The Washington herald., 1912-08-27
toopnisht. Drs, b Court oo.ap synduas)

loopyrisht m. b. Court Go.sp syndiests,
Japan pending the oficiaI intefment OF
the late Mikado Autsuhito the loyal sub
jects gather zen muse before the In
perial palace that shelters the late rulers
remains, singing continually the beauti-
fully inspiring anthem Of Nippon. re-
minds us that its text Ia quite similar 10
the national song Of the Norwegians, ia,
wi elsker." which was written by B5oern-
son. the famous Scandinavian poet and
novelist. and which on one occasion was
sung under rather extraordinary cir
cumstances. The great man was asked
to name the time when he had derived
the greatest pleasure from his fame as
poet. He replied: 1T was when a
delegation from the Right came to my
house in Christians and smashed all the
windows Because, when they had thus
attacked me and were starting for home
again they felt that they ought to sing
something. and so they began to sing.
Yes, We Love This Land OF Ours
They could do nothing else! They had
TO sing the song Of the man whom
they had attacked"
The number of sects aud creeds
whose followers gather for prayer In
front of the palace at Tokyo. Japan,
rivals the proverbisl 800 religions extant
within the confines of the British EN-
pire.
There is Shintoism. which combines the
worship Of ancestors with the main ten
cts of Buddhism. The different sects or
offshoots of Shintoism number thirteen.
Buddhists are divided into Hosso. Re-
gon, Ritsu. Tendai. Shingon sects. which
all date from before the twelfth century,
while more than half a dozen other
forms Of Buddhism are Of later origin.
Then there are the three branches OF
the Christian faith, Roman, Greek. and
Anglican Church through the Metho-
dists. congregationalists. Lutherans,
Salvation Army. to Seventh-day Ad-
ventists and the Hephzibah Faith.
We can hardly realize how difficult It
was for the Japanese to learn the
European languages In the day when
Mutsuhito was young. But the determi-
nation Of many was equal to the diff
Guilty.
started his studies of English by ship
ping as a cabin boy on a British
schooner trading between China and
japan. Marquis Ito, as Is a well es-
tablished fact, became a stowaway for
the same purpose. Japanese thorough
ness Is evinced by the man who copied
Johnson's big dictionary from A to 2.
He did It all in Indian ink. with the
japanese pen. sort OF bamboo brush.
on tissue paper. When he began he
merely was copying the shape Of the
letters, which at the time conveyed no
meaning to him.
Cleanliness is one OF the few original
items OF japanese civilization; almost all
other things japanese can be traced to
Chinese sources, but not the tub. In
Japan cleanliness has nothing to do
with godliness: the people are clean
because they love to be clean, and a
Japanese crowd is the sweetest smelling
in the world. A well-known foreign
diplomat tells how the people in one
of the villages once apologized to him
for their dirtiness during the busy sum-
mer months, saying. I'VE have only
time to battle twice a day" How
often do you battle in winter" he asked.
''oh. about four or fve times daily"
was the answer.
The japanese bath in good native no.
tells commonly is a rectangular structure
OF wood. let in so that the top is about
flush with the floor, filled with cold
water through a bamboo tube. and heat
ed by a fire underneath or by the side
1t startles one to read that the water
is rarely changed more than once or
twice a day. so that from a score to
But this Is not the dirty arrangement
1t seems. II would be IL the japanese
| treated the bath as we do; that Is to
say, as a place to wash in: but he does
not. He gets into his bath for the pur-
pose OF raising the temperature OF his
body after he has been thoroughly wash
ed all over.
Buried for generations in a town in
priceless historical relic was brought
to light the other day. consisting
OF nothing less than the prayer
book OF Marie Antoinette. which she
took with her to prison and into which
she wrote her last thoughts. The book
was printed in 1857 and is entitled of
fee OF the Divine Providence for the
Use of the Royal House of Saint Louis
at St Cyr and OF all the Faithful" On
the back pages are written in a firm
hand the following sentences: 18th OF
october-haf past four-morning. May
God have pity on me. Ny eyes have no
more tears to weep for my poor child
rem. Adieu. Marie Antoinette"
The book, according to the Figaro. is
bound richly in olive green morocco and
stamped with gold lace work, fieurs-de-
lys and crosses: but the binding has
suffered severely from revolutionary
zeal, much of the gold ornamentation
having been defaced roughly with a
knife.
In order to remove any possible doubt
of the authenticity the writing has been
examined by one of the principal French
handwriting experts, who has declared
officially that there Is not the slightest
doubt that the book contains the last
words ever penned by the Inflated
Queen.
This relic of the last hours of the
French Bourbon monarchy is one the
library at Chalons-sur-Marne, whittier It
had been taken by the daughter OF "Citi-
zen'' Courtiers, the deputy who was
charged with the examination of
Robespierre's papers after the latter's
death. Figaro pretends to know that
Courtiers had found the book, together
with other souvenirs OF the royal family,
concealed in the false bottom Of Robes
pierre's bed, and that he kept possession
of them in the hope to be able to sell
them for a large amount to the Bourbon
family, II ever they should return to
power.
But in 1916 these relics were seized by
the authorities, with the exception of
this single volume, which remained in
the Courtiers family, then passing from
hand to hand undiscovered by the public,
until 1895, when it was acquired by the