Show r Written for fOl this tAu paper THE NEW JAPAN Copyrighted br by frank G Carpenter 1894 HE wonder wonder- wonderful wonderful wonderful ful advance advance- advancement advancement advancement ment which J Japan a pan has ha s made in mili mili- military military tary matters is surprising the worlds w world 0 rid y j The advance advance- advancement advancement advancement ment which she is also m making a kin g in in manu m anu fact ur ing is not so sowell sowell wen well known Her army has whipped the Chinese Her laborers promise to beat the whole world in turning out new goods and good goods I spent some weeks among her factories last summer and I found smokestacks going goin up allover all allover allover over the empire The city of Osaka is nearly as 85 bi bl big as Chica Chicago o and it is the Pittsburg of Japan It has about a million people and it is a great business and manufacturing center It basal has al always always ways been noted for its factories but within the past ten years vears it has been introducing modern machinery and as asI f I told you in in my talk with Count Ito it has n Jw forty six cotton mills with f spindles New machinery is be being be- be being ing put in every day and by the end of off r f this year it is thought that the number of spindles will wilt be more than and it may yet be the chief chiet exporter of l cotton to China India and even to the United States The Japanese are the greatest colorists of the world They l C are a nation of artists and they can make designs which we cannot produce Already they are shipping a a great amount of cotton here and we are now buying Japanese rugs by the millions of yards every year A great deal of the cotton used in the Japanese mills is of American growth and Iwas I was told in Yokohama that Japan used worth of American cotton every year I asked our consul general how this could be when we sold only about worth of goods to Japan yearlY He replied I will tell you It come cornea comes through England Just think of it Fourteen million dollars worth of our raw cotton Is used here every year and England gets a profit out of the sale We first ship it to Liverpool and it is then sent here via the Suez canal It ought to come direct from America and our trunk lines could make a good thing if 11 they would cut down their freight rates low enough to compete with England If we could have this cotton sent direct we would have the balance of the Japanese trade and as it is England gets the bulk of it How much do we buy from Japan every very year yer I asked About 17 was the reply rely much does b How England buy y I F Moue ut I oc How much does d she he sell seD to to Japan fi- fi I About seventeen million dollars and fourteen million dollars worth of this is American cotton You see r Japan lapan apan has hasto hasto hasto to have the American cotton The India and Chinese cottons are short staple and the best long staple cotton comes from the United States We ought ou ht to have the trade trade HOW ENGLAND FIGHTS FOR FOREIGN TRADE England is very anxious to have the United States and the other countries of Europe act as the cats by which John Bull as the monkey pulls his commercial nuts nuts chest out of the he celestial fire China has a foreign trade of ot about three hun hun- hundred hundred hundred dred million dollars a year and England gets the bulk of it It naturally does not like to see this paralyzed by the war and it will be very glad it If Uncle Sam or orthe orthe orthe the Russian Bear will step in 10 and quiet matters for it As far as commercial matters are concerned it is the hog of the far east and the business methods Of some of ot its people are by no means so clear as they might be One of the meanest tricks upon record record and and this is I upon record record occurred occurred in Yokohama shortly beford I arrived there It was in I connection with a contract for railroad I locomotives The Japanese are are very friendly to the United States and the I government when it found that it had to have new engines sent word to our con con- consulate consulate consulate and asked that some of our en engine engine engine gine building firms would compete This request was forwarded to America andone and andone andone one of our chief establishments sent a locomotive to Tokyo There was to bea be bea bea a competitive test of ot the English and American engines and on the day before this was to take place the Americans tried their locomotive and it ran very well It was oiled and put into IOtO thorough shape but not thinking that they were dealing with a set of professional race racecourse racecourse racecourse course the Americans failed to leave a engineer to sleep the night previous to the race with their iron horse The next morning however for tor some reason or other other other-l I cant can't tell why they they concluded to g give ve the engine one more more trial before entering the race They fired up and turned on the steam There was grating and crashing and ands the engine stopped Upon examination it was found that the engine had been tampered with and that a nut which was of such a nature that it could have come from no other source soune than from the English competitors had been been- placed in inon on one of ol the valves They found other things