on with their work quite undisturb- cd From any action Of the Japanese about them they might not have known that they were living in the midst of people with whom their country was at war. Not long ago a Russian admiral in the public dining room of q hotel in
 
 petty officer and some men-of- wars S men presumed to enter there and to order food. He demanded that the offend CT be removed. Such thought and such action on the part of a Japanese ad- mlral is unthlnkable. He would rather have sent a bottle of wine to the men and have drunk toast with them. say ing that though they served under differ ent flags they were fellow sailors and most welcome"
 have heard hard things said about Ja- pan in the foreign community in Yoko- hama but that community Is not Japan, any more than San Francisco's China town was America "I<nockng' the Japanese Is a habit in Yokohama and I belive the knocks may have done much good even when they have been given from mere habit. They have awakened dormant sense fin Japan and her pride will do the rest. Assuredly Japan owes much to the foreigners who live or have lived in her treaty ports and in her capl- tai, but notwithstanding this debt the treaty ports seem hardly to have been fair. I think their example In some ways has not been one for the Japanese to emulate. They have enjoyed for years police protection for which they did not pay. though their houses could not be searched freely as could the houses of the Japanese, and they were exempt from the direct action of Japanese law. Their own consuls tried them when they broke the laws of the country.
 Many foreigners today do not pay the house tax that all Japanese have to pay. They receive all possible protection from the Japanese government, but they will not ever fight for it. In this respect they are like the Japanese in California today except that the protection the Japanese government affords is more efficient.
 One may mention in passing that for years Japan afforded further protection to foreigners and foreign shipping in the way of the best lighted sea coast in the world and collected not ono cent in tolls from the foreigners.
 As to hotel charges my own experience does not bear out the statement emanat- ing from San Francisco's city attorney have put up at many native Japanese inns Wherever 1 was charged more than native would have been charged it was because I wanted more and got 1t. A foreign traveller in Japan Is vastly more trouble to native inn-keeper than is a native traveller. The foreigner, espe- cally the American in Japan, is not parallel to the Jauanese In America, for when a Japanese comes to this country he takes things as he finds them. He has to. and 1t is no great hradship for him to do so. It is what he expects and he gains in comfort rather than suffers by the differences he adapts himself to. But the foreigner In Japan, unless he has been put wise, and this means intel llgent instructlng and as much intelligent understanding, is often impatient and sometimes inconslderable. It is difficult if not impossible for him to adapt him self to Japanese conditions. He does not like to sit on the floor, he must have chairs. Now Japanese floors are covered with soft mattings and chairs tear the delicate surface of this matting So do boot heels and the foreigner sometimes forgets and wears his boots into the Japanese house.
 Then. too, the foreigner does not like to bathe where others bathe. He wishes the bath house all to himself and he wishes to bathe in the early morning in- stead of the late afternoon which is the time when all Japan bathes.
 In short the inn and it's orher of the