The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-04
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IS a work of extraordinary interest, As is well said in the publishers note (Henry Holt & Co.,, New York;. Tt is very human book by a woman of rare intelligence and sympathy, whose standing in Russia and Japan gives this book the interest of an inside history" of the late war. More apeal- in even than the history is the detailed picture drawn by bright, observing, fearless woman of the horrors, the grim humor, the pathetic and even TO- mantle incidents of war" The life of the Russian prisoners is both graphi- cally and entertainingly described and the side lights thrown on Japanese life and character, especially on the hu- manitarian side are most interesting and noteworthy. Even the Japs them selves hardly fared as well as the Rus ! sian prisoners who had as this book tells us, white bread made from the most expensive American flour. They had clean, hot food three times a day, including soup, meat, vegetables, cook ed in Western" style, and delicious Japanese tea; they slept in clean beds, with abundant covering, and were wrapped in neat sanitary clothing; they enjoyed hot baths and more fresh air than they wanted; they were allowed to walk outdoors at any time. And when 1t is remembered that the Rus sian prisoners numbered 10000 strong the generosity of the Japanese is worthy of highest praise.
 1y,7t1 h1xy chOuvc I, man, Christian, and civilized was the Japanese treatment of the Russian prisoners, and the picture it presents is vivid and charming. While admit ting that the Japanese authorities were not entirely free from blunders and mismanagements, the author credits them with sincere efforts to adhere to the principles of humanity in treating the prisoners. Describing the Russian officers wards. the book says:
 "Here they live. two to each alcove. free to wander in and out and visit each other and go to adjoining wards, when they are able to walk. It Is not my idea of prison at all. Surely there is the fullest liberty within the bar racks. There are no fetters, no re- strictions Everything is plain to a degree; simple, hygienic and clean; and when l consider and sum up all these things, I wonder if there is any, thing al. all to complain of The Dris- oner's lot could not be a happier one, and I. for one. would less willingly be "a prisoner of war in some places I can think of in Russia"
 Other privileges were freely allow ed All the books forbidden them in their own country were freely read and loaned around in their quarters in Japan, Many were seriously reading and discussing republican forms of government and representative assem- plies.
 Tt is amazing what advanced and liberal sentiments they dare voice, dare cc ccntinually and openly discuss here in this freedom! And what contradiction! Freedom in prison! Freedom of speech in a pagan, Asiatic country, but not in our own Christian country There is no censorship of what we read here, save as the censor cuts out notes of military affairs in the Kobe paper, and what the censor cut for Dairinji, the censor at Oguri leaves untouched"
 Whether the wounded Colonel Vlad- mir von Theill and his charming wife, the Princess Sophia, be real person. ages or not is of little importance-it is the vivid story of war and of the daily happenings at Matsuyama that concerns us. The spirit and aims of both combatants are admirably brought out in the recital of the Rus sian lady who comes to nurse her hus- band dangerously hurt when captured in Manchuria. The situation is pre- sented to us through the vision of a just warm-hearted, clear-eyed, highly educated woman-one who in previous days has learned to like the Japanese and is not blind to the faults of her own race.
 The love of nature and of beauty the cleanliness, the artist spirit of the Jap anese charm again and again this alien woman. She tells us of the chief sur geon in the hospitl, "a serious. kindly man in spectacles, who was of the manner of old Japan, the exqulsitely polite and refined Japan of the upper classes" of the little Japanese Req Cross nurses, who never seemed tired though they never rested, who were never cross or impatient, but always smiling and polite "They are like children beside the huge Cossacks they care for--very precocious children when one observes their skill and courage in the operating room. They seem to humor and charm their pa tients with indulgence, yet they arc martinets in the precise obedience to surgeons orders. The patient is ney, CT crossed, yet he always obeys, too. It Is the old, old story of the hypnotic east. The big Cossacks cry bitterly when their nurses are changed"
 Furthermore the author says "It began to dawn upon me" she says, ''how the army of pygmies have come to humiliate the army of giants. In contrast with these tidy and remote little villages of fishermen and rice far mers of the Inland Eea, far from any foreign settlement, recalled the muddy streets and tumbledown houses the dirt, misery and ignorance of our pig stys of Russian villages, even quite near to Petersburg and Moscow" And she goes on to tell us that hardly any vil- lage in China is as filthy, the people as ignorant and in as low a condition as in that Tula village of Yasnaya Polya- na, besides the country home of the re- former, Count Le Tolstoy. She Is not unreasonable when she remarks that "a little of that magnificent humanitari- anism and benevolence poured upon that insanitary village on his own es- tates would be more practical, 1t seems