misplaced but fortunately were able to get the locomotive into fairly good shape before the trial and half half- half crippled crippled as she was they beat the En- En English English En English glish The Up United ted States would have gotten the contract but on figuring the lowest possible cost price including the heavy freight rate across the United States the builders found that they could not compete as to prices and the difference was so great that the English got the contract HOW GREAT BRITAIN HOGGED OUR PRESENT TO JAPAN Speaking of the English the new pier which is now being built at V Yokohama and which Iam I am am told told is of no earthly i is an an x titan instance jt and unadulterated un cheek The The story story of o this pier dates back to the fight at the straits in 1863 in in which our gunboat the Wyoming was blown up Foreign vessels had been warned to keep out and some of the old Dai- Dai mios Dai-mios mios had concluded to shell all foreign ships coming coining through these straits and there was a French ship and a Dutch one also fired upon The combined fleets of America France Fran e Holland and Great Britain then attacked the forts torts and silenced them Not a single British ship was injured but in the settlement of the case Great Britain said she must have a apart apart apart part of the indemnity which amounted to something like three million dollars This was divided equally among the four powers but the demand was con con- contrary contrary contrary to international law and the United States feeling that it was an unjust one by an act of Congress gave back the seven hundred and eighty ei odd thousand dollars to Japan England which hadnot had hadnot hadnot not been injured at all kept its money as did also France and Holland Japan in taking back the money from the United States Slates felt of course very grate grate- grateful grateful ful but said that she would like to put it into IOto some m memorial representative of the kindness of the United States and an attempt was made through an Ameri Ameri- American American American can connected with the foreign office in Japan to have Congress endow a hos hos- hospital hospital pital pual or a school or something of ot that that- kind klOd in Tokyo which should be known as the American school This was not done however and Japan was told to use it as she pleas pleased d Here John Bull got in his fine work He had the bulk of the shipping and he thought n a a big breakwater or pier pier at Yokohama would be a good thing for his ships and if it was made by English contractors it would put money into into his peoples people's pockets How it was done I do not know but the English got the Japanese government to devote this money to that Yokohama pier and the contract was given to an Englishman and now that it is about completed it is found to be of no good whatsoever At Atthe Atthe Atthe the same time John Bull is jingling his seven Hundred an I t five eighty-five thousand dollars in his pockets and is sending over some of the remains of his s to buy the bonds which we are compell compel compelled ed to issus to support our reserve in in the treasury department Oh hes he's a nice DIce philanthropist He is Remember how strongly he came in m on the opium deal with China And remember out remember out I 1 am writing about Japan JAPANESE RAILROADS Speaking of locomotives there is a wonderful railroad development going on in Japan New roads are being ex extended ex- ex extended extended tended in 10 every direction and with the which the country will proba proba- probably probably probably bly get from th the Chinese there will be an enormous increase in all kinds of pub pub- public public public lic movements During my stay in in Japan I met many of the chief railroad men of the country and I was told that the revenues of neary nearly every railroad there are increasing The government roads gave a net profit of more mure than in 1893 and the increase in receipts over the year preceding was There was an increase of in in freight receipts and this was an increase of more than 14 per cent ceni There is a line running from the capital Tokyo to Y Yokohama the chief seaport which has bas trains every hour and are as well run as those these between between 4 h and a N New w York Vork V ork The passenger on on receipts re on this ibis road ro d increased sed 15 1 S per per cent last year and on the main line which runs from the Capital to western Japan there was an increase ase of 15 per percent percent percent cent The Japan stock is not watered as ours is and there is no cutting of rates The only thing that pays a profit to the United States government IS the patent office We are losin losing mil millions lions now on our post office contracts contracts- Japan contracts Japan is making money on everything and it has as cheap postal rates and telegraph rates as we have Nearly all the railroad stations have telephone or block signaling instruments All have telegraph stations and they carried last year nearly a million messages Their rail railways ways are of English construction with one single exception This is aline a aline aline line miles long which runs through the island at of and which was bUilt by engineers with American rolling stock Ii It was opened in I 8 0 and it is I am told