The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., November 19, 1910, Page 797, Image 9

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
(9) 797
| “ What's The News?” |
THE ELECTIONS last Tuesday surprised even
those who had been most confident in their
predictions of Democratic gains. The change
from two years ago was little less than wonder
ful. The next House will be Democratic by a ma
jority of 60, according to present estimates. The
Democratic gains were made all over the country,
New York contributing 12; Pennsylvania, 6; Ohio,
6; Missouri, New Jersey, and West Virginia, 4
each, and North Carolina 3. There will be only
three Republican Congressmen from the South,
two from Tennessee, and one from Virginia. Eu
gene Foss was elected Governor in Massachusetts,
John A .Dix in New York, S. E. Baldwin in Con
necticut, Woodrow Wilson in New Jersey, and Os
wald West in Oregon. All these are Democrats
and succeed Republicans. In Ohio, Governor Har
monis re-elected by nearly 100,000; theRepublican
majority in Iowa is cut down to 16,000; Pennsyl
vania elects Tener, Republican, over Berry, Inde
pendent, by probably less than 20,000; Governor
Shafroth is re-elected in Colorado, and Cary, Inde
pendent Republican, wins in Wyoming. Democratic
Senators will succeed Depew, of New York; Kean,
of New Jersey; Scott, of West Virginia; Dick, of
Ohio; Beveridge, of Indiana; Warner, of Missouri;
Burkett, of Nebraska. Montana is yet doubtful.
Tennessee elected B. W. Hooper, Republican, over
Senator Taylor, the Democratic candidate for Gov
ernor, by 14,000. The Legislature remains Dem
ocratic. The Republicans elected the Governor in
I CAM N°T HELP thinking.” said one of my
riends to me when I left home, “that when
you get over on the other side of the world
dninT C«h,lna’ y°U WlH have t0 walk upside
down like the flies on the ceiling!” And while I
And that this is not true in a physical sense, it
a true as Mr. Percival Lowell has pointed out,
that with regard to the manners and customs of
the people, everything is reversed, and the surest
way to go right is to take pains to go dead
wrong. To speak backwards, write backwards,
read backwards, is but the A B C of Oriental con
trariety.” Alice need not have gone to Wonder
land; she should have come to Japan.
I am not yet used, for example, to seeing men
start at what would be with us the back side of
a book or paper and read toward the front, and
it is said that no European or American ever gets
used to the construction of a Japanese sentence,
considered merely from the standpoint of thought
arrangement I had noticed that the Japanese
usually ended their sentences with an emphatic
upward push or spurt before I learned that with
them the subject of a sentence usually comes last
(if at all), as for example, “By a rough road yes
terday came John.” instead of, “John came by a
rough road yesterday.”
Music as an Example.
Speaking of music, we bump against another
oddity right away in that native Japanese (as well
as Chinese) music consists merely of monotonous
twanging on one or two strings—so that I can now
understand the old story of Li Hung Chang’s mus
ical experiences in America. To hear grand opera
singers, to listen to famous violinists, his friends
took him, but they moved him not; the most gift
ed piano soloists failed equally to interest him. But
one night the great Chinaman went early to a
theatre, and all at once his face beamed with de
light, and he turned to his friends in enthusiastic
gratitude: “We have found it at last!” he ex
claimed. “That is genuine music!” .... And it
was only the orchestra “tuning up” their instru
ments!
I might as well say just here that this story, while
good, always struck me as a humorous exaggera
tion till I came to Japan, but the music which I
heard the other night in one of the most fashion
able and expensive Japanese restaurants in Tokyo
was exactly of the same character—like nothing
else in all the world so much as an orchestra
tuning up! And yet by way of modification (as
usual) it must be said that appreciation of West
ern music is growing, and one seldom hears in
classical selections a sweeter combination of voice
and piano than Mrs. Tamaki Shlbata’s, while my
Japanese student friend also surprised me by sing
ing "Suwanee River” like a genuine Southerner.
A Land of Contradictions.
And this, of course, Is but one illustration of
thousands that might be given to Justify my title,
' The Land of Upside Down,” the land of contra
dictions to our ideas. That it Is a land “where
the flowers have no odor and the birds no song”
has passed into a proverb, almost literally* true;
and similarly, the far-famed cherry blossoms bear
no fruit The typesetters I saw In the Kokumln
Shlmbum office were singing like birds, but the
field hands I saw at Komaba were as silent as
church worshippers. The women carry children
on their backB and not in their arms. The
girls dance with their hands, not with their feet,
and alone, not with partners. An ox Is worth
more than a horse. The people bathe frequently,
but In dirty water. A most artistic people, the
stone "lions” at Nlkko Temple look as much like
bulldogs. A man’s birthday is not celebrated, but
the anniversary of his death Is. The people are
Immeasurably polite, and yet often unendurably
cocky and conceited. Kissing or waltzing, even
for man and wife, would be Improper In public,
but the exposure of the human body excites no
surprise. The National Government is supposed
to be modern, nnd yet only 2 per cent of the peo
ple—the wealthiest—can vote. Famed for kind
ness, the brutality of Japanese soldiers to the
Chinese at Port Arthur “would damn the fairest
nation on enrth.” The Nation equally noted for
simplicity of living. It Is a Japanese banker, com
ing to New York, who breaks even America’s
record for extravagance, by giving a banquet cost
ing $40 a plate. The people are supposed to be
singularly contented and yet Socialism has had a
rapid growth. The Emperor Is supposed to be
sacred and almost Infallible, and yet the Crown
Prince Is not a legitimate son. In the first Shinto
temple I visited the priests offered me sake (the
National liquor) to drink. With a government
the most autocratic on earth, it has nevertheless
adopted many high “paternalistic” schemes—
government ownership of railways and telegraphs,
for example. The people work all the time, but
they refuse to work as strenuously ns Americans.
