The Sunday Oregonian., May 31, 1914, SECTION SIX, Page 2, Image 70

O
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX POKTXANU, MAT 31 1914.
BT ROBERT DUNN.
TOKIO, May 10 (Special Corre
spondence.) The most recent and
In some ways most remarkable of
social, developments in Japan is the
manner in which its peerage, once cer
tainly the most exclusive and probably
the oldest in the world, has In the past
Jew years become entirely modernized.
TJp to 10 or 12 years ago the feudal
aristocracy of Japan was an absolutely
and entirely distinct class, infinitely
more distinct and exclusive than the
, English titled aristocracy even In
Cendal times. Their titles, privileges
and ownership of land dates from the
remotest period, and to the masses this
aristocracy was - like the sun it al
ways had been and would always con
tinue to exist.
Up to 1S97 there was not a peer in
Japan whose house had not been en
nobled from time Immemorial. Peers
were, it is true, raised from one degree
of the peerage to another, but the first
ennoblement went back to practically
prehistoric times. And then suddenly
In 1897 Japan awoke to the fact that
this titled class had become an anom
aly In a country that had been so rap
idly developing along western lines.
A royal edict? was issued that sub
jects who had served their country
with distinction should be admitted to
.the peerage, and at the same time cer
tain ancient privileges of the feudal
aristocracy, more especially those in
regard to their ownership of land which
Were interfering with industrial devel
opments, were declared to be at an end.
The first of the new aristocracy
were selected from army and navy of
ficers and diplomatists, all of them of
ancient birth and connected with noble
nouses. The late Viscount Hayashi.
vho was Ambassador in England, was
one of these. The commercial classes
.were rigidly debarred, however, from
admission to the titled class.
But not for long. There were bank
ers, merchants and captains of indus
try who were influencing the govern
ment of the country in no little degree,
and they were beginning to aspire to
be admitted to the privileges, both so
cial and political, which the titled
class in Japan possesses. Curiously, an
English merchant and banker had much
to do with the admission of the com
mercial classes in Japan to the peerage.
JThis was Sir Marcus Samuel. Sir Mar
cus visited Japan in his early youth,
and subsequently became financially
interested in many enterprises there,
lie helped to negotiate the first Jap
anese loan of $20,000,000, and for this
service the Order of the Rising Sun
vas bestowed on him.
This order IS one of the xnost ancient
and highest of distmcM that the
Mikado can confer, and practically
liltherto had never been given to one
not of nobis rank. The bestowal of
this order on a merchant, wealthy and
influential though he, was, proved the
signal for the admission of the Japan
ese commercial class to the peerage,
and it was probably intended to be so,
lor Sir1 Marcus had indicated to certain
How Eee on
THERE was an almost unheard tin
kle from an altogether unseen
bell. Immediately the audience
at the Bellport Opera House was
plunged into semi-total darkness.
There was a rustle of expectation,
which deepened Into a hush, as a cur
tain gradually lowered itself upon the
etage bearing tn Its center a mam-
moth square of snowy white.
"This." remarked one of the audl
.nce audibly to another, "won't be any
rood, except for the Brooklyn handi
cap. And say, that's out of sight!"
As he and his companion peered
through the duskiness to read their
programmes, there was a whirr of ma
chinery and a flash of light that il
luminated the white square on the cur-
Then. rapidly, a series of irregular
little bars, and dots of black chased
each other down the square: and then
the" whirring noise stopped for an in
stant to permit the audience to inform
itself, through the medium of the
printed sign thrown upon the curtain,
that the Universal Electrograph and
Calclagram Concern would, for the next
15 minutes, entertain the crowd.
The rest followed in bewildering or
der. Children at play, Niagara Falls,
motor fire engines, a decisive engage
ment between the Russian army of
Iloboken and the Japanese squadrons
of Snake Hill anything and every
thing. As one of the spectators had
" prophesied. the Brooklyn handicap
aroused enthusiasm Indeed,
t But, singularly enough, the. Interest
and enthusiasm of that crowd centered
that night around the Police parade of
the Borough of Manhattan.
