KŌBE, July, 1895.
DEAR PAGE,--Your kindest letter has come. Of course my mention of the
postage-payment was only playful spite; for I should be glad to get
letters from you upon those conditions. The Japanese P.O. people don't
seem to do things after our fashion just now, since discharging all
their foreign employés. The new clerks get about $10.00 a month ($4.50
American money), and most of them are married on that!
No: I do not see the newspapers. The clubs have them; but I take
infinite care to avoid the vicinity of clubs. Sometimes a friend sends
me a paper (the _Herald_, for example); and the publishers sent me only
a few notices this time,--about three, I think. That _Herald_ I saw,
through kindness of a man whom I don't even know.
I don't know that you are wrong about not ordering the dress just now.
The taller the little Constance gets, the better she will look in one. I
fancy that the summer dress will be best,--it shows the figure a little:
the winter dress, for a cold day, makes one look a little bit roly-poly.
Perhaps a little school-girl's dress would please you;--though it is
not very dear, but rather very cheap, it is pretty,--quite pretty and
of many colours. The Japanese robes bought in Japan by foreign ladies
are especially made for them;--they are not the real thing. No pretty
grown-up American girl would feel comfortable in the Japanese girdle,
which is not tied round the waist, but round the hips,--so that Japanese
women, well dressed, look shorter-limbed then they really are, and they
are short of limb compared with the women of Northern races. Much stuff
has been written, however, about the short-legged Japanese. I have
seen as well-limbed men as one could care to see:--they are shorter of
stature than Northern Europeans or Americans, but they would make a very
good comparison with French, Spanish, or Italians--the dark types. They
are heavily built, too, sometimes. The Kumamoto troops are very sturdy;
and the weight of the men surprised me. But the finest men, except
labourers, that I have seen in Japan are the men-of-war's-men,--the
blue-jackets. They are picked from the sturdiest fishing population of
Southern Japan, where the men grow big, and I have seen several over six
feet.
But I have been digressing. It was very sweet,--your little picture
of home life with the darling _fillette_. She is much more advanced
than my boy. He is younger, of course; but girls mature intellectually
so much quicker than boys. He is puzzled, too, by having to learn
two languages,--each totally different in thought construction; but
he knows, when the postman gives him a letter, which language it is
written in. I think, though it is not for me to say it, that the whole
street loves him;--for everybody brings him presents and pets him. At
first he worried me a little by calling out to every foreigner,--some
rough ones into the bargain,--"Hei, papa!" But the old sea-captains and
the mercantile folk thus addressed would take him up in their arms and
pet him; and there is a big captain with a red face who watches for him
regularly, to give him candies, etc. We are going soon to another house;
and we shall miss the good kind captain.
I'm still out of work, and going to stay out of it. I think I can live
by my pen. I am not sure, of course; but I can hang out here a couple
of years more, anyhow,--and trust to luck. My publishers seem to be all
right.
Infinite thanks about the syndicate project. I can certainly undertake
the matter for the figure named,--for I won't be away more than six
months. I have written my publishers to ask if I can get certain proofs
of a new book (not quite finished yet--so please don't mention it)
early enough to start about October. I should like one provision,--that
I may choose another point, such as Java, in preference to Manila or
Ryūkyū,--supposing ugly circumstances, such as cholera, intervene.
I might try a French colony,--Tonkin, Noumea, or Pondicherry. At all
events this would not hurt the syndicate's interests. I should hope to
be back in spring; and I would not disappoint you as to quality. Perhaps
the more queer places I go to, the better for the syndicate.
I don't know what to tell you about war-matters. The unjust interference
of the three powers has to be considered, though, from two points of
view. The first is, that the anger of the nation may create such a
feeling in the next Diet as to provoke a temporary suspension of the
constitution. The second is that most of us feel the check to Japan
was rather in the interest of foreign residents. The feeling against
foreigners had been very strong, not without reason, as the foreign
newspapers, excepting the _Mail_ and the _Kōbe Chronicle_, had mostly
opposed the new treaties, and criticized the war in an unkindly spirit.
Besides, there never had been any really good feeling between foreigners
and Japanese in the open ports. Now there was really danger that after
a roaring triumph, without check, over China, the previous feeling
against foreigners would take more violent form. The sympathetic action
of England improved the feeling very much; and really I think the check
will in the end benefit Japan. She will be obliged to double or triple
her naval strength, and wait a generation. In the meantime she will gain
much in other power, military and industrial. Then she will be able to
tackle Russia,--if she feels as she now does. The army and navy were
furiously eager to fight Russia. But Russia has enormous staying power;
and the fleets of three nations stood between the 150,000 men abroad and
the shores of Japan. Of course it was a risk. England might have settled
the naval side of the matter in Japan's favour. But war would have had
sad consequences to industry and commerce. The Japanese statesmen were
right. Besides, what does Japan lose?--Nothing, except a position; for
the retrocession must be heavily paid for. The anger of the people is
only a question of national vanity wounded;--and though they would
sacrifice everything for war, it is better that they were not suffered
by the few wise heads to do so.
I was sorry about your having to slap that fellow. But you will always
be the old-style Knight--preferring to give a straight-out blow, than
simply to sit down at a desk and score a man every day, unwearyingly, as
Northern editors do.