Книга - The Old World and Its Ways

The Old World and Its Ways
William Bryan




William Jennings Bryan

The Old World and Its Ways / Describing a Tour around the World and Journeys through Europe





CHAPTER I.

CROSSING THE PACIFIC – HAWAII


There is rest in an ocean voyage. The receding shores shut out the hum of the busy world; the expanse of water soothes the eye by its very vastness; the breaking of the waves is music to the ear and there is medicine for the nerves in the salt sea breezes that invite to sleep. At first one is disturbed – sometimes quite so – by the motion of the vessel, but this passes away so completely that before many days the dipping of the ship is really enjoyable and one finds a pleasure in ascending the hills and descending the valleys into which the deck sometimes seems to be converted.

If one has regarded the Pacific as an unknown or an untraversed sea, the impression will be removed by a glance at a map recently published by the United States government – a map with which every ocean traveler should equip himself. On this map the Pacific is covered with blue lines indicating the shortest routes of travel between different points with the number of miles. The first thing that strikes one is that the curved line indicating the northern route between San Francisco and Yokohama is only 4,536 miles long, while the apparently straight line between the two points is 4,791 miles long – the difference being explained by the curvature of the earth, although it is hard to believe that in following the direct line a ship would have to climb over such a mountain range of water, so to speak, as to make it shorter to go ten degrees north. The time between the United States and the Japanese coast has recently been reduced to less than eleven days, but the northern route is not so pleasant at this season of the year, and we sailed on the Manchuria, September 27, going some twenty degrees farther south via Honolulu. This route covers 5,545 miles and is made in about sixteen days when the weather is good.

The Manchuria is one of the leviathans of the Pacific and is owned by Mr. Harriman, president of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railways. The ship's crew suggests the Orient, more than three-fourths being Chinese, all wearing the cue and the national garb. There is also a suggestion of the Orient in the joss house and opium den of the Chinese in the steerage.

In crossing the one hundred and eightieth meridian we lost a day, and as we are going all the way around, we cannot recover it as those can who recross the Pacific. We rose on Saturday morning, October 7, and at nine o'clock were notified that Sunday had begun and the remainder of the day was observed as the Sabbath (October 8).

According to the chart or map referred to there are three centers of ocean traffic in the Pacific. Honolulu, the most important of all, the Midway Islands, 1,160 miles northwest of Honolulu, and the Samoan Islands, some twenty-two hundred miles to the south. The Society Islands, about the same distance to the southeast of Honolulu, and Guam, some fifteen hundred miles from the mainland of Asia, are centers of less importance.

Our ship reached Honolulu early on the morning of the sixth day out and we had breakfast on the island. The Hawaiian Islands (inhabited) number eight and extend from the southeast to the northwest, covering about six degrees of longitude and nearly four of latitude. Of these eight islands, Hawaii, the southernmost one, is the largest, having an area of 4,200 square miles and a population of nearly fifty thousand. Hilo, its chief city, situated on the east shore, is the second Hawaiian city of importance and contains some seven thousand inhabitants. The island of Oahu, upon which Honolulu is situated, is third in size but contains the largest population, almost sixty thousand, of which forty thousand dwell in or near the capital. The islands are so small and surrounded by such an area of water as to remind one of a toy land, and yet there are great mountains there, one piercing the clouds at a height of 14,000 feet. Immense cane fields stretch as far as the eye can reach, and busy people of different colors and races make a large annual addition to our country's wealth. On one of the islands is an active volcano which furnishes a thrilling experience to those who are hardy enough to ascend its sides and cross the lava lake, now grown cold, which surrounds the present crater. Each island has one or more extinct volcanoes, one of these, called "The Punch Bowl," being within the city limits of Honolulu. On one of the islands is a leper colony, containing at times as many as a thousand of the afflicted. During campaigns the spellbinders address the voters from boats anchored at a safe distance from the shore.

As the Manchuria lay at anchor in the harbor all day the passengers went ashore and, dividing into groups, inspected the various places of interest. By the aid of a reception committee, composed of democrats, republicans and brother Elks, we were able to crowd a great deal of instruction and enjoyment into the ten hours which we spent in Honolulu. We were greeted at the wharf with the usual salutation, Aloha, a native word which means "a loving welcome," and were decorated with garlands of flowers for the hat and neck. While these garlands or leis (pronounced lays) are of all colors, orange is the favorite hue, being the color of the feather cloak worn by the Hawaiian kings and queens in olden times. The natives are a very kindly and hospitable people, and we had an opportunity to meet some excellent specimens of the race at the public reception and the country residence of Mr. Damon, one of the leading bankers of the island.

When the islands were discovered in 1778 by Captain Cook, the natives lived in thatched huts and were scantily clothed, after the manner of the tropical races. They were not savages or cannibals, but maintained a degree of civil order and had made considerable progress in the primitive arts. In their religious rites they offered human sacrifices, but they welcomed the white man and quickly embraced Christianity. American influence in the islands reaches back some seventy-five years, beginning with New England missionaries, many of whose descendants have made permanent homes here. Some of these, mingling their blood with the blood of the natives, form connecting links between the old and the new civilization. Foreign ways and customs soon began to manifest themselves and long before annexation the native rulers built buildings after the style of our own architecture. The Capitol building, erected twenty years ago for the king's palace, is an imposing structure, and the Judiciary building is almost equal to it. The parks and public grounds are beautiful and well kept, and the business blocks commodious and substantial. In short, Honolulu presents the appearance of a well built, cleanly and prosperous American city, with its residences nestling among palm trees and tropical plants. Good hotels are abundant. The Alexander Young hotel is built of stone imported from the States and would do credit to a city of half a million. The Royal Hawaiian hotel, even more picturesque, though not so large, and the Moana hotel, at the beach, vie with the Young in popularity.

The program for our day's stay began with a seven mile automobile ride to the Pali, the pass over which the natives cross to the farther side of the island. The road is of macadam and winding along a picturesque valley rises to a height of about 1,200 feet. At this point the eye falls upon a picture of bewitching beauty. Just below is a precipitous cliff over which a conquering king, Kamehameha the First, about one hundred and ten years ago, drove an opposing army when he established himself as ruler of the islands. To the east from the foot of the cliff, a thousand feet down, stretches a beautiful valley with an endless variety of verdure; and beyond, a coast line broken by a rocky promontory, around whose base the waters reflect from their varying depths myriad hues of blue and green. There are ocean views of greater expanse, mountain views more sublime and agricultural landscapes more interesting to a dweller upon prairies, but it is doubtful whether there is anywhere upon earth a combination of mountain, valley and ocean – a commingling of the colors of sky and sea and rock and foliage – more entrancing. Twice on the way to Pali we passed through mountain showers and were almost ready to turn back, but the members of the committee, knowing of the rare treat ahead, assured us that Hawaiian showers were of short duration and "extra dry." When we at last beheld the view, we felt that a drenching might gladly have been endured, so great was the reward.

The committee next took us by special train on the Oahu railroad to one of the great sugar plantations of the island, a plantation outside of the trust, owned and operated by a San Francisco company. This company has built an immense refinery upon the plantation and the manager showed us the process of sugar making from the crushing of the cane to the refined product, sacked ready for shipment.

The stalks, after passing through the mill, are dried and carried to the furnace, thus saving some sixty-five per cent of the cost of fuel – an important economy when it is remembered that all the fuel for manufacturing is brought from abroad. Until recently, several hundred thousand dollars' worth of coal was annually brought from Australia, but California oil is now being substituted for coal. The refuse which remains when the sugar making process is completed is returned to the land as fertilizer. The economies effected in fuel and in fertilizer, together with the freight saved on impurities carried in the raw sugar, amount to a considerable sum and to this extent increase the profit of the business. While at the sugar plantation we were shown an immense pumping plant used in the irrigation of the land. The water is drawn from artesian wells and forced to a height of almost six hundred feet, in some places, and from the summits of the hills is carried to all parts of the plantation. Some idea of the size of the plants can be gathered from the fact that the pumps used on this plantation have a combined capacity of sixty million gallons per day.

Speaking of irrigation, I am reminded that the rainfall varies greatly in different parts of the island. At Honolulu, for instance, it is something like thirty inches per year, while at one point within five miles of the city the annual rainfall sometimes reaches one hundred and forty inches. The sugar plantation visited, while one of the largest, is only one of a number of plantations, the total sugar product of the islands reaching about four hundred thousand tons annually.

Next to the sugar crops comes the rice crop, many of the rice fields lying close to the city. Pineapples, bananas, coffee and cocoanuts are also raised. Attention is being given now to the development of crops which can be grown by small planters, those in authority recognizing the advantage to the country of small holdings.

The labor problem is the most serious one which the people of Hawaii have to meet. At present the manual labor is largely done by Japanese, Chinese and Koreans – these together considerably outnumbering the whites and natives. Several thousand Portuguese have been brought to the islands and have proven an excellent addition to the population. On the day that we were there the immigration commission authorized the securing of a few Italian families with a view of testing their fitness for the climate. The desire is to develop a homogeneous population suited to the conditions and resources of the islands.

We returned from the sugar plantation in automobiles, stopping at the country home of Mr. Damon, which was once a royal habitation. The present owner has collected many relics showing the life, habits and arts of the native Hawaiians.

Still nearer the town we visited two splendid schools, one for native boys, the other for native girls, built from the funds left by native chiefs. The boys and girls were drawn up in front of one of the buildings and under the direction of their instructor sang the national anthem of the natives, now preserved as the territorial hymn. They were a finely proportioned, well dressed and intelligent group and are said to be studious and excellently behaved. Nothing on the islands interested us more than these native children, illustrating as they do, not only the possibilities of their race, but the immense progress made in a little more than a hundred years of contact with the whites. The museum, the gift of Mr. Bishop, now of California, who married the widow of one of the native chiefs, is said to contain the best collection of the handiwork of the natives of the Pacific Islands to be found anywhere.

The public reception at the Royal Hawaiian hotel gave us an opportunity to meet not only the prominent American and native citizens and their wives, but a large number of the artisans and laborers of the various races, and we were pleased to note throughout the day the harmonious feeling which exists between the whites and the brown population.

Political convictions produce the same results here as in the United States, sometimes dividing families. For instance, Prince Cupid, the present territorial representative in congress, is a republican, while his brother, Prince David, is an enthusiastic democrat. The luncheon prepared by the committee included a number of native dishes cooked according to the recipes which were followed for hundreds of years before the white man set foot upon the island. The health of the guests was drunk in cocoanut water, a nut full of which stood at each plate. Poi, the staple food of the natives, was present in abundance. This is made from a root or tuber known as taro, which grows in swamps and has a leaf resembling our plant, commonly known as elephant's ear. This tuber is ground to a pulp resembling paste and is served in polished wooden bowls, in the making of which the natives exhibit great skill. Next in interest came the fish and chicken, wrapped in the leaves of a plant called ti (pronounced like tea) and cooked underground by means of hot stones. The flavor of food thus cooked is excellent. The crowning glory of the feast was a roasted pig, also cooked underground – and a toothsome dish it was. Besides these, there were bread fruit, alligator pears and delicacies made from the meat of the cocoanut. The salt, a native product, was salmon colored. The invited guests were about equally divided between the American and native population. But for the elegant surroundings of the Young hotel, the beautifully appointed table and the modern dress, it was such a dinner as might have been served by the natives to the whites on the first Thanksgiving after the New England missionaries landed.

After a call upon Governor Carter, a descendant of the third generation from missionary stock, we visited the aquarium. When we noticed on the printed program that we were scheduled for a visit to this place, it did not impress us as possessing special interest, but we had not been in the building long before we were all roaring with laughter at the remarkable specimens of the finny tribe here collected.

Language can not do this subject justice. No words can accurately portray what one here sees. The fish are odd in shape and have all the hues of the rainbow. The tints are laid on as if with a brush and yet no painter could imitate these – shall we call them "pictures in water color?" Some were long and slim; some short and thick. One had a forehead like a wedge, another had a very blunt nose. Some looked like thin slabs of pearl with iridescent tints; others had quills like a porcupine. One otherwise respectable looking little fellow had a long nose upon the end of which was a fiery glow which made him look like an old toper; another of a deep peacock blue had a nose for all the world like a stick of indigo which it wiggled as it swam.

There were convict fish with stripes like those worn in penitentiaries and of these there were all sizes; some moving about slowly and solemnly like hardened criminals and others sporting about as if enjoying their first taste of wrongdoing. One variety wore what looked like an orange colored ribbon tied just above the tail; the color was so like the popular flower of Hawaii that we were not surprised to find that the fish was called the lei. In one tank the fish had a habit of resting upon the rocks; they would brace themselves with their fins and watch the passersby. At one time two were perched side by side and recalled the familiar picture of Raphael's Cherubs. Besides the fishes there were crabs of several varieties, all brilliant in color; one called the hermit crab had a covering like velvet, with as delicate a pattern as ever came from the loom. And, then, there was the octopus with the under side of its arms lined with valve-like mouths. It was hiding under the rocks, and when the attendant poked it out with a stick, it darkened the water with an inky fluid, recalling the use made of the subsidized American newspapers by the trust when attacked.

No visitor to Honolulu should fail to see the aquarium. Every effort to transport these fish has thus far failed. To enjoy the dudes, clowns and criminals of fishdom one must see them in their native waters.

The tour of the island closed with a trip to the beach and a ride in the surf boats. The native boat is a long, narrow, deep canoe steadied by a log fastened at both ends to the boat and floating about ten feet from the side. These canoes will hold six or seven persons and are propelled by brawny-armed natives. Our party clad themselves in bathing suits and, filling three canoes, were rowed out some distance from the shore. The natives, expert at this sport, watch for a large wave and signal each other when they see one approaching, and then with their big round paddles they start their canoes toward the land. As the wave raises the stern of the canoe, they bend to their work, the purpose being to keep the canoe on the forward slope of the wave. It is an exciting experience to ride thus, with the spray breaking over one while the canoe flies along before the wave. Sometimes the boatmen are too slow and the wave sweeps under the canoe and is gone, but as a rule they know just how fast to work, and there is great rivalry between the surf riders when two or more crews are racing. It is strange that a form of sport so delightful has not been transported to the American seaside resorts. There is surf bathing the year round at Honolulu and few beaches can be found which can compare with Waikiki.

The Oahu railroad, which carried us out to the sugar plantation, and which has seventy miles of track on the island, passes within sight of the Pearl harbor, which is the only large inlet in the islands capable of being developed into a harbor. The United States government is already dredging this harbor and preparing it for both naval and commercial uses. The Hawaiian Islands occupy a strategic position as well as a position of great commercial importance, and as they are on a direct line between the Isthmus of Panama and the Orient, their value as a mid-ocean stopping place will immeasurably increase. The islands being now United States territory, the advantage of the possession of Pearl harbor is accompanied by a responsibility for its proper improvement. No one can visit the harbor without appreciating its importance to our country and to the world.

When we departed from the wharf at nightfall to board the Manchuria we were again laden with flowers, and as we left the island, refreshed by the perfume of flowers and cheered by songs and farewells, we bore away grateful memories of the day and of the hospitality of the people. Like all who see this Pacific paradise, we resolved to return sometime and spend a part of a winter amid its beauties.




CHAPTER II.

JAPAN AND HER PEOPLE


The eyes of the world are on Japan. No other nation has ever made such progress in the same length of time, and at no time in her history has Japan enjoyed greater prestige than she enjoys just now; and, it may be added, at no time has she had to face greater problems than those which now confront her.

We were fortunate in the time of our arrival. Baron Komura, the returning peace commissioner, returned two days later; the naval review celebrating the new Anglo-Japanese alliance took place in Yokohama harbor a week afterward, and this was followed next day by the reception of Admiral Togo at Tokyo. These were important events and they gave a visitor an extraordinary opportunity to see the people en masse. In this article I shall deal in a general way with Japan and her people, leaving for future articles her history, her government, her politics, her industries, her art, her education and her religions.

The term Japan is a collective title applied to four large islands, that is, Honshiu, Kyushu, Shikoku, Hokkaido and about six hundred smaller ones. Formosa and the islands immediately adjoining it are not generally included, although since the Chinese war they belong to Japan.

Japan extends in the shape of a crescent, curving toward the northeast, from fifty north latitude and one hundred and fifty-six east longitude to twenty-one degrees north latitude and one hundred and nineteen east longitude. The area is a little less than one hundred and sixty thousand square miles, more than half of which is on the island of Honshiu. The coast line is broken by numerous bays furnishing commodious harbors, the most important of which are at Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, Nagasaki, Kagoshima and Hakodate. The islands are so mountainous that only about one-twelfth the area is capable of cultivation. Although Formosa has a mountain, Mt. Niitaka (sometimes called Mt. Morrison) which is two thousand feet higher, Fujiyama is the highest mountain in Japan proper. It reaches a height of 12,365 feet.

Fuji (Yama is the Japanese word for mountain) is called the Sacred Mountain and is an object of veneration among the Japanese. And well it may be, for it is doubtful if there is on earth a more symmetrical mountain approaching it in height. Rising in the shape of a perfect cone, with its summit crowned with snow throughout nearly the entire year and visible from sea level, it is one of the most sublime of all the works of nature. Mt. Ranier, as they say at Seattle, or Tacoma, as it is called in the city of that name, and Popocatapetl, near Mexico's capital, are the nearest approach to Fuji, so far as the writer's observation goes. Pictures of Fuji are to be found on everything; they are painted on silk, embroidered on screens, worked on velvet, carved in wood and wrought in bronze and stone. We saw it from Lake Hakone, a beautiful sheet of water some three thousand feet above the ocean. The foot hills which surround the lake seem to open at one point in order to give a more extended view of the sloping sides of this sleeping giant.

And speaking of Hakone, it is one of the beauty spots of Japan. On an island in this lake is the summer home of the crown prince. Hakone is reached by a six-mile ride from Miyanoshita, a picturesque little village some sixty miles west of Yokohama. There are here hot springs and all the delights of a mountain retreat. One of the best modern hotels in Japan, the Fujiya, is located here, and one of its earliest guests was General Grant when he made his famous tour around the world. The road from the hotel to Hakone leads by foaming mountain streams, through closely cultivated valleys and over a range from which the coast line can be seen.

Nikko, about a hundred miles north of Tokyo, and Nara about thirty miles from Kyoto, are also noted for their natural scenery, but as these places are even more renowned because of the temples located there they will be described later. The inland sea which separates the larger islands of Japan, and is itself studded with smaller islands, adds interest to the travel from port to port. Many of these islands are inhabited, and the tiny fields which perch upon their sides give evidence of an ever present thrift. Some of the islands are barren peaks jutting a few hundred feet above the waves, while some are so small as to look like hay stacks in a submerged meadow.

All over Japan one is impressed with the patient industry of the people. If the Hollanders have reclaimed the ocean's bed, the people of Japan have encroached upon the mountains. They have broadened the valleys and terraced the hill sides. Often the diminutive fields are held in place by stone walls, while the different levels are furnished with an abundance of water from the short but numerous rivers.

The climate is very much diversified, ranging from almost tropical heat in Formosa to arctic cold in the northern islands; thus Japan can produce almost every kind of food. Her population in 1903 was estimated at nearly forty-seven millions, an increase of about thirteen and a half millions since 1873. While Tokyo has a population of about one and a half millions, Osaka a population of nearly a million, Kyoto three hundred and fifty thousand, Yokohama three hundred thousand, and Kobe and Nagoya about the same, and there are several other large cities of less size, still a large majority of the population is rural and the farming communities have a decided preponderance in the federal congress, or diet. The population, however, is increasing more rapidly in the cities than in the country.

The stature of the Japanese is below that of the citizens of the United States and northern Europe. The average height of the men in the army is about five feet two inches, and the average weight between a hundred and twenty and a hundred and thirty pounds. It looks like burlesque opera to see, as one does occasionally, two or three little Japanese soldiers guarding a group of big burly Russian prisoners.

The opinion is quite general that the habit which the Japanese form from infancy of sitting on the floor with their feet under them, tends to shorten the lower limbs. In all the schools the children are now required to sit upon benches and whether from this cause or some other, the average height of the males, as shown by yearly medical examination, is gradually increasing. Although undersize, the people are sturdy and muscular and have the appearance of robust health. In color they display all shades of brown, from a very light to a very dark. While the oblique eye is common, it is by no means universal.

The conveyance which is most popular is the jinrikisha, a narrow seated, two wheeled top buggy with shafts, joined with a cross piece at the end. These are drawn by "rikisha men" of whom there are several hundred thousand in the empire. The 'rikisha was invented by a Methodist missionary some thirty years ago and at once sprang into popularity. When the passenger is much above average weight, or when the journey is over a hilly road, a pusher is employed and in extraordinary cases two pushers. It is astonishing what speed these men can make. One of the governors informed me that 'rikisha men sometimes cover seventy-five miles of level road in a day. They will take up a slow trot and travel for several miles without a break. We had occasion to go to a village fifteen miles from Kagoshima and crossed a low mountain range of perhaps two thousand feet. The trip each way occupied about four hours; each 'rikisha had two pushers and the men had three hours rest at noon. They felt so fresh at the end of the trip that they came an hour later to take us to a dinner engagement. In the mountainous regions the chair and kago take the place of the 'rikisha. The chair rests on two bamboo poles and is carried by four men; the kago is suspended from one pole, like a swinging hammock, and is carried by two. Of the two, the chair is much the more comfortable for the tourist. The basha is a small one-horse omnibus which will hold four or six small people; it is used as a sort of stage between villages. A large part of the hauling of merchandise is done by men, horses being rarely seen. In fact, in some of the cities there are more oxen than horses, and many of them wear straw sandals to protect their hoofs from the hard pavement. The lighter burdens are carried in buckets or baskets, suspended from the ends of a pole and balanced upon the shoulder.

In the country the demand for land is so great that most of the roads are too narrow for any other vehicle than a hand cart. The highways connecting the cities and principal towns, however, are of good width, are substantially constructed and well drained, and have massive stone bridges spanning the streams.

The clothing of the men presents an interesting variety. In official circles the European and American dress prevails. The silk hat and Prince Albert coat are in evidence at all day functions, and the dress suit at evening parties. The western style of dress is also worn by many business men, professional men and soldiers, and by students after they reach the middle school, which corresponds to our high school. The change is taking place more rapidly among the young than among the adults and is more marked in the city than in the country. In one of the primary schools in Kyoto, I noticed that more than half of the children gave evidence of the transition in dress. The change is also more noticeable in the seaport cities than in the interior. At Kyoto, an inland city, the audience wore the native dress and all were seated on mats on the floor, while the next night at Osaka, a seaport, all sat on chairs and nearly all wore the American dress. At the Osaka meeting some forty Japanese young ladies from the Congregational college sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee" in English.

The shopkeepers and clerks generally wear the native clothing, which consists of a divided skirt and a short kimono held in place by a sash. The laboring men wear loose knee breeches and a shirt in warm weather; in cold weather they wear tight fitting breeches that reach to the ankles and a loose coat. In the country the summer clothing is even more scanty. I saw a number of men working in the field with nothing on but a cloth about the loins, and it was early in November, when I found a light overcoat comfortable.

