arm of both young and old.
I must have seen a full hundred thousand Japanese {15} by this time,
and I do not recall one in the attitude of scolding or abuse, while
authorities tell me that the Japanese language simply has no words to
enable one to swear or curse. I was also interested to have the
American Ambassador here tell me that in all his three years' stay in
Japan, and with all the freedom with which a million children run
about the streets and stores, he has never seen a man impatient with a
child. At the Imperial University yesterday morning I noticed two
college boys part with the same deep courtesy used by the older men,
and the little five-year-old girl near Chuzenji the other day thanked
me for my gift with the most graceful of Eastern salaams.

I shall not say that the excessive ceremoniousness of the men does not
at times seem ludicrous, but when you come to your hotel dining-room,
and the inexpressibly dainty little Japanese girls, moving almost
noiselessly on their sandaled feet (no getas indoors) welcome each
guest with smiling bows, happy, refined and graceful, a very different
impression of Japanese courtesy comes over you. In America,
unfortunately, the like courteous attention under such circumstances
might be misinterpreted, but here you are only reminded of how a
thousand years of courtesy and gentle manners have given the women of
Japan--pretty though they are not, judged by our Western standards--an
unsurpassed grace of manner and happiness of disposition together with
Shakespeare's well-praised "voice, soft and low, an excellent thing in
woman."

And here and everywhere, as in the old fable of the man with the
overcoat, must not such sun-like gentleness be more powerful in
compelling deference than all the stormy strength of the "new woman"?

Which reminds me that however much the social, political, and economic
revolution of the last forty years may have changed the national
character (and upon this point I shall not speak till later), it is
certain that Old Japan and the Old South were distinguished for not a
few characteristics {16} in common. For example, we are reminded of
the South's ante-bellum civilization when we learn that in old Japan
"the business of money-making was held in contempt by the superior
classes," and of all forms of business, agriculture was held in
highest esteem. Next to the nobility stood the Samurai, or soldier
class, the social rank of all other persons then be