The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-07
HALLE ERrNNIE RvES
(Continued.)
Copyright. lolo. by the Bobbs.Mssrill
 Company

E>yosite giggled openly in sympathy.
 "I do envy you your first impress sions!' exclaimed Patricia. eve been here so long that I've forgotten mine. It seems perfectly natural now for people to live in houses made of bird cages and paper napkins and travel about in grownup baby buggies and to see men walking around with bare legs and oilskin umbrellas. It's like the seashore at home, I suppose-you get used to it."
 The slowing of the train awoke Bar bara from a reverie The bishop fold ed his newspaper and put it into his pocket.
 As he did so the owner of the ex- pansive waistcoat leaned across the aisle and addressed him.
 "Say, my friend" he said, you've lived out here some time, I under stand"
 sYes," the bishop replied. twenty. five years"
 "Well, take it, then, you ought to know this country right down to the ground, and if you don't mind I'd like to ask a question or two."
 ''Dos' said the bishop. 'I'll be glad to answer if I can."
 The other got up and took seat op- posite. 'sYou see," he pursued con1- dentially, "I came on this trip just for a rest and to settle the bills for the curios my wife"-he> indicated the lady, who had now moved up beside him-"thinks she'd like to look at back home. But I've been getting interest ed by the minute. It's quite some time since I went to school, and 1 guess there hadn't so much happened then to Japan. wish you'd run down the scale for me, just to hit the high places. Now, there was a big rumpus here, remember, at the time of our civil war. They chose new emperor, aidn't theyY' .&
 "No; the dynasty has been unbroken for 2,OOO years.''
 1.-TWO thousand yearsw cried the lady. "Why, that's before Christr'
 ''when our ancestors, Martha, were painting themselves up in yellow ocher and carrying ciubs-what was the row about then"
 'sIt was something like this: To go back a little, the emperor was always the nominal ruler and spiritual head, but the temporal power was admins tered by a self decreed viceroy called the shogun. Japan was closed coun- try, and only little trading was al- lowed in certain ports"
 His questioner nodded. A girl with a white haired old soldier had touched the Iatter's sleeve, and both were lis- tening attentively. "Then Perry came along and kicked open the gate Bom- barded lem, didn't hep.
 The bishops eyes twinkled. "Only with gifts He brought small print ing press, toy telegraph line and a miniature locomotive and railroad track. He set up these on the beach and showed the officials whom the shogun's government sent to treat with him how they worked. In the end he made them understand the i'm mense value of the scientific advance ment of the western world. The visit was an eye opener, and the wiser Jap anese realized that the nation couldn't exist under the old regime any longer. 1t must make general treaties and adopt new ideas. Some, on the other hand, wanted things to stay as they were"
 Pulling both ways, ehr'
 "Yes. At length the progressists de cided on sweeping measure. Under the shogunate the daisnyos (they were the great landed nobles) had been in a continual state of suppressed insurrec. tion."
 ''Some wouldn't knuckle down to the shogun, suppose"
 Exactly. There was no national raflying point. But they all alike re vered their emperor. In all the bloody civil wars of a thousand years-and the Ja- .nese were always fighting. like Europe in the middle ages-no shogun ever laid violent hands on the em. peror. He was half divine. you see descended from the ancient gods, g living link between them and modern men. So now they proposed to give him complete temporal power, make him ruler in fact and abolish the sho- &uudtc culTcly.
 "Phew! And the big daimyos came into line on the proposition2"
 "They poured out their blood and their money like water for the new cause. The shogun himself voluntarily relinquished his power and retired to private life."
 "Splendidv said the stranger, and the girl clapped her gloved hands. "So that was the restoration the begin ming of Meiji, whatever that may mean?"
 "The 'era of enlightenment The present emperor, Mutsuhito, was a boy of sixteen then. They brought him here to Yeddo and renamed it Tokyo
 And proceeded to get reeling drunk on western notions," said the man with the military button, smiling grimly. T was out here in the seventies"
 True, sir" assented the bishop. 'Tt was so for a time. And the opposition took refuge in riot, assassination and suicide. But gradually Japan worked the modernization scheme out. She sent her young statesmen to Europe and America to study western systems of education, jurisprudence and art. She hired an army of experts from all over the world. She sent her cleverest lads to foreign universities In the
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