A pipe in a wooden case and a tobacco pouch are often carried in the belt or sash, for smoking is almost universal among both men and women.

Considerable latitude is allowed in footwear. The leather shoe has kept pace with the coat and vest, but where the native dress is worn, the sandal is almost always used. Among the well-to-do the foot is encased in a short sock made of white cotton cloth, which is kept scrupulously clean. The sock has a separate division for the great toe, the sandal being held upon the foot by a cord which runs between the first and second toes and, dividing, fastens on each side of the sandal. These sandals are of wood and rest upon two blocks an inch or more high, the front one sloping toward the toe. The sandal hangs loosely upon the foot and drags upon the pavement with each step. The noise made by a crowd at a railroad station rises above the roar of the train. In muddy weather a higher sandal is used which raises the feet three or four inches from the ground, and the wearers stalk about as if on stilts. The day laborers wear a cheaper sandal made of woven rope or straw. The footwear above described comes down from time immemorial, but there is coming into use among the 'rikisha men a modern kind of footwear which is a compromise between the new and the old. It is a dark cloth, low-topped gaiter with a rubber sole and no heel. These have the separate pocket for the great toe. The sandals are left at the door. At public meetings in Japanese halls the same custom is followed, the sandals being checked at the door as hats and wraps are in our country. On approaching a meeting place the speaker can form some estimate of the size of the audience by the size of the piles of sandals on the outside. After taking cold twice, I procured a pair of felt slippers and carried them with me, and the other members of the family did likewise.

The women still retain the primitive dress. About 1884 an attempt was made by the ladies of the court to adopt the European dress and quite a number of women in official circles purchased gowns in London, Paris and the United States, in spite of the protests of their sisters abroad. (Mrs. Cleveland joined in a written remonstrance which was sent from the United States.) But the spell was broken in a very few months and the women outside of the court circles returned to the simpler and more becoming native garb. It is not necessary to enter into details regarding the female toilet, as the magazines have made the world familiar with the wide sleeved, loose fitting kimono with its convenient pockets. The children wear bright colors, but the adults adopt more quiet shades.

The shape of the garment never changes, but the color does. This season grey has been the correct shade. Feminine pride shows itself in the obi, a broad sash or belt tied in a very stiff and incomprehensible bow at the back. The material used for the obi is often bright in color and of rich and expensive brocades. A wooden disc is often concealed within the bow of the obi to keep it in shape and also to brace the back. Two neck cloths are usually worn, folded inside the kimono to protect the bare throat. These harmonize with the obi in color and give a dainty finish to the costume. As the kimono is quite narrow in the skirt, the women take very short steps. This short step, coupled with the dragging of the sandals, makes the women's gait quite unlike the free stride of the American woman. In the middle and higher schools the girls wear a pleated skirt over the kimono. These are uniform for each school and wine color is the shade now prevailing. The men and women of the same class wear practically the same kind of shoes.

Next to the obi, the hair receives the greatest attention and it is certainly arranged with elaborate care. The process is so complicated that a hair dresser is employed once or twice a week and beetle's oil is used in many instances to make the hair smooth and glossy. At night the Japanese women place a very hard, round cushion under the neck in order to keep the hair from becoming disarranged. The stores now have on sale air pillows, which are more comfortable than the wooden ones formerly used. The vexing question of millinery is settled by dispensing with hats entirely. Among the poorer classes the hat is seldom used by the men.

More interesting in appearance than either the men or women are the children – and I may add that there is no evidence of race suicide in Japan. They are to be seen everywhere, and a good natured lot they are. The babies are carried on the back of the mother or an older child, and it is not unusual to see the baby fast asleep while the bearer goes about her work. Of the tens of thousands of babies we have seen, scarcely a half dozen have been crying. The younger children sometimes have the lower part of the head shaved, leaving a cap of long hair on the crown of the head. Occasionally a spot is shaved in the center of this cap. After seeing the children on the streets, one can better appreciate the Japanese dolls, which look so strange to American children.

Cleanliness is the passion of the Japanese. The daily bath is a matter of routine, and among the middle classes there are probably more who go above this average than below. It is said that in the city of Tokyo there are over eleven hundred public baths, and it is estimated that five hundred thousand baths are taken daily at these places. The usual charge is one and a quarter cents (in our money) for adults and one cent for children. One enthusiastic admirer of Japan declares that a Japanese boy, coming unexpectedly into the possession of a few cents, will be more apt to spend it on a bath than on something to eat or drink. The private houses have baths wherever the owners can afford them. The bath tub is made like a barrel – sometimes of stone, but more often of wood – and is sunk below the level of the floor. The favorite temperature is one hundred and ten degrees, and in the winter time the bath tub often takes the place of a stove. In fact, at the hot springs people have been known to remain in the bath for days at a time. I do not vouch for the statement, but Mr. Basil H. Chamberlain in his book entitled "Things Japanese," says that when he was at one of these hot springs "the caretaker of the establishment, a hale old man of eighty, used to stay in the bath during the entire winter." Until recently the men and women bathed promiscuously in the public baths; occasionally, but not always, a string separated the bathers. Now different apartments must be provided.

The Japanese are a very polite people. They have often been likened to the French in this respect – the French done in bronze, so to speak. They bow very low, and in exchanging salutations and farewells sometimes bow several times. When the parties are seated on the floor, they rise to the knees and bow the head to the floor. Servants, when they bring food to those who are seated on the floor, drop upon their knees and, bowing, present the tray.

In speaking of the people I desire to emphasize one conclusion that has been drawn from my observations here, viz., that I have never seen a more quiet, orderly or self-restrained people. I have visited all of the larger cities and several of the smaller ones, in all parts of the islands; have mingled in the crowds that assembled at Tokyo and at Yokohama at the time of the reception to Togo and during the naval review; have ridden through the streets in day time and at night; and have walked when the entire street was a mass of humanity. I have not seen one drunken native or witnessed a fight or altercation of any kind. This is the more remarkable when it is remembered that these have been gala days when the entire population turned out to display its patriotism and to enjoy a vacation.

The Japanese house deserves a somewhat extended description. It is built of wood, is one story in height, unpainted and has a thatched or a tile roof. The thatched roof is cheaper, but far less durable. Some of the temples and palaces have a roof constructed like a thatched roof in which the bark of the arbor vitæ is used in place of grass or straw. These roofs are often a foot thick and are quite imposing. In cities most buildings are roofed with tile of a pattern which has been used for hundreds of years. Shingles are sometimes used on newer structures, but they are not nearly so large as our shingles, and instead of being fastened with nails, are held in place by wire. On the business streets the houses are generally two stories, the merchant living above the store. The public buildings are now being constructed of brick and stone and modeled after the buildings of America and Europe. But returning to the native architecture – the house is really little more than a frame, for the dividing walls are sliding screens, and, except in cold weather, the outside walls are taken out during the day. The rooms open into each other, the hallway extending around the outside instead of going through the center. Frail sliding partitions covered with paper separate the rooms from the hall, glass being almost unknown. The floor is covered with a heavy matting two inches thick, and as these mats are of uniform size, six feet by three, the rooms are made to fit the mats, twelve feet square being the common size. As the walls of the room are not stationary, there is no place for the hanging of pictures, although the sliding walls are often richly decorated. Such pictures as the house contains are painted on silk or paper and are rolled up when not on exhibition. At one end of the room used for company, there is generally a raised platform upon which a pot of flowers or other ornament is placed, and above this there are one or two shelves, the upper one being inclosed in sliding doors. There are no bedsteads, the beds being made upon the floor and rolled up during the day. There are no tables or chairs. There is usually a diminutive desk about a foot high upon which writing material is placed. The writing is done with a brush and the writing case or box containing the brush, ink, etc., has furnished the lacquer industry with one of the most popular articles for ornamentation. The people sit upon cushions upon the floor and their meals are served upon trays.

Japanese food is so different from American food that it takes the visitor some time to acquire a fondness for it, more time than the tourist usually has at his disposal. With the masses rice is the staple article of diet, and it is the most palatable native dish that the foreigner finds here. The white rice raised in Japan is superior in quality to some of the rice raised in China, and the farmers are often compelled to sell good rice and buy the poorer quality. Millet, which is even cheaper, is used as a substitute for rice.

As might be expected in a seagirt land, fish, lobster, crab, shrimp, etc., take the place of meat, the fish being often served raw. As a matter of fact, it is sometimes brought to the table alive and carved in the presence of the guests. Sweet potatoes, pickled radishes, mushrooms, sea weed, barley and fruit give variety to the diet. The radishes are white and enormous in size. I saw some which were two feet long and two and a half inches in diameter. Another variety is conical in form and six or eight inches in diameter. I heard of a kind of turnip which grows so large that two of them make a load for the small Japanese horses. The chicken is found quite generally throughout the country, but is small like the fighting breeds or the Leghorns. Ducks, also, are plentiful. Milk is seldom used except in case of sickness, and butter is almost unknown among the masses.

But the subject of food led me away from the house. No description would be complete which did not mention the little gate through which the tiny door yard is entered; the low doorway upon which the foreigner constantly bumps his head, and the little garden at the rear of the house with its fish pond, its miniature mountains, its climbing vines and fragrant flowers. The dwarf trees are cultivated here, and they are a delight to the eye; gnarled and knotted pines two feet high and thirty or forty years old are not uncommon. Little maple trees are seen here fifty years old and looking all of their age, but only twelve inches in height. We saw a collection of these dwarf trees, several hundred in number, and one could almost imagine himself transported to the home of the brownies. Some of these trees bear fruit ludicrously large for the size of the tree. The houses are heated by charcoal fires in open urns or braziers, but an American would not be satisfied with the amount of heat supplied. These braziers are moved about the room as convenience requires and supply heat for the inevitable tea.

But I have reached the limit of this article and must defer until the next description of the Japanese customs as we found them in the homes which we were privileged to visit.




CHAPTER III.

JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND HOSPITALITY


Every nation has its customs, its way of doing things, and a nation's customs and ways are likely to be peculiar in proportion as the nation is isolated. In Japan, therefore, one would expect to see many strange things, and the expectation is more than realized. In some things their customs are exactly the opposite of ours. In writing they place their characters in vertical lines and move from right to left, while our letters are arranged on horizontal lines and read from left to right. Their books begin where ours end and end where ours begin. The Japanese carpenters pull the saw and plane toward them, while ours push them from them. The Japanese mounts his steed from the right, while the American mounts from the left; Japanese turn to the left, Americans to the right. Japanese write it "Smith John Mr.," while we say "Mr. John Smith." At dinners in Japan wine is served hot and soup cold, and the yard is generally at the back of the house instead of the front.

The Japanese wear white for mourning and often bury their dead in a sitting posture. The death is sometimes announced as occurring at the house when it actually occurred elsewhere, and the date of the death is fixed to suit the convenience of the family. This is partly due to the fact that the Japanese like to have the death appear as occurring at home. Sometimes funeral services are held over a part of the body. An American lady whose Japanese maid died while attending her mistress in the United States, reports an incident worth relating. The lady cabled her husband asking instructions in regard to the disposition of the body. He conferred with the family of the deceased and cabled back directing the wife to bring a lock of the hair and the false teeth of the departed. The instructions were followed and upon the delivery of these precious relics, they were interred with the usual ceremonies.

The handshake is uncommon even among Japanese politicians, except in their intercourse with foreigners. When Baron Komura returned from the peace conference in which he played so important a part, I was anxious to witness his landing, partly out of respect to the man and partly out of curiosity to see whether the threatened manifestations of disapproval would be made by the populace, it having been rumored that thousands of death lanterns were being prepared for a hostile parade. (It is needless to say that the threats did not materialize and that no expressions of disapproval were heard after his arrival.) I found it impossible to learn either the hour or the landing place, and, despairing of being present, started to visit a furniture factory to inspect some wood carving. Consul-General Jones of Dalney (near Port Arthur), then visiting in Yokohama, was my escort and, as good fortune would have it, we passed near the Detached Palace. Dr. Jones, hearing that the landing might be made there, obtained permission for us to await the peace commissioner's coming. We found Marquis Ito there and a half dozen other officials. As Baron Komura did not arrive for half an hour, it gave me the best opportunity that I could have had to become acquainted with the Marquis, who is the most influential man in Japan at present. He is President of the Privy Council of Elder Statesmen and is credited with being the most potent factor in the shaping of Japan's demands at Portsmouth.

When Baron Komura stepped from the launch upon the soil of his native land, he was met by Marquis Ito, and each greeted the other with a low bow. The baron then saluted the other officials in the same manner and, turning, bowed to a group of Japanese ladies representing the Woman's Patriotic Association. Dr. Jones and I stood some feet in the rear of the officials and were greeted by the baron after he had saluted his own countrymen. He extended his hand to us. The incident is mentioned as illustrating the difference in the manner of greeting. For who would be more apt to clasp hands, if that were customary, than these two distinguished statesmen whose personalities are indissolubly linked together in the conclusion of a world renowned treaty?

A brief account of the reception of Admiral Togo may be interesting to those who read this article. While at Tokyo I visited the city hall, at the invitation of the mayor and city council. While there Mayor Ozaki informed me that he, in company with the mayors of the other cities, would tender Admiral Togo a reception on the following Tuesday, and invited me to be present. Of course I accepted, because it afforded a rare opportunity to observe Japanese customs as well as to see a large concourse of people. As I witnessed the naval review in Yokohama the day before and the illumination at night, I did not reach Tokyo until the morning of the reception, and this led me into considerable embarrassment. On the train I met a Japanese gentleman who could speak English. He was kind enough to find me a 'rikisha man and a pusher and to instruct them to take me at once to Uyeno Park. He then left me and the 'rikisha men followed his instructions to the letter. They had not proceeded far when I discovered that Admiral Togo had arrived on the same train and that a long procession had formed to conduct him to the park. Before I knew it, I was whisked past an escort of distinguished citizens who, clad in Prince Alberts and silk hats, followed the carriages, and then I found my 'rikisha drawn into an open space between two carriages. Grabbing the 'rikisha man in front of me, I told him by word and gesture to get out of the line of the procession. He could not understand English, and evidently thinking that I wanted to get nearer the front, he ran past a few carriages and then dropped into another opening. Again I got him out of the line, employing more emphasis than before, only to be carried still nearer the front. After repeated changes of position, all the time employing such sign language as I could command and attempting to convey by different tones of voice suggestions that I could not translate into language, I at last reached the head of the procession. And the 'rikisha men, as if satisfied with the success of their efforts, paused to await the starting of the line. I tried to inform them that I was not a part of the procession; that I wanted to get on another street; that they should take me to the park by some other route and do so at once. They at last comprehended sufficiently to leave the carriages and take up a rapid gait, but get off of the street they would not. For three miles they drew me between two rows of expectant people, whose eyes peered down the street to catch a glimpse of the great admiral, who, as the commander of the Japanese navy, has won such signal victories over the Russians. I saw a million people; they represented every class, age and condition. I saw more people than I ever saw before in a single day. Old men and old women, feeble, but strengthened by their enthusiasm; middle aged men and women whose sons had shared in the dangers and in the triumphs of the navy; students from the boys' schools and students from the girls' schools with flags and banners, little children dressed in all the colors of the rainbow – all were there. And I could imagine that each one of them old enough to think, was wondering why a foreigner was intruding upon a street which the police had cleared for a triumphal procession. If some one had angrily caught my 'rikisha men and thrust them through the crowd to a side street I should not have complained – I would even have felt relieved, but no one molested them or me and I reached the park some minutes ahead of the admiral. How glad I was to alight, and how willingly I rewarded the smiles of the 'rikisha men with a bonus – for had they not done their duty as they understood it? And had they not also given me, in spite of my protests, such a view of the people of Tokyo as I could have obtained in no other way?

At the park I luckily fell in with some of the councilmen whom I had met before and they took me in hand. I saw the procession arrive, heard the banzais (the Japanese cheers) as they rolled along the street, keeping pace with Togo's carriage, and I witnessed the earnest, yet always orderly, rejoicing of the crowd that had congregated at the end of the route. When the procession passed by us into the park the members of the city council fell in behind the carriages, and I with them. When we reached the stand, a seat was tendered me on the front row from which the extraordinary ceremonies attending the reception could be witnessed. Mayor Ozaki, the presiding officer, escorted Admiral Togo to a raised platform, and there the two took seats on little camp stools some ten feet apart, facing each other, with their sides to the audience and to those on the stand. After a moment's delay, a priest, clad in his official robes, approached with cake and a teacup on a tray and, kneeling, placed them before the admiral. Tea was then brought in a long handled pot and poured into the cup. After the distinguished guest had partaken of these refreshments, the mayor arose and read an address of welcome. He has the reputation of being one of the best orators in the empire, and his part was doubly interesting to me. As he confined himself to his manuscript, I could not judge of his delivery, but his voice was pleasing and his manner natural. The address recited the exploits of Admiral Togo and gave expression to the gratitude of the people. At its conclusion the hero-admiral arose and modestly acknowledged the compliment paid to him and to his officers. Admiral Togo is short, even for the Japanese, and has a scanty beard. Neither in stature nor in countenance does he give evidence of the stern courage and indomitable will which have raised him to the pinnacle of fame.

When he sat down the mayor proposed three times three banzais, and they were given with a will by the enormous crowd that stood in the open place before the stand. While writing this article, I am in receipt of information that Mayor Ozaki has secured for me one of the little camp stools above referred to and has had made for me a duplicate of the other. They will not only be interesting souvenirs of an historic occasion, and prized as such, but they will be interesting also because they contrast so sharply with the large and richly upholstered chairs used in America on similar occasions.

From this public meeting the admiral and his officers were conducted to a neighboring hall where an elaborate luncheon was served. With the councilmen I went to this hall and was presented to the admiral and his associates, one of whom had been a student at Annapolis.

By the courtesy of Hon. Lloyd Griscom, the American minister, I had an audience with the emperor, these audiences being arranged through the minister representing the country from which the caller comes. Our minister, to whom I am indebted for much assistance and many kindnesses during my stay at the capital, accompanied me to the palace and instructed me, as they say in the fraternities, "in the secret work of the order." Except where the caller wears a uniform, he is expected to appear in evening dress, although the hour fixed is in the day time. At the outer door stand men in livery, one of whom conducts the callers through long halls, beautifully decorated on ceilings and walls, to a spacious reception room where a halt is made until the summons comes from the emperor's room. The emperor stands in the middle of the receiving room with an interpreter at his side. The caller on reaching the threshold bows; he then advances half way to the emperor, pauses and bows again; he then proceeds and bows a third time as he takes the extended hand of the sovereign.

The conversation is brief and formal, consisting of answers to the questions asked by his majesty. The emperor is fifty-three years old, about five feet six inches in height, well built and wears a beard, although, as is the case with most Japanese, the growth is not heavy. On retiring the caller repeats the three bows.

We were shown through the palace, and having seen the old palace at Kyoto, which was the capital until the date of the restoration (1868), I was struck with the difference. The former was severely plain; the latter represents the best that Japanese art can produce.

No discussion of Japanese customs would be complete without mention of the tea ceremonial. One meets tea on his arrival; it is his constant companion during his stay and it is mingled with the farewells that speed him on his departure. Whenever he enters a house he is offered tea and cake and they are never refused. This custom prevails in the larger stores and is scrupulously observed at public buildings and colleges. The tea is served in dainty cups and taken without sugar or cream. The tea drinking habit is universal here, the kettle of hot water sitting on the coals in the brazier most of the time. At each railroad station the boys sing out, "Cha! Cha!" (the Japanese word for tea) and for less than two cents in our money they will furnish the traveler with an earthen pot of hot tea, with pot and cup thrown in.

The use of tea at social gatherings dates back at least six hundred years, when a tea ceremonial was instituted by a Buddhist priest to soften the manners of the warriors. It partook of a religious character at first, but soon became a social form, and different schools of tea drinkers vied with each other in suggesting rules and methods of procedure. About three hundred years ago Hideyoshi, one of the greatest of the military rulers of Japan, gave what is described as the largest tea party on record; the invitations being in the form of an imperial edict. All lovers of tea were summoned to assemble at a given date in a pine grove near Kyoto, and they seem to have done so. The tea party lasted ten days and the emperor drank at every booth.

According to Chamberlain, tea drinking had reached the luxurious stage before the middle of the fourteenth century. The lords took part in the daily gatherings, reclining on tiger skins, the walls of the guest chamber being richly ornamented. One of the popular games of that day was the offering of a number of varieties of tea, the guests being required to guess where each variety was produced, the best guess winning a handsome prize. The tea ceremony answered at least one useful purpose – it furnished an innocent way of killing time, and the lords of that day seem to have had an abundance of time on their hands. The daughters of the upper classes were trained to perform the ceremony and displayed much skill therein. Even to this day it is regarded as one of the accomplishments, and young ladies perfect themselves in it, much as our daughters learn music and singing. At Kagoshima, Governor Chikami, one of the most scholarly men whom I have met here, had his daughter perform for my instruction a part of the ceremony, time not permitting more. With charming grace she prepared, poured and served this Japanese nectar, each motion being according to the rules of the most approved sect, for there are sects among tea drinkers.

The theatre is an ancient institution here, although until recently the actors were considered beneath even the mercantile class. Their social standing has been somewhat improved since the advent of western ideas. The theatre building is very plain as compared with ours or even with the better class of homes here. They are always on the ground floor and have a circular, revolving stage within the larger stage which makes it possible to change the scenes instantly.

The plays are divided into two kinds – historical ones reproducing old Japan, and modern plays. The performance often lasts through the entire day and evening, some of the audience bringing their tea kettles and food. Lunches, fruit, cigarettes and tea are also on sale in the theatre. The people sit on the floor as they do in their homes and at public meetings. One of the side aisles is raised to the level of the stage and the actors use it for entrance and exit.

In this connection a word should be said in regard to the Geisha girls who have furnished such ample material for the artist and the decorator. They are selected for their beauty and trained in what is called a dance, although it differs so much from the American dance as scarcely to be describable by that term. It is rather a series of graceful poses in which gay costumes, dainty fans, flags, scarfs and sometimes parasols, play a part. The faces of the dancers are expressionless and there is no exposure of the limbs. The Geisha girls are often called in to entertain guests at a private dinner, the performance being before, not after, the meal.

Our first introduction to this national amusement was at the Maple Club dinner given at Tokyo by a society composed of Japanese men who had studied in the United States. The name of the society is a Japanese phrase which means the "Friends of America." The Maple Club is the most famous restaurant in Japan, and the Geisha girls employed there stand at the head of their profession. During the dancing there is music on stringed instruments, which resembles the banjo in tone, and sometimes singing. At the Maple Club the Geisha girls displayed American and Japanese flags. We saw the dancing again at an elaborate dinner given by Mr. Fukuzawa, editor of the Jiji Shimpo. Here also the flags of both nations were used.

In what words can I adequately describe the hospitality of the Japanese? I have read, and even heard, that among the more ignorant classes there is a decided anti-foreign feeling, and it is not unnatural that those who refuse to reconcile themselves to Japan's new attitude should blame the foreigner for the change, but we did not encounter this sentiment anywhere. Never in our own country have we been the recipients of more constant kindness or more considerate attention. From Marquis Ito down through all the ranks of official life we found everyone friendly to America, and to us as representatives of America. At the dinner given by Minister Griscom there were present, besides Marquis Ito, the leader of the liberal party, Count Okuma, the leader of the progressive party (the opposition party), and a number of other prominent Japanese politicians.

