Evening star., 1923-08-14
WHAT | SAW
In JAPAN
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.

! Here are some of the things ] OBJ
served in Japan. I make no preten-
tion to estimate the Japanese people.
and indulge in no generalIzations or
conclusions. All the value of this
piece is that it Is honest I went
Through Japan as an ordinary traveller
land these are some of the things |
noticed
| saw do not know how many
hundred Thousand people, including
| farm la borers, crowds In railway sta
Itions. people along the streets. shop
keepers, mothers in doorways, bank
ers, clerks. stenographers and serv
ants. yet ] saw no face that was
surly. no action that was not polite,
and never heard one harsh or angry
word
1t is nation of children. Children
swarm everywhere. saw them
swarmine to school. swarming on the
streets and swarming upon their
| mothers backs. ! never heard one of
| them cry but once. and that was a
little baby who whined for about two
minutes when he woke up in the
| 7 saw a little fellow not more than
4 four years old fall and bash his head
on the sidewalk. 1t must have hurt
idreadfully. The tears streamed from
| his eyes. But he did not scream once
a tip but once. ! never saw a hotel
attendant or other person who waited
on me deign to look at the tip I gave
him. He would bow and smile and
to observe it. OF course he may have
looked at IT rather carefully after
ward.
| ] never saw one drunken person,
although there seems to be no restric-
tion on the sale of liquor.
| / never entered "A ShOp to look
about or stopped at a house by the
roadside in the country to sit down
and rest, or called at an Office or q
tresidence, but somebody came along
Itea.
! ! never saw a cleaner people, not
1 even the Dutch. than the Japanese.
! I bought d box of sandwiches from
! a boy on railway platform. The
box was Of nice new thin wood and
the sandwiches were exquisiteIy
wrapped in the thinnest of Japanese
paper. They were ham sandwiches,
! and speaking of thinness whoever
sliced the ham must have practiced a
/ long time on shaving calling cards.
| That the Japanese are always smiI-
| ing does not mean that they are
stolid. unfeeling or hypocritical. 1t
means that for a thousand wears thew
have been bred to self-controI. The
editor of a newspaper told me that
! one of the boys he employed came to
! him and asked TO be excused for two
or three days because his mother had
died He smiled as he asked it The
editor said. Il know that boys heart
was breaking. and the smile simply
meant that he had been trained not
Ito impose his griefs upon other
people" When 7 think of the in
inumer ra BILE men and thrice innumer-
able women in my own country whose
principal occupation is describing
their diseases and rehearsing their
TROUBLES 7 wish that the Japanese
might send few missionaries TO the
United States.
! In all my stay in Japan ] never
heard one human being say anything
mean about another one. The only
real juicy gossip I heard was from
American travellers.
! I saw that electricity is probably
making more rapid advance in Japan
than anywhere else in the world. All
the electric companies are booming.
Practically every hut has an electric
light. 1t will not be many years be-
fore every factory wheel and every
railway locomotive in Japan will be
jrun by electricity. This is because
there is such vast waterpower.
! My entire impression of the japanese
may be summed up by saying that
they are human beings like the rest
lof US. and very energetic. ambitious,
sensitive and courteous people.