The templeB attract thousands of people, but
usunlly only In a spirit of frolic. Labor per day
Is amazingly cheap, but in actual results, little
cheaper than In America.
It Is amid such a maze of contradictions and sur
prises that one moves In Japan. When I go Into a
Japanese home, for example, It is a hundred times
more Important to take off my shoes than it Is to
take off my hat—even though, as happened this
week when I called on a celebrated Japanese
singer, there be holes In my left stocking! (But
I was comforted later when I learned that on
President Taft’s visit to a famous Tokyo tea
house, his socks were also found to bo “more holy
than righteous.”)
•Copyright 1DI0. by The Progreaelve Farmer and Gazette.
Marriage and Home Life.
Take the social relations of the Japanese peo
ple as another example of contrariety. Here the
honorable sex Is the masculine and there is even
a proverb, I believe, “Honor men, despise wo
men.'' Perhaps the translation “deBplse" 1b too
strong, but certainly it would be regarded as noth
ing but contemptible weakness for young men to
show any such regard for young women, or hus
bands for their wives as in America. The wives
exist solely for their husbands, nor must the wife
object if the husband maintain other favorites, or
even bring them into the home. And although
a man Is with his wife a much greater part of his
time than is the case in America, he has, as is
well known, little or no voice In selecting her; in
fact, he probably sees her only once before marry
ing.
After having seen probably half a million or
more Japanese, Sundays and week days, I have
not noticed a single young Japanese couple walk
ing together, and in the one case where I saw a
husband and a wife walking thus side by side, I
discovered on investigation that the man was
blind! “For a young couple to select each other
as in America,” said a young Japanese gentle
man to me, “would be considered Immoral, and
as for a young man calling on a young woman,
that never happens except clandestinely.” And
\\ non l asKeci lr it was tru© that when husband
and wife go together, the woman must follow the
man instead of walking oeside him as his equal,
he answered: “But it is very, very seldom that
the two go out together.”
My Japanese friend also told me that the young
man often has considerable voice in selecting his
life-partner (in case it is for life: there is one
divorce to every three to five marriages), but the
young woman in the case must have no more to
say about it than the commodity in any other bar
gain and sale. When a young man or young
woman gets of marriageable age (and that is
rather young), the parents decide on some satis
factory prospective partner, and a “middleman”
interviews the parents of the prospective partner
aforesaid, and if they are willing, and financial
and other considerations are satisfactory, it
doesn’t matter what the girl thinks, nor does it
matter much whether young Barkis himself is
“willin’ ”: the Sir Anthony Absolutes in Japan
meet with no opposition. All of which while not
wholly commendable (my young Japanese friend
himself dislikes the plan, at least in his own pro
spective case) has at least the advantage of leav
ing but remarkably few bachelors and old maids
in Japan. Here every man’s house may not be
(Continued on page 800.)
Nebraska, captured Nevada and held the other
Western States.
Prohibition amendments to the Constitutions
were defeated in Missouri by a large majority and
in Florida by a small majority. Oklahoma, how
ever, voted down a local option amendment by
three to one. A woman suffrage amendment Is
reported to have been adopted in Washington. All
the proposed Constitutional amendments in Louis
iana were adopted and all in Virginia defeated.
Perhaps the two most striking features of the
election were the strength displayed by the So
cialists—they elected Victor L. Berger to Congress
from Wisconsin, and made heavy gains else
where,—and the seemingly general rejection of
Mr. Roosevelt. Overwhelmingly defeated in New
York, his activities in Massachusetts, Ohio, In
diana, and Iowa were in each case followed by
Democratic victories. The increase in the number
of independent voters was made strikingly mani
fest by the results in States like Massachusetts,
Tennessee, and Nebraska where the people elected
State officials of one party while voting with the
other party on National issues.
• • •
The lynching of a Mexican at Rock Springs,
Texas, has been followed by anti-American out
breaks in various Mexican cities. It is believed
that things will be amicably arranged with the
Mexican Government; but the United States can
protest with poor grace against the mistreatment
of American citizens by Mexican mobs, when it
was the lawless act of an American mob that
brought on the trouble. A lynching once came
near involving this country in serious trouble with
Italy, and it is inevitable that if the various
States will not take steps to prevent such out
breaks of barbarism, the National Government
must interfere. Foreigners can not understand
whv the TTnitaH Ktatan ran not nuninh ihn man
who kill the citizens of another county; and if it
had been a German, for example, instead of a
Mexican, who was killed by the Texas mob, the
chances are that there would be war. It is no
wonder that Russian journals and officials, when
this country protested against the Jewish massa
cres there, should have said in effect: "Reform
your own Southern States before you begin on
Russia.” This contemptuous disregard for the law
and the unhealthy public opinion that permits
lynchers to go unpunished, discredit the South in
the eyes of the world, and constitute our greatest
shame. * * «
Senator Alexander S. Clay, of Georgia, died last
Sunday. He was 57 years old, was serving his
third term as Senator, and was a statesman of
the safe, progressive, hard-working type. Justly
regarded as one of the South’s strong men, his
death is a great loss to his State and to the whole
country. * * «
The population of Alabama is announced as 2,
138,093, an increase of 16.9 per cent in the last
decade. Florida is credited with 751,139 people,
an increase of 42.1 per cent.
• • •
There seems to be little question that Champ
Clark will be the next Speaker of the House.