At the dinner given by Consul General Miller at Yokohama, Governor Sufu and Mayor Ichihara were present. The state and city officials wherever we have been have done everything possible to make our stay pleasant. The college and school authorities have opened their institutions to us and many without official position have in unmistakable ways shown themselves friendly. We will carry away with us a number of handsome presents bestowed by municipalities, colleges, societies and individuals.

We were entertained by Count Okuma soon after our arrival and met there, among others, Mr. Kato of the state department, and President Hatoyama of the Waseda University, and their wives. The count's house is half European and half Japanese, and his garden is celebrated for its beauty. At Viscount Kana's we saw a delightful bit of home life. He is one of the few daimios, or feudal lords, who has become conspicuous in the politics of Japan, and we soon discovered the secret of his success. He has devoted himself to the interests of agriculture and spent his time in an earnest and intelligent effort to improve the condition of the rural population. He is known as "The Farmer's Friend." His house is at the top of a beautifully terraced hill, which was once a part of his feudal estate. He and his wife and six children met us at the bottom of the hill on our arrival and escorted us to the bottom on our departure. The children assisted in serving the dinner and afterward sang for us the American national air as well as their own national hymn. The hospitality was so genuine and so heartily entered into by all the family that we could hardly realize that we were in a foreign land and entertained by hosts to whom we had to speak through an interpreter.

In the country, fifteen miles from Kagoshima, I was a guest at the home of Mr. Yamashita, the father of the young man, who, when a student in America, made his home with us for more than five years. Mr. Yamashita was of the samurai class and since the abolition of feudalism has been engaged in farming. He had invited his relatives and also the postmaster and the principal of the district school to the noon meal. He could not have been more thoughtful of my comfort or more kindly in his manner. The little country school which stood near by turned out to bid us welcome. The children were massed at a bridge over which large flags of the two nations floated from bamboo poles. Each child also held a flag, the Japanese and American flags alternating. As young Yamashita and I rode between the lines they waved their flags and shouted "Banzai." And so it was at other schools. Older people may be diplomatic and feign good will, but children speak from their hearts. There is no mistaking their meaning, and in my memory the echo of the voices of the children, mingling with the assurances of the men and women, convinces me that Japan entertains nothing but good will toward our nation. Steam has narrowed the Pacific and made us neighbors; let Justice keep us friends.




CHAPTER IV.

JAPAN – HER HISTORY AND PROGRESS


As for the islands themselves, they are largely of volcanic origin, and a number of smoking peaks still give evidence of the mighty convulsions which piled up these masses of masonry. Asosan mountain, on the island of Kyushu, has the largest crater in the world.

Japan is the home of the earthquake. The Japanese Year Book of 1905 is authority for the statement that Japan was visited by 17,750 earthquakes during the thirteen years ending 1887 – an average of more than thirteen hundred a year, or three and a half each day. It is needless to say that a large majority of these were so trivial as to be unnoticed, except by those in charge of the delicate instrument which registers them.

If the average is as great at this time, there have been more than seventy-five since we landed, but we have not been aware of them. The severe shocks have come at periods averaging two and a half years, and the really disastrous ones have been something like fifty years apart. The country about Tokyo is most subject to earthquakes, the last severe one being in 1894. According to an ancient legend, Japan rests upon the back of a large fish and the earthquakes are caused by the moving of the fish. There is a Seismological society in Japan which has published a sixteen-volume work giving all that is scientifically known of the cause and recurrence of these disturbances.

Of the origin of the Japanese themselves nothing certain is known. The best authorities say that they came from the continent in an early Mongol invasion, while others believe that they came from the islands which stretch to the south. One writer announces the theory that they are the lost Israelites. It is quite certain that when the first Japanese landed on the islands they found an earlier race in possession. Some seventeen thousand of these, called Ainus, now occupy the northern extremity of the empire – an indication that the migration was from the southwest. The Ainus have remained distinct; where they have intermarried with the Japanese, the half breeds have died out in the second or third generation. They are a hairy race and in physical characteristics quite different from the Japanese. Their religion is a sort of nature worship, and it is their custom to say a simple grace before eating.

The remoteness of the settlement of Japan is shown by the fact that the reigning family, which claims descent from the gods, has held undisputed sway for twenty-five hundred years, although the record of the first thousand years is so dependent upon verbal tradition that the official history cannot be verified. As concubinage has been practiced from time immemorial, the heir, the oldest son, has not always been born of the empress.

Soon after the beginning of the Christian era the influence of China and Korea began to be felt in Japan, the written characters of the language being quite like the Chinese. Koreans and Japanese do not agree as to the influence which the former have had upon the latter. A very intelligent Korean informs me that his is the mother country and that Japan was settled from Korea, but the Japanese do not take kindly to this theory.

The feudal system, of which I shall speak more at length in another article, was early established in Japan, and society was divided into well defined classes. First came the members of the royal family and those admitted to the circle by favor; next, the Shogun (of whom more will be heard under the subject of government) and his relatives.

Next in rank were the daimios, or lords, of varying degrees of importance. Each daimio had a large number of retainers, who were called samurai, and below these were a still larger number of peasants who tilled the soil and did the manual labor. Some of the early pictures show the gorgeous dress of the daimios and portray the elaborate ceremony employed on state occasions.

The samurai were the warriors and had no other occupation than to defend their lords in the struggles between the clans. They corresponded to the knights in Europe during the days of chivalry, except that there were no romantic adventures over women – woman holding until recently a very subordinate place as compared with "her lord and master."

The samurai were given an annual allowance for their subsistence, and felt that toil was far beneath their dignity. They wore lacquered armor and costly helmets and carried two swords – a long one for the enemy and a short one for themselves.

It was with this short sword that the famous hara-kiri was committed. This ancient form of suicide by disembowelment was considered an highly honorable death and has been practiced until within a generation. General Saigo, one of the great men of Japan and one of its popular heroes, was the last man of prominence to terminate his life in this way. He was one of the leaders in the movement to restore to the emperor the authority which the shoguns had usurped and was for a while close to the throne. In 1874, however, he organized an army for the invasion of Korea, and coming into conflict with the forces of the empire, which were called out to prevent the invasion, he was defeated. In his humiliation he committed hara-kiri. A few years ago the title of Marquis was conferred upon him by a posthumous decree and is now enjoyed by his eldest son. One of his sons is the present mayor of Kyoto and another a colonel in the Imperial Guard. A bronze monument of heroic size, the gift of admiring friends, has recently been placed in the principal park in Tokyo.

Only a few years ago a young Japanese committed suicide in this way in order to emphasize his protest against the encroachments of the Russians, but a strong sentiment is developing against hara-kiri, and it will soon take its place among other obsolete customs.

The samurai represented the intellectual as well as the military strength of the nation. The daimios have furnished few of the men of prominence in modern Japan, nearly all of the leaders in government, education, literature and the professions having come from the samurai class. Now, however, that all social distinctions have been removed and the schools opened to the children of all, the old lines between the classes cannot so easily be traced.

The merchant class has always been looked down upon in Japan. In the social scale the members of this class were not only lower than the samurai, but lower than the tillers of the soil. It was probably because of the contempt in which they were held that so low a standard of integrity existed among them – at least this is the explanation usually given. Even now Japanese, as well as foreigners, complain that the merchants impose upon their customers, but here also a change is taking place and a new order of things being inaugurated. There are in every city merchants of honor and responsibility who are redeeming trade from the stigma which it so long bore. Still, unless the stranger knows with whom he is dealing, it is well to have a Japanese advisor, for we found by experience that the price named to foreigners was sometimes considerably above the regular price.

For centuries Japan lived an isolated life and developed herself according to her own ideas. Of her native religion, Shintoism, of the introduction of Buddhism and of the first Christian missionaries, I shall speak in a later article. She repelled an attack of the Mongols which might have been disastrous to her but for the fact that a timely storm destroyed the invading fleet, much as the Spanish Armada was destroyed. She has from time to time attempted the invasion of Korea, the last attempt being made about three hundred years ago. A little later the Shogun, Iemitsu, alarmed by the spread of the Christian religion, introduced by Catholic missionaries from Spain and Portugal, shut the country up, and for two and a half centuries no foreigner was admitted and no citizen of Japan was permitted to go abroad.

To more surely keep his people at home the Shogun prohibited the building of any but small sailing vessels. It is almost incredible that so large a group of people could have enjoyed the civilization which existed here and still concealed themselves so completely from the outside world and remained so ignorant of the mighty movements in Europe and America. In 1853 Commodore Perry arrived with an American fleet and a treaty was finally entered into which opened the country to foreign intercourse. Japan was ripe for the change. While there was at first an anti-foreign sentiment which affected domestic politics and at one time resulted in an attack upon a foreign fleet, the assimilation of western civilization was rapid and constant. Young men began to go abroad, foreign teachers were sent for and the Japanese people began to manifest a wonderful aptitude for the adaptation of foreign ideas to local conditions. The army and navy were reconstructed upon the European models and a public school system largely like our own was established.

In most countries reforms have come up from the masses through more or less prolonged seasons of agitation, but in Japan the higher classes have been the leaders and have extended increasing social and governmental advantages to the whole people without a struggle. In every department of thought there has been progress, and in every line of work there have been leaders whose ambitions and ideals have been high and noble.

To illustrate the change that has taken place, Count Okuma cites the case of the famous military genius, the present Marshal Yamagata. When a very young man Yamagata was a spearman in the army organized by the daimios of Choshu to attack the foreign ships at the Shimonoseki Straits. He was so ignorant of modern warfare that he was confident of the ability of the Japanese to defeat the foreigners with spears. He thought that the Europeans and Americans would be at the mercy of the natives as soon as they landed. His surprise may be imagined when leaden missiles mowed down his comrades long before the spears could be brought into use. But this young man who attempted in 1864 to measure spear against rifle, betook himself to the study of the military methods of the foreigners, and in the recent war with Russia he has been chief of the general staff of the Japanese army – an army which in equipment, in preparation, and in provision for sick and wounded, as well as in its exploits upon the battlefield, has astonished the world. Count Okuma said that the progress made in the army and in the navy was paralleled by the progress made in other directions.

While there are here abundant preparations for war, there is a prevalent desire for peace. Notwithstanding Japan has a most efficient army and navy, and notwithstanding the natural exultation over their success at arms, the Japanese as I have met them are strongly inclined toward peace. Several times in introducing me the presiding officer has referred in terms of generous appreciation to the action of our president in bringing about the recent treaty of peace. The wars against China and Russia have been regarded by the people as defensive wars and it will be remembered that the civil war of 1874 was simply a suppression by the government of an attempt to invade Korea. General Saigo raised his army for the purpose of conquering Korea, but the government met the insurrectionists with an army large enough to completely overwhelm the forces of the famous general.

The Anglo-Japanese alliance is everywhere defended as a guarantee of peace. I met yesterday a Japanese of some local prominence who has issued a plea for universal peace. He proposes the establishment of an international peace society and in earnest language sets forth the horrors of war and the material, as well as the moral, arguments in favor of peace.

Upon no element of Japanese society has the rising sun of a higher civilization shed its rays more benignantly than upon woman. The position of the mother was an honored one when she became the head of the family, but while the children cared for both parents with a generous filial devotion, the wife and daughter were under the almost absolute power of the husband and father. Marriages were arranged by the parents and the young people were allowed to see each other after the match was agreed upon. Theoretically, each had a right to protest if dissatisfied, but practically the girl's protest amounted to nothing.

The wife was not only the servant of the husband, but might also be the servant of the mother-in-law – the mother-in-law joke being here on the daughter-in-law instead of the son-in-law. The fact that the husband was permitted to keep as many concubines as he desired still further lowered the status of woman. The daughters were often sold into prostitution to relieve the indebtedness of the father, and while this custom is on the decline, there are still thousands of Japanese girls whose virtue is made a matter of merchandise in accordance with this ancient custom. There is recorded among the decisions of Ooka, sometimes called the Japanese Solomon, who lived three centuries ago, a case in which the release of a young woman from a house of ill-fame was the central feature. The report of the judge's decree shows a discriminating mind as well as devotion to justice. Incidentally, the record reveals the fact that there were Shylocks in those days who loaned on short time at high rates and exacted the pound of flesh. In this case, the usurer compelled the sale of the daughter in extinguishment of a debt of fifteen yen, which by rapidly accumulating interest, had reached the, to them, enormous sum of thirty-five yen (or $17.50). The righteous judge confiscated the house of the extortioner and with the proceeds redeemed the woman. By the aid of the missionaries, under the leadership of Rev. Murphy, of Nagoya, legislation has been secured making it unlawful for a girl to be retained in one of these houses against her will, and many have already been rescued. As the taking of a concubine is a matter of record it is possible for the newspapers to acquaint themselves with the domestic relations of prominent men, and some of the papers have assisted in creating a public opinion against concubines. This custom is certain to give way before the advance of western ideas.

One of the foremost leaders in the elevation of woman was Yukichi Fukuzawa, one of the greatest, as well as one of the most influential, of the men who have appeared in Japan. He was a journalist, an educator, an orator and a philosopher. He refused to accept any titles or decorations and was called "The Great Commoner." He founded a college, the Keio-Gijuku, to which many of the public men trace their ideals and their interest in national and social problems. He delivered the first public speech made in Japan for, strange as it may seem, the habit of public speaking does not reach farther back than twenty-three years. Until constitutional government was formed there was no place for the forum. Shortly before his death, Mr. Fukuzawa reduced his philosophy to the form of a code of morals which has made a profound impression upon the thought of his country. He presented "independence and self respect," as he defined them, as the "cardinal tenet of personal morals and living." He insisted upon the care of the body, the training of the mind and the cultivation of the moral nature. He was one of the first to raise his voice against hara-kiri and in his code of morals he says: "To complete the natural span of life is to discharge a duty incumbent on man. Therefore, any person who, be the cause what it may or the circumstances what they may, deprives himself by violence of his own life, must be said to be guilty of an act inexcusable and cowardly, as well as mean, and entirely opposed to the principle of independence and self respect."

Concerning woman his code of morals says: "The custom of regarding women as the inferiors of men is a vicious relic of barbarism. Men and women of any enlightened country must treat and love each other on a basis of equality, so that each may develop his or her own independence and self respect."

When this great man died in 1901 his widow was in receipt of letters from many women expressing their appreciation of his labors in behalf of the women of Japan. Some of these are reproduced in a life of Mr. Fukuzawa, recently issued, and show the deep gratitude which the women feel toward him. It is also interesting to know that Mr. Fukuzawa believed in the dignity of labor and taught that each person should be "an independent worker beside being his own breadwinner." While he taught patriotism, he also taught that the people of all nations "are brethren" and that "no discrimination should be made in dealing with them."

The emperor sent him, just before his death, fifty thousand yen as a recognition of his eminent services, but he immediately turned the sum over to the Keio-Gijuku.

The Jiji Shimpo, the newspaper established by Mr. Fukuzawa, is still conducted by one of his sons, with whom we had the pleasure of dining. Another son is an instructor in the Keio-Gijuku.

Newspaper development has kept pace with the development in other directions. Tokyo, the capital, has sixteen daily papers with sufficient circulation to make them known as large papers. Besides these, there are magazines, periodicals and papers published in English. The Kokumin Shimbun is known as the government organ while most of the others are regarded as independent. The Tokyo Times is an excellent paper published in English. There is a weekly publication called the Economist, with a circulation of five thousand, which deals with commercial, financial and economic questions. Yokohama has papers published in both languages and the same is true of the other large seaport towns.

All the cities are supplied with daily papers published in Japanese. At Kagoshima, a city of about fifty thousand, situated at the southern extremity of Kyushu Island, I found a prosperous daily paper called the Kagoshima Shimbun. (Shimbun means daily newspaper.) It has a circulation of nine thousand six hundred, six thousand being in the city.

At Osaka I noticed a building elaborately decorated. In front were large flags on bamboo poles and smaller flags strung on cords, while Japanese lanterns were present in profusion. As none of the buildings around were decorated, I inquired and found that the decorated building was the office of the Osaka Asahi News and that the paper was celebrating the withdrawal of the governmental order which for two weeks had suspended its publication. The issue for that day contained a large sized picture of the Goddess of Liberty. When rioting occurred at Tokyo just after the treaty of peace with Russia, an order was issued authorizing the arbitrary suspension of any newspaper containing utterances deemed incendiary. Under this order the Asahi News received notice to suspend publication until permission was granted to resume. The withdrawal of the notice was duly celebrated and the paper announced that its readers, rather than the paper, had reason to complain of the suspension. This paper has the largest circulation of any in Japan, about two hundred thousand, and the order suspending it has been the subject of much editorial criticism.

Besides the newspapers which are conducted as business propositions, there are papers supported by associations formed for the propagation of various reforms. For instance, a paper called Romaji is published monthly at Tokyo – Japanese words being spelled with Roman letters, in the place of the present Japanese characters. A society was formed some twenty years ago for the purpose of urging this reform and a paper advocating it was published for three years, but finally suspended from lack of support. This fall the Romaji was established and hopes for a better fate. While this reform would be very acceptable to foreigners who are trying to learn the language, the movement does not seem to have gathered much momentum.

In one of the leading papers, the Hocho Shimbun, Mr. Gensai Murai, a novelist of distinction, published a continued story running daily through six years. It is not yet completed, having been suspended during the war. In this story the writer presents a large amount of information on national, political, economic and social questions, at the same time putting in enough fiction to sustain the interest.

Progress along some other lines will be treated under special heads. I find that there is some tendency here to resent the statement that Japan has borrowed largely from other nations. Some native writers insist that New Japan is but the natural development of Old Japan. There is a measure of truth in this, because there is no growth except from a living germ; and yet it can not be denied that Japan has appropriated to her own great advantage many foreign ideas, and it is not to her discredit that she has done so. Both individuals and nations borrow; imitation, not originality, is the rule. It will humble the pride of anyone to attempt to separate that which he has learned from others from that which he can claim as his own by right of discovery.

Steam is the same to-day that it was ages ago, and yet millions watched it escaping from the kettle with no thought of its latent power. One man showed mankind the use to which it could be put and all the rest profited by the idea. Shall we refuse to ride upon the railroad or cross the waters in an ocean greyhound for fear of employing the conception of another? Electricity is not a new agency. The lightnings have illumined the sky from the dawn of creation, and the people saw in them only cause for fear. A few decades ago one man thought out a method by which it could be imprisoned in a wire, and now widely separated lands are united by telegraph lines, while cables traverse the ocean's bed. Shall we refuse to read the news that the current carries or reject a message from home because we must employ an idea which sprang from another's brain? He is stupid who rejects truth, no matter from what source it comes; that nation is blind which does not welcome light from anywhere and everywhere. It is to the glory, not to the shame, of the land of the Rising Sun that her people have been quick to obey the injunction, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."




CHAPTER V.

INDUSTRIES, ARTS AND COMMERCE


The basis of Japanese industry is agricultural, although each year shows a decreasing proportion engaged in the tilling of the soil. Rice is the principal product, but owing to the large amount consumed at home it is not the chief export. As this crop needs an abundance of water, the rice fields occupy the low lands and the mountain gorges. Sometimes the narrow valleys that pierce the ranges are so terraced as to look like steps, and at this time of the year when the crop is being harvested, they resemble golden stairs. The men and women work together in the field, and in many places we saw them standing almost knee deep in mud, cutting the grain with old fashioned hand-sickles. The rice is tied in bundles somewhat smaller than our wheat sheaves, and hung over poles or laid along the edge of a terrace to cure. If the threshing is delayed the grain is stacked, not as we stack wheat and oats in the United States, but in little columns with the heads of the sheaves tied to a pole in the center. Sometimes the stacks are built around a living tree. The grain is separated from the straw by means of a long toothed comb, and at this season innumerable groups of persons are busily engaged at this work. The yellow heaps of rice in the hull, looking from a distance like wheat, can be seen from the train and from the country roads. Straw mats are used to keep the grain off the ground and, I may add, the mat is in evidence everywhere in Japan and is used for all sorts of purposes.

The cultivation of the tea plant is an industry of no small magnitude, although not so universal as the cultivation of rice. The tea fields occupy the higher levels and add an interesting variety to the landscapes. At one point on the railroad between Yokohama and Nagoya the hillsides are covered with tea plantations, if such tiny farms can be called plantations. The tea plant is something like our gooseberry and currant bushes in size, but the foliage is much thicker. The leaves vary widely in value, from the cheaper grades, which are exported, to the Uji which costs what is equivalent to five or more dollars per pound.

Some cotton is grown here, but the cotton plant as we saw it is small compared with our plant, and the tillable area is too limited to admit of the growing of cotton on a large scale.

Tobacco is cultivated to some extent, but the sale of manufactured tobacco is a government prerogative.

Raw silk is by far the most valuable export, thirty-five million dollars' worth having been sent abroad last year. Three-fifths of the entire export goes to the United States, the remainder to Europe, with France as the largest European purchaser. As fifteen million dollars' worth of silk fabrics went abroad also, as against five million dollars' worth of tea and four million dollars' worth of rice, it will be seen that the cultivation of the silk worm and the mulberry tree is extensively carried on. The silk worms are kept indoors and the leaves brought in to them. When put outdoors the silk worms are devoured by birds.

Fruits grow here in great variety. We have found everywhere apples of excellent quality, raised in the northern parts of the islands, while the southern islands produce oranges, bananas and pineapples. The apple tree was imported from America about thirty-five years ago; now apples are exported to China and Siberia. The most popular orange is the tangerine, or kid glove orange as it is sometimes called; many of these are exported.

There is a kind of fruit called the ban-tan grown on the island of Kyushu. It looks something like the grape fruit, but grows considerably larger and has a thicker skin; the meat is pink in color, sweeter and less juicy than the grape fruit. Pears grow here; one variety looks like a russet apple in shape and color. Peach trees are sometimes trained as we train grape vines on an arbor, so that the orchard seems to have a flat roof of foliage.

They have here, too, persimmons as large as apples and as solid. We found these on the table in all parts of the island and there are several varieties. The grape is cultivated in Japan, but we did not see grape vines in such profusion as they are seen in southern Europe, along the lakes in western New York or in California. And, in this connection, I may add that wine is not used here to the extent that it is in some other countries, the national drink, sake, being made from fermented rice. Ordinarily this beverage contains from eleven to fourteen per cent of alcohol, but there is a stronger kind called shochu, which contains as much as fifty per cent of alcohol. It is evident, however, that liquor by any other name can be as intoxicating as our whisky, and we found at Tokyo a national temperance society with branches throughout the empire. Mr. Ando, the president of this society, is a Japanese gentleman of great earnestness and intelligence, who was converted to Christianity a few years ago when he was representing his country in Honolulu. While, as I have stated in another article, I have seen no evidences of drunkenness, Mr. Ando informs me that his society has ample work to do. I carry back with me a badge which the society gave me on learning of my total abstinence habits. I have only mentioned the leading products of the field, but I can not leave the cultivators of the soil without a word concerning the gardens. They are so cute, occupying as they do the little nooks and corners that can not be utilized for the large crops. There does not seem to be a square inch of ground wasted. The vegetables are planted in rows which are either straight or curved, never crooked, and we have scarcely seen a weed. Fertilizer is extensively used, being kept in stone or cement vats protected from the weather by a straw colored shed. Near the cities the soil is enriched by the refuse from closets which is collected and carried away during the night. The introduction of sewage systems has been somewhat impeded in some cities by the fact that sewage would be an expense while closets are now a source of profit. It must be confessed, however, that the present system tends to make fresh vegetables unpopular with the tourist.

