Evening star., 1923-09-12
Red Light on
Japan
'BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.

Upon me this Japanese disaster
produces a peculiar effect. 1t is as
IL over some quiet scene of pastoral
beauty suddenly the red spot light
of hell had been flashed.
The effect has been to dumb my
faculties I can see no reason and
draw no philosophic> conclusions from
1t because by mind is paraiyzed.
cannot even feel. for the blow has
stunned all the nerve / had to feel
with.
My whole memory Of things once SO
delightful to recall, is suddenly lurid
with strange flames. Only yesterday we
rode along the streets OF Toxic and
Yokohama in those jinrickishas that
make one feel like a grown-up riding in
a baby wagon, and laughed at each
other and all the population OF the most
smiling land in the world laughed WIN
us. along those streets now Uttered with
the dead.
Only Yesterday we puttered in Benten
Dori street and bought little exquisite
acquired cups and silver jimcracks and
handled the soft and lustrous silks,
which have now been fed to the furious
fires.
Where today is a mass of fallen stone
and burnt timbers. the Imperial Hotel.
by far the most unique and Deautitn
hotel building in the world. we at
tended hut a short time ago III the
gorgeous ballroom the banquet given
by the last Of the Shoguns.
To read Of 4, 8,00n people massad, tram
pied, crushed and burned in the Rail-
way Hotel at Toxic gives an uncannv
sensation when we recall but month
-or so ago we IIlnched pleasantly in this
same place with little group of mis-
sionaries.
Where now Is desolation and heaped-
up horror we were entertained by the
Japanese bankers at the Mitsui Club
and the Bankers Club by the Tentlest
and most courteous OF the worlds gem
fIemen. and we walled through tn" do
lightfu1 gardens0nd gazed at the flying
fishes leap from the waters of the bay.
and we sat in the soft twilight and
watched the charming daughter Of the
house as she performed for us the an
cient tea ceremony" and II seemed like
picture from another and gentler age.
and we were entertai lined at the besuti-
full homes of the Viscount Shibusawa,
and Agano the ship magnate and Hi
rooka the banker, and wandered through
the narrow by-streets amidst swarmS OF
backs; listened to the cries Of the
vendors and poked about in the huge
department store that is now but
smoking cinderE.
What does 1t all mean?
for one have no cock-sIlre philosophy
OF theory that can explain ii. It is a
part Of that vast mysterious adventure
of which all life Is but a phase.
For that matter the very earth on
which we live goes in its orbit around
the sun at a speed some forty times
greater than that of cannon ball, and
the whole solar system of which we are
part is flying upon a still more un-
certain and vertiRinous speed toward its
unknown goal. and the earthly ball itself
spins about on its axis at rate in our
ATTITUDES of some $4,000 miles day or
perhaps half the speed of Mauser
rifle bullet.
So that II any one thinks he under
stands the why and wherefore Of the
mysterious deeds of nature and knows
the full meaning of life. If he can wrap
himself up In a comfortable orthodoxy.
or sit himself down in an uncomfortable
/ infidelity equally as positive. he is more
sure of himself than I am.
But have known horrors before and
shall doubtless meet them again upon
my journey. And the worst that can
happen to any of us is death. And the
very uncertainty and mysteriousness of
i IL brings me back to the underlying con-
viction:
, "Behind the Great Unknown
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own