On canvas the exhibition was quiet
and uneventful enough. Rank after
-rank of "the finest" passed in review
before the martial critics of Bellport
'and faded away. But that there had
been some disorder on the streets of
Manhattan at the time of the parade
was evidenced by the fact that half
way up the screen which meant half
a block away a uniformed officer was
pushing on before him ' a ragged,
tattered object of a man.
The audience snickered.
"See 'im run Mm in," said the spec
tators of Bellport.
The officer did run him in. so far
'as the crowd could tell, for he forced
his man clear up to the front of the
screen, until the face and figure of
each were larger than life size.
At that instant the unhappy charge
of the New York officer looked
squarely Into the faces of the opera
house audience, which meant that
as he had passed the picture machine
upon Broadway he had glanced into
It, a bit Impudently," a bit despair
ingly. Again the Bellport crowd set
op a laugh.
"Look at the geezer," said one man.
At that Instant from the very center
cf the house arose a muffled scream.
officials how the royal coffers "might
be filled, as is the purse of the polit
ical party in England who happens to
be in office, by the sale of titles. Since
then many leading personalities in the
Japanese world of commerce have been
admitted to the titled class and most
of them have purchased their titles.
The purchase of titles in Japan is
not openly recognised. It is not men
tioned in the press, but it has become
obvious that any successful merchant,
financier or man of business can, if he
chooses to pay for the dignity, become
ennobled and admitted to all the priv
ileges of the ancient titled class. There
is a custom in Japan which makes the
purchase of a title an easy and simple
matter.
From time immemorial it was the
custom in Japan for the head of a
noble house to adopt a son if he so
desired and make him not only heir to
his fortune and estates, but of his
titles.. The disinherited heir in such
a case occupied the position of a
younger son. but often he was adopted
by some nobleman, perhaps by a rela
tive. The adopted son of a noble house
was, however, always the scion of some
other noble house.
The commercial classes in Japan saw
In this custom a ready method of en
nobling their family. All that a wealthy
merchant, banker or business man had
to do, was to pay some poor but ancient
Japanese feudal Lord a sufficiently
large sum ot money to adopt his son,
and the latter became at once the pros
pective head of a noble house. Under
a royal edict made in 1906 the parents
and Immediate blood relatives of the
adopted heir to a noble house became
themselves of noble rank correspond
ing exactly to that held by the brothers
and sisters of an English nobleman.
The Japanese nobleman who adopts a
son for a money payment has, how
ever, to part with a certain percentage
of it to the royal coffers. The royal
consent is necessary to all adoptions,
and though in bygone ages it was
never . refused, modern developments
have suggested to the Minister of Fi
nance at the Japanese court the wis
dom of making the person who wants
the royal consent te an adoption (in
certain circumstances) pay for it.
There are four degrees in the Jap
anese peerage Marquis, Count, Vis
count and Baron. Admission to the
last degree at the present time costs
about $500,000, and to the next another
$250,000. Only the son of a Baron or
HlfQRAMrYQ
ihe eifeenTJpst K?e
cobra,
It was followed by a subdued hubbub;
then by another scream.
Some of the crowd rose; some cried
out; all were excited. An usher strode
down the aisle.
"Woman fainted?" he inquired.
Then he plunged Into the crowd that
surged and swayed about a common
center. There was a babel of tongues.
Up on the screen, unmoved but
moving, the procession of police still
marched past in perfect order.
"What is ltT What has happened V
inquired the crowd.
It found that those men who stood
within the inner circle were alternately
looking toward the screen, the picture
machine in the upper gallery, and ges
turing with all their might toward the
ushers. Finally, the ushers restored
order, and then it was discovered that
the cause of the Agitation was a young
woman with a beautiful face, lined
though it was with care, and dressed
in habiliments that were tinged with
shabblness.
"The face, the facet" she had cried
out. "His face!"
And then, gradually, the whole thing
was made clear by those on the inside,
who had heard, to those on the outside,
who had not.
