a sharp bow and a wide, square
stern, and navigators say it will live in a sea which would swamp the
ordinary Whitehall boat of our water-front. The Japanese oar is long and
looks unwieldy, being spliced together in the middle. It is balanced on
a short wooden peg on the gunwale and the oarsman works it like a sweep,
standing up and bending over it at each stroke. The result is a sculling
motion, which carries the boat forward very rapidly. In no Japanese
harbor do the big steamships come up to the wharf. They drop anchor in
the harbor, and they are always surrounded by small sampans, the owners
of which are eager to take passengers ashore for about twenty-five cents
each. All cargo is taken aboard by lighters or unloaded in the same way.
These lighters hold as much as a railroad freight car.

The fishing boats of Japan add much to the picturesqueness of all the
harbors, as they have sails arranged in narrow strips laced to bamboo
poles, and they may be drawn up and lowered like the curtains in an
American shop window. Whether square or triangular, these sails have a
graceful appearance and they are handled far more easily than ours.

The Japanese carpenter, who draws his plane as well as his saw toward
himself, appears to work in an awkward and ungainly way, but he does as
fine work as the American cabinet-maker. The beauty of the interior
woodwork of even the houses of the poorer classes is a constant marvel
to the tourist. Nothing is ever painted about the Japanese house, so the
fineness of the grain of the wood is revealed as well as the exquisite
polish. A specialty of the Japanese carpenter is lattice-work for the
windows and grill-work for doors. These add very much to the beauty of
unpretentious houses.

In conclusion it may be said that Japan offers the lover of the
beautiful an unlimited opportunity to gratify his aesthetic senses. In
city or country he cannot fail to find on every hand artistic things
that appeal powerfully to his sense of beauty. Whether in an ancient
temple or a new home for a poor village artisan, he will see the results
of the same instinctive sense of the beautiful and the harmonious. The
lines are always lines of grace, and the colors are always those which
blend and gratify the eye.

WILL THE JAPANESE RETAIN THEIR GOOD TRAITS?

Any thoughtful visitor to Japan must be impressed with the problems that
confront Japan to-day, owing to the influence of foreign thought and
customs. T