New-York tribune., 1922-11-12

discover much heroism in threatening
charming bit of porcelain with a pop
gun, and so when these latter days the
charming bit Of porcelain has turned
into steel by process of international
alchemy and causes Il great deal Of
worry to the Californians and the Aus
traiasians, / do not blame the Elder
Statesmen, but Commodore Perry, or
rather the President of the United
States who instructed him to take
whatever course he thought best, force
II necessary, to secure certain trading
privileges (the italics are my own
from Japan
The same people who will buy the
book will adore its style--incidentally
nor do mean to be a cat, am betting
odds-on that the author is either
Harrow-bred Briton or an American
born Rhodes scholar OF the pollyan-
nerish variety-and they will just love
it's Gladstone throngs," it's "April
beaming with joyous buds" its "fair
maidens who are models of weli-bred
elegance" it's resilient foliage" and
its interpolated bits Of poetry about
"raptured groups" standing spell
bound by the cherry blossoms"
The book is sweetly tolerant and con-
descending. The author plays cricket
he use a crude il effective baseball
bat. But il anybody should write as
sweetly tolerant tome about my own
native Afghan hills / would kifl him
in lengthy and humorous Chinese
manner and afterward, once every year,
defilc his grave. And there is not
jury of twelve men good and true be-
tween Yonkers and Sandy Hook which
would not recommend me to the mercy
of the court.
Quite different is tho land of Mr.. j.
H. Gubbins' "The Making Of Modern
Japan" He is, by the way, the same
Gubbins, formerly first and Japanese
secretary Of the British Embassy in
Toxic, who some time ago published the
monumental three-volume dictionary Of
Chinese-Japanese words in the Japa-
nese language, work to be compared
as to logical, scholarly tinesse and phil
illogical exactness only to John Rich-
ardson's famous eighteenth century
dictionary Of Persian, Arabic and Eng
lish, and to DR.. Savary's Arabic gram
mar published by orders Of Napoleon I
and be it remembered that to this
day, for the acquisition of the latter
two books, staid Oxford dons of Mag
dalen and BraZenose kilt up their robes
Street.
Mr.. Gubbins's volume, concise, short,
with not word too much or too little,
is more than the title suggests, for it
gives in the opening chapters con-
crete tabloid history Of Japan. It is
fair in judgment and Interpretation
without either gushing or patronizing
1t has complete and brilliantly written
accounts Of Japan's religions, cultural
ideals, complex feudal systems, eduea-
tional institutions and governmental
theories and practices
1t contains splendid character
sketches of such men as Prince Iva
kura, Okubo Ichizu, Prince Ito, Marquis
Matsaguta, Field Marshal Oyama and
General Prince Katsura. 1t dissects,
more clearly than any volume on the
subject that have ever happened
across, Japan's troublous feudal period.
its causes and latter-day reactions and
ref1exes, and the meaning and conse-
quences of modern industrialisn. 1t
gives, in the twenty eighth chapter, an
extraordinary clear comparison of mod
ern Japan and imperial Germany, Of
the Twenty-one Demands and the Ian
sing-fshii agreement. Yet, for all that,
1T is book even for the layman. II
never makes the academic mistake of
presupposing in the reader either too
much fact knowledge or too much idi.-
ocy. 1t is written with symmetry. pro-
portion and measure.
The book belongs on a workaday
shelf between Buckle and Guzot, and
doubtless by the end of the wear its
pages will be very. much thumb marked