184 TsPe PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN AND PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA SUPPLEMENT TO THE JANUARY NUMBER OF "JAPAN AND AMERICA" i 903 1 PREFACE. THE first feeling of friendship between the United States and Japan began with the visit to Japan of Commodore Perry, of the Ameri can navy. Ever since that memorable voyage Japan has felt that the awakening of the Far East, and the great benefit she herself has received from her acceptance of Western civilization, were due to the stimulus and inspiration given by the United States. In the half century that has followed, the friendship of the two nations has been strengthened by means of a rapidly developing commerce. No Ameri can should be ignorant of the fact that among the people of Japan there is a sincere and deep-rooted friendship for the people of the United States. "Japan and America" was founded in this city in July, 1901, and the " Japanese-American Commercial Weekly " in December, 1900, for the purpose of helping to maintain and promote friendly and commercial relations between America and Japan. They are endeavoring to draw the peoples of the two countries closer together in all their relations of life in trade, in art, in literature and in sympathy with each other in the broad purpose, shared by both in common, of world-civilization. Both nations, it should be remembered, are engaged upon the solution of the same grave and important problem the civilization and uplifting of inferior races. That the efforts of this periodical have been widely appreciated is shown by the fact that " Japan and America " and the " Japanese-American Commercial Weekly " now have a large and in creasing circulation in the United States and in Japan. We here present portraits and biographical sketches of prominent Americans who are interested in Japan, and of Japanese who are inter ested in America. The Americans who are most interested in Japan are well known to the older people in Japan, but not to the younger generation. It is our purpose to make known to this class such of the successful Americans as they ought to know. In like manner, the sketches tell Americans of some of the successful men of Japan. 690994 A MONG the Americans, Mr. E. S. Morse and the Rev. Clay Mac- ^^ Cauley, and many others ; among the Japanese, Messrs. Yasukata Murai, Rioichiro Arai, Sadatsuji Uchida, Zenjuro Horikoshi, Kanai Tozawa and Kisaburo Uyeno are not here, owing to the short time at our disposal, but we are expecting in the near future to publish another edition, which will contain some names that could not be inserted in this collection. Any errors found in these sketches will be corrected in the next edition. CONTENTS. PAGE. Dr. James C. Hepburn 7 The Rev. Dr. William Elliot Griffis. 9 Mr. Durham White Stevens 13 Rev. Merriman Colbert Harris 17 General Steward Lyndon Woodford 19 Prof. David Starr Jordan . t* 25 Mr. James Rolland Morse 29 Prof. George Trumbull Ladd 31 Mr. Franklin Allen 33 Hon. Alfred J. Ostheimer 35 Mr. Joseph Marshall Wade 37 Mr. Isaac Stiebel 43 Mr. Carl Scheur 45 Mr. James J. Hill 46 Mr. Silas D. Webb , 50 Mr. John Foord 51 Mr. Basil H. Betts 53 Mr. John T. Hamilton 57 Hon. Minister Kogoro Takahira 65 Dr. Jokichi Takamine 69 Mr. Gojuro Nagasaki 75 Mr. Kenzo Iwahara 79 Count Hirokichi Mutsu 81 Mr. Takenosuke Furuya 83 Mr. Shaw T. Nishimura 85 Mr. Tomotsune Mitsutany 87 Mr. Daijiro Ushikubo 89 Mr. Bunkio Matsuki 91 Mr. Mumajiro Yamada ..-. .> . ^ ....... *. 93 Mr. Jiro Sakabe .. .... . .. 95 Hinode Club V. . . ,>, . ; ] . - . i ; ; .- ,.]. .;. 97 DR. JAMKS C. HKPBUKN. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 7 DR. JAMES C. HEPBURN. There is not a more distinguished name in connection with the exploitation of Japan and Japanese literature than that of Dr. Hepburn. His monumental work, the Japanese-English dictionary, is a masterpiece of scholarship in the class with the great lexicons of Johnson, Grimm and Webster, though requiring far greater industry, patience and learning than any of these. It is a boon and a necessity to every student of Japanese. James C. Hepburn, born in Milton, Pa., in 1815, was graduated from Princeton College in 1832, and from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1836. Went as a missionary physician to China in 1840. After residing in Singapore two years during the war between England and China, went up to China and resided about three years in Amoy, where he opened a hospital and dispensary in conjunction with Dr. W. H. dimming, where he also compiled a complete vocabulary of Fokeen colloquial dialect ; but his own health, as well as that of his wife breaking down, he returned to the United States. He commenced the practice of medicine in New York City, where he resided some thirteen years. When Japan was opened to foreign residence and trade, he resigned his work in New York and sailed for Japan in April, 1859, arriving in Kanagawa in October of the same year. He resided in Kanagawa, studying the language, until the winter of 1862, when he removed to Yokohama and opened a dispensary for the gratuitous treatment of the sick, and teaching the Christian religion. He also constructed a grammar of the Japanese language and compiled a Japanese and English dictionary, which he published in 1867 in Shanghai, there being no facilities for doing it in Japan. This dictionary, the first and only one of the kind, being gradually improved and enlarged, passed through three editions. Dr. Hepburn also assisted materially in the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the