Most travelers land at Yokohama and depart at Kobe, or land at Kobe and depart at Yokohama, these being the two principal ports. As these are about 300 miles apart, one has a chance to see much of the farming land from the railroad. The side trips from Tokyo to Nikko, from Yokohama to Miyanoshita and from Kyoto to Nara, give additional opportunities for seeing the farmer at work, but the ride from Kobe west to Shimonoseki surpasses any of these in interest and in beauty of scenery. As this route leads along the sea coast as well as through densely populated valleys, there is greater variety. Now one skirts the inland sea, with its numerous islands, its transparent waters, its little harbors and its fleets of fishing boats; now he winds his way along a stream with falls and rapids and spanned by frail foot bridges or by stone wagon bridges. On the one side he sees a bamboo grove and on the other a tiny graveyard or a little hill dedicated to a Shinto shrine – stone steps ascending along a shaded path from the sacred gate, which invariably marks the entrance to holy ground. In passing over this railroad route one gathers a large amount of information concerning the industries of the sea coast, as well as those of the inland, and besides one can visit the Shimonoseki Strait which is of historic interest to Americans. The Sanyo railroad, which connects Kobe and Shimonoseki, is well equipped and well managed and has built an excellent hotel, The Sanyo, at Shimonoseki for the accommodation of its patrons. From this point a steamer runs to Fusan, the nearest Korean port, where direct connection is made for Seoul, the Korean capital. From Moji, just across the strait from Shimonoseki, one can take a train to Nagasaki, the western seaport of Japan. At Shimonoseki one is shown the house in which Marquis Ito and Li Hung Chang drafted the Japanese-Chinese treaty in 1894.

Mining is an industry of considerable importance here. Gold, silver and copper are found in paying quantities. More than six million dollars' worth of copper was exported last year. One of the gold fields on the island of Kyushu, near Kagoshima, gives promise of considerable richness. Coal is found in such abundance that the exports of this commodity have amounted to nearly ten million dollars in a single year. A hard quality of smokeless coal has recently been discovered in western Japan.

The islands also produce a number of varieties of valuable woods. The camphor tree grows to an enormous size, a gigantic statue of the Goddess of Mercy in one of the temples at Kamakura being carved from a single camphor log. The value of the camphor exported from Japan last year exceeded a million and a half dollars. Among the hard woods suitable for carving, cherry seems to be the most popular.

Of all the trees, however, the bamboo is the most useful. Just at this time when the returning soldiers are being welcomed, it is present everywhere in the form of flag poles, and there is nothing that equals it for this purpose; long, slender, light and strong, it is just the thing for flags and banners, and when a little plume of leaves is left at the top, it is still more beautiful. The bamboo is used for water pipes and for fences, for furniture and picture tubes, for dippers, baskets, fishing poles, flower vases, candlesticks, wicker work, etc., etc.

In wood carving the Japanese have long been skilled. Specimens of work done hundreds of years ago and testifying to their taste, no less than to their deftness of hand, may be seen in their ancient palaces and temples.

Stone cutting is also an ancient industry here. There is an abundance of stone and granite, while the lanterns, Korean lions and sacred gates have furnished subjects for many a chisel. Osaka seems to be the center of the stone cutting industry.

The iron industry is represented by an increasing number of establishments. In many instances workmen have been brought from abroad and employed until Japanese artisans were sufficiently trained to take their place. Much of the iron work is still done in little shops and by hand, although machinery is being imported in large quantities.

I visited a tannery at Kagoshima and found that the proprietor had spent seven years in America learning the business, and that on his return he had taught native help each branch of the business. He is now turning out an excellent product.

One of the most promising industries in Japan is cotton spinning. There are a number of factories already in operation and new ones are building. I visited one of the plants of the Osaka Nippon Boseki Kaisha at Osaka. This company has about seventy thousand spindles and the mills employ nothing but native labor. Foreign artisans were used in the beginning, but are no longer needed. A great many women are employed and some children; for the latter a school is maintained for two hours a day in the building. Cotton yarn is now selling for about forty cents a pound and is becoming one of the leading articles of export; China is the largest purchaser. Some idea of the growth of this branch of industry can be gathered from the fact that the exports of cotton yarn amounted to less than four thousand dollars in 1891 and 1892; in 1896 it had grown to over two millions, in 1898 to over ten millions, and during the last two years it has averaged about fifteen millions.

At Osaka I also visited a brush industry and found that from bones, imported from the slaughter houses of America, and from bristles, purchased in Russia and in China, they made tooth, nail and hair brushes for export to both Europe and America. Here, too, they have dispensed with the foreign labor which they employed in the beginning.

Earthenware is manufactured in abundance and of every variety. The exports of porcelain and earthenware reached almost two million dollars last year. In Kyoto we visited a pottery and found two rooms in which the finished product was displayed; the first contained beautiful specimens of Japanese skill, graceful in shape and dainty in decoration; the second was filled with big pieces in loud colors and of inferior workmanship. These last articles, we were informed, were made especially for the American trade.

Some beautiful porcelain work is done in Kyoto, the decoration representing a high degree of artistic skill.

One of the most famous kinds of china produced by Japan is known as Satsuma ware, the glazing of which is of a peculiar tint and has a crackled appearance. The secret of the manufacture of this ware was brought from Korea by the captives taken in war some three hundred years ago, and the industry still flourishes in Japan, although it has perished in Korea. Kagoshima is the center for Satsuma ware, and a colony of Koreans living near there, as well as Japanese manufacturers, produce excellent specimens.

Lacquer work has been done in Japan from time immemorial, samples of which, centuries old, can be seen in temples, palaces and museums. When gold and silver are used in connection with the lacquer the product is often very valuable.

The bronzes produced in the little shops scattered over Japan give play to the artistic taste which one finds here. Osaka and Kyoto are noted for their bronzes. Sometimes various metals are inlaid in the forms of flowers, birds, animals and landscapes, producing a most pleasing effect. Then there are damascene factories and places for embroidery and for pictures made in cut velvet, etc., etc.

No one can pass through Japan without being impressed with the taste, which seems to be national, and with the delicate skill which has been handed down from generation to generation. And nothing, in my judgment, more clearly exhibits this union of taste and skill than the Cloisonne work. Upon a metallic base, as a vase, placque or box, an artist draws a design; this design is then outlined with fine wires of gold and silver, then enamels of various colors are filled in. When the enamels are hardened and the whole polished, the product is a thing of marvelous beauty.

I have not space to speak of the minor industries, such as paper making, matches (in which Japan monopolizes the trade of the East), fans, umbrellas, lanterns, napkins, etc. The Japanese lantern which we use for ornamentation is here a practical thing, in daily, or rather nightly, use. These lanterns hang in front of the houses and are carried on the streets. They are also used for illumination on festive occasions; at the time of the naval review and the reception to Admiral Togo, Yokohama and Tokyo were illuminated by these lanterns as I never saw an American city lighted.

When Japan was opened to the commerce of the world, there were few business houses or trading establishments of any size. Now there are several department stores and large wholesale houses, besides manufacturing and trading companies of importance. One business man in Tokyo, Mr. K. Okura, has a private collection of curios valued at one million dollars, which he offered to sell in Europe or America, the proceeds to be given to the government for carrying on the war against Russia. Osaka has a successful business man who has earned the name of the "Japanese Carnegie" by giving a fine library building to that city.

Consul General Miller, at Yokohama, and Consul Sharp, at Kobe, furnished me with interesting statistics regarding the commerce of Japan. Exports have increased from about eighty millions in 1891 to about three hundred and twenty millions in 1904; during the same period imports increased from a little more than sixty-three millions to a little more than three hundred and seventy-one millions. While our country sells less to Japan than Great Britain and British India, she buys more than any other nation from Japan. Our chief exports to Japan last year were electric motors, locomotive engines, steam boilers and engines, iron pipes, nails, lead, oil, paraffine wax, cotton drills, cotton duck, raw cotton, tobacco, coal, cars, turning lathes, condensed milk, flour and wheat. Of these items, flour, raw cotton and oil were by far the most valuable, each amounting to more than four and a half million dollars.

In the ocean carrying trade, Japan is making rapid strides. In ten years her registered steamers have increased from four hundred and sixty-one to twelve hundred and twenty-four and her sailing vessels from one hundred and ninety-six to three thousand five hundred and twenty-three. There are now two hundred private ship yards in Japan, and in 1903 they built two hundred and seventy-nine vessels. The Japan Mail Steamship Company has a paid-up capital of eleven million dollars, runs steamers between Japan, America, Europe and Asia and pays a ten per cent dividend on its capital. The Osaka Mercantile Steamship Company (Osaka Shosen Kaisha) has a paid-up capital of nearly three and a half million dollars, owns about one hundred vessels and pays a dividend of ten per cent. These are the largest companies, but there are many smaller ones, some paying dividends of sixteen and twenty per cent.

I will close this article with the suggestion that the mercantile marine seems likely to show large growth in the future, offering, as it does, a legitimate field for national expansion.

Japan's fishing industries furnish a training for seamen and her people seem at home upon the water. She needs more territory for her expanding population and has about reached the limit in the cultivation of her tillable land. Every additional ship manned by her citizens is like a new island, rising from the waves, upon which her increasing population can be supported. If she seeks to acquire land in any direction, she finds her efforts contested by the inhabitants already there; no wonder she hails with delight these floating farms constructed by the genius of her own people – new land, as it were, won and held without the sacrifice of war.




CHAPTER VI.

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND RELIGIONS


Back of Japan's astonishing progress along material lines lies her amazing educational development. Fifty years ago but few of her people could read or write; now considerably less than ten per cent would be classed as illiterate. It is difficult to conceive of such a transformation taking place almost within a generation. The prompt adoption of western methods and the rapid assimilation of western ideas give indubitable proof of the pre-existence of a vital national germ. A pebble dropped into soil, however rich, and cultivated, no matter how carefully, gives back no response to the rays of the springtime sun. Only the seed which has life within can be awakened and developed by light and warmth and care. Japan had within her the vital spark, and when the winter of her isolation was passed, her latent energies burst forth into strong and sturdy growth.

Her sons, ambitious to know the world, scattered themselves throughout Europe and America, and having laden themselves with new ideas, returned to apply them at home. In this way Japan constantly gained from every quarter and her educational system is modeled after the best that the ages have produced. She has her primary schools for boys and girls, attendance being compulsory, and below these in many places there are kindergarten schools. The middle schools, in which the boys and girls are separated, take up the course of instruction where the primary schools leave off.

Then follow the universities, of which there are seven under the control of the government. Besides these there are in the cities institutions known as higher commercial schools, which combine general instruction with such special studies as are taught in our commercial colleges. There are also a number of normal schools for the training of teachers. In addition to the schools and colleges established and conducted by the government, there are a number founded by individuals and societies. The largest of these is Waseda College, founded and still maintained by Count Okuma, the leader of the progressive party. It is adjoining the home of the count and is built upon land which he donated. Dr. Hatoyama, at one time speaker of the national house of representatives, who holds a degree from Yale College, is the official head of this institution; in all of its departments it has some five thousand students.

I have referred in a former article to the Keio Gijuku, the college founded by Mr. Fukuzawa. The attendance here is not so large as at Waseda, but the institution has had an illustrious career and exerts a wide influence upon the country. I visited both of these colleges and never addressed more attentive or responsive audiences. As English is taught in all the middle schools, colleges and universities, the students are able to follow a speech in that language without an interpreter.

The state university at Tokyo includes six departments – law, medicine and engineering courses being provided, as well as courses in literature, science and agriculture. The total number of students enrolled at this university is about thirty-five hundred. The national university at Kyoto has three faculties – law, medicine and science – the last named including engineering; the attendance at this university is between six and seven hundred. In the states of Choshu and Satsuma there are higher schools supported by funds given by former feudal lords of those states.

The education of girls is not neglected, although as a rule the girls do not go as far in their studies as the boys. There are a number of normal schools and seventy-nine high schools for girls, besides the Peeresses' school and several private institutions. The Woman's University of Tokyo, situated near Waseda College and under the patronage of Count Okuma, has had a phenomenal career. Established only five years ago, it has now an enrollment of some seven hundred, and is putting up several new buildings.

There are also a number of missionary schools and colleges. The Presbyterians support three boarding schools for boys and eleven for girls, besides ten day schools; the total attendance at these schools is nearly twenty-three hundred.

The Congregationalists have a number of schools, the largest, Doshisha College at Kyoto, being the most influential Christian institution in Japan. I had the pleasure of visiting both this college and Kyoto University.

The Methodists have eighteen boarding schools and nineteen day schools with a total attendance of nearly five thousand. Their college at Kobe is a very promising institution.

The Baptists have a theological seminary, an academy, five boarding schools for girls and eight day schools, with a total attendance of nearly a thousand. The Episcopal Church has also taken an important part in educational work, while the Catholics (who were first on the ground) have over sixty seminaries, schools and orphanages, with an attendance of some six thousand.

The Japanese government supports more than twenty-five thousand primary schools, attended by over five million boys and girls; it supports more than two hundred and fifty middle schools, with an attendance of nearly one hundred thousand. While less than two per cent of the primary students enter the middle schools, more than ten per cent of the middle school students enter the higher colleges.

Although these figures give some idea of the interest taken in education, they do not furnish an adequate conception of the enthusiasm with which a large number of these students pursue their studies. Nearly fifty young men called upon me or wrote to me asking to be taken to America that they might continue their studies. Many of the leading men in Japan to-day are graduates of American or European colleges. The physicians have shown a preference for German schools, while to engineers and politicians our universities have been more attractive. A part of the friendliness felt toward foreigners can be traced to the favors shown Japanese boys who left home in search of knowledge. Marquis Ito, one of the first of these, owes much to an elder of the Presbyterian Church in England in whose home he lived as a student, and the marquis has ever since been making returns in kindness to foreigners and Christians.

Marquis Ito's case is not exceptional; all over Japan are men who hold in grateful remembrance Americans and Europeans to whom they are indebted for assistance. I met a man, now the publisher of an influential paper, who twenty years ago, at the age of sixteen, went to sea and in a shipwreck was cast upon one of the islands in the South Pacific. He became a retainer for the king of the islands and as such wore the scanty native dress, consisting of a loin cloth. He went with his king to Honolulu to pay a visit to the Hawaiian queen, and finding a Japanese settlement there, remained for two or three years. He then went to the United States and, making a friend of a professor in one of the universities, attended school there for several years. He now visits the United States every year or so on business, and one seeing him wearing a silk hat and a Prince Albert coat would hardly guess the experiences through which he has risen to his present position. If Japan, beginning fifty years ago with no educational system and scarcely any educated men or women, could accomplish what she has accomplished in half a century, what will she accomplish in the twentieth century, with the start which she now has and with the educational advantages which her people now enjoy?

Japan has several religions, although Shintoism has been, since 1868, the state religion. As a matter of fact, however, Shintoism can hardly be called a religion for it has no creed, no priesthood and no code of morals. It is really ancestor worship and comes down from time immemorial. It implies a belief in immortality, for the ancestral spirits are invoked and vows are paid to them at the numberless shrines that dot the country. These shrines are not usually in temples, although sometimes Shintoism and Buddhism have been mixed together and one temple employed for both shrines; as a rule, however, the Shinto shrine is in some secluded spot on the top of a hill or on a mountain side where a bit of natural scenery awakens a spirit of reverence. A gate of simple but beautiful design is placed at the point where the pathway to the shrine departs from the main road. We had read of these Shinto gates and had seen pictures of them, but we first saw one at Honolulu, itself the gateway to the Orient. No description can convey to the reader the impression which this gate makes upon the traveler; its outlines are so graceful and yet so strong that it seems an appropriate portal to a holy place.

The moral code of Confucius has also influenced the thought of Japan.

About fourteen hundred years ago the Buddhist religion was introduced into Japan by Chinese priests, and it spread rapidly throughout the islands. Its temples were imposing, its ceremonies impressive and the garb of its priests costly and elaborate. It did not root out Shintoism, it simply overwhelmed and absorbed it. The Buddhist temples, though not as popular as they once were, are still visited by millions of believers and are objects of interest to the tourist. Most of them are old, one at Nara having been built about the year 700. It is in such an excellent state of preservation that one can hardly believe that it has stood the storms of twelve centuries.

In the center of the temple is an image of Buddha, and on either side the figure of a huge warrior. There is also in this temple a God of War to which the Japanese were wont to pay their vows before going to battle. The devout Buddhist, approaching the image of the founder of his religion, bows and mutters a prayer, half audibly, and, throwing his mite in a box or on the floor before the shrine, departs. There is usually a bell, or sometimes only a chain, hanging above the place where prayers are said, and the suppliant swings a rope against the bell or shakes the chain before his prayer and claps his hands two or three times at its close. We inquired about the bell and received two answers: One, that it was to attract the attention of the god, and the other that it was to awaken the conscience of the one about to present his petition.

Near the temple at Nara stands an ugly image which never fails to attract the attention of the visitor. It is literally covered with paper wads which have been thrown against it by worshipers at the temple in the belief that their prayers would be answered if the wads adhered to the image. There is also at Nara a huge bell, almost as old as the temple. This bell is about thirteen feet high, nine feet in diameter and eight inches thick. It hangs in a pagoda quite near the ground, and when struck upon the side by a swinging log gives forth a sound of wonderful depth and richness. It was rung for us, and as its mellow tones reverberated along the hills we were awed by the thought that a thousand years before our Declaration of Independence was written, eight hundred years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, yes, even seven hundred years before America was discovered, this old bell was calling people to worship.

There is at Nara an immense bronze image of Buddha, even larger than the famous one at Kamokura, though not so finely proportioned. The smaller one is forty-nine feet in height and nearly one hundred feet in circumference (both represent Buddha, seated tailor-fashion, on a lotus flower) and the larger one is almost twice as large as the smaller one. The lantern of stone or bronze seems to be as necessary an adjunct to a Buddhist temple as the Shinto gate is to that form of religion. At Nara there are twenty-nine hundred stone lanterns of various sizes along the walks that lead from one temple to another, and they are found in abundance in other cities. The Korean lions are also identified with Buddhistic worship, these animals wrought in bronze or carved in stone guarding all temple doors. They are not as ferocious in appearance as the Numidian lion, and they illustrate an idea. One has his mouth open and the other has his mouth tightly shut, and they together represent the affirmative and the negative, or, in other words, the eternal conflict between the positive and the negative – one says yes, the other no.

Nara has an additional attraction in the form of a beautiful park containing some seven hundred deer, which are here regarded as sacred animals. They are so gentle that they will come, old and young, and eat from the hand.

Next to Nara, in our opinion, and in the opinion of many even before Nara, comes Nikko in beauty and interest. The spot was wisely chosen for a temple, a foaming stream, rugged mountains and stately trees adding to the attractiveness of the place. There is a shaded avenue twenty-five miles long leading from the lowlands to the temple, and it is said that when other feudal lords were bringing stone lanterns, one poor daimio, unable to make so large a gift, offered to plant little trees along the way; these, now three hundred years old, furnish a grateful shade for the pilgrims who visit this Mecca, and the poor tree planter is now known as "The Wise Daimio who went into partnership with Nature."

The temple at Nikko is only about three centuries old and its decorations are the richest and most costly to be found in Japan. As the Buddhists and Shintoists worship together here, the temple is kept in repair by the government and one can see the best in architecture and ornamentation that the temples exhibit. So famous are this temple and its environment that the Japanese have a phrase which when translated means, "You cannot say beautiful (kekko) until you have seen Nikko."

The most modern of the large temples is that at Kyoto. It was erected about thirty years ago on the site of one which had burned. It is not so large as the original, but is a reproduction in other respects and is one of the thirty-three temples to which pilgrimages are made. Some estimate can be formed of the ardor of those who worship here when it is known that the immense timbers used in the construction of the building were dragged through the streets and lifted into place by cables made of human hair contributed by Japanese women for that purpose. One of these cables, nearly three inches in diameter and several hundred feet long, is still kept in a room adjacent to the temple, the others having been destroyed by fire. Japanese women pride themselves upon their hair and arrange it with great care. What a poem of piety – what a strong sacrifice in these myriad strands of mingled black and grey!

All of the Buddhist temples stand within a walled enclosure, entered through a gorgeous gate which contrasts sharply with the simplicity of the Shinto gate. The Buddhist gate has a roof resembling a temple roof and is often ornamented with animals, birds and fantastic figures carved in wood. As an illustration of the superstition to be found among the ignorant, the following incident is given: An American, Mr. Frederick W. Horne, who lives at Yokohama and who has built up a large importing business in American machinery, has a handsome new home modeled after a Buddhist temple. At one gable he put a devil's head. The servants of the man living next door threatened to leave because the devil looked over into that yard. But they were quieted when the neighbor put two brass cannon on his roof and pointed them at the devil's head. The story seems too absurd to believe, but we were shown the cannons when we called at Mr. Horne's.

But Buddhism is losing its hold upon the Japanese; its temples are not crowded as they once were; its ceremonies do not interest and its teachings do not satisfy the new generation. Christianity will appeal more and more to the educated element of the Japanese population. Already favor is taking the place of toleration, as toleration thirty years ago supplanted persecution.

The Catholics, who have been the pioneers of the Cross in so many lands, brought Christianity to Japan through their missionaries about the middle of the sixteenth century. The success of the Jesuits was so pronounced that in thirty years they estimated their converts at one hundred and fifty thousand. In fact, the adherents to Christianity became so numerous and so influential that the Shogun, Hideyoshi, began to fear for his temporal power, and, having absolute authority, he expelled the foreigners, closed the ports and established the policy of non-intercourse with other nations – a policy which was followed until 1853. When the country was again opened to Christian missionaries it was found that some ten thousand men and women were still worshiping according to the forms of the Catholic Church, although for two and a half centuries there had been no communication between them and the church outside. Even after the opening of the country to foreign commerce there was some persecution of Christians and several thousand were imprisoned. But in 1873 the prisoners were set at liberty and the exiles allowed to return; since that time there has been absolute religious freedom and many men prominent in official life have been devoted Christians. The most noted of these native Christians was Mr. Kataoka, who was four times chosen speaker of the popular branch of the Japanese congress, or diet. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and when it was suggested that it would advance his political chances to resign his eldership, he replied that if compelled to choose between them he would rather be an elder than speaker.

