re not American women," was my vigorous protest.

"Yes, madam, they were. First they were beautiful and sparkle with eyes
and tongue. All men bow down to them same as we bow to our Empress. Then
afterwards I examine register and clerk of hotel confirm my thought."

"Possibly what you say is true, Kishimoto San, but hasn't it a flavor of
littleness to label as a national habit the acts of a few exhilarated
travelers? What have you to say of the vast army of American women who
could not be forced into doing the things you mention?"

"Nothing. Except I was just wondering how America could spare so many
missionaries. You know we do not beg for their company."

"It is not well for you to forget what your country of all others owes
to the missionaries," I reminded him. "Though your beliefs are as far
apart as the Poles, your sense of justice can but acknowledge that the
unselfish service of the missionaries has led your people to heights
they never could have reached without them."

"True," he responded, "it was not of their work in this country I was
speaking, but the need of more work in their own. You have very good
story in your big book about the 'beam and mote.' Do not the morals of
your own country need uplifting before you insist on sending emissaries
to turn my people from the teachings of many centuries? Has your
religion and system of education proved so infallible for yourselves
that you must force it upon others? Ah, madam, America has led us far
and high, but the West is for the West and the East is for the East. So
far, on the road to progress they can march side by side. Further than
that, the paths divide and are separated by insurmountable differences,
because your country is ruled by the teachings of freedom which you
cannot practise. We are governed by the will of our divine Emperor, and
the spirit of our ancestors. And I pray the great Amida before my
country is stripped of her love and reverence for these, my poor spirit
will be annihilated. For if they are taken away, what can we put in
their places save the liberty of the Occident, which means license in
the Orient."

I heard him in silence, for while there was much truth in what he said,
many times we had argued ourselves into a fever over these questions and
never got anywhere. We could no more agree than we could worship the
same God.

For my part, whatever might be the erratic actions of a few of its
freakish individuals, my faith in my coun