Japanese language, besides publishing the first Christian tract; also a Bible dictionary in that language. He was one of the founders of the Christian College, known as the Meiji Gaku In, in Tokyo, of which he w r as the first president, and to which he contributed largely in funds. He was elected a member of the Japan Medical Society of Tokyo and added largely to its library, and was one of the first presidents of the Asiatic Society of Japan. On account of age and increasing physical infirmity, he retired from his work in Japan and returned to the United States, hoping to enjoy a few years of quiet rest. REV. DR. WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. THE REV. DR. WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS. The Rev. Dr. William Elliot Griffis, author of " The Mikado s Empire " and of other books almost equally famous, was born in the city of Philadelphia in 1843. His taste f r travel and adventure was inherited from six generations of Devonshire, England, seamen and navigators. His father, John L. Griffis, for many years was a sea captain and visited almost all of the great islands of the Pacific Ocean. Dr. Griffis s grandfather was also a lifelong navigator. Another grand father and two uncles were Friends, but during the Revolutionary War became " Free Quakers," and were officers in the Continental army. It is a matter of historical interest to note here that the wife of one of the soldiers in Col. Jehu Eyre s regiment made the first American flag. Dr. Griffis s father was a coal merchant in Philadelphia during the later portion of his life. After taking a course in the public schools Dr. Griffis entered the Philadelphia High School. When twenty-two he became a student at Rutger s College, and was graduated in the class of 1869 with the degree of A. B. Later he was made an A. M. by his alma mater, and received the degree of D. D. from Union College, and Rutgers made him an L. H. D. in 1899. During his college life he received five prizes in oratory, English composition and science. In 1869 he visited Europe with the intention of taking a course in theology in the German universities, but hs love for travel led him to decide that the best use he could make of his time was to see as much of the Old World as extensively as possible, which he did. Upon his return he took a course in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church at New Brunswick. About that time 1867 Japanese students were flocking to this country, and Dr. Griffis became much interested in their condition and formed many personal acquaintances with these young men.- He wrote an article about that time in the New York " Independent," which attracted considerable attention. In 1870 there came an application from Japan for young men to teach physical science in that country, and one of the most progressive of the 300 feudal rulers of that country, Matsudaira Echizen no Kami, invited him, during that year, to enter upon the work. He accepted the call, and organized a school on the American model at Fukui, and for a year lived alone in that strange io PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. country, witnessing sights never before seen by an American. At that time .these 300 feudal barons had their own territory, and Dr. Griffis saw all sides of life between the extremes of the ruler and the outcast. He is now the only man of Caucasian race living who lived at a Daimyo s court and saw the old feudal system in operation. He helped to organize the schools in the province of Echizen, in which is now the terminus of the cross-island railroad in that county. Many of his students have since become prominent officers in the Japanese Government, and his personal relations with the people were most pleasant. He journeyed frequently into the regions of central and northern Japan and inspected their mines, gun factories, oil wells, silk- reeling apparatus, etc. About that time the feudal system of 300 barons was broken up and everything was centralized under the Mikado at Tokyo, the capital. His baron was summoned away and most of his students left the capital. Having proposed to the Minister of Education, Mr. Oki Takato, in Tokyo, that a polytechnic school be established, Dr. Griffis was invited to undertake the work, and the plan was later carried out. While waiting for its perfection he was invited to the chair of physical sciences in the Imperial University, where he remained three years. Here he also saw much of Japanese life, and had an audience with the Emperor and became acquainted with most of the members of the Cabinet Okubo, Kido, Okuma, and others who led the great national movement which swung Japan from its ancient civilization into modern progress. For two years his oldest sister was with him, so that at their household the daughters as well as the sons of the prominent Japanese were entertained. Regarded as a learned man and made a member of their societies, he was able to come into contact with all classes of people, and traveled extensively in different portions of the country. His library at Ithaca contains many rare books published in the Japanese language, and he has probably the finest collection of general works upon Japan in the United States. He returned to America in 1874, and for five years continued the study of the language and literature of that country. The first two years of that period were spent in writing and lecturing throughout the United States. The first edition of " The Mikado s Empire " came out in August, 1876. From this time until the Shimonoseki indemnity was returned