THE STRANGE FASCINATION OF JAPAN.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 30 November 1901, Page 4

THE STRANGE FASCINATION OF JAPAN.

Of all the lands in the world none exerts the peculiar fascination of Japan. Others havo equal beauty of scenery, greater grandeur, more noble woiks of art more interesting problems of society. But none posses an equal fascination. No one who has been in real Japan which lies outside the treaty porfs and the foreign hotels and railways ever could or ever wou'd forget his experience. No one, if he could, would ever fail to return. Tho great secret of this charm lies with the people themselves. They have made a fine of personal relation*. Their acts are th'oso of good ta-ite and good humour. Part of this charm lies in tho fair scenery of Japan. Good wooded mountains, snowy conas of volcanoes, dashing rivers and resting lakes, each DHOPPED IN ITS PLACK with a wondetful eye to the picturesque. With tho scenery goes tho wealth of flowers, tho hum of singing insects, and once the song of b.rd-i also, till the soulless Paris milliner and the woman with dead warblers on i.er hat wrought their practical extermimttinn. With tho people themselves tho virtues of life are a'l closely joined together. The name of Bushido means the spirit of honor, and this honor covers all tho virtues of sobrioty, honesty, hopefulness, patriotism, and religion. It is the hea t of Japanese characer. It makes this character, and in turn ia created by it. The Khinto religion, tho primitive religion of Japan, is often defimd as "ancestor worship." ft is more ihan this, far more, but it is ilso loss than tin-. It has been called no religion at all, because it has no creed, 20 jSfeemonies necessary to its practice, 10 sacred legends or mysteries, and nothng of the machinery of spiritual power

which characterise great reugions in other countries. It makes no proselytes. It opposes no belief and insists on none. It is the animating spirit that causes the Japanese TO LOVE HIS CHILDREN, to be kind to his wife, to help a stranger. .0 oe lo,y*l to Japan to ii«vo-« hia iife io her service, and, above all, to be worthy of tho traditions of his ancestry, to bo a man, even as his great fathers were, and ro do no act which is unworthy of ! his class, of his education, or of his training. The merchant complains that the Japanese have«io business head, and am careless of their contracts. In this connection we may note the paradox in the relations of the Japanese and Ch.acse *o business methods and public The Chinese are the business oi the Orient, Tho word of a m his bond, and his contracts f° earned out to the letter. In Jar-? the merchant who has mbcaleulaM* "£ Ins creditors to Irs ,tots. fhis good nature he shows> r ' otuers - His ECnsc of good tasto than his sense of equitj. Yet, "while from the highest to the lowest the public life of China is corrupt, there are few countries on earth so honestly governed as Japan. The spirit of honour animates a Japanese official, and a public office is a public trust. The contractor complains that the JAPANESE LABOURER IS LAZY, drunken, overbearing. This is true in a degree, for only the unemployed, the idle, and thriftless Japanese are likely to swell the ranks of contract labour But all is the great, loyal, generous nation the embodiment of good hope, good taste, and good will, a people who love their homes, their children, and their country, on whoso soil no foreign invader has ever yet set foot. ... Of all the nations of the Orient, Japan is the only one which can in truth be called well governed. Japan is the only one which has had undisturbed possession of herself. The Japanese choose their own ruler, make their own _ laws, train their own armies, control their own trade. They are only Oriental people free from the MIGHTY CURSE OF OPIUM. for they have the right to exclude it from their ports. The trade of Japan is great and growing. The profits of this trade must go to those from whom the Japanese may choose to buy. To the end of controlling this trade, and through it tho trade of the Orient, to which Japan holds the k ey, we have only to offer fair dealing, personal courtesy, and the chivalrous spirit, which draws together men and nations. —David Starr Jordan, L.L.D., in the "-Humanitarian."