The Days of a Man 1900 



the United States returned its share to Japan. Such 

 a chivalrous action, never before known in inter- 

 national experience, at once placed the United States 

 in a class apart. And that happy precedent was 

 subsequently followed by us in connection with the 

 egregious indemnity exacted by the allies after the 

 Boxer uprising, when our portion was devoted to 

 the education of Chinese youth in American univer- 

 sities. 



Grant The modest behavior of General Grant on his visit 



to J a P an a ^ so impressed the people strongly. At 

 Nikko he was invited to use the sacred red bridge 

 akahashi spanning the river Daiya and leading to 

 the Mikado's palace. But as only members of the 

 imperial family were ever before allowed to cross it, 

 Grant declined with thanks, saying that he was just 

 a common man and wanted no special privilege. 



Responding to Hayakawa, I said some pleasant 

 things about the country as a whole and of Sendai 

 itself, the best-kept city of its size in Japan. I then 

 made a number of small suggestions, but laid con- 

 siderable stress on the cigarette evil among the boys. 

 This criticism evidently had its effect on my hearers, 

 for, as I was told, the council afterward passed an 

 ordinance limiting the sale of cigarettes to minors, 

 and a "Jordan Club" was formed in the interest of 

 clean living. 



During the evening a sturdy lad named Gensuke 

 Abe, the son of a poor woman of the samurai class, 

 widowed by the Chinese War, came in from the 



smaller judicial districts or ken. Exactly the same policy, for a similar reason 

 the development of nationalistic patriotism as against local feuds was im- 

 posed on France after the Revolution; in both cases the final result has been 

 unfortunate, concentrating politics at the capital, and strengthening military 

 and financial control at the expense of civil liberty. 



C66 n 