to Japan copies of the chapter on "The PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. n Shimonoseki Affair " in the United States were sent to members of Congress, and Mr. Griffis agitated the subject in his lectures for years. He resumed his theological studies, and completed a course in the Union Theological Seminary, of New York City, where he was under the instruction of Drs. Schaff, Briggs, Adams, Hitchcock and other noted religious leaders. His first call was to the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Schenectady, N. Y. The 2OOth anniversary of the church was celebrated while he was pastor, and, with its loan exhi bition of historical relics and its publication of a memorial, was a great affair. Doctor, or, as he was then called, " Domine," Griffis made good use of the rare books and records in the historical archives of Albany, and made extensive researches concerning Holland and the Dutch. During one year he filled the chair of mental science in Union College. During this period he was united in marriage to a daughter of Prof. Irving Stanton, of Union College. After a stay of nine years he was called to the pastorate of the First Schamut Congregational Church, on Tremont street, Boston, where he remained seven years. He was a frequent visitor to the libraries of that classic town and met many prominent literary people. In 1891 Dr. Griffis, with his wife, went to London, a delegate to the International Congregational Council. His church was for many years one of the leading ones in the denomi nation in Boston, but owing to the marked change made in the population by the lately completed electric railways, his church is now a mission church. After a stay of seven years he resigned to become pastor of the First Congregational Church of Christ in Ithaca, N. Y., in 1893, where he has since remained. Upon leaving Boston he was presented by his people with a handsome gold watch and $2,500. The proximity of Cornell University has been of great advantage to him in pursuing his literary studies, but, at the same time, he has not neglected the duties of a pastor s calling. He has been in Europe six times in 1869, 1891, 1892, 1895, 1898 and 1900. By special invitation he was present at the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina of Holland. This honor came to him because of his prominence as an investigator and writer upon Dutch history. He is one of the three American members of the Netherlandish Society of Letters, of Leyden. During his ministry he has been offered the presidency of several colleges, but his church labors and his literary 12 PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. pursuits have made a response to such calls inadvisable in his judgment. He is president of the De Witt Historical Society, member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters, etc., etc. He takes a lively interest in the present American movement in the Far East, and he is one of the best posted scholars in the United States concerning that portion of the world. His literary productions have been numerous, and cover widely different lines of thought. Among them may be noted " Honda, the Samurai," a tale of Japan of to-day, showing its customs, also referring to its legends and history, the whole being given in the form of an interesting romance ; " The Lily Among Thorns," a study of the Song of Solomon ; " Matthew Calbraith Perry," the life story of this typical American naval officer ; " Corea, the Hermit Nation " ; " The Mikado s Empire," which is now in its ninth edition ; " The Japanese Fairy World," containing thirty-five stories from the wonderlore of Japan ; Townsend Harris," a biography of the first American envoy in Japan ; " Brave Little Holland and What She Taught Us," " Japan in History, Folklore and Art," " Sir William Johnson and the Six Nations," " The Pilgrims in Their Three Homes England, Holland and America." Several of these works are regarded as standard productions of American literature, and their preparation was made possible only by means of the rare advantages for personal investigation among the Dutch and Japanese archives and people. Dr. Griffis, although a learned man, possesses the happy faculty of making himself pleasant to all classes young and old, and is much loved by his people. He has lived a life of great intellectual industry and possesses high genius both as a preacher and author. Although his masterwork, The Mikado s Empire," is his best known book, Dr. Griffis has written three other notable books about Japan. These are "Verbeck of Japan," "A Maker of the New Orient," being a life of S. R. Brown ; and a story, "In the Mikado s Service." He also has other books in preparation : "Japanese Feudalism," "Mikadoism," and " The Constitutional Development of Japan." PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 13 MR. DURHAM WHITE STEVENS, Honorary Counsellor of the Japanese Legation, Washington. Durham White Stevens was born in Washington, D. C, and was educated there and at Oberlin College, from which institution he grad uated in 1871. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia. In 1873 ne was appointed secretary of the United States Legation at Tokyo by President Grant. The Minister, appointed about the same time, was the Hon. John A. Bingham, a distinguished public man and lawyer, and Mr. Stevens accompanied him to Japan. Mr. Stevens served in the capacity of secretary of the United States Legation at Tokyo under Mr. Bingham from October, 1873, until July, 1883, and on one occasion as Charge d Affaires ad interim, in 1878-79. during his chief s absence in the United States. In July he resigned the office and returned to the United States. In November of that year he entered the service of the Japanese Government as English Secretary to the Imperial Legation at Washington. In 1884 he was ordered to Tokyo for service in the Foreign Office. In the winter of 1884-85 he accompanied Count Inouye to Korea, when the latter went as ambassador to negotiate a settlement of the difficulties arising from the assault upon Mr. Takezoye, the Japanese Ministei to Korea, and the murder of a number of Japanese subjects. For services rendered on that occasion Mr. Stevens received from His Majesty the Emperor the decoration of the Third Class of the Order of the Rising Sun. At the conference for the revision of the treaties between Japan and the foreign powers held at Tokyo in 1885-87, Mr. Stevens was made a member of the Bureau du Protocole of the conference, and served in that capacity until the adjournment of the conference. He then returned to the Legation at Washington, having been given the rank of Honorary Counsellor of Legation. He served under Count Mutsu when the latter was Minister at Washington, and during that time assisted in the negotia tion of the Treaty with Mexico, which was the first treaty made by Japan fully recognizing her right to exercise all the sovereign powers of an independent state. He also served under Mr. Kurino at Washington at AIR. DURHAM WHITE STKVKNS, Honorary Counsellor of the Japanese Legation, Washington. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 15 the time the present treaty between Japan and the United States was negotiated. For services rendered during the war between Japan and China, Mr. Stevens received the decoration of the Second Class of the Sacred Treasure. Subsequently he was also granted the decoration of the Second Class of the Order of the Rising- Sun. On several occasions Mr. Stevens has been recalled to Japan for temporary service in connection with public business, and on two occasions, in 1900 and 1901, he was sent to Hawaii to assist in settling the claims of Japanese subjects for losses occasioned by the destruction of their property on account of the prevalence of bubonic plague in the Hawaiian Islands in 1899. Mr. Stevens has now been nearly twenty years in the Japanese service. During that time he has been brought in contact with most of the prominent men of Japan, both in public and private life. The term of his service has covered one of the most important and inter esting epochs in Japan s history. ** Motoori caught the exact spirit of Japan and of the Japanese character in his immortal gem of five lines : " Shikishima no Yamato gokoro wo Hito Towaba Asahi ni niwou Yamazakura hana! Which Dr. Nitobe has translated into English, as follows : " Isles of blest Japan, Should your Yamato Spirit Strangers seek to scan, Say scenting morn s sun-lit air, Blows the cherry, wild and fair !" REV. MERRIMAN COLBERT HARRIS. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 17 REV. MERRIMAN COLBERT HARRIS. Merriman Colbert Harris was born in Bealesville, Ohio, July 9, 1846. His ancestors settled in Virginia before and during the war of the Revolution. Upon the opening up of the Territory of Ohio his immediate ancestors settled in that promising region. He was educated in the common schools, and at the age of seventeen in 1863 enlisted in the Twelfth Ohio Cavalry, and was discharged in November, 1865, at the close of the war. After the war he attended school at Rural Seminary and Wash ington Academy, and afterward taught school for two years. He joined the Pittsburg Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was ordained a minister in 1871 in Steubenville, Ohio, by Bishop Clarke. After this he spent three years at Allegheny College, arid in 1873 was graduated B. A., having completed the classical and Biblical courses of that institution. In March, 1873, he was appointed a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church to Japan. In October of the same year he was married to Flora L. Best, of Meadville, Pa., and left immediately for Japan, accompanied by his wife, arriving in Yokohama December I4th. They disembarked and remained there for a few weeks, and then removed to Hakodate, being the first missionaries to North Japan. He lived five years in Hakodate, and there began the study of the languages and civilization of Japan. He was appointed Vice-Consul of the United States in 1874, and assisted the American Consul in his duties until the death of the latter in 1875, when he became Acting Consul, and remained in charge until the closing of the Consulate in 1878. In the year 1878 he was transferred to Tokyo, Japan, where he resided until 1886. During this time he traveled over north and central Japan, preached, lectured in all the principal cities, organized churches and laid the foundation for many Christian societies. He was a charter member of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, which was organized on his birthday, July 9, 1873, m Yokohama, and one of the original members of the Japan Conference, effected in July, 1884, in Tokyo. On account of the illness of his wife he returned to San Francisco in 1886, and was appointed superintendent of the Japanese mission, 18 PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. where he has lived and labored until the present. The mission in San Francisco has prospered and spread over the Pacific Coast and Hawaii, and is now organized as the Pacific-Japanese Mission, with sixteen churches and 1,100 