Japan and China 



73 



in a nutshell b}^ the phrase, "The 

 Chinaman does much and says little; 

 the Japanese says much and does little." 

 In both nations, however, the poor and 

 crippled possess special privileg'es never 

 interfered with b}^ their more fortunate 

 neighbors. It is said that robber}^ from 

 a beggar is an unknown crime in either 

 nation. 



The "Potter's Field" has no exist- 

 ence in China. The guilds for the 

 burial of the dead see to it that no corpse 

 is unprovided with a coffin and a defi- 

 nite burial place. During my stay in 

 Shanghai a terrible accident on the 

 Woosung Bar resulted in the wreck of 

 the steamer On Wo and the drowning 

 of several hundreds of coolies embarked 

 for passage up the Yangtze. These 

 men were of the very poorest class 

 of laborers, and as their bodies were 

 brought to the banks few were identi- 

 fied by friends or relatives for burial. 

 Under the personal supervision, how- 

 ever, of a local mandarin, the member 

 of a funeral societ}', every unclaimed 

 body was placed in a decent coffin and 

 properl}^ buried after the Chinese style ' 



Among the Japanese the practice of 

 cremation has long been in vogue, and 

 this method of caring for the dead is 

 adopted for the safe disposition of the 

 remains of those dying without friends 

 or money. In fact, on account of the 

 ravages made bj'- cholera at intervals, 

 the crematorium has become an adjunct 

 to nearly all the cemeteries in the Em- 

 pire. Among both peoples, however, 

 public mendicancy is a recognized insti- 

 tution, and the street beggar is sure of 

 alms; so it must strike the thoughtful 

 mind that our western civilization does 

 not possess a monopoly in charity, 

 either organized or individual, and that 

 altruism is the property of the human 

 family rather than of any particular 

 branch of that family. These far east- 

 ern eleemosynar}^ institutions will surely 

 bear comparison with any mentioned in 

 history. 



In the eyes of the Chinaman the sol- 

 dier is a man defiled by blood, and in 

 the social scale the fighter finds a place 

 in popular estimation with the butcher, 

 the tanner, and the preparer of the dead 

 for burial. It follows from this that 

 the dependence of the Empire for its 

 defense is now and has been for many 

 centuries the arts of the diplomat rather 

 than the generalship of the soldier. Not- 

 withstanding this condition, however, 

 the Chinese have in the course of their 

 long national histor}^ done some good 

 fighting on various occasions and for 

 various reasons, and it is not putting the 

 case too strongly to assert that in the fu- 

 ture the Chinese will give a good account 

 of themselves on the field of battle in de- 

 fense of their" country, their Emperor, 

 and of their national existence. 



■ Passing now to the Japanese side, we 

 see a nation so filled with patriotism, so 

 earnest in defense of national honor, 

 and so proud of their country, that from 

 the earliest times they have been a fight- 

 ing people. Altruism, as applied to a 

 common enemy, has found no place in 

 Japanese ethics, and today, having 

 adopted the so-called western methods 

 of warfare afloat and ashore, Dai Nippon 

 is competent and willing to hold its own 

 in any attack from any direction. The 

 fighting man — the soldier — of Japan, in 

 public estimation, stands head and shoul- 

 ders above his fellows, and the dearest 

 wish of the father of boys is that his 

 sons may be accepted for the service of 

 the Mikado. In all the wars of Japan 

 the government has suffered a true em- 

 barrassment of riches in the matter of 

 personnel, every man of the Empire 

 tendering his services in the field for 

 the common good. 



Passing from the general to the par- 

 ticular, from the nation to the individ- 

 ual, it is interesting to note a few of the 

 more common or ordinar}^ differences in 

 the two nations. The Chinaman, in a 

 general way, is a fat and robust man; 

 he shows the influence of prosperity by 