The Catholic population of Japan numbered fifty-eight thousand in 1903; at the last report the Protestant communicants numbered nearly fifty-one thousand. There are among the natives four hundred and forty-two ordained ministers, five hundred and fifty-nine unordained ministers and helpers, and one hundred and eighty-six theological students. I met a number of Japanese Christians and was profoundly impressed by their earnestness and devotion. There is a large Y. M. C. A. at Tokyo and a smaller one at Kyoto; at Kagoshima I found a Women's Christian Association. While I have met American missionaries everywhere, I have tried to gather information from Japanese sources as well and have been gratified to find such cordial co-operation between foreign and native Christians. A physician in the navy introduced himself and volunteered the information that one American woman had undertaken the establishment of Christian clubs at the various naval stations, and within five years had gathered together more than five hundred members. He said that she met with opposition from the authorities at first, but now has their hearty support. The war with Russia, while retarding the work of the Greek Church among the Japanese, has been utilized by other denominations to reach a large number of sailors with Bibles and pamphlets.

Japan needs the Christian religion; a nation must have some religion and she has outgrown Buddhism. The ideals presented by these two systems are in many respects diametrically opposed to each other. One looks forward, the other backward; one regards life as a blessing to be enjoyed and an opportunity to be improved, the other sees in it only evil from which escape should be sought; one crowns this life with immortality, the other adds to a gloomy existence the darker night of annihilation; one offers faith as the inspiration to noble deeds, the other presents a plan for the perfecting of self with no sense of responsibility to God to prompt it or promise of reward to encourage it; one enlarges the sympathies and links each individual with all other human beings, the other turns the thought inward in search of perpetual calm.

Christianity dominates Europe and the western hemisphere, while Buddhism still holds the Orient under its drowsy spell. On the islands of Japan a struggle is now going on between these two great religious systems, and the triumph of the Gospel of Love and of consecrated activity in the Land of the Rising Sun will open the way to a still larger triumph in Asia.




CHAPTER VII.

EDUCATION AND RELIGION


The government of Japan is a constitutional monarchy in which the emperor not only claims to rule by divine right but by right of divine birth. He is described as Heaven born, and according to the accepted history there has been no break in the family line for twenty-five hundred years. Among no people on earth has there ever been more universal respect shown, or implicit obedience yielded, to the reigning family. There never has been a revolt of any consequence against the emperor, although there have been numerous conflicts between the shoguns. For about twelve hundred years, from 670 to 1868, the shoguns were, however, the actual rulers, and while they never questioned the sovereignty of the emperor, they did not allow him to retain much more than the empty title.

The shoguns were military rulers and a number of them were men of great force and executive ability. First, the Fujiwara family controlled the country through the shogunate for nearly four hundred years; then for a century the Taira and Minamoto families alternated in the exercise of power; then came the Hojo family and others of less importance until finally the Tokugawa family became supreme in the shogunate and continued in power for something like three hundred years. The emperor lived at Nara until about 1600, when the capital was moved to Kyoto, where it remained until less than forty years ago. Tokyo, on the other hand, was the seat of the shogun power, and there is a very noticeable difference between the two cities. The shoguns fortified their castles and required the feudal lords to keep headquarters in Tokyo. One cannot go through the palace in which the emperor lived permanently without noticing how plain it is as compared with the castle (both at Kyoto) in which the shogun resided for a few days during his annual call upon the emperor. While it may seem strange that the real rulers never attempted to become emperors in name, it only shows their intelligence, for by not insisting upon the recognition of the royal family they were probably more successful in maintaining the real authority than they would have been had they questioned the divine right of the immemorial rulers.

During the early part of the last century there began to be a reaction against the shogun, and when he agreed to the treaties opening the country to foreign intercourse, his action was taken advantage of by the friends of the emperor. When the feudal lords of Choshu attacked the foreign ships at Shimonoseki Strait, the shogun was compelled to pay an indemnity of three million dollars and he attempted to chastise the Choshu leaders. His forces were defeated and he died soon afterward. The emperor seized upon this event and with the aid of the influential lords of Choshu and Satsuma abolished the shogunate in 1868. The new shogun accepted the situation without a struggle and those of his followers who attempted a resistance were soon routed.

Everything in modern Japan dates from 1868, which is called the restoration. While in the restoration the emperor was acknowledged as the sole and absolute ruler in whom all authority was vested, still it was really the beginning of constitutional government, for the emperor voluntarily promised his people a constitution, a promise which was not finally fulfilled until 1889.

The fervor of patriotism that restored to the emperor his original authority wrought wonders in Japan. The feudal lords came forward and voluntarily turned their vast estates over to the emperor and relinquished the authority which they had exercised over their tenants; then they joined with the samurai (their former retainers) in supporting the emperor in abolishing all social distinctions. From that day to this the country has grown more and more democratic, the reforms working from the upper classes down.

In 1889 the constitution promised by the emperor was promulgated. It was prepared largely by Marquis Ito who visited Germany and modeled the document after the Prussian constitution. The legislative power is vested in a diet consisting of two houses, one resembling the English house of lords, and the other resembling our house of representatives. The upper house is composed of the princes of the royal blood, marquises (these sit by virtue of their rank), counts, viscounts and barons, selected from among their respective classes, men of erudition or distinguished service appointed by the emperor, and one representative from each prefecture or state, selected by the highest taxpayers. The members of the diet, except those who sit by virtue of their rank, receive two thousand yen (one thousand dollars) per year. The members of the house of representatives are divided among the states in proportion to the number of franchise holders; last year they numbered three hundred and twenty-three and were voted for by seven hundred and fifty-seven thousand franchise holders. The franchise holders numbered less than ten per cent of the men of voting age, there being a property qualification which excludes from suffrage more than nine-tenths of the adult males.

The emperor appoints the governors of the various states, and these need not be selected from the states over which they preside. The emperor has the right to convoke and prorogue the diet and to dissolve the house of representatives; he also has the right to issue urgency ordinances when the diet is not in session, the same to be submitted for approval to the next session.

The constitution contains a bill of rights. Among other rights the Japanese subjects shall enjoy freedom of religious belief "within limits not prejudicial to peace and order and not antagonistic to their duties as subjects," and "within the limits of law" they shall enjoy "the liberty of speech, writing, publication, public meeting and association." After the Tokyo riots which followed the announcement of the treaty with Russia an urgency ordinance was issued restraining the press and certain newspapers were suspended under this ordinance, but it is probable that this urgency ordinance will be vigorously discussed at the coming session of the diet.

The emperor is assisted in the discharge of his executive duties by a prime minister and nine department ministers; besides these he has the advice of a privy council, composed of elder statesmen, of which Marquis Ito is now the president.

Each state has what corresponds to our legislature, and each city has a council; both of these bodies are elective and to the city council is entrusted the selection of the mayor.

They have a judiciary, federal and local, appointed for life, but no jury system. Among the laws is one forbidding aliens to own property, although this is avoided to some extent by long time leases. There is also a law by which a debt descends with the property to the oldest son, even though the debt may exceed the property.

Through the courtesy of Hon. N. W. McIvor, former consul general at Yokohama, now engaged in the practice of international law, I had an opportunity to meet a number of governors and congressmen and found them, as a rule, an intelligent and accomplished body of men, many of them having finished their education abroad. Their most famous minister of finance, Count Matsukata, bore some resemblance to J. Pierpont Morgan.

They have politics in Japan. The promise of a constitution seems to have been given by the emperor before there was any general agitation for it, but as about twenty-one years elapsed between the making of the promise and the realization of the hopes excited by it, there was a period of discussion. As early as 1874 several of the ministers joined in a petition asking for the promulgation of the promised constitution. Their memorial being disregarded they resigned their offices and became the founders of a democratic party. They called themselves liberals and their efforts resulted in an imperial rescript issued in 1881, fixing 1889 as the date for the beginning of constitutional government. Marquis Ito is now the leader of the liberal party, which had one hundred and thirty members in the house of representatives in 1904.

In 1882 Count Okuma organized the progressive party, which had last year a membership of ninety in the house of representatives. This is known as the party of the opposition, Marquis Ito's party being the power behind the throne. There is not as much difference between the platforms of these parties as between the platforms of the two leading parties of our country, but of the two Count Okuma's party is the more radical. The count himself is a born leader and exerts a large influence upon the politics of his country. When premier some years ago he lost a leg by the explosion of a bomb, thrown with murderous intent by a political opponent, but it did not diminish his zeal in the prosecution of reforms. The fact that there were in the last diet one hundred and thirty who styled themselves independents shows that there is a considerable body to which the opposition party can appeal when the minister makes an unpopular move.

Besides the party organizations there are a number of societies formed for the study of political questions. There are economic associations in a number of the cities, composed of the leading business and professional men. I met the members of these societies at Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya and was impressed with the attention that they are giving to economic problems. They have in Tokyo another organization called the Political Economy Association which deals more directly with matters of government. The society formed by the men who were educated in America, known as the Friends of America (Baron Kaneko is one of the leading members), takes a deep interest in all matters relating to government and political economy.

The leading political question in Japan to-day, in so far as it affects domestic affairs, is whether the cabinet shall be selected by the emperor, regardless of the prevailing sentiment in the house, or be made to conform to the will of the people as expressed through their representatives. At present the emperor's councilors are chosen at his own discretion and the states of Satsuma and Choshu have had a controlling influence in the selection of the emperor's advisors. The democratic sentiment of the country is at this time crystallizing in favor of the demand that the emperor take for his premier the leader of the popular party, as the king of England does. However much this reform may be delayed by circumstances, it is bound to come if Japan is to recognize the rights of the people to govern themselves.

In the cities, sanitation furnishes a most difficult problem. At present there is little sewage, although there is a pressing need for it.

In the industrial development of Japan the people must meet the problem of child labor and also consider the shortening of the length of the working day. Women now work twelve hours in the factory and one cannot see them and the children at toil without asking whether Japan can afford to impair the strength of the next generation for any advantage which may be derived from such long hours and such youthful labor. This subject is likely to be brought before the next session of the diet.

In some reforms Japan has moved more rapidly than the United States. Wherever she has waterworks in her cities, they are owned and operated by the municipalities. She also has a telegraph system and a telephone system operated by the national government. Telegrams are sent at the same rate to all parts of the empire and the service is satisfactory.

The telephone service is not so good. While it is all right as far as it goes, the system is not extended as rapidly as the demand requires. In Tokyo, for instance, those who want to install telephones have to wait until someone discontinues his 'phone or is willing to sell it, and a bonus is often demanded. If the local telephones were owned by the city and only the interurban lines managed by the imperial government, the service would respond more quickly to the needs of the community.

The Japanese government also owns and operates a part of the railroad system, and in doing so employs nothing but native help. I traveled on both the government and private lines and could not see that they differed materially so far as efficiency was concerned.

The first-class fare is about four cents per mile (in our money) the second-class about two cents and the third-class (nearly all the travel is third-class) about one cent. A reduction of twenty per cent is made on return tickets, a reduction of from twenty to thirty per cent on commutation tickets, and a reduction of from forty-five to eighty per cent on season tickets for students. This reduction to students might be imitated to advantage in our country. The government road is all, or nearly all, double track and has the latest safeguards for the protection of passengers at depots. The Japanese are much given to meeting friends when they arrive and escorting them to the train when they leave, and this custom has led to the sale of platform tickets for one cent (in our money).

Japan has two educational problems: First, the increase in the percentage of those going from the primary to the middle schools; and, second, the cultivation of an ideal which will connect a respect for manual labor with intellectual advancement. To-day a large majority of her people work with their hands and at labor which forbids the wearing of good clothes. It is probable that the education of the masses will show itself to some extent in improved methods and in the more extensive use of animals and machinery, but there must remain a large amount of work which requires daily contact with the soil. The rice crop grows in the mud and cannot be harvested by machinery; the fields, too, are so small that they cannot well be cultivated with the aid of animals. The farmers' boys and girls are now going to school and gradually adopting the European dress. Will they be content to return to the paddy fields when they have finished their education? Some of the young men pull 'rikishas in the daytime in order to earn money to attend school at night. Will their learning make them unwilling to do hard work? Or will they substitute the cab for the 'rikisha?

Japan faces the educational problem that confronts the civilized world, viz., how to put behind a trained mind an ideal which will make the educated citizen anxious to do service rather than to be waited upon. Tolstoy's solution of the problem is "bread labor," that is, physical toil sufficient to produce what one eats. This he believes will teach respect for labor and by dignifying it unite all parts of society in sympathetic co-operation. Has any better solution been proposed?

With a broader educational foundation Japan will find it necessary to extend the suffrage. At present the right to vote is determined by a strict property qualification, but there is already an urgent demand for the reduction of the tax qualification, and it will not be long before a large addition will be made to the voting population.

The most serious national problem with which Japan has to deal is that imposed upon her by the attempt to extend the sphere of her political influence to Formosa on the southwest and Korea on the northwest. The people of Formosa do not welcome Japanese sovereignty and an army of some six or seven thousand is kept on that island to support Japanese authority.

But Korea presents a still more delicate and perplexing situation. For more than a thousand years a feud has existed between Japan and Korea and two attempts have been made by the former to invade the latter, the last about three hundred years ago. At that time a number of captives were carried back to Kagoshima where they, as before mentioned, introduced the art of making what has since been known as Satsuma ware. The fact that the descendants of these captives lived in a colony by themselves for three centuries without intermarrying with the Japanese is sufficient evidence of the feeling entertained toward them by their captors.

To aggravate the matter Japan has been engaged in two wars, first with China and then with Russia, over Korea, and it was also the cause of one civil war in Japan. Having driven China from Korea ten years ago and now having driven Russia out, she is undertaking to exercise a protectorate over the country. When it is remembered that Korea is separated from both Manchuria and Siberia by an imaginary line and that the Koreans themselves regard the Japanese as intruders, some estimate can be formed of Japan's task. In a future article on Korea I shall speak on this subject more at length, but the matter is referred to here because the experiment is as dangerous to Japan as it is to Korea.

Will Japan be able to accomplish what other nations have failed to do, viz., exercise a colonial power without abusing it and without impoverishing herself?




CHAPTER VIII.

KOREA – "THE HERMIT NATION."


Poor little Korea! One hardly knows whether to be amused or grieved, so strangely have comedy and tragedy been blended in her history.

Mr. Griffiths in his very comprehensive book bearing that title, calls Korea the "Hermit Nation," and the appellation was a fitting one until within a generation. Since that time she might be described as a bone of contention, for she has been the cause of several bloody quarrels.

The position of Korea on the map of Asia very much resembles Florida's position on the map of North America, and Japan's relative position is something like that which Cuba bears to Florida. Separated on the south from Japan by about a hundred miles of water and joining both China and Russia on the north, it is not strange that all three of these nations have looked upon her with covetous eyes and begrudged each other any advantage obtained. The surface of Korea is quite mountainous, the ranges and valleys extending for the most part from the northeast to the southwest. Until recently the country was inaccessible and few of the white race have penetrated the interior. A few years ago a railroad was built from Seoul thirty-five miles west to Chemulpo, the nearest seaport. Since then the Japanese have built a road from Seoul north to Pen Yang, and southeast to Fusan. The last line, which has been finished less than a year, is two hundred and seventy-five miles long and connects the Korean capital with the nearest seaport to Japan. This railroad is of such great military importance to Japan that she aided the building to the extent of guaranteeing six per cent interest on the investment for fifteen years, with the provision that the cost of the road should not exceed twenty-five million yen. The Korean government gave the right of way for the road and the free admission of material imported for its construction and equipment. The engines and cars are of American style and make, and the road is standard gauge. It is now so easy to pass through Korea in going from Japan to Pekin that the tourist should not miss its strange and interesting sights, but the trip should be made before November. We took the train at Fusan and made the ride nearly all the way in daylight, thus having an opportunity to see both the country and the people. The road crosses three rivers and the water sheds which separate them, making the construction of the road extremely difficult. The mountains are bare, and we were informed that they had been denuded by the natives and the wood used for fuel. The Koreans sometimes blame the Japanese for the appearance of the country and attributed it to the invasion three hundred years ago; an intelligent son of Japan replied that as his country recovered from earthquake shocks within a few years, the Koreans should have been able to remove the traces of an invasion in less than three centuries.

The valleys are fertile but in tillage and in evidences of industry they do not approach the valleys of Japan. One misses the orchards, the trees, the vines and the flowers which are ever present in "The Land of the Rising Sun."

Rice is the principal crop in the south, while barley and wheat are more cultivated in the north. Beans and peas are also raised in large quantities and last year constituted the chief article of export. Rice, while often the largest export, fell below beans and peas that year and was closely followed by hides and ginseng. There are some gold mines, the export of this ore amounting to nearly fifty thousand dollars last year, but the country has been so isolated that its mineral wealth has not been exhaustively explored.

The population of Korea is variously estimated at from eight to fifteen millions. The men are larger than the Japanese and somewhat lighter in color but not so alert. Like the Japanese they have rather a scanty beard, but it seems to be more fashionable for the older men to allow their chin whiskers to grow. In dress the Korean man is unique. He wears a long white coat of thin cotton reaching to the knees, with trousers generally of white, very full in the seat and tied around the ankles. The vest is of red, blue or green if he is not in mourning, but mourning seems to be a permanent occupation in Korea. It was explained to us that white is the color used for mourning and that the mourning period lasts three years. When one of the royal family dies, all of the people wear mourning for the full period, and as they have sometimes had three royal funerals within a decade, white came into general use as a matter of economy.

The hat ordinarily worn is made of horse hair and has a high crown, and being only about a third as large as our hats, it sits upon the top of the head without covering it. It has a narrow brim of the same material and is tied on with strings under the chin. These hats are generally black, although different colors may be seen upon the street; sometimes an enormous straw hat is used for mourning.

The unmarried men wear the hair in one long braid like a Chinese pigtail, but when one marries he combs his hair to the top of his head and ties it in a stiff top knot which is visible through the gauze hat. The foot is encased in a sock, padded with cotton, and a canoe shaped shoe of grass, cloth, leather or wood.

The women, except those of the coolie class, are seldom seen on the street in the daytime, and the men are not allowed on the street at night, or were not until western ways began to invade the island. Even when going out the women wear over their heads a green cape with scarlet sleeves and draw it across the face in such a way that little more than the eyes can be seen. The streets of Seoul and of the towns through which we passed were full of men, many of them walking about in a leisurely way or standing in groups smoking long pipes. Mingled with them were coolies carrying immense packs on their backs or leading ponies, oxen or cows laden with hay, wood or fagots. We saw more idle men in two days in Korea than we saw in Japan in a month. While the coolies seem to be quite industrious and carry astonishing weights, there seems to be a deep-rooted contempt for labor – even among the middle classes, and a contractor told us that in the employing of the coolies it was necessary to pay them every day because a week's compensation would have to be spent before they would return to work. An incident will serve to illustrate the feeling in regard to labor of any kind. In making a purchase we wanted two things tied together with a string. We called the guide's attention to it; he handed the things to his attendant and the attendant handed them to the shopkeeper, who did the tying. We were also informed that the Koreans lack the power of organized co-operation. Each one works by himself and carries his burden on forked sticks strapped to his back. In walking he uses what seems like a staff, but its real purpose is that of a prop for his load when he stops to rest.

The shopkeepers of Korea have the oriental taste for bargaining to a marked degree and always ask a great deal more than they expect to receive, finding, apparently, intellectual recreation in haggling over the price. In making a few small purchases we were very much amused at the spirited discussions which took place between our guide and the merchants. Followed by a crowd of interested spectators, numbering from twenty to fifty, we moved from shop to shop. The vendor would announce a price as if his was a one-price store. The guide would receive the announcement with absolute contempt and the wordy war would begin. The bystanders took sides and joined in the fray; the clerks and members of the storekeeper's family flocked to his aid, while the crowd elbowed each other to get nearer the scene of action. Usually the guide would start toward another store before an agreement could be reached, sometimes less than half of the original price was settled upon, and in the calm which followed the storm, everyone seemed satisfied. We heard of instances where one-eighth of the price asked was finally accepted, but either the merchants with whom we dealt were more reasonable or our guide yielded too soon.

The Korean houses are entirely different from those of Japan; they are not so high nor so large but are more warmly built. They are usually constructed of stone set in mud and have poorly thatched roofs of straw; occasionally tile is used. Often the earth supplies a floor except for the little sleeping rooms, which have floors of stone covered with oiled paper. These rooms are heated by flues under the floors which conduct the flame and smoke to a chimney which opens on the side of the house. Leaves, fagots, coarse grass and all sorts of trash are used for fuel and these stone floors, heated twice a day, keep the small rooms quite comfortable.

The people sit on the floor as in Japan, except that they sit cross-legged instead of sitting on the feet, and sleep on mats spread on the floor at night and stowed away during the day.

While in Seoul we were, through the courtesy of Rev. S. F. Moore, one of the missionaries, invited to the wedding of two Korean Christians and after the ceremony had a chance to inspect the house of the groom's father. It was quite neat and clean, but the houses generally as seen from the narrow streets are dirty and uninviting. One wonders where the men keep the long white coats of which they seem so proud, until he is informed that the wives wash and iron them at night while the lord of the household sleeps.

Speaking of the marriage, I must as a truthful chronicler record that the young man whom we saw married (they marry young in Korea and the marriages are arranged by the parents) had a pleasant face and that the bride was modest and comely. He wore a dark red, loose-fitting coat, a wide belt and a black gauze hat of indescribable shape. The girl wore a green silk waist which, just below the armpits, joined a very full skirt of red. Her head was ornamented with two very large rolls of hair which, according to custom, were borrowed for the occasion. We were informed that the wedding clothes are often rented and that even the goose, which in the native ceremony the wife presents to the husband as a symbol of constancy, is obtained in the same way. As in this case the Christian ceremony was used, the couple did not pledge themselves according to the native practice by saying "Black is the hair that now crowns our heads, yet when it has become as white as the fibers of the onion root, we shall still be found faithful to each other," but as among the non-Christian Koreans the man is allowed to take a concubine into his home whenever he is able to support one, the pledge would seem to be a mere formality on his part.

Seoul, the capital and largest city, is surrounded by a substantial wall and entered by gates which until recently were shut at night even though the city long ago outgrew the walls. These gates remind one of the gates described in the Bible, and they are not lacking in the beggar who finds the gate a convenient place to make his plea to the passerby. Aside from two or three broad thoroughfares, the streets are narrow, crooked and filthy. The open sewers on each side are filled with refuse matter and reek with foul odors.

There is no general educational system in Korea, and the percentage of illiteracy is naturally large. The missionary schools are doing an excellent work and a few of the young men have been sent to China, Japan and America. During recent years there has been quite an awakening among the young men, and they are showing an increased desire to learn about western civilization. So great is this interest that a newly organized branch of the Young Men's Christian Association at Seoul has a membership of over five hundred, four-fifths of whom are not professing Christians but are drawn to the institution because it gives them a chance to study western problems and methods. Mr. Wanamaker, the merchant prince of Philadelphia, has just offered to supply the money necessary for a permanent Y. M. C. A. building in Seoul, and having addressed a meeting in the present crowded quarters, I can testify that a new hall is badly needed.