paying very well The Japanese are now going to make their own engines They have works at Tokyo and Kobe and they have been building freight and passenger cars for sometime I am told that fifty fitly new rail railways ways are contemplated and that the charters for these have been applied forand for and a number Dumber of them already granted A RIDE ON A JAPANESE RAILROAD The Japanese cars have three classes first first second and third The first class is almost altogether like the English coaches except that you enter at the end instead of at the side of the cars The cars are divided up into compart compart- compartments compartments compartments ments with doors running through h them The class first class fare is about three cents per mile The second class two cents per mile and the third class one cent per pe- mile All An these fares are in silver which is just halt half the amount figured in American money so that Japan has about the cheapest fares in in the world The second class cars for all the world like an American street car with wide cushions running under the win windows windows dowse dows They are well upholstered and very comfortable They are seldom tilled filled and are used largely by the well well- welt welt-to-do to-do to Japanese There are doors at the side near the end and these open directly onto the stations and not onto a vestibule as with us You find all classes within them and you may ride for hours with pretty Japanese girls Buddhist priests and the thousand and andone andone andone one characters which make makeup up the life lite of Japan Many of the Japanese women squat on the seats tucking their long gowns under their knees and exposing about an inch or two of bare skin be between be- be between between tween their little foot mittens and their kimonos You meet many Japs J aps in Eur European European clothes and now and then one will take off his Japanese clothes pull a foreign suit out of his bag and dress inthe in inthe inthe the car right before your eyes No one pays any attention nor seems to think it strange THE THIRD CLASS CARS The third class cars are and they are filled with the proper classes who trot through the stations in clogs many of them having ng their dresses pull up to their knees They carry their baggage on their backs and push and crowd in They patronize the station restaurants and every time the train stops there are peddlers of cookies and tea who come to the car windows You buy all sorts of food very cheap and aDd you can get a teapot of J Japanese tea with a teacup on top anywhere I ember riding ope a day with with Mr John Jobu t a j jE I I E W Thomson a Washington banker and when the hour of lunch came we concluded to buy two pots of tea I got gotthem gotthem gotthem them and offered the man ten cents He looked rather queer and I thought I had not given him enough and was about to hand him out twenty more when to our surprise he gave me back five cents and our guide told us that we were to keep the pots and the cups This was two teapots two cups and about one quart of tea for the sum of five cents or for lor two and a halt cents in American money Such a teapot at home would cost at least twenty twenty five cents and other things were proportion proportion- proportionately proportionately proportionately cheap There is no place in the world where you can travel better and more cheaply than in Japan and there ts is no puce place where you can get so much for or the money There are good hotels everywhere and the best hotels o of Tokyo Yokohama and Kobe are equal to the best hotels in New York The hotel botel rates at the best houses bouses are from four to five dollars a day in silver which is just half balf those amounts when reduced to American money Clothes and other things are proportionately cheap and carriages you carriages you ride about you know in cost cost you from ten to fifteen cents an hour JAPANS JAPAN'S APAN S POSTAL SYSTEM Speaking of Japans Japan's postal system the people are as great letter writers as any you will find in the world and they u use e the post office and telegraph freely You must remember they had no postal system whatever about twenty years ago Still they carried last year over two hundred and twenty mi lion letters and more than fifty million newspapers while five million books went through the mains mails They have a money order system and they make postal cards much cheaper than we do They make their own postage stamps and they do dothe dothe dothe the postal work of the east coast of Asia If you wish to send letters from Shanghai China you put Japanese stamps on them them-or them or you did before this war began and began and they had also their post offices in an Corea Their mails are as safe as ours and it is an interesting thin thing to know that their postal service was modeled ater a ter that of the United States It was founded by Mr Samuel Bryan of Washington who left the Post Office department here to go to Japan for that purpose He did dida a good job and America has reason to tobe be be proud of the work THE GIRLS OF JAPAN Japan has now a number of and in the Central station girls gills at Tokyo I saw about fifty ot them with black rubber receivers about their ears screeching Japanese answers over the wire The telegraph system is also |