members and many adherents. In 1898 he visited Japan to attend the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Methodist Episcopal Mission. During this visit it pleased his Imperial Japanese Majesty to confer on him the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Fourth Class. In 1901 he also revisited Japan and spent three months on a preaching tour in connection with Forward Movement of the Christian Churches. He traveled the length of Japan, and was cordially received by all classes. On the occasion of the fifteen anni versary of his work for the Japanese on the Pacific Coast a testimonial to him and Mrs. Harris was given by Japanese of all classes, at which time a gift of a beautiful Geneva watch and $1,000 were tendered to him. CONSTANCY IN FRIENDSHIP. Hito wa iza Kokoro mo shirazu Furusato wa Hana zo mukashi no Ka ni nioi-keru (Ki no Tsurayuki.) No, no ! as for man, How his heart is none can tell. But the plum s sweet flower In my birthplace, as of yore, Still emits the same perfume. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 19 GENERAL STEWART LYNDON WOODFORD. Stewart Lyndon Woodford was born in the city of New York on September 3rd, 1835. His ancestors on both sides were of English and Puritan stock, and the family name is on the muster rolls of the colonial and revolutionary armies and in the War of 1812. General Woodford, the subject of this sketch, was the eighth in direct descent from the first of these pioneers. His early education was at the Columbia Grammar School. When fifteen years old he entered Columbia College ; spent his sophomore and junior years at Yale College, and then returned to Columbia College, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1854. That year was likewise the centennial year of his alma mater, and his was the unique distinction of delivering a "centennial oration" in place of the customary valedictory address. Mr. Woodford studied law and was admitted to practice at the Bar of New York State. Early in life he took an active part in public affairs. In 1860 he was delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated Lincoln for the Presidency, and in December of that year was messenger of the Electoral College of New York, and carried the Lincoln vote to Washington. President Lincoln offered him a federal judgeship in the then territory of Nebraska, which Mr. W^oodford declined. In 1861 he was appointed Assistant United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York and as such had charge of the famous blockade cases and litigation growing out of the War of the Rebellion. Scarcely a year had passed when the urgent call for men at the front led him to resign his office and enter the army. He enlisted in the I27th New York Volunteers, was at once promoted to be captain of his company, and then became lieutenant-colonel. He served in this rank for two years and during most of this time was in command of his regiment. After much active service in the field he became Judge Advocate General of the Department of the South, Provost Marshal General, and finally Chief of Staff to General Gilmore, commanding that Department. After the victory of the Union forces in South Carolina he became the first Military Governor of Charleston, and was subse quently transferred to the command of Savannah. His years of active service in the field won for him promotion as colonel and brevet brigadier GENERAL STEWART LYNDON WOODFORD. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 21 general for gallantry in action. The list of brigadier generals being rilled, he was assigned by special order of the President to duty under his brevet rank and so continued to the end of the war. General Woodford then returned to his law practice. He declined the Republican nomination for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the city of New York, but was recalled to public life in 1886 by election on the Republican ticket as Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York. In 1868 he declined a congressional nomination, but in 1872 was elected member of Congress from Brooklyn. The year 1870 was memorable by the contest over the Governorship between the Republican Party and the famous Tweed ring. General Woodford was candidate of his party in this contest, but his opponent, John T. Hoffman, was declared elected. The election was bitterly contested, and Republicans throughout the State asserted that the Tweed forces had deliberately counted out their opponent. This contention was finally demonstrated to be true by the confessions of William M. Tweed and A. Oakey Hall themselves, made before their death. Under President Grant and Presi dent Garfield, General Woodford again served as United States District Attorney and remained steadily in the practice of his profession in spite of tempting offers in the form of various diplomatic positions which were offered to him. In the Republican National Convention of 1876 and 1880 he was prominent as a candidate for the Vice-Presidential nomina tion, but withdrew in the former convention in favor of William A. Wheeler, and again withdrew in the latter convention, and himself placed Chester A. Arthur in nomination. In 1875 General Woodford rendered what some have considered the most signal service of his public life. Congress had passed the Resump tion Act, which pledged the government to the resumption of specie payment on the first day of January, 1879. Gold was then selling at a considerable premium, as it had been since 1862. The Democratic Party of Ohio took bold and uncompromising ground against