The Chinese characters are used in writing, but the Koreans have a spoken language which is quite different. There is no extensive literature that can be called Korean, although Dr. Allen, for many years American minister at Seoul, has published, in a volume entitled "Korea: Facts and Fancies," a number of delightful folklore stories, which show an appreciation of the love story and a very clear recognition of the personal virtues as illustrated in daily life. Dr. Allen's book also contains an interesting chronology of the principal events, but it is significant of the change wrought by foreign influence that it only requires twelve pages to record the things worth mentioning from the beginning of the Christian era down to 1876, while eighty pages are devoted to the things that have transpired since.

In examining the pages devoted to the last century one is struck with the disinclination of the Korean government to accept the offers of intercourse made by the various nations of Europe since 1875, and with the number of missionaries who suffered for religion's sake prior to that date. Persecution, however, seems to have increased rather than diminished the zeal of the various denominations, and to-day Korea is regarded as one of the most promising of the missionary fields. While Confucianism has influenced Korea, Buddhism never gained such a foothold in this country as in China and Japan. There are no gorgeous temples here, and for five hundred years (and until recently) Buddhist priests were not allowed within the walls of Seoul. There are missionary stations throughout the country, and at Peng Yang there is a native congregation of fifteen hundred. At Seoul a modern hospital, built with money given by Mr. Severance, of Cleveland, Ohio, has been opened by Dr. Avison, where, besides care for the sick, medical training is furnished to natives who desire to fit themselves for this profession. I was assured by Dr. Avison and by missionaries that young Koreans, both men and women, learn quickly and are faithful assistants. The medical missionary, being in an excellent position to show his Christian spirit by helpful service, is doing much to aid in the propagation of our religion in the Orient. In this connection I might add that Dr. Allen went to Korea as a medical missionary and became the emperor's physician. This intimate relation gave our country a good standing when the doctor afterward became the American minister. These friendly relations are still maintained through present Minister Morgan.

The government of Korea is an absolute monarchy and has a reigning family which has held the throne for about five hundred years. All authority emanates from the emperor and is exercised through ministers, governors and subordinate officials, appointed by him. If one can trust the stories afloat, the government is as corrupt an organization as can be found on earth. Just who is responsible is not clearly known, but that offices are sold and all sorts of extortion practiced there can scarcely be doubt. There is no spirit of patriotism such as is to be found in Japan, and why should there be when the government gives so little in return for the burdens which it imposes?

Changes in the cabinet are of frequent occurrence, there having been something like sixty within a year.

For a long time Chinese influence was paramount in Korea and the Chinese government had a resident minister in Seoul who was the confidential advisor of the royal family. But Chinese influence ended with Japan's victory in 1894; soon afterward Queen Min, the wife of the present emperor, was put to death and, the murder being charged to the Japanese, the emperor took refuge at the Russian legation. Now that Japan has driven Russia out, she is virtually in control of the country, although the nominal sovereignty of the emperor has not been interfered with. Just what form the Japanese protectorate will take has not yet been decided, or at least has not yet been announced. Marquis Ito is in Seoul now as the representative of his government conferring with the emperor and his ministry.

In the end the protectorate will be whatever Japan desires to have it, for neither Korea nor Russia nor China is in a position to question her decision. Besides building railroads through Korea, the Japanese have established banks and issued a currency for Korea in place of the copper cash generally used. The government, recognizing the inconvenience of a currency which had to be kept in huge boxes and paid out at the rate of a thousand or more to the dollar, had farmed out the right to coin nickels and these were soon counterfeited. The counterfeit nickels have been classified as, first, better than the originals; second, good imitations; third, poor imitations; and fourth, those that can only be passed on a dark night.

Japanese soldiers are to be seen everywhere and Japanese settlements are to be found in all the larger cities. The Koreans, as a rule, regard the new Japanese invasion with silent distrust and are in doubt whether the purpose of Japan is simply to protect herself from future danger at the hands of China and Russia, or whether she is expecting to colonize Korea with her own people. If Japan purifies the government and makes it honest; if she establishes schools and raises the intellectual standard of the people; if she revives the industries now fallen into decay and introduces new ones; if, in other words, she exercises her power for the upbuilding of Korea and for the advancement of the Korean people, she may in time overcome the prejudice which centuries of hostility have created. But what nation has ever exercised power in this way? And how can Japan do it without developing an educated class which will finally challenge her authority? If she keeps the Koreans in ignorance and poverty, they will be sullen subjects; if she leads them to higher levels they will the more quickly demand their independence and be the better prepared to secure it. Which course will she pursue?[1 - Since the writing of this article Korea has been forced to accept Japanese sovereignty in international matters, the local government being in most matters undisturbed.]




CHAPTER IX.

CHINA – AS SHE WAS


The contrast between the China of antiquity – hoary with age – and the new China – just awakening into life – is so great as to suggest the treatment of the two periods in different articles. And if the contrast between China of yesterday and the China of to-day is great, what shall we say of the contrast between the Flowery Kingdom and our own country? The same stars shine overhead and the same laws of nature operate on the earth, but in mode of living, appearance, customs and habits of thought, the Chinese people could scarcely be more different from ours.

First, a word as to the land which they occupy; its very vastness impresses one, unless he has recently consulted his geography. While the eighteen provinces which constitute China proper have something less than two million square miles, yet the Chinese empire with its tributary states has an area of about five million three hundred thousand square miles, and extends over thirty degrees north and south and seventy degrees east and west. We hardly realize when we speak of China that her emperor holds sway over a territory nearly twice as large as the United States; that his decrees are law to a population estimated at from two hundred and fifty to four hundred millions; that her climate is like that of Russia in the north, while in the southern provinces her people live under a tropical sun; and that she has so many mountains and such mighty deserts that more than half of her population is crowded together upon a plain which contains but a little more than two hundred thousand square miles. Williams, in his work entitled "The Middle Kingdom," calls this district "the most densely settled of any part of the world of the same size," and estimates that upon this plain – less than three times the size of Nebraska – one hundred and seventy-seven millions of human beings dwell.

The harbors of China are hardly what one might expect on so extended a line of sea coast. While the harbor at Hong Kong is an admirable one – one of the best in the world – the one at Shanghai has no hills to protect it, the one at Chefoo is open to the storms and the one at Taku does not deserve to be called a harbor at all. In leaving Shanghai we went an hour and a half by launch in order to reach a steamer of only six thousand tons; at Chefoo a still smaller ship was delayed a day because the lighters could not unload it in the wind, and at Taku, the seaport of Tientsin and Pekin, we spent a day on the bar waiting for ten feet of water.

The capital of the empire has until recently been so difficult of access that comparatively few tourists have visited it. The large ocean steamers stop at Shanghai and Hong Kong only, making it necessary for one desiring to visit Pekin to take a smaller boat and risk indefinite delays on account of wind and tide.

Since the completion of the railroad from Hankow to Pekin it is possible to accomplish the journey from Shanghai to Pekin in less time, and, in addition, enjoy the advantage of a trip inland. When the projected road is completed from Hankow to Canton, the tourist can land at Shanghai, take a river boat six hundred miles up the Yangste Kiang to Hankow, then go by rail to Pekin, about eight hundred miles north, then back through Hankow to Canton nearly as far south, from which point there are daily boats to Hong Kong. This trip, covering nearly a thousand miles of river travel and about fifteen hundred miles of railroad travel (not including the return trip from Pekin to Hankow) can be made in the time formerly spent in travel along the coast and furnishes an infinitely better opportunity for the study of the country and the people. As a matter of precaution I ought to add that Pekin is so far north that before the opening of the railroad it was extremely difficult to visit it after the first of December, and even now it is desirable that the trip should be made before the middle of November.

China is well watered; the largest river, the Yantse Kiang, which empties into the ocean at Shanghai, is three thousand miles long, drains more than half a million square miles. Seven hundred miles above its mouth carries a volume of water estimated at five hundred thousand cubic feet per second. It is one of the great rivers of the earth and is navigable for large vessels for more than a thousand miles.

The Yellow river, or, in Chinese, the Hwang Ho, drains a basin almost as large and is nearly as long, but does not carry so large a volume of water. This is the river whose overflows have been so disastrous as to earn for it the name of "The Great Sorrow." This river carries down so much deposit that within recent times it has choked its original outlet and formed a new channel, entering the ocean some three hundred miles farther north. At that time thousands of villages were swept away and the loss of life was estimated at several millions. The current of the Yellow river is so shifting, the sandbars so numerous and the volume of water so changeable that the river is practically useless for navigation.

Besides these, there are a number of rivers of less importance and tributaries of these two large rivers, which only seem small by comparison.

As if inspired by the numerous and extensive natural waterways, the Chinese people centuries ago connected the great water systems by an immense canal, which with the streams utilized by it, gave water communication between Pekin and Canton. This canal, sometimes known as the Transit river, is nearly twice as long as the Erie canal and is not only the greatest work of its kind in Asia, but at the time of its construction was the greatest in the world.

Before speaking of the people, a word should be said in regard to the great wall. It extends from the ocean westward along the northern boundary of China proper for a distance of about fifteen hundred miles, climbing in its tortuous course hills and mountains, one more than five thousand feet high. It is about twenty-five feet thick at the base and fifteen at the top and varies from fifteen to thirty feet in height. It is made of earth with a shell of stone or large brick to hold the earth in place. The watch towers, built at intervals along the line, add to its imposing appearance and make it an object of historic interest, although a large part of the wall has fallen into decay and in some places only a ridge of dirt remains. This wall was constructed about two hundred years before the Christian era as a protection against the hostile tribes of the north, and for many centuries it answered its purpose, although to-day it only suggests a tremendous waste of labor.

But the great wall, imposing as it is because of its length, is inferior in height, thickness and construction to some of the city walls. The wall of the city of Pekin, for instance, is about sixty feet high and forty feet wide at its base, and is kept in excellent repair. The wall encloses what is known as the Tartar city and is nearly four miles square. Huge watch towers rise above each gate, and to give still greater security, the gates open into an enclosed square. While the walls of the city of Pekin are the most substantial in the empire, the walls of Nanking, the former capital, enclose nearly four times as much ground. There was a double object in making the walls of the city so extensive. First, to provide for future growth; and, second, to enable the people to withstand a longer siege. How well the second purpose was served is shown by the fact that during the Taiping rebellion the city of Nanking was besieged for thirteen years. Just outside the walls of the city may still be seen the earthworks thrown up by the imperial army, which sometimes numbered thirty-five thousand.

But it must not be understood that the capital cities were the only ones protected by walls. On the contrary, all the cities are walled; one sees fifteen or twenty of these walled cities on the railroad from Pekin to Hankow and a number of others on the ride down the river to Shanghai.

The agricultural population, instead of occupying individual farms, as in America, is gathered into little villages, each home being enclosed in its own wall. During the summer the people swarm out from the cities and villages and cultivate their little tracts of land with the most primitive tools, carrying the farm products back to their homes on wheelbarrows or in baskets balanced on poles. In the north of China the camel is used for long distance travel, and in the south we saw the water buffalo drawing the plow, but in China less than anywhere else we have been, has man supplemented his strength by the strength of domestic animals.

In the cities the streets are so narrow that travel by ordinary vehicles is impossible. In Pekin there are a few wide streets leading from the gates through the city, and on these a peculiar heavy-wheeled, springless cart is used, but most of the streets are more like alleys in which two 'rikishas can hardly pass. We did not see a full sized horse in the capital city. Some ponies have been brought down from Manchuria (Manchuria is regarded as the personal property of the imperial family and there is a royal monopoly in ponies) but the most popular saddle animal is the patient donkey. It looks ludicrous to see a fat Chinaman perched upon the rump of one of these tiny beasts, but there seems to be entire harmony between the two and the donkey trudges along with little thought of change.

In Canton the streets are not wide enough for the 'rikisha, and both the pony and the donkey are conspicuous by their absence. The sedan chair, borne by coolies, was the only conveyance we saw in a day's tour of the city, and it required some engineering to make any headway with it when two parties met.

Although the business buildings are seldom more than two stories high (the residences are usually only one story), the streets are so narrow and so filled with signs and advertising banners that the sun can scarcely find its way to the pavement. The stores are narrow little stalls with the entire front open to the street. Often there is a little shrine outside the door where incense is burned, and innumerable gods of wood, brass and stone are to be seen.

While in their style of dress and in their institutions the Chinese are much the same throughout the empire, they differ considerably in size and color according to the latitude, and in features according to race history. In the north the people are lighter and larger than in the south, while the men and women of Manchuria have coarser and stronger faces than the Chinese. The people in the north seem to be more vigorous and warlike and less artistic than the people of the south.

The shaved forehead and the queue were prescribed by the Manchurian rulers two hundred and fifty years ago as a sign of subjection, but they are now a source of pride, and no greater humiliation can be inflicted upon one than to cut off his queue. In the northern provinces the men, women and children wear padded clothes, generally of dark blue cotton. The breeches of the men are tied at the ankles and the long, narrow coat reaches almost to the feet. In China the women also wear trousers, but they are more like the American article and the coat worn by the women is considerably shorter than that worn by the men. China is a great place for furs, and the right to wear sable is conferred as a mark of distinction upon the higher officials.

The Manchu women and the Chinese women differ materially. The Manchus, whose ancestors came from Manchuria, still retain the customs peculiar to their section. The hair is stretched over a broad, winglike frame and three hours are required for its arrangement. Flowers, natural and artificial, and ornaments made of feathers, beads and tinsel are profusely used in hair decoration. The Manchu women, except the widows, employ paint and powder with a boldness which would put to shame the most inveterate user of cosmetics in America. In the painting here there is no suggestion of a delicate glow of health; it is a generous application of bright red in two streaks, running from above the eyes to the corners of the mouth. The rest of the face is whitened with rice powder, which does not harmonize with the yellow skin of the neck.

But if the Manchu women show more vanity in the treatment of the face, they at least do not imitate the Chinese women in the binding of the feet, though by wearing skirts and a shoe resting on a block, shaped like a French heel, the size of the foot is concealed.

Foot-binding is probably the strangest form that human pride has ever taken, and it is hard to believe that Chinese women from time immemorial have endured the agonies of foot-binding and forced it upon their daughters. It is not known certainly how the custom originated. One tradition is that it began with a club-footed queen; another that it was designed to distinguish the upper class women from the coolies; and a third tradition has it that it was a scheme devised by the men for keeping the women at home. But whatever causes may have led to the inauguration of the custom, it has become so firmly established that a prominent Chinaman told me that being opposed to foot-binding, he had, when a young man, tried to find a wife with natural feet but was not able to do so. He has in recent years persuaded his wife to unbind her feet and has kept his daughters from undergoing the ordeal.

The process, as described by a physician and as shown in a photograph and model which I secured, is as follows: At the age of five or six the little girl's feet are tightly bandaged; the second, third, fourth and fifth toes being gradually brought back under the sole of the foot; the heel is then drawn forward under the instep and the natural growth of the foot entirely arrested. The medical missionaries report instances in which the foot has rotted away because of lack of circulation. On one of the boats we met an intelligent Chinese merchant who, after condemning the practice of foot-binding and telling us that, in opposition to his wife's wishes and in opposition to the girl herself, he had saved one daughter from foot-binding, compared this custom to that of lacing, affirming that the latter was much more injurious. He also ventured to suggest that Chinese women do not expose their health and their shoulders in decollete gowns, but perceiving that he had discovered a weak spot in our own social armor, I hurriedly changed the subject. But I must reserve for another article the discussion of other characteristics.




CHAPTER X.

CHINA – AS SHE WAS


PART SECOND.

In the first article on China, reference was made to some of the characteristics of the Chinese, but the subject was not exhausted – in fact, it would require several articles to exhaust this subject, and attention can only be given to those traits or customs which are in most violent contrast with our own.

Chinese society is patriarchal in its organization, the family being the unit and the father the head of the family. The Chinese sages present filial piety and fraternal submission as the root of all benevolent action. The children are subject to the parents as long as the parents live, and the younger sons are subject to the eldest. The four relations which are continually discussed by the philosophers are: First, the relation between the king and his ministers; second, between the father and his sons; third, between the elder brother and the younger brothers; fourth, between the individual and his fellows, but the fourth relation receives the least consideration.

Marriages are arranged by the parents, and the children must be content with the selection made. When the wife is taken to the home of the husband, she becomes a member of his family and subject to her mother-in-law, if the husband's mother is still alive. As other sons are married their wives are brought in and they are expected to live peaceably together – an expectation which is not always fully realized. As law and custom permit the system of concubinage, it is not strange that the home is often the scene of contention rather than the center of felicity.

As the duty of sacrificing to ancestors falls upon the son, the advent of a boy is the signal for rejoicing, while the birth of a girl is not considered a good omen. So unpopular was the female baby that in some provinces many of them were formerly put to death, but child-murder is now on the decrease.

No one can visit China without becoming acquainted with a peculiarly oriental phrase called "losing face." One of the first newspapers that I picked up in China described the attempted suicide of a man who complained that he had "lost his face" because a magistrate refused to commence a prosecution on his complaint. In China there is a constant effort to keep up appearances, and when this is no longer possible, the unfortunate one feels that he can not look anyone else in the face. Chinese life is saturated with this "face" doctrine; it percolates through their disputes and oozes out through the pores of their diplomacy. Justice is of less importance in the deciding of a controversy than the saving of the parties from the loss of "face." There are in each community "peace-talkers" who make a business of so adjusting disputes that neither party will seem to be in the wrong.

In dealing with China this national characteristic must be borne in mind, and it is to be regretted that foreign nations have in their negotiations sometimes imitated China instead of setting her a better example. One constantly meets over here with the theory that the foreigner must conform to the methods of the Orient, but this is always advanced as an excuse for following a bad custom. It is impossible to convince China that our ideal is a better one than hers unless that ideal is embodied in action. When our country admitted that the indemnity collected from Japan after the Shimonoseki affair was excessive, and returned it, she made a deep impression upon the Japanese. It was several times referred to by speakers during our recent visit to Japan as an evidence of our country's desire to do justice to other nations. It was just as honorable for a nation to acknowledge an error as it is for an individual to do so, and our nation has an opportunity to admit another excessive demand and return to China a part of the indemnity collected at the close of the Boxer trouble.

No nation has ever given more emphasis to ceremony than does China. Confucius places propriety among the cardinal virtues, and the doctrine has been elaborated until the whole life is fettered by formality. Each rising generation is drilled in the performance of certain rites required by approved etiquette, and it would be humiliating for one to have to confess that he did not know the proper thing to do and the proper way to do it. Even sincerity is considered much less important, and both Confucius and Mencius set demoralizing examples in placing the latter above the former. In the Analects, an instance is given where one, Joo Pei, wished to see Confucius, but the latter refused to see him "on the ground of being sick." When the bearer of the message had left, Confucius "took his harpsicord, and sang to it, in order that Pei might hear him." It is related of Mencius that he was about to go to court to see the king when he received a message from the king saying that the latter "was wishing to call on Mencius but was detained by a cold." Mencius replied, "Unfortunately, I am unwell and unable to go to court," but the next day he went out and paid a visit of condolence to another family. While he was absent from the house the king's messenger called with a physician, whereupon the representative of Mencius explained that he was sick the day before, but that being a little better he had hastened to court. It was then necessary to send out several men to intercept Mencius and get him to the king's house. All of this subterfuge was resorted to in order to get the king to call upon Mencius first.

The kowtow is still a part of the ceremonial greeting. If two officials are riding and meet, they dismount and bow their heads to the ground. In the schools the students kowtow before a Confucian tablet twice each month. When we visited the government school at Shanghai we noticed mats upon the floor of the otherwise empty assembly hall, and upon inquiry learned that at seven the next morning the students would perform the usual Confucian rites. These consist of a series of kowtows. At a given signal the students kneel on the mats and bow three times toward the tablet, their heads each time touching the floor; they then rise and after a short interval kneel again at a signal and bow three times more. This ceremony is again repeated, making nine bows in all. Then they kneel and bow three times to the professors; after saluting the professors each student bows once to the student next to him and the meeting adjourns. We thought it would be interesting to witness this service in honor of one who has received more formal reverence than any other mortal, and arising before it was light, we made the journey to the college, which is distant an hour's ride from the hotel. When we arrived we found that for some reason which we could not ascertain, the ceremony would not be performed. Whether the postponement was due to objection to the presence of foreigners (visitors had been present on former occasions) or to some other cause, was left in mystery.

Our morning ride, however, answered one purpose; as the road ran some distance by the side of a little stream, it enabled us to see something of houseboat life. Hundreds of little boats line the stream, and in their diminutive mat-covered cabins were housed thousands of natives, many of whom are born, live and die in these unstable homes. As they were preparing the morning meal we had a chance to confirm the stories regarding their want of cleanliness. It was not an uncommon thing to see a woman washing rice in the muddy water and a few feet away, another woman throwing refuse matter into the stream, or a man performing his morning ablutions. At Canton one has a still larger opportunity to observe houseboat life where the Pearl river furnishes the water supply and at the same time an open sewer for a floating population of many thousands.

The contrast between the bath-loving Japanese and the dirty, complacent Chinese laborer is very marked and this contrast is also noticeable in the streets. The sights and smells that greet the senses along the narrow streets of a native city are not soon forgotten by one who travels through China, and one's ideas of modesty, too, are sadly wrenched.

But whatever may be said of the habits of the lower class Chinese, they are an industrious and patient people. After watching them work and observing the conditions under which they live, one can scarcely begrudge them whatever comfort they can find in the dreams of Heaven which they draw from their opium pipes. And speaking of opium, one is restrained from speaking too harshly of the habit by a recollection of the fact that the opium trade was forced upon the "Heathen Chinee" by a great Christian nation.

The Chinese have their amusements, one of which is the theatre. We attended one theatre in Pekin and found the room crowded with men. It was a commodious hall with a gallery, but the stage was not relatively so large as in Japan. The acting reminded us more of the American stage than did the Japanese, but the scenery was exceedingly scanty. The audience expressed itself in approval or disapproval with a good deal of freedom.

We found a sport in China which we have not heard of elsewhere, viz., quail fighting. These little birds are matched against each other as fighting cocks are in the Spanish countries. One American told us of a fight between cockroaches. These combats, as well as those between the quails, give an opportunity for betting – a vice which prevails in the Orient as well as in the Occident.

The Chinese have a bird contest which involves neither cruelty nor bloodshed, although the element of gambling is also present in it. I refer to the singing matches between larks. The Chinese are very fond of birds and one cannot go upon the street without seeing men carrying bird cages. The birds are aired much as pet dogs are exercised in our country. The favorite singing bird is the lark, and these are entered by their owners in contests, considerable sums often being placed upon a bird. The award is made by the birds themselves, one after another confessing defeat until but one songster is left upon his perch. The winner is quite exultant, while the others show as much humiliation as a Chinaman who has "lost his face." The defeated birds will not sing again for months.

In another article I have referred to the superstitions so widespread in China. There is one form of superstition which has interfered with both religion and commerce. The natives have for centuries been the victims of sorcerers and fortune tellers who, professing a knowledge of terrestrial and celestial forces, style themselves "Fungshui" doctors and make a living by selecting lucky burial sites, foretelling the future, etc. There are certain spirits which are supposed to preside over certain places, and any change in the conformation of the ground is thought to anger the spirits. A railroad cut or fill is sometimes objected to for this reason, and a church spire is, in the opinion of the superstitious, liable to endanger the peace and safety of a community. However, commerce is extending in spite of the "spirits" and the Christian religion is gradually making headway against superstition.

