king a drive in the
country he will suddenly stop in front of some delightful scene, put
down your ricksha, and, taking from his kimono sleeve a little roll of
rice, wrapped in a dainty bamboo leaf, will sit down and begin to eat it
with his chopsticks, continuing to gaze at the scene, every now and then
looking up at you for sympathy. If you are an artist, and will look at
the scene intelligently and appreciatively, this little ricksha man will
be your slave for life and will do anything for you.

Men are esteemed in Japan in proportion to their artistic capabilities,
and not for their banking accounts. It is in this quality of imagination
that we Britishers are deficient. Our lack of imagination will be the
cause of the decline of our Empire, if it does decline.

Then, the Japanese are a polite people. If you give a present to some
little child, a mite strapped to the back of a sister that is scarcely
bigger than itself, you are almost sure to find that little child
waiting for you on your return to your hotel with some small trifle to
offer you; and this little one will bow to you from its rather awkward
position with all the grace imaginable. Two coolies sweeping the roads,
when meeting for the first time in the day, will lay down their brooms
and salute each other before passing on their way to work.

I have had many experiences, when sketching the streets of Japan, of the
people's politeness. A policeman becoming interested in my work would
help to keep clear a space in the road, and never dream of overlooking
my work or of embarrassing me in any way. In one street of a village he
actually had the traffic turned down another way, so as not to interfere
with my sketching. Fancy a policeman in England diverting the traffic
simply because an artist wanted to sketch a meat shop!

One of the most remarkable illustrations of the native politeness that I
have ever witnessed was in Tokio. A man pulling along a cart loaded high
up with boughs of trees chanced to catch the roof of a coolie's house in
one of his pieces of timber, tearing away a large portion of it (for a
roof is a very slim affair in Japan). The owner of the house rushed out
thoroughly upset, and began to expostulate, and to explain how very
distressing it was to have one's roof torn off in this manner. No doubt
if he had been a Britisher he would have used quaint language; but there
are no "swear words" in the Japanese language--they are too polite a
peo