to
be as binding as a written one, while the Japanese might break it. We
Americans usually require written contracts at home, and we occasionally
hear of dishonesty and defalcation; but would we for a moment like to be
considered a dishonest people because of these isolated instances?

We were constantly meeting some one who was contrasting the two
countries with a view of emphasizing China's supremacy. Many seemed
jealous because Japan had succeeded in shaking off the shackles imposed
by law and custom, and had made remarkable strides along the lines of
progress. China with her wonderful past, her great resources and
intellectual force, will do the same thing some day, when she emerges
from a tyranny of law and tradition that covers a "modern" period of
three thousand years. The victory of Japan over China in 1894 taught one
lesson; but the Russian-Japanese war was even a greater lesson,--one
that the new party in China has not failed to make use of, and only time
can tell the outcome. The difference between the two nations is one of
kind, not of degree; there is little racial sympathy between them, and
fifty years from now, if one reads the signs correctly, there may be
more sympathy between Japan and Russia than between Japan and China.

[Illustration: _Mountains around Hakona_]

The Japanese are sincere in their unbounded desire to improve,
particularly to acquire a knowledge of English and other languages. In
shops or corners you will see unkempt boys poring over an English primer
or reader. They are all provident as a people, and since the close of
the war the nation has bent every energy toward industrial development.

Considerable has been said about the Japanese war loan; there is
authority for stating that much of the money thus borrowed at that time
was used for industrial expansion, as six railways alone were bought in
1906, and we have seen the amount expended in Manchuria in keeping up a
long line in an alien land at a great expense. Of Japan's commercial
future much might be said. Truly, we of the United States ought to
respect a people who have ideals somewhat like our own.

So many courtesies had been extended to us at the Grand Hotel in
Yokohama that we left with a profound feeling of appreciation. The
steamer _Korea_, of the Pacific Line, was to be our home for sixteen
days. A friend arrived from North China, who became my room-mate, and
the conditions were in every way pleasant. The social life a