At Pekin I attended a morning service at the Methodist church where some six hundred Chinese men and women listened to a sermon in their own language delivered by an American missionary. On Thanksgiving day we ate dinner at the Presbyterian Mission, and during our travels through China met a number of ministers, physicians and teachers. They all testified to the stimulus given to the spread of religion by the fidelity shown by the Chinese Christians during the Boxer troubles. At Nanking we visited a school conducted by the Disciples or Christian Church, and at Shanghai, a school supported by the Episcopalian Church of America. There is also at Shanghai a college, the main purpose of which is to bring the white and yellow races into closer harmony. Prof. Isaac T. Headland of the Methodist University at Pekin has published a volume entitled "Chinese Heroes," in which he gives a number of instances of consecrated devotion on the part of the Chinese to the Christian faith, and why should not China be a promising mission field? Buddhism has here done its perfect work and can not reasonably ask for a further trial; the philosophy of the sages has also been shown impotent for the harmonious development of the three-fold man. China has followed an ideal and followed it with a diligence rarely exhibited, but that ideal has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. It is often said in defense of Confucianism that its founder gave to his disciples the golden rule, stated in its negative form, but too little emphasis has been given to the difference between the doctrine of Confucius, "Do not unto others as you would not have others do unto you," and, the doctrine of the Nazarene, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." There is a world of difference between negative harmlessness and positive helpfulness, and Christianity could well afford to rest its case against Confucianism on the comparison of these two doctrines.

In the Analects of Confucius the philosopher is asked, "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" He was answered, "Is not reciprocity such a word?" Here we have the doctrine of selfishness as plausibly presented as it will ever be again. Life is described as a balancing of favors – a nice calculation of good done and good received. There is no suggestion here of a heart overflowing with love, no intimation of a blessedness to be found in giving.

At another time someone asked Confucius, "What do you say concerning the principle that injury should be recompensed with kindness?" He replied, "With what then will you recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justice and recompense kindness with kindness." In reply to another question, he goes so far as to charge that one "who returns good for evil, is a man that is careful of his person." How different these precepts are from those of the Sermon on the Mount! Christians are accused of failure to live up to the high ideal presented by Jesus, and the accusation is just, and yet, although the Christian nations fall far short of the measure which they themselves recognize, although professing Christians reflect but imperfectly the rays which fall upon them from the Sun of Righteousness, they are leading the world in all that is ennobling and uplifting, and China gives silent recognition to the superiority of the western ideal in every reform which she undertakes.




CHAPTER XI.

EDUCATION, RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY


Chinese education has been very much overestimated. The literati have boasted of the antiquity of the government and educational system, the invention of the compass, the printing press and of gunpowder, and the western world has been inclined to concede their claims, but these claims will not bear investigation. The government is ancient, but it is also antiquated. The emperor exercises a power as unlimited as that of the czar and is as inaccessible to his subjects. The ruling family seized the throne two and a half centuries ago and has retained power because the people have learned to submit to almost anything. The laws have not only been arbitrary, but they have been cruel; the officials have not only been appointed without consulting the governed, but they have been shamelessly corrupt.

When Confucius and Mencius taught, they complained of the degeneracy of the government, and in more than twenty centuries that have elapsed since those days, there has been no marked improvement. Of course there have been pure and patriotic men in high places occasionally, but the government showed neither perfection then nor improvement afterwards – until within the last few years.

What if the compass was known to the Chinese before it was to Europe? They made little use of it compared with the use to which it was put by the Portuguese, the Spaniards, the Dutch and other Europeans.

They invented gunpowder, and yet they equipped their soldiers with bows and arrows down to the present generation.

They invented the printing press, and yet until recently they had scarcely any newspapers and but few books. I shall speak in another article of the improvement in this direction, but as an evidence of the little use made of the printing press even now, I record the fact that in a four days' ride (at present the train runs only in the daytime) from the capital of the empire to Hankow, through a densely populated section, we did not see a man reading a paper or hear the voice of a newsboy.

Equally without justification is the boast of great learning among the people. They have had no educational system and their children have had to rely upon private schools, a few families getting together and hiring a teacher. Even then the main purpose of their higher education was to obtain a government position. As only a very limited number could possibly be selected at the competitive examinations held by the government, there was small incentive to study and the written language, with two hundred and fourteen radicals and twelve hundred different characters, was enough to discourage even the ambitious. A Chinese official informed me that not more than one man in a hundred could write a letter and that not more than one in ten could understand a letter when read to him.

The object of the schools, such as they had, was to cultivate the memory and to teach the pupils to write essays expounding the doctrines of the Chinese sages. All of the schools used the same text book, the primer in universal use having been prepared over eight hundred years ago. Education was limited in the number who received it and limited in the amount provided, and the course of instruction was fossilized. None of the students were taught anything about the outside world and but few of the people were students. It is sufficient evidence of the absolute failure of their educational system to compare this great empire, containing approximately one-fourth of the population of the globe, with even the smaller states of Europe in the production of scientists, scholars and poets. China has had diplomats and astute statesmen, but these have been developed in the school of experience rather than in halls of learning. Considering the educational opportunities furnished, it is astonishing that she has produced any great men at all.

China has her religions and they have doubtless exerted a moulding influence upon the people, but the influence has not been an unmixed good. Take, for instance, ancestor worship; it contains a germ of good, in that it teaches respect and care for parents, but the spirit has been lost in the observance of the letter until the welfare of the living is neglected, that senseless sacrifices may be made to the dead. At Canton we visited a place called "The Place of the Dead." It is connected with a Buddhist temple and is just outside the city wall. There are some four hundred rooms in the group of buildings and nearly every room contains a coffin. Here the well-to-do deposit the body of an ancestor and keep incense burning as long as they can afford to pay for it. Rent must be paid for the rooms; the light must be kept bright; food and drink must be offered to the departed each day and the incense must be paid for. As someone has remarked, it costs more to care for a dead ancestor than a live one. We saw one coffin that had cost three thousand dollars; it had been in the building for sixteen years and had been moved from one apartment to another, a cheaper one being chosen each time as the resources of the family declined. In some cases the families have become so poor that they can neither pay rent nor buy a burying plot.

There is also at Canton an ancestral hall where for a specified sum the name of an ancestor may be inscribed on a little wooden tablet; incense is also burned here, too. Foreign residents relate instances where servants have spent three years' income in burying a parent, the money being borrowed and gradually repaid from the earnings. Besides the first cost of burial, there must be frequent pilgrimages to the grave. It is within the bounds of truth to say that the money expended in elaborate funerals, in sacrifices to the dead, and in periodical pilgrimages to tombs would have gone far toward educating and enlightening each rising generation – and who will say that respect for the dead can better be shown by formal ceremonies than by a proper regard for the welfare of the descendants?

The tombs of the royal family are always objects of interest to the tourist. The most famous of these tombs are north of Pekin and so near to the great wall that they are usually visited at the same time, three or four days being required for the trip. There are other tombs of less renown still nearer to Pekin, while the tomb of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty is just outside the walls of Nanking. Some of these tombs are mere masses of masonry now, but all were once richly carved. The avenues leading up to these tombs are lined with large stone figures of men and animals. These are arranged in pairs, one on each side of the road – two huge warriors, two priests, two elephants standing, two elephants kneeling, two camels standing and two kneeling, two horses standing and two kneeling, and lions, bears and other animals in like positions. These figures are put near the tomb that the ruler may be supplied with the things needful for his happiness in the spirit world. And, speaking of tombs, the worship of ancestors is destined to make China a vast graveyard, if, as now, graves cannot be disturbed. It will be remembered that the Chinese government cautioned the Russians and Japanese not to trespass upon the graveyards at Mukden, where a number of Manchu emperors are buried. The graves of the masses are as securely regarded, although distinguished merely by a mound. In the neighborhood of the large cities the cemeteries cover many square miles, and as they are constantly added to and never diminished, they occupy an ever increasing area. In the agricultural districts the burying grounds are scattered through the fields, each family having its own plot. Sometimes when the family has died out, the mound is neglected and the coffin is exposed. At Shanghai and at Nanking we saw a number of coffins in the fields which had never been covered.

The temples of China are interesting, but are generally in a state of decay. The Confucian temple at Pekin is visited once a year when sacrifices are made to China's supreme sage. The court of the temple is filled with gnarled and knotted cedars of great age, in which a colony of crows was chanting a requiem when we were there. There are also in the court numerous tablets of marble, each resting on the back of a stone turtle and bearing inscriptions; there are other tablets bearing quotations from the writings of Confucius.

At Canton our guide took us to the temple of the five hundred gods. They represent Buddhistic saints, are life size and each has an incense urn before him. One of the gods has a very long arm, he being the one who puts the moon up at nights; another represents a saint who cut open his breast and exposed an image of Buddha to prove his fidelity to the faith.

(Our guide at Canton was Ah Cum, who had conducted travelers through the city for more than forty years and has brought up his sons to the same profession. I mention his name for the benefit of any readers of these lines who may chance to visit, as every tourist should, this most Chinese of Chinese cities.)

There is in the vicinity of Pekin a temple with several thousand images of Buddha, but they are small and made of clay, the original bronze images having been carried away by the foreign troops during the Boxer troubles.

Close to the walls of the city of Pekin stands what is called the Yellow Temple, a rare work of art. The figures representing incidents in the life of Buddha are very skillfully carved and one can not help feeling indignation at the vandalism of the foreign soldiers who, during the Boxer troubles, defaced this ancient monument. By far the most impressive and elaborate religious structure in China is the "Altar of Heaven," not far from the city of Pekin. It was built under the Ming dynasty five hundred years ago and is still visited twice each year by the emperor, who here offers sacrifices to heaven. The sacrificial altar is built entirely of white marble. It is a triple circular terrace, the base being a little more than two hundred feet in diameter, the middle terrace one hundred and fifty feet and the top terrace nearly a hundred feet, each terrace being enclosed by a beautifully carved balustrade. It stands about eighteen feet high, and the emperor ascending to it alone, kneels at midnight and, as the representative of the whole people, makes his offering to heaven. A bullock without a blemish is used as the offering on these occasions. In architecture the altar reminds one of the Greek structures, while some of the features of the ceremony recall the rites of the Israelites as described in the Old Testament.

Near to this altar is a pagoda, standing upon another triple, but smaller, marble terrace; it is popularly known as the "Temple of Heaven." Here on the first day of the Chinese year the emperor offers his supplications to heaven for a blessing upon the year. This is the most graceful and symmetrical pagoda in the empire, if not in the Orient, and no one who visits the capital should fail to see it. Both the altar and the temple are surrounded by a high wall, and the enclosed court is shaded by veteran cedars.

While Buddhism has been regarded as the religion of China, Taoism has also influenced the thought of the nation. It teaches the existence of spirits but has degenerated into superstition and the attempted conciliation of evil spirits. For instance, before each official residence and before many private residences will be found a wall, higher and wider than the front door, the purpose of which is to keep out the evil spirits, which are supposed to travel only in a straight line. When a building is to be made more than two stories high, bunches of leaves are often tied to the top of the poles used for scaffolding: this is done to deceive the evil spirits and make them believe that it is a forest instead of a building, they being supposed to be hostile to high buildings. After the roof is on, however, the building is safe, but the ridge pole must curve up at the ends to keep the spirits from descending. Boys are very much at a premium in China, because the duty of guarding the graves devolves upon the oldest son. If a man loses a boy or two, he sometimes dresses the next boy like a girl in order to deceive the spirits, for a girl is, or at least used to be, beneath the notice of even evil spirits. A very intelligent Chinaman explained the disinclination of the ordinary Chinaman to rescue a drowning man on the ground that if the evil spirits were trying to drown the man, they would resent and punish any attempt to save him.

But more potent than either Buddhism or Taoism has been the influence of Confucius and his commentators. This great philosopher was born 551 B. C., and Mencius, his greatest disciple, nearly two hundred years later. The moral principles discussed by them were not presented as original conceptions but rather urged as the principles of previous emperors whose lives were regarded as ideal. In another article, in the discussion of China's awakening, I shall speak of the ethical teachings of Confucius, but it is worth while to note at this time that his utterances with regard to government fall far short of the generally accepted doctrines of to-day. While he insisted that rulers owed certain duties to their subjects, and were good or bad in proportion as they set an example of virtue and governed wisely, he did not intimate that the people have either the right to, or the capacity for, self-government. His doctrines support the idea that classes are necessary, the "superior" people governing and teaching, the rest doing the manual labor.

Confucius taught that those who were not in office need not concern themselves about the administration of the government – a doctrine which paralyzed the patriotism of the masses and invited abuses on the part of the officials.

The system by which officials were chosen was also calculated to breed selfishness and indifference to the public weal, as well as to impede progress. The course of instruction, as before stated, contemplated merely the memorizing of the Chinese classics composed of the sayings of the sages, poetry and Chinese history.

The aspirants for honors were not required to think for themselves, to understand the problems of their generation or to know anything of the science of government. To compose a good essay upon what Confucius said, upon what Mencius thought, or upon what Shun or Wan or Woo did was sufficient. This naturally chained each generation to the past and locked the door to advancement.

The successful candidate felt that his appointment was due to his own merit and that he was under no obligation to anyone except the members of his family who had furnished the money necessary to enable him to take the various examinations. Neither the securing of the office nor the retaining of it rested upon his ability to devise wise policies or upon his interest in the people at large. The emperor with unlimited power was above him, and the people with unlimited patience were below him.

In later years the examinations have sometimes become a farce, and rank has been offered to the highest bidder, bidding being encouraged by an intimation that this might be the last chance. But even when honestly conducted, the civil service system of China was not calculated to develop the official or to secure a good, wise and progressive government.




CHAPTER XII.

CHINA'S AWAKENING


In what I have said of the Chinese government, system of education, religion and superstitions, I have referred to the nation as it has been for some twenty centuries – chained to tradition, stagnant, asleep. Society was stratified; those in power seemed to have no higher aspiration than to live upon the labor of the masses, and the masses seemed to entertain no thought of emancipation. The life of the people was occupied with ceremony, but there was no genuine fellowship or sympathetic connection between them, outside of the family tie, and even the family was likely to be a storm center because of the conflicting interests collected under one roof. Education was monopolized by a comparatively few, and there was no breadth to such instruction as was given. Superstition took the place of religion and the placating of the spirits of the deceased outweighed the nurture and development of those still on earth.

But a change is taking place in China such as has revolutionized Japan within the last half century. The sleeping giantess, whose drowsy eyes have so long been shut to the rays of the morning sun, is showing unmistakable signs of an awakening. There was a vitality among her people which even two thousand years of political apathy could not exhaust – a sturdiness which centuries of poverty and superstition could not entirely destroy. Increasing contact with Europe and America is having its influence, and the example of Japan is even more potent, for the people of Japan are not only neighbors, but are more like them in color and race characteristics. Let me note some of the evidences of this change.

The government, so long an absolute despotism, is about to become a constitutional monarchy. In 1898 the emperor, under the influence of some radical reformers, prepared a program almost revolutionary in its character. Recognizing that his aunt, the dowager empress, would oppose him, he prepared to put her under guard while the change was being made, but the old lady, learning of his plan, promptly took him in hand and made him a prisoner in his own palace. Since that time she has been the unquestioned ruler of the empire, the nominal emperor affixing his signature to the papers which she prepares. But so rapidly has the situation developed that she is now instituting the very reforms for the suggestion of which she so recently imprisoned her nephew. A commission of prominent officials is now abroad, some in Europe, some in America, studying the constitutions and governmental institutions of other countries. What a concession, when we remember the self-sufficiency of China, the characterization of surrounding nations as "rude tribes" and the use of the term "barbarians" to designate even those with whom she made treaties!

It is reported that the dowager-empress recently called her councilors together and asked how long it would take to establish a constitutional government. When told that it would probably require twelve or fifteen years, she replied that it must be done sooner than that as she could not hope to live much longer, and wanted it in operation before she died. Whether she appreciates the full importance of the change may be doubted, but the fact that the great nations, with the exception of Russia, have constitutions, has doubtless made its impression upon her; and Russia's defeat at the hands of the Japanese, coupled with present internal disturbances in the czar's domain, contains its lesson.

As early as 1901, a commission was appointed to examine and report on all proposed measures affecting the organization and administration of the government, and in 1904 a general assembly of the ministers of the principal boards was provided for. While these newly created bodies have no legislative power, they indicate the trend toward a more popular government. The constitution, when adopted, as it ultimately will be, will inaugurate a parliamentary system. There is, therefore, a distinct advance along governmental lines, and this in itself means much for China and for the outside world.

The criminal code is also being revised. The Hon. Wu Ting Fang, former minister to the United States and now vice-president of the board of foreign affairs, has been made a member of the board of punishments. He and Shen Chia Pen, the vice-president of the board of punishments, have by imperial decree been intrusted with the revision and codifying of the laws of China. They have established a bureau with a staff of secretaries and translators and have spent two years in the examination of the civil and criminal codes of the different countries in order to select laws which are applicable to the conditions existing in China. Ex-Minister Wu has taken a deep interest in this subject and kindly furnished me with the following list of reforms to which the imperial sanction has been secured:

1. Ling Chi, slow death by slicing to pieces, has been abolished. It was the punishment formerly prescribed for one found guilty of paricide, high treason, wilful murder of husband (the murder of husband by wife was according to Chinese law a much graver offense than the murder of wife by husband).

2. The heads of criminals were formerly exposed to the public after execution. This has also been abolished.

3. The beheading of a corpse of a criminal who died before execution is no longer permitted.

4. According to the old law, parents, relatives and friends of one convicted of serious crimes were subject to punishment; now the punishment is confined to the guilty party. (While the practice of including innocent relatives in the sentence seems barbarous in the extreme, it was, after all, not so different in principle from the practice of the western nations which in times of war inflict punishment indiscriminately upon innocent and guilty alike.)

5. The branding of criminals has been abandoned.

6. Corporal punishment of criminals is also abolished.

7. The torturing of accused persons during trial, except where the accused is charged with murder, and where the evidence of guilt is clear, has also been abolished. According to the Chinese law a person convicted of murder cannot be put to death until he confesses, and torture has been retained in a case of this kind as a means of compelling confession when the guilt has been otherwise established, but Mr. Wu expresses the hope that torture in such cases will be abolished in the near future.

The revision commission has also succeeded in obtaining an imperial decree ordering the construction of more modern prisons, requiring the inspection of prisoners and compelling humane treatment. Formerly relief from cruel treatment could only be secured by paying the official in charge.

The commission is now working upon a code of procedure and intends among other things the recommendation of a system of trial by jury, the admission of lawyers to practice in the courts and the relieving of prisoners and witnesses from the humiliating practice of kneeling in court.

In order to secure competent judges and lawyers for the carrying out of the new code, the commission has obtained the sanction of the government for the establishment of a law school at Pekin (the site has already been purchased), and the high schools and colleges of the various provinces have been instructed to add law to the curriculum of their studies.

Minister Wu called attention to other reforms which have been introduced into China within the last few years, among which may be mentioned the construction of railways, the establishment of a government board of commerce, the formation of a police force, municipal and provincial, the promulgation of incorporation laws and the establishment of mints.

At first the railroads were built by concessions issued to foreign companies, but because of the constant difficulties which grew out of such concessions, there is a growing sentiment in favor of government railroads. It was in the pursuance of this policy that the government acquired the rights of the American company which was projecting a road from Hankow to Canton. Some of the Americans residing in China have expressed regret that this road should have passed out of American hands, but I am satisfied that it is better for the United States that China should own the road than that it should be in the hands of foreigners or even in the hands of Americans. It would be impossible to operate the road without more or less friction, which would involve the countries in diplomatic controversies. If China operates the road herself, we will have equal rights with foreigners without the risks involved in private ownership. And, speaking of roads, the city of Pekin is passing through an era of street improvement. Some eleven miles of pavement have been laid within three years, and concrete sidewalks are making their appearance.

The finances of China have been in a miserable condition. Cash is the money in common use, and these brass coins, running about one thousand to the dollar, are too heavy for any excepting the smallest transactions. Think of doing business with money so heavy that you must carry a hundred pounds of money to make a ten dollar purchase. Some complained of silver in the United States because of its weight, but the silver certificates completely answered this argument, for a silver certificate is as convenient as a gold certificate and more convenient than gold coin; but in China paper money is not used among the masses. The monetary unit is called a tael and, if coined, would weigh about one and one-third times the Mexican dollar, but no coins of this denomination are in circulation. The Mexican dollar is in common use, and in some of the provinces there are fractional silver coins. But the Mexican dollar is so often counterfeited that it is customary to test each coin as it passes from hand to hand. I secured one of the "three piece dollars," as they are called. These are made by sawing a thin disc from each side of the dollar; the silver is then removed from the center and the cavity filled with lead and the two faces soldered on. The work is done so skillfully that the counterfeit can only be detected by the ring. Several of the banks issue paper notes payable in Mexican dollars, but they are discounted in the various cities so that a traveler's currency is always undergoing a shave. The government has decided to establish a uniform system of currency consisting of gold, silver and copper, the silver tael to remain the unit.

Patent laws and trade mark laws are now being prepared; in fact, China is being quickened in many ways by the increasing knowledge which she is acquiring. They are even considering a change in the alphabet and characters in order that the language may be more easily learned.

I have already referred to the fact that China has until recently been practically without newspapers. There is no better evidence of the progress which China is making than is to be found in the increase in the number of her newspapers. While the circulation of these papers is small as compared with the circulation of similar papers in the United States and Japan, still the growth is constant and the colloquial dialect sometimes employed brings the news and editorial pages within the comprehension of those who cannot read books. Many of these newspapers are published in the interest of reforms. One of the papers started at Hong Kong opposed the examination system by which civil officials were selected, the foot-binding custom and the habit of wearing the queue. The editor cut off his own queue as an example and is now encouraged by the fact that the soldiers are gradually adopting a like course. He is able to note progress in the matter of foot-binding. An imperial edict has been issued exhorting the people to abandon the practice, and numerous societies are engaged in spreading literature upon this subject.

But more important still is the recent abolition of the examinations. This is a revolution which has shaken the ancient empire to its foundation, for the examination system not only affected the government but moulded the educational system as well. In the larger cities elaborate provisions were made for these examinations, in some places from ten to fifteen thousand stalls being constructed. These stalls are about three feet by six deep, and high enough to permit the student to stand erect. The only furniture was a board for a seat and another for a desk. At a given hour the students entered these stalls and were given their themes; they were then kept in their stalls without communication until their tasks were finished. Now the stalls stand idle and the officials are chosen from the graduates of the newly established schools.

We visited the examination stalls at Pekin and found them in ruins. They had been occupied by the Boxers in 1900, who tore out the rafters and used them for fuel. After the roofs fell in the unprotected walls rapidly crumbled.

The conservatives have been very much incensed by the abandonment of the examinations, but the reformers regard it as a long step in the right direction.

