Where the Jap Beats us.

Manawatu Herald, 21 December 1895, Page 2

Where the Jap Beats us.

♦ In the Atlantic Monthly there is an interesting paper on the genius of Japanese civilisation :— The Japanese man of the people— the skilled labourer able to underbid without effort any Western artisan in the same line of industry — remains happily independent of both shoemaker and tailors. His feet are good to look at, his body is healthy, and his heart is free. If he desirea to travel a thousand miles lie can get ready for hig journey in five minutes. His whole outfit need not cost seventy- five cents; and all his baggage can be put into a handkerchief. On ten dollars he can travel for a year without work, or he can travel simply on his ability to work, or he can travel as a pilgrim. You may reply that any savage can do the same thiug. Yes, but any civilised man cannot ; and the Japanese has been a highly civilised man for at least a thousand years. Hence his present capacity to threaten the Western manufacturers. Ability to live without furniture, without impediment, with the least possible amount of neat clothing, 6howa more than the advantage held by this Japanese race in the struggle for life ; it shows also the real character of some weaknesses in our own civilisation. It forces reflection upon the useless multiplicity of our daily want 3. We must have meat and broad and butter ; glass windows and fire ; hats, white shirts and woollen, underwear ; boots and shoes ; trunks, bags, and boxes ; bedsteads, mattresses, sheets, and blankets : all of which a Japanese can do without, and is really better off without.