Somewhere, somehow, upon the screen,"
this young woman had seen a face she
knew.' It was somewhere In that crowd
gathered to see the parade of the po
lice; at least, so this young woman
said.
"My husband." she repeated faintly.
"It was his face."
Little by little they learned her
story.
She had been married two years.
Somehow or other she and her husband
had become separated she had lost
him; he had lost her; she had looked
for him in vain, until until she had
seen that face this night.
A public-spirited man in the audience
ascended to the gods of the machine
and asked them to repeat. They were
only too glad to accommodate. They
went back and started the foot-sore
police all over again.
Suddenly there was another shriek,
and then the machine gods stopped the
machine.
"Tat face!" cried the young girl.
"That that is he."
The audience held its breath. The
face was the face of the vagabond in
cpstody. The machine men had stopped
at the very instant that this man had
looked squarely into the lens.
And there he was a happy-go-lucky
fellow, out at elbow; even whistling a
tune in time with the martial music
But across his face, for all that, lay a
shadow that meant something; a pa
thetic yearning for what?
The Bellport people knew. They
didn't know why the man bad left his
wife; why they were not together"
they did not care about that. All that
they did know was that here at their
Collar InvadeTbe Oldest Peerage, Of The
World AndiAUp-Mew Commercial Aritoeracy.
Sr; PSJC
1 ' - !
-v 'I
& -, , . r
Viscount can be raised to the higher
degree of the peerage. A commercial
aristocracy has thus arisen in Japan.
By many of the old feudal Lords the
new aristocracy is detested, but the
commercial aristocracy in Japan have
become economically the dominant
class, and with their development the
old aristocracy are ultimately bound to
disappear. Indeed, some of the oldest
families have accepted their inevitable
destruction with Eastern stoicism.
They have disinherited their heirs, have
resolutely refused to adopt one from
the class they detest and have openly
7
side in their midst, as it were there
was a young girl who had sought this
vagabond; and who, at last, had found
his face.
And now that she had found his
face, what of It? Could she find the
man?
A dozen men in the audience felt the
same Impulse at the same instant. A
dozen men sprang to the stage and
tried to read the number on the helmet
of the officer.
Time and again they failed. Time
and again the machine men adjusted
and readjusted the machine to give a
clearer view, but to no avail. The
clearer grew the picture of the vaga
bond, the dimmer, apparently, became
the helmet of the officer.
"And I must find him!" walled the
pretty girl. "I must find him some
how!" From that moment the crowd lost in
terest in everything but, in the, search
for this man whose face was pictured
on the screen. It seemed uncanny it
was bewildering; but it was real.
They would find the man they must
find him. He could be found; he could
be traced; the police must have kept
some record.
They surged and swayed about her
that girl wtih the pathetic look and
told her they would see her through.
The next night Bellport had b.eerd
all about it. and the rest of Bellport
went to see the face upon the screen.
The opera-house was crowded to the
limit. To satisfy public opinion, the
machine men stopped the machine at
the right place and let the people feast
their eyes upon the face.
"Poor thing!" the people said, catch
ing the pathos of It all; "poor thing I"
The mystery of It all, the possibili
ties of the thing, caught the crowd.
"Hit us where we lived," as one man
said. "Poor chap poor girl."
But there were In Bellport one or two
men who had not seen It.
Old Bill Tewlegger was one. His
real name was Terwllliger. He hadn't
heard about it the first night. And
he didn't hear in time to go the sec
ond night.
And he found to bis chagrin that the
show was booked in Bellport for two
nights only. He was out of it,
"I wanted to see that fellow's face,"
he said.
Then he brightened up.
"I ain't out of it, neither," he re
marked. "Blamed if I don't ride over
to Donaldson and see 'em there. They're
going to set up there tonight. I hear."
And old Bill Tewlegger did hitch up.
and did ride over. " And the show was
there.
And Bill, though he was a playgoing
man. too, sat listlessly throughout the
vaudeville and waited patiently for the
calclagram to start its whirr.
