e same thing of the neat-handed, polite
little people that live among flowers and babies, and smoke tobacco as
mild as their own manners. I am sorry; but when you come to think of it,
a race without a flaw would be perfect. And then all the other nations
of the earth would rise up and hammer it to pieces. And then there would
be no Japan.

"I'll give you a day to think over things generally," said the
Professor. "After that we'll go to Nikko and Tokio. Who has not seen
Nikko does not know how to pronounce the world 'beautiful.'"

Yokohama is not the proper place to arrange impressions in. The Pacific
Ocean knocks at your door, asking to be looked at; the Japanese and
American men-of-war demand serious attention through a telescope; and if
you wander about the corridors of the Grand Hotel, you stop to play with
Spanish Generals, all gold lace and spurs, or are captured by touts for
curio-shops. It is not a nice experience to find a Sahib in a Panama hat
handing you the card of his firm for all the world like a Delhi
silk-merchant. You are inclined to pity that man, until he sits down,
gives you a cigar, and tells you all about his diseases, his past career
in California, where he was always making money and always losing it,
and his hopes for the future. You see then that you are entering upon a
new world. Talk to every one you meet, if they show the least
disposition to talk to you, and you will gather, as I have done, a host
of stories that will be of use to you hereafter. Unfortunately, they are
not all fit for publication. When I tore myself away from the
distractions of the outer world, and was just sitting down to write
seriously on the Future of Japan, there entered a fascinating man, with
heaps of money, who had collected Indian and Japanese curios all his
life, and was now come to this country to get some old books which his
collection lacked. Can you imagine a more pleasant life than his
wanderings over the earth, with untold special knowledge to back each
signature of his cheque-book?

In five minutes he had carried me far away from the clattering, fidgetty
folk around, to a quiet world where men meditated for three weeks over a
bronze, and scoured all Japan for a sword-guard designed by a great
artist and--were horribly cheated in the end.

"Who is the best artist in Japan now?" I asked.

"He died in Tokio, last Friday, poor fellow, and there is no one to take
his place. His name was K----, and as a gene