this resumption ; declared that it was unwise, unjust to the debtor class, and impossible of execution. The Republican Party, then in power, accepted the issue as the controlling one, and made the local canvass in Ohio the first contest of the campaign. General Woodford had become known as an earnest advocate of specie resumption. Although a New Yorker, and thus recognized as a representative of Wall Street interests, he went to Ohio and conducted what proved to be one of the most remarkable series of 22 PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. joint debates in our political history. He and his opponent, General Thomas Ewing, the leader of the Ohio Democracy, spoke at the same meetings, with the result that Rutherford B. Hayes was elected as Gover nor by the narrow majority of about 5,000. But the Republican victory and the verdict in favor of sound money fixed the attitude of the parties, decided the question of resumption, and restored the financial credit of the nation. For a number of years past General Woodford has mainly devoted himself to his profession, and is a member of the law firm of Ritch, Woodford, Bovee & Butcher, in New York City. In 1896 he was appointed by Governor Morton as one of the commissioners to prepare the charter of the consolidated city of the Greater New York. In 1897 he was again called into the service of his country by his appointment under President McKinley as United States Minister to the Court of Madrid. This mission, owing to the strained relations between Spain and the United States regarding Cuba, was the most delicate and respon sible post in our entire diplomatic service. He remained at Madrid during the long and exciting negotiations until war was formally declared on the 2ist of April, 1898. Upon his return to the United States, President McKinley offered him a commission as Major General in the volunteer army. But General Woodford declined the commission and continued as titular Minister to Spain until September, 1898, when he resigned and received the thanks of the Department of State and of the President for the faithful and effective discharge of his duties. He is now practising law, is director and trustee in several leading financial institutions, is a trustee of Cornell University, and is deeply interested in all educational matters. The General has always been a friend of Japan. Recently he returned from quite an extended visit to that country, and to China ; and, in an interview given to the "Independent," he said : "During my recent visit to Japan I was singularly favored by the courtesy of Marquis Ito, to whom I had letters of introduction, and by the kindness of my old army friend, Colonel Buck, who has been for some five years the able representative of our government at Tokyo. I feel that my opportunity for seeing the country and getting acquainted with its people were exceptionally good, and I certainly received vivid impres sions of the progress that has been made in Japan. That progress is very significant in its relation to China. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 23 "Japan is admirable in many ways. Physically i^ is a very beautiful country. The Japanese are certainly a remarkable people. As a nation Japan is as compact and cohesive as any nation on the globe, and her people are essentially patriotic. They are polite, industrious, capable, and peculiarly ambitious. Remember that it is not fifty years since Commodore Perry opened the empire to the outside world. It is hardly fair to compare Japan with Western Europe or with the United States, but compared to the rest of Asia she is immeasurably in advance. She is still advancing. She has over 2,000 miles of steam railway in operation and is steadily building more. There are tramways in Tokyo and Nagoya, gas and electric plants in most of the larger cities, and the representative of R. G. Dun & Co., who returned on the steamer with me, told me that the commercial marine of Japan registered in her home ports now exceeds 3,000,000 tons. The Japanese steam lines connect with Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Honolulu, Australia and all Chinese coast ports and Vladivostock. " Ambitious as the Japanese unquestionably are, I do not believe that Japan seeks to profit by the misfortunes of China or desires to wrest from those misfortunes her own aggrandizement. I do not believe that Japan seeks loot or present territorial expansion at the expense of China. On the contrary, Japan regards China with affectionate reverence, and has a most earnest desire to assist China in all possible development. She wishes China to wake up, to become strong, and to be in fact, as well as in name, a nation. All that Japan can do to bring this about will be done with patience, delicacy, and with a per sistence that I do not believe can be finally baffled. Japan is steadily acquiring the industrial and scientific education of Europe and America. She is assimilating what we know and what we can do. The Japanese do not seem to me to be an essentally inventive people. They acquire, adapt and use, but have hardly yet reached the point where they improve upon our methods. With wonderful honesty of judgment Japan recognized her deficiency when first brought into contact with the nations of the West, and with unprecedented patience, humility, intelligence and unanimity of purpose she has sought, and still seeks, to remedy these deficiencies. It has been a great work well done. When you recall what she was in 1853 you will realize this more clearly. Japan was then a medieval nation. She had