"Here she goes!" he said finally to
himself. And he watched, watched.
at
avowed themselve sthe last of their
avowed themselves the last of their
Tbe Cost of Good Bonds.
(Wall Street Journal.)
Governor Glynn has sent to the Legis
lature a special message, calling at
tention to the fact that at .the rate
New York State is now paying for
roads that are not durable, and are ut
terly unsuited to the traffic that Is
carried on over them, it will be only
a few years before the. annual tax for
upkeep will amount to $2 for each
man, woman, and child in the common
watched until at last he saw the face.
Then suddenly in the center of the
house there arose a muffled scream.
The scream had come from a beau
tiful young girl In shabby genteel
garb, who walled: "The face -the
face!"
Bill Tewlegger 'went back. "The
face," he said. "Saw the face; saw the
girl; they did the whole thing over
just for me. Great T Well. I should
smile."
Bill tugged at his whiskers method
ically. "Say." he continued, "do you know
what struck me when I seen that girl
leap into the air and holler about that
facer"
The good people of Bellport gased
abstractedly at Bill for further infor
mation concerning Ills Innermost
thoughts. One desperate villager, un
able to restrain himself further. Invited
Mr. Tewlegger to "spit her out,"
whereupon Bill concluded:
"I made up my mind from what I
seen and from the anticks she cut up,
and the way them tflere spectators got
wrought up, that the girl what went
wealth. As a remedy for this disas
trous and ImpoFslble situation, he sug
gests the use of vitrified brick, made
by prison labor. This he estimates
would result in a saving of $146,000,000
in the next 20 years on the 7300 miles
of road yet to be constructed. The
message says in part:
New York Is engaged in building
12,000 miles of road, which will wear
out 40 years before they are paid for.
One hundred million dollars has been
voted for the construction of New
York's highways. If tbe roads we build
In the future 'cost as much as those we
positively daffy over that face'
"Don't go no further. Bill," ex
plained the village constable. "You're
right. She was part of the show. She
was more than that, she was the
whole durned performance. We're a
lot of fools, and it serves us right."
Bill looked reproachfully at the man
who had stolen his thunder, and
stalked away indignantly.
"To think." remarked one of the
Bellporters, after recovering conscious
ness, that they'd have the face to
do it"
Brakes Operated by ""Wireless."
The Zeitung des Verelns Deutscher
Elsenbahnverwaltungen states that
Herr Birth, the Nuremberg school
master, whose name became known by
his Invention of a boat capable of being
steered from a distance, has now worked
out a practical system for applying
brakes to trains by means of electric
waves. For this purpose, trans
mission stations are fitted up
in railway stations of block
houses, and the trains are supplied
with receivers for the electric waves.
was '
have been building in the past, it will
require an additional $30,000,000 to
complete the proposed system. On New
York's 13,000,000 miles of macadam
roads the annual cost of maintenance
will- be $12,000,000, the total cost of the
roads will be $130,000,000. and at the
end ot ten years from the date of
Britain Firm in Protecting Citizens Abroad
IN MORE warlike times than our own.
unprovoked murders of British sub
jects -4n foreign lands seldom went long
unpunished.
When, for instance, Chinese officials
boarded tbe British vessel Arrow,
hauled down the national flag, and
killed her Captain for daring to protege.
Sir J. Bowrlng, Governor of Hongkong,
declared war there and then, practically
on his own inlntiatlve, and within a few
weeks the Chinese fleet had been de
stroyed and Canton bombarded and
burned. This happened in 1856.
In 1862, a gain, similar swift retribu
tion overtook the murderer of Mr.
Richardson, an English merchant liv
ing in Japan. Because he refused to
prostrate himself in a street in Yoko
hama when the Prince of Satsuma hap
pened to be passing with his suite he
was brutally beaten to death by the
Prince's armed retainers. Whereupon
our warships bombarded Satsuma's
town of Kagoslma, burned his palace,
and sunk his steamers.
It is only fair to add that in after
years the Japanese voluntarily ex
pressed regret for Mr. Richardson's
murder, and in 1884 a Japanese gentle
man, Mr. Kurokawa. erected a monu
ment to his memory on the site where
he was killed.
