By MORILLA MARIA NORTON Author of Songs of the Pacific A Kingdom of the Sea Verses from the Orient Gloria Victis Decorative image THE MAGNET PUBLISHING CO. MANILA, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS...

In writing this book of a journey through Manchuria, Korea and Japan, it is partly a tribute to the hospitality of the Imperial Railway through whose kindness I made the picturesque tour on the track of the fighting line across countries on which so much attention has been focused in these last years, partly to fulfill a pledge made to the Manila Merchants Association, to write in a book of travel through Russia a chapter on Manila, which chapter is the last in the volume. Among the few treasure

Port Arthur is the most dramatic spot away from Europe: nothing that Nature can do, or history suggest of grandeur is lacking in this stupendous panorama! Hills which have been swept bare by shot and shell are still bare and will be as the palm of the hand, to denote what has passed over them! A huge fortress-like eminence suggesting Gibraltar, stands out like the champion of the army before the series of forts which lie behind it. There are two bays, “Pigeon Bay” and “Kerr Bay,” which have dimp

Moon of harvests and of toil she slowly mounts the aged Chinese Sky, A sky of fairness, alabaster, ivory, like an antique shrine Of ancient lineage and proud, her charm mingled of the mellow mystery of joy and tears; In glory young, though old in years. Glories indeed have been, an emperor sleeps within a tomb Forgotten with the sigh, men breathed in his domain, Nature and life rebuilt from death to radiant dreams, Who notes the Past, as tolls the silver chime new hours? Night speaks and light s

“In the increased enthusiasm of Japan in her ardent effort to strengthen her position in the world, by basing her international conduct upon the fairest and best tried principles of human progress, the effort is not free from occasional errors, but the large issue grows clear in Japan’s mind.” The force of such words as these in Mr. Asakawa’s book “Russo-Japanese Conflict,” I feel as a traveller over four thousand miles of railroad controlled by Japan, from Yokohama to Port Arthur. If Japan is t

If you should fall asleep over a volume of the “Arabian Nights” as I have done many times in childhood and should awaken in Seoul, you would not find the transition in the least startling. There is no city which could better fit in its glowing pages. Its coloring is as fantastic as are the episodes of the “thousand and one nights,” and to be accurate when therein describing its manifold glories, as I saw them, is to me impossible. The editor of one of the very spicy journals which keep the Japan

The question of the relations between the Koreans and the Japanese in Korea is a delicate one—one which requires an insight into past causes and present issues somewhat beyond that of a casual observer. It is a question which finds its parallel in the relations of the Filipinos to the Americans in the Philippine Islands. Taking into consideration some of the minor differences, it is strikingly the same. Unwillingly, by the fortunes of war, both these helpless people, people loving very little th

One of the most interesting experiences of my stay in Japan was my visit to the parliament, where I was privileged to have as a guide the mayor of Tokyo, Mr. Ozaki, a man who has had a seat in that body every year since it has had its existence. The buildings are not in the least imposing. They show the same paradoxical simplicity which we find in so much of this most stately people’s ways. Over the president’s desk hang eight portraits in oil and on a raised platform under them a group of disti

Dr. Hirai, Director of the Government Railway Bureau, graduated in the Van Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute just after the exhibition in Philadelphia in 1878, and on graduating was employed in the Mississippi River Commission by the United States Government, and did not return to Japan till 1882. His pioneer railway service was in the Hokkaido, on the line which was built by Col. J. U. Crawford, an American, and run on purely American plans and methods. It has changed since, as after Dr. Hirai l

Madame Shimoda is one of those rare beings, who have the singular fortune to have not only fame, but what is far more to be coveted, a place, in the hearts of thousands of her countrymen and women. Hardly any one in Tokyo, who reads at all, but could guide you to the little wooden house, on the hill, one of a million homes of her city, where this virile and delicate woman lives, surrounded by the care of relatives and friends, who it is easy to see give her, not only care, but love. Born in a fe

If you walk from Hibiya Park between two imposing public buildings, up the broad avenue to the top of the hill, you will come to the high wall which encloses the Peeress’ School, with the court, a fine entrance space, with porter’s lodge and a porte cochere of Gothic arches, and the whole a good bit of English architecture, with wide door and a lofty hall. Opposite you as you enter is the refectory, with its low tables and the plain and substantial effect of age and use. Two pretty portresses wi

The subject of this chapter is one of the forces,—which unobtrusively and unostentatiously is not only felt in Japan, but in the world. He is a world man. In order to pass into this category of world men, a great deal is required, and process is always of intense interest to humanity,—which from the lowest to the highest is aspiring to be felt. Chosen to represent in the Great Exposition the country of which his proudest boast is to be a son, he combines those distinguished attainments, which a

A jinriksha ride through the picturesque streets of Tokyo about two to two and a half miles from Shimbashi Station brings you to the Aoyama Parade ground, which, with the Imperial Park forms the site of the Exposition of 1912. From corners of the grounds and a temporary station, trains will leave for and come from all parts of the Empire. This place, now perfectly bare, will show the result of Japanese genius and invention in a short time. On one side is the park of the Crown Prince’s palace, an

In the two great branches of state craft, diplomacy and finance, it is interesting to see the interchange of qualities and the intellectual dominance of each is usually thought to be most marked, still there have been men of rare human qualities, who were financiers and diplomats as well. Baron Takahashi unquestionably belongs to this class who weave, as do certain scientists, a romance of facts or more justly speaking comprehend the intense humanness of dollars and cents. Five times he has cros

If you look at an astronomical map of stations of observation, you will see what looks to be a meteoric shower of dots on Europe, where there are one hundred and thirty observatories, sixty-five in North America, six in India, six also in Australia, two in the West Indies, three on the coast of China, and following the line of sea and shore northward in a vast region of watery waste only two lone spots which are the two Japanese observatories. Their importance to science is therefore obvious. Th

General Nakamura, the head of the Government Steel Foundry, when interviewed in Tokyo, desired to express regret at the impression given to the public that he advocates a high tariff on steel imported from other countries, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the institution which he represents, to the detriment of foreign producers and to the exclusion of necessary importations from other countries. In reply to questions he stated:— “I do not advocate the increase of the tariff, nor ha

There is no time when Nature is so approachable as in autumn. That season is like the green room of the actress, when she lays aside her stage attire and in deshabille she is communicative and you gain many a secret into her methods and her ideals and aims! Her laughter is no longer art, but natural, and she shows her foibles and her whims with a childish abandonment. Kamakura has in resume, the exquisite traits of Japanese scenery. The dominating features of the artistic and the diminutive and

Over the old worn world he came, Flaunting his flames of red! The stern walls of Asia guarding the sky, Waited in calm, as in years gone by, Upward he came, breathless, we said— “Can he scale this fortress, centuries strong?” His answer ’twas written in cohorts high! He triumphed, night fled, The day was begun, and Asia, she of the long, long night Said, “Welcome, my son!”...

So up rises the day on the days that are fled! And Asia’s sun glows a brilliant red, And the future resplendent of Asia will come— Come as this sun, a splendor of life on the days that are dead! South China Post...

Just outside of Asia proper as in a proscenium box are these islands, half mystic, half savage, like the kings who sent men out to conquer the world, with sword in one hand and hostia in the other! No place on earth has had possibly a more romantic experience, full as it has been, of the acts of primitive unchained manhood and the infinitely worse aspects of human nature, the avarice, intrigue political and ecclesiastical eccentricities of civilization. The whole story is written in the annals o