On every hand one sees signs of intellectual development. As stated in another article, the private school was for centuries the only source from which instruction in books could be gained. Now a complete system of schools is being established, consisting of primary, middle and high schools, with colleges in the larger cities. Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai, who presides over the district in which Pekin is situated, and whom, through the courtesy of Minister Rockhill, I had an opportunity to meet, informed me that he had established four thousand schools within his jurisdiction within the past five years. The viceroy is the successor of Li Hung Chang and is considered the most influential man in the empire. He is about forty-six years old and impresses one as a man of great mental ability and alertness. He seems to take a deep interest in the reforms now being worked out, and is cordial in his treatment of Americans.

Consul General Rodgers, of Shanghai, happened to be in Nanking during our visit there, and we paid our respects to Viceroy Chou Fu. This viceroy is quite old and feeble but he is grappling with the new problems and is a patron of education. He has established one thousand schools during the last few years, and estimated the number of Chinese students in Japan at this time at five thousand.

At Shanghai there is a government university, the buildings of which cost two hundred and ten thousand dollars. We learned that in some places Buddhist temples are being converted into schools and that girls' schools are already being provided for. This is even a greater evidence of progress than the opening of schools for boys, because of the inferior position which woman has occupied in the celestial empire.

Besides the government schools there are numerous missionary schools in which instruction is given to both boys and girls. We visited some of these schools at Pekin, Nanking and Shanghai, and found the instructors encouraged by the attendance and the interest taken. A number of Americans, and a still larger number of Japanese, are teaching in the government schools.

But enough has been said to indicate the regeneration through which the Flowery Kingdom is passing. What will be the effect of the change upon the world? Who is wise enough to peer into the future and outline the record of the next century? Japan furnishes the nearest parallel. Compare the Japan of fifty years ago with the Japan of to-day and some conception can be formed of China fifty years hence. As Japan's commerce increased, so is China's commerce increasing; as Japan sent statesmen abroad to investigate the methods of other governments, so China is now sending inquirers abroad; as Japan turned her attention to schools and colleges, so China is learning the advantage of universal education; as Japanese students journeyed into distant lands in search of knowledge, so Chinese students are in increasing numbers studying in foreign colleges. Even in the enlargement and training of her army she is patterning after Japan and employing Japanese drill masters.

It need not be thought strange that there is an anti-foreign sentiment in China. Was there not an anti-foreign sentiment in Japan forty years ago? The Shimonoseki affair was not unlike the Boxer trouble, except that it was less fatal to life, but it exerted a large influence in the overthrow of the shogun and in the restoration of the emperor. Just as in Japan the old finally gave way to the new, and progress took the place of stagnation, so in China the old must give way to the new.

Advance is inevitable and the world need not fear the result. If China were strong enough to give effect to the hostility which some of her people now feel, she might be a menace to the peace of the world, but she cannot grow in strength faster than she grows in knowledge, and as she grows in knowledge she will learn, as other nations have learned, that nations help rather than injure each other by the material, intellectual and moral development of their people.




CHAPTER XIII.

CHINESE EXCLUSION[2 - Written for and published by Success Magazine, April, 1906.]


If every American could visit China, the question of Chinese immigration would soon be settled upon a permanent basis, for no one can become acquainted with the Chinese coolie without recognizing the impossibility of opening the doors of our country to him without injustice to our own laboring men, demoralization to our social ideas, injury to China's reputation among us and danger to our diplomatic relations with that country.

I made it a point to inquire among the Chinese whom I met, in order to ascertain the real sentiment back of the boycott. I had heard of students being subjected to harsh regulations at ports of entry, of travelers humiliated by confinement in uncomfortable sheds and of merchants treated rudely, and I supposed that these things had aroused the resentment. I found, however, that the things complained of were more difficult to deal with and the concessions demanded impossible to grant.

In order to understand the boycott one must know something of Chinese history. As China has never had representative government, the people have been compelled to bring their complaints before officials by petition, and where the petition has been ignored, they have been accustomed to bring such pressure to bear as was within their power, and the boycott has often been resorted to as a means of compelling action upon the part of officials. They, therefore, conceived the idea of a boycott against American goods for the double purpose of urging their own government to favorable action and of calling the attention of the American government to their complaint. Our officials are doing what they can to convince the Chinese government of the injustice and folly of the boycott, and the Chinese officials with whom I conversed seemed anxious to co-operate with our minister and consuls. Immediate action upon the part of our congress, whether favorable or unfavorable to the Chinese, will remove the excuse for a boycott and our government should not be influenced in its action by any threats affecting trade, for the subject is too grave a one to be determined by commercial considerations.

The Americans who are doing business in China are naturally anxious to cultivate friendly relations with the Chinese merchants, and just before we reached Hong Kong the American business men residing there cabled home a statement of the minimum changes in the exclusion act asked for by the Chinese merchants. I had the privilege of attending a dinner at which a number of the leading Chinese merchants of Hong Kong presented their views, and it may be worth while to give here an abstract of their demands as drawn out by cross-examination.

They desire – First, that the word laborer shall be clearly and distinctly defined, "according to the highest standard English and be limited to such class or classes of persons as originally intended to be designated by both governments."

Second, that all regulations and legislative measures affecting Chinese immigration shall be communicated to and approved by the Chinese government before going into force, and that when in force, they should not be altered without consent of the Chinese government.

Third, that American consuls stationed in China shall have full power to grant certificates of admission to persons not included in the prohibited classes, such certificates to be conclusive except in cases of actual fraud.

Fourth, that the American consul in China shall without delay issue certificates of admission to such Chinese not included in the prohibited classes as shall obtain passports from the Chinese government.

Fifth, that the Chinese government shall be permitted to appoint one European medical practitioner to act in conjunction with a medical officer appointed by the United States at the port of departure and that no one shall be rejected as diseased unless certified to be so by both medical officers.

Sixth, that Chinese once admitted into the United States shall enjoy the same rights and protection accorded to the subjects of the most favored nation, and in case of ill treatment shall be entitled to damages from the government.

Seventh, that Chinese passing through the United States en route for another country shall enjoy the same privileges as the subjects of the most favored nations.

Eighth, that Chinese residing in the United States shall not be required to register unless such registration is required of the subjects of the most favored nation.

Ninth, that Chinese laborers shall be admitted into the Hawaiian and the Philippine Islands, provided that the legislatures or local authorities of such islands are willing. (While this proviso is satisfactory to the Hong Kong merchants, it seems to have been objected to by the Chinese of Amoy and Canton.)

Tenth, that any Chinese detained at an American port of entry for purposes of inquiry shall be permitted to engage legal assistance and furnish bond for appearance; should the decision be unfavorable, he shall have the right to appeal to the highest court of justice, and in case of any technical or formal error in his passport or certificate, he shall be allowed to correct the same without undergoing deportation.

Eleventh, that any Chinese residing in the United States shall have the right to bring his parents, wife, family and minor brothers and sisters to reside with him.

Twelfth, that Chinese lawfully admitted to the United States but deported because of failure to register shall be readmitted on satisfactory proof of possessing in the United States property or bona fide debt up to the required amount.

The second demand could not be complied with, without putting the enforcement of the exclusion act so largely in the hands of the Chinese government as to very much cripple it.

The third demand is reasonable. Our country ought to be bound by the act of its own consuls, except in case of fraud, and those who are to be excluded ought to be notified before incurring the expense of a trip across the ocean.

The fourth demand should not be complied with unless the Chinese government assumes pecuniary responsibility for any errors in the issuing of the passport and for the subject's compliance with the regulations provided by our government.

The fifth demand is absurd, because it virtually transfers to a European physician appointed by the Chinese government the power to decide on the health of the immigrant. While, according to the language of the demand, the Chinese appointee would act in conjunction with an American physician, a favorable report by the Chinese appointee would admit the immigrant in spite of an adverse report by the physician appointed by our government. It is perfectly proper that a physician appointed by the Chinese government should be permitted to be present at the examination, and it is only fair that the examination should be made at the port of departure, but it is necessary that the examination should be in the hands of physicians appointed, and removable, by our government.

The tenth demand is for the most part reasonable. A Chinaman detained for purposes of inquiry should be allowed to secure counsel and furnish bond, and if the error in his certificate is technical or formal, he should be allowed to correct it on such terms as are equitable, but it would hardly be wise to permit appeal to the supreme court unless some vital principle is involved.

Demands six, seven and eight are based upon the theory that Chinese in the United States should be treated in every respect like subjects of other nations, and this overlooks two material facts: First, that certain classes of Chinese are prohibited from coming to the United States; and, second, that the Chinese who do come to the United States come for reasons different from those which influence immigrants from Europe. (I shall consider the second reason later.) The fact that some Chinese are excluded while others are admitted makes it necessary to enforce rules against the Chinese that are necessary against immigrants from other nations. While no humiliating conditions ought to be imposed, still our country is justified in enforcing such rules and regulations as will prevent fraud and evasion. This cannot be considered an act of unfriendliness because our nation adopts the same principle in dealing with its own people. For instance, the voters in the cities are required to register from time to time, often at great inconvenience, while registration is not required in rural districts, the discrimination being regarded as necessary to prevent election frauds in the cities. In like manner, Chinese may be required to register, even though registration may be inconvenient, if experience shows registration to be necessary to prevent evasion of the immigration law.

In the case of travelers it ought to be possible to provide for such a certification of passports as to relieve Chinese tourists, whether passing through, or visiting in, the United States from annoyance or vexation. It goes without saying that they should be protected as completely as tourists coming from any other country. Every encouragement should be given to travel between countries, for an exchange of views and ideas between nations is as wholesome and as necessary to progress as social intercourse between individuals.

The ninth demand, while strenuously insisted upon by the Chinese, involves questions of the first magnitude. It is a question whether Chinese could be admitted into Hawaii and then excluded from other states and territories, and in the case of the Philippines, our country should be slow to establish a policy there before the length of our occupation is determined.

It will be noticed that the purpose of the first, eleventh and twelfth demands is to increase the number of Chinese in the United States. The eleventh contemplates the indefinite enlargement of the family of each resident by the addition of first, one wife; second (possibly), two parents, not to speak of an uncertain number of children, brothers and sisters. While to the Chinese who are accustomed to the patriarchal system, the admission of parents, brothers and sisters would seem a very natural demand, it would hardly seem reasonable to Americans unless it was limited to the classes excepted from the exclusion act.

The real interest, however, centers in the first demand, viz., that the definition of the term laborer shall be enlarged. I questioned several of the Hong Kong merchants in regard to the matter, and found that they desired especially the admission of clerks and skilled laborers. They contended that a Chinese merchant could not conduct a store in the United States without Chinese help and that to exclude clerks was virtually to exclude merchants. When questioned as to the number of clerks needed, they estimated that there were about four thousand merchants in the United States and that each merchant would need from six to ten clerks. When surprise was expressed at the number, it was explained that some had to cook and do housework. It was even argued that Chinese shoemakers and tailors were also necessary to provide clothing and footwear for the Chinese residing in the United States. There was a division of opinion as to whether laundry men should be classed as merchants and entitled to clerks. But excluding laundry men and counting eight clerks to the store, this one change in definition would open the door to about thirty-two thousand, almost a fifty per cent increase, according to the estimate made by the Hong Kong merchants, of seventy thousand Chinese now in the United States. Whether the admission of clerks could be so regulated and restricted as to make it possible to grant this demand in whole or in part is a question which I am not prepared to answer without further information as to the location of the merchants, the character of their business and the sentiment of the local community.

The admission of skilled laborers is one upon which it is easier to form an opinion. The Chinese are not only an industrious people, but they are capable of becoming skilled artisans. They could supply every factory in the United States with skilled workmen and still have millions to spare. Nearly all the reasons which apply to the exclusion of the coolie, apply to the skilled laborer, and they can, therefore, be considered together.

It developed during the dinner that while the demands expressly recognized the improbability of coolies being admitted, most of the Chinese present favored the entire repeal of the restriction law. They resented any discrimination against their people as unfriendly and unwarranted. One Chinaman of prominence, in another city, went so far as to intimate that such discrimination would not be permitted if China had a large army and navy and was able to enforce her rights.

As the whole question turns on the admission of the Chinese laborer, let us consider, first, the difference between the European immigrant and the Chinese immigrant and, second, the general objections to the admission of Chinese workmen.

The Chinaman, unlike the European, regards America as only temporarily his home, preserves his national customs and peculiarities and finally returns, carrying his savings with him. He is not attracted by our institutions and brings with him no love of American ideals. To him the United States is a field to be exploited and nothing more. The European casts in his lot with us, mingles with the population and in a few generations his identity is lost in our composite race. He has neither peculiarities of thought or dress to distinguish him from those among whom he labors, and his children are soon an indistinguishable part of the community. Not so with the Chinese. They are not only distinguished by their dress, language and habits, but they remain entirely separate and apart from those among whom they dwell. This difference is not only due to the wide dissimilarity in history, tradition and habit, but also to the absence of any permanent or patriotic interest in the land in which they sojourn.

The plane of living and the rate of wages are surprisingly low in China. When we were crossing the Yellow River I noticed a number of coolies unloading stone and inquired their wages. They received one hundred and fifty cash, or about seven and a half cents gold, per day. When this compensation is compared with the wages paid in the United States for the same kind of labor, it is easy to understand why Chinese laborers are drawn to our country. In discussing the immigration question with a Chinese official, I asked him what he paid his coachman. He replied that the head coachman received what was equivalent to $10 in gold per month, while the subordinates received from $3.50 to $5. Out of these wages they must pay for their own food. There is considerable difference in the efficiency of labor, but making due allowance for that, the Chinaman could in some occupations make twice as much in America as at home and yet work for half what Americans receive.

Long experience has taught the Chinaman to economize until he has reduced living to the minimum. Our guide in one city fixed $1 (50 cents gold) as the weekly cost of living for one person, but many live upon less. In traveling from Pekin to Hankow we were compelled to provide our own meals, and the very competent cook whom we secured was regularly receiving $1 a week in gold.

A ride through the streets of a Chinese city furnishes ample evidence of the economy of the people. The small measures used, the tiny piles of edibles exposed for sale, the little bundles carried from the market – these explain why cash, running about ten to a cent, can be used as currency. Oranges are often sold without the peeling, the peeling being sold separately, and peanuts seem to be counted instead of measured. At Canton we saw one man trudging home from market with a satisfied air, carrying two pig tails tied together with a piece of grass. The well-to-do have many delicacies, like birds' nest soup and shark fins, some of which we tasted at the luncheon given by the viceroy at Nanking and at the Hong Kong dinner; and among those who can afford it, elaborate dinners are quite common, but among the masses the food is of the cheapest and coarsest kind.

In the matter of fuel the same scrupulous economy is exercised. Every dead leaf and twig is scraped from the ground and even the weeds are condemned to fiery punishment for presuming to grow upon such precious soil.

It would require generations to bring our people down to a plane upon which they could compete with the Chinese, and this would involve a large impairment in the efficiency in their work.

It is not just to the laboring men of the United States that they should be compelled to labor upon the basis of Chinese coolie labor or stand idle and allow their places to be filled by an alien race with no thought of permanent identification with our country. The American laborer not only produces the wealth of our nation in time of peace, but he is its sure defender in time of war. Who will say that his welfare and the welfare of his family shall be subordinated to the interests of those who abide with us but for a time, who, while with us, are exempt from draft or military burden, and who, on their return, drain our country of its currency? A foreign landlord system is almost universally recognized as a curse to a nation, because the rent money is sent out of the country; Chinese immigration on a large scale would give us the evil effects of foreign landlordism in addition to its other objectionable features.

When I pointed out the fact that Chinese did not, like other immigrants, contemplate permanent residence in the United States, a Chinese official replied that they would become citizens if the law permitted it, and to the objection that they would even then remain distinct from the rest of the people, he answered by advancing arguments in favor of amalgamation. He claimed that the descendants (called Eurasians) of Chinese who had intermarried with Europeans were brighter than the average children of either race. I did not have an opportunity to test the accuracy of these conclusions, but it is evident that amalgamation has not been carried on to any great extent either in China or in the countries to which the Chinamen have gone. The instances of intermarriage are so rare that they do not affect the general problem.

The fact that the Chinese do now, and would probably if admitted to citizenship, form an unassimilated, if not an indigestible, element, separated from the remainder of our population by a race line, raises another objection to their admission as laborers. They make good servants, learning quickly and obeying conscientiously. Americans who have employed them testify to their trustworthiness and industry. If they were permitted to freely enter the United States, it is likely that they would soon solve the domestic labor problem, of which we hear so much, for as cooks, waiters and house boys they are an unqualified success. But what would be the effect upon our civilization of such a stratification of society? At present we have no racial distinction between employer and employé (except that presented by the negro problem), and one race problem is enough. If we were to admit Chinese coolies, we would find it more and more difficult to induce white people to enter into competition with them and manual labor would bear an odium which ought not to be placed upon it. We need to teach the dignity of labor and to lessen the aversion to it; a coolie class would make it difficult, if not impossible, to make progress in the work of cementing our society into one harmonious whole. If American ideals are to be realized there must be no barrier between the rich and the poor, no obstacles in the way of advancement from manual labor to intellectual work. China has suffered immeasurably because of the complete separation of her educated classes from her laborers.

A sentimental argument is sometimes advanced to the effect that we have no moral right to exclude any who seek to come among us. Whether this argument has any force depends, first, on the purpose of the immigrant, and second, upon our power to assimilate. If his coming is purely commercial and he has no ambition to improve us by his coming or to profit morally and intellectually by contact with us, he cannot demand admission upon moral or sentimental ground. And even if his paramount reason for coming were a desire to learn of us, it would still be necessary to consider how far we could go in helping him without injury to ourselves. While visiting the sick is most meritorious, one who gave all his time to such work, leaving no time for sleep, would soon be a physical wreck; feeding the hungry is most commendable, but one who gave away all of his substance, reserving nothing for his own nourishment, could not long serve his fellows. In like manner, our own power to help the world by the absorption of surplus population has certain natural and necessary limitations. We have a mission to fulfill and we cannot excuse ourselves if we cripple our energies in a mistaken effort to carry a burden heavier than our strength can support.

Students ought to be invited to our country; we can afford to make the welcome cordial and access to our institutions easy, for there is no better way of influencing other countries for good than through their young men and young women who, gathering new ideas in America, carry them back and apply them in their own country. A small part of the money now spent in building warships to protect us from imaginary foes would, if spent in the education of the children of foreigners, make us friends abroad who would constantly lessen the probability of war. The newspapers have given currency to the report that our government contemplates returning to China a part of the indemnity exacted because of the Boxer attack, and the Chinese are much gratified at the rumor. It is coupled with the statement that the return of the money would be conditioned upon the expenditure of the money for education. I can conceive of no greater favor that our country can bestow upon China than to make permanent provision for schools which will give the Chinese youth an opportunity to acquire the most modern instruction in literature and in physical and political science. If the sum to be returned were divided and the larger part given for the endowment of a series of universities in China, while the smaller part endowed a college at Washington, under the control of the Chinese embassy, it would do more to extend our commerce, our ideals and our prestige than a hundred times that sum expended on a military establishment or a navy.

There is one argument against the admission of coolies which ought to commend itself to the Chinese as well as to the Americans, viz., that the standing of China among us is prejudiced by the fact that she is judged by her lowest and most ignorant classes. There has always been an educated class in China, and while the number belonging to it has been limited and the scope of education narrow as compared with the scope of education in the western world, still there have been culture and refinement. Artists have appeared from time to time, as well as artisans skilled in porcelain, metal working, carving, decoration, etc. There have been merchants of standing and integrity (in fact, integrity is the rule among Chinese merchants.) If China could be known by these or even by the averaging of her superior and inferior classes, she would stand higher among the nations. But she is known now, except in diplomatic circles, by the coolies who are carried by contractors from one place to another until local sentiment leads to their exclusion. And, I may add, that it has led to their exclusion from Australia and that the question of exclusion from the Transvaal has been discussed in the English parliament.

This argument received respectful attention when presented to some of the prominent Chinese, for they recognize the injury which has been done to the nation's reputation by having the Chinese people known by their worst representatives.

There is a fourth argument, the force of which was admitted at the Hong Kong dinner by the merchants who had resided in the United States, viz., that the admission of coolies (and it would apply to skilled mechanics also) would involve the nations in constant diplomatic controversy over race conflicts. If it is human for Chinese to desire to improve their condition by immigration to the United States, it is also human for American laborers to resent enforced idleness when presented as an alternative to a lower scale of living. With any large increase in the number of Chinese laborers in the United States, it would be necessary to incur the expense of an increased army and police force to preserve order, and even then it would be difficult to prevent occasional violence, and violence in the United States would lead to retaliation upon Americans residing in China. These race riots in our country and in China would not only strain the relations between the nations but would nullify our attempt to create a favorable impression upon Chinese students and embarrass the work of our missionaries in China.

It is better to be frank and candid with the Chinese government. There are twenty times as many Chinese in America as there are Americans in China, and we give to China as much in trade advantage as we receive from her, not to speak of the money which Americans voluntarily contribute to extend education and religion in the Celestial empire. China has no reason to complain, for we have been generous in dealing with her. We can still be not only just, but generous, but it would be neither kindness to her nor fairness to our own people to invite an immigration of such a character as to menace our own producers of wealth, endanger our social system and disturb the cordial friendship and good will between America and China.




CHAPTER XIV.

THE PHILIPPINES – NORTHERN ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE


While a deep interest in the political problems tempts me to deal at once with the policy to be pursued by our government with respect to the Filipinos, I am constrained to proceed logically and discuss first the islands and their people. And in speaking of the Filipinos, a distinction should be made between those who inhabit the northern islands and are members of one branch of the Christian Church and those who inhabit the island of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago – people who are followers of Mohammed. While a considerable number of Christian Filipinos are to be found in Mindanao and some in Sulu, the Sultans and Datus have dominated the country. Even Spanish authority never extended over the southern islands and the garrisons maintained at the seaports were constantly in fear of massacre.

Leaving the southern islands for the next article, I shall confine myself at present to Luzon, Panay, Negros, Cebu, Samar and the smaller islands which make up the Visayan group. These islands contain the bulk of the territory, a large majority of the people, most of the material wealth and practically all of the civilization of the Philippines. Luzon, the largest of the entire group, reaches north almost to the nineteenth parallel and is about six degrees long. Like the islands of Japan, it is mountainous and well watered. The other islands of the group are considerably smaller and extend as far south as the ninth parallel. They, too, are mountainous, but the valleys are fertile and support a large population. The principal industry is agriculture, and the soil produces a variety of cereals, fruits and vegetables. Rice, as in other oriental countries, is the chief article of food, though hemp is by far the largest export. The hemp plant looks so much like the banana that the traveler can scarcely distinguish between them. Sugar cane is also grown in many parts of the islands and would be cultivated still more largely but for the low price of raw sugar. Sugar, however, cannot be raised here with the same profit that it can in Hawaii and Cuba, owing to the fact that it must be replanted more frequently. Tobacco of an excellent quality is produced on several of the islands and in sufficient quantities to supply the home demand (and nearly all Filipinos use tobacco) and leave a surplus for export.





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notes



1


Since the writing of this article Korea has been forced to accept Japanese sovereignty in international matters, the local government being in most matters undisturbed.




2


Written for and published by Success Magazine, April, 1906.