If we care to go back a little further
many similar Instances might be cited.
Britons were quick to draw the sword
when the British Empire was a-build-ing.
In some cases, even, outrages fall
ing short of the actual taking of human
life, have been followed by hostilities.
There was. for instance, tbe conflict
which was known in semiderision as
the "War of Jenkins' Ear."
Jenkins was a merchant Captain
whose vessel was boarded by a Spanish
guardship, and in the course of a scrim
mage that ensued Jenkins' ear was cut
off. "You'll hear more of this!" yelled
the angry master mariner, and he
caused the severed ear to be smoke
dried and. cured, much as if it had been
a kipper or a haddock.
In this state it was exhibited to the
members of the House of Commons who
Such receivers should be fitted up in
the luggage van immediately following
the engine. Special transmission appli
ances are not necessary, as the tele
phone wires along the line will serve
for this purpose. According to the In
ventor, .this appliance can be used for
applying emergency brakes, by means
of electricity and from a distance to
trains; furthermore, by means of a line
contact, it makes it impossible for a
train to overrun the stop signal. This
latter safety appliance has already been
How It Feels to Pass Into the Hereafter
PROBABLY most people will read the
above title with something like a
shudder, for If there is one thing cer
tain in this world it is that the vast
majority of sane men and women re
gard the very word "death" with the
greatest possible aversion. This is
largely due to the fact that they seldom
allow themselves to think about It, and
also because of the shadow of the grim
Unknown which shrouds the whole
matter in mystery.
One thing is absolutely sure, how
ever, and that is that we have, all of
us, got to die at some time or other;
and it is foolish to blind ourselves to
the fact by putting the idea altogether
into the background. If only a few
human beings were obliged to die.
death might, indeed, be terrible; but
we have all got to go sooner or later
rich and poor, good and bad, happy and
unhappy and in this there is great
comfort.
One of the chief reasons why people
fear death. Is because they think that
It will be painful. They have, perhaps,
seen a dear friend or relation In the
so-called "death agony." and they are
under the impression that when their
time comes, theywlll have a very rough
time of it indeed. Luckily, the scien
tists of today are nearly all opposed to
the idea that death is painful, and doc
tors tell us that no matter how much a
person may suffer some time before
death, the actual act of dying is abso
lutely painless.
Not long ago a man who had been
certified as dead astonished all bis rela
tions by sitting bolt upright in his cof
fin. He had not actually died at all. but
he had been so near death tha the med
ical men who attended him were com
pletely deceived. His heart had appar
ently quite ceased to beat, and he had
shown all the signs that are usual in
cases of real death.
When questioned as to his experi
ences be replied that some time before
be became unconscious he had felt sure
that he was about to die. Although he
had been in great pain for many days,
as soon as he felt that death was upon
him, all the suffering left him, and he
experienced a delicious kind of ecstasy
that made him completely happy. When
he realized that he was back in tha
material world again he was almost In
dignant, for nothing earthly was to be
compared to the delight he experienced
when he thought he was "going off."
Many nurses and doctors who have
seen numerous people actually die have
completion the state will have little
to show for as expenditure ot $250,
000.000. In the 20 years thereafter, the tax
for highways will be at least
$20,000,000 each year. If our roads are
to be kept In proper condition. Every
year the taxpayers of New York will
be compelled to pay $11,000,000 for
maintenance. Every year they will be
forced to pay $5,000,000 In interest
charges on their bonds. Every year
they will be compelled to contribute
$2,500,000 to the sinking fund to take
up these bonds when they mature. And
every year they will be required to
pay millions to rebuild part of the
roads on which they are lavishing
these tremendous sums.
In other words. New York must either
change its road policy, or prepare to
levy a perpetual and yearly road tax
of $3 on every man, woman and child
within its borders.
passed It from hand to hand with a
great show of gravity, and many ex
pressions of sympathy. Afterward an
apoLogy and a money indemnity were
demanded, and, neither being forthcom
ing, war ensued.
Not infrequently, however, "money
talks" in these international disputes,
as In private ones. When, during one
of Guatemala's periodical revolutions,
John Magee, our Consul at San Jose,
was selsel and brutally flogged by or
der of the commandant. Colonel Gon
zales, we sent a warship there and
threatened to lay the town in ashes
unless, within 24 hours, an indemnity
of 60,000 pounds sterling was paid, be
ing at the rate of 1000 pounds for each
lash inflicted.
The Guatemalan Government was un
able at such short notice to raise the
money, but offered, instead, to grant
Magee certain concessions, including
the right to establish a bank and build
wharves at San Jose. This offer was
accepted, and Magee, by virtue of his
monopoly, became in time enormously
wealthy. He died in 1900. leaving be
hind him a fortune of 10,000,000 pounds.
Then, again, there was the case of ,
Major Lothaire and Mr. Stokes, which
created such thremendous excitement
in the Spring of 1896. Stokes was an
Englishman engaged in trading for
ivory in the Congo Free State, and be
was. arrested by Major Lothaire, a Bel
gian officed, on a charge of gun-running
and inciting the natives to rebel,
and, after a summary trial by drum
head Court-martial, was hanged.
The British Government .nsisted on
Lothaire being brought to trail, and
this was done. In fact, he was tried
twice, once at Boma, and again at
Brussels, and each time he was ac
quitted. Whereat public Indignation in
this country blazed up afresh, and with
tenfold force.
However, a war with Belgium being
unthinkable it would have set all
Europe by the ears we compromised
matters on the usual money indemnity
basis, the sura of $30,000 being handed
over by the Belgium government to
the next kin of the dead man.
tested on the electric railways of Prus
sia. Again, by means of regular bell
signals, the apparatus can be used to
give the engine driver due warning of
any danger. In order to combine tbe
two in a practical manner for railway
requirements, the warning signal is
first given, and, should the latter
prove unavailing, the automatic brake
is applied 10 seconds afterwards. By
means of controlling signals in the
transmission stations, it is at once re
corded whether the appliance has acted
in the required manner or not.
declared that the end was always quite
painless, no matter what the pain
might have been just beforehand.
A personal experience or what It feels
like to be near death befell me one day
when out cycling. While going down a
very steep hill on a muddy day. my bi
cycle "ran away" with- me. I knew that
at the 'bottom of the hill there was a
high brick wall, and if I crashed Into
this, which seemed inevitable, death
was certain. When first this idea en
tered my brain, the feeling of fear was
terrible, but after a few seconds the
terror disappeared, and in its place was
a feeling of Intense expectation of a
very pleasurable kind.
"In a few seconds I shall be dead."
flashed through my mind. "What a glo
rious experience it will be?" But the
experience was not, of course, realized.
Before reaching the wall, the bike skid
ded and threw me heavily to the
ground. That sudden shock brought
me quickly "back to earth" in more
senses than one, but ever since then I
have never had any fear of meeting
death.
A correspondent has recently recalled
the fact that William Hunter, the cele
brated anatomist who died in 178$, said
to a friend that if he had strength
enough to hold a pen, he would write
how easy and pleasant a thing it was
to die, and another writer has pointed
out that the late Professor Jowett, after
an illness which had brought him very
near to death, described the experience
as being "full of interest and devoid
of alarm."
On one occasion a well-known public
man described the act of dying as "a
great adventure that muet be much
more interesting than setting out for
the North Pole." While few will agree
with him, it is a great thing to know
that science has robbed death of its
terrors, and has taught us that no mat
ter how much a dying person may ap
pear to be suffering, he or she. imme
diately before death, can feel no pain
whatever. E. C. J.
One Line of Physical Culture.
Exchange.
"Your boy has all sorts of athletio
training." "Yes," replied Farmer Corn
tosseL "But there's one line o"
physical culture he has missed. I wish
I could send him to some gymnasium
where he could learn to swing a
scythe without loo kin' like he was
coin to cuf oft both nls feet."