liance of unusual force, but industrial Japan must of
necessity be linked to the United States by commercial ties even
stronger. Distance between Europe and Japan, and excessive Suez Canal
tolls, give unassailable advantage to the United States as purveyor of
unwrought materials to the budding New England of the Far East.

The custom of speaking of our friends of the Island Empire as "the
little Japanese," is a fault that should be promptly mended. Japan is
small, it is true, but the people are numerous to the point of
wonderment. Consequently, it can do no harm to memorize these facts:
That Japan has an area actually 27,000 square miles greater than the
British Isles, and 5,000,000 more inhabitants; in other words, the
population of Japan is 47,000,000, while that of Great Britain and
Ireland is but 42,000,000. That Japan's population exceeds that of
France by 8,000,000, of Italy by 14,000,000, and of Austro-Hungary by
nearly 2,000,000. That outside of Asia there are but three countries in
all the world with greater populations than Japan--Russia, the United
States, and Germany. There was reason for calling the Jap the "Yankee of
the East," or the "Englishman of the Orient," for otherwise the phrases
could not have been forced into popular use.

It is the judgment of many who have studied the Japanese at close range
that they are endowed with attributes of mind and body which make them
equal, man for man, with the people of America and Great Britain.
Asiatic though they are, it will be unwise to permit the brain to become
clogged with the idea that they are "Asiatics" in the popular acceptance
of the word. The Japan of the present is the antithesis of "Asiatic,"
and the Japan of the near future promises to be a country best measured
by Western standards.

The Japanese are athirst for knowledge, and impatient for the time to
arrive when the world will estimate them at their intellectual value,
and forget to speak of them as the little "yellow" men of the East. This
is manifested to a visitor many times every day. Their greatest craving
is to know English, not merely well enough to carry on trade
advantageously, but to read understandingly books that deal with the
moderate sciences, and other works generally benefiting. Yokohama and
Tokyo possess a score of establishments where practically every
important volume of instruction, whether it be English or American, is
reproduced in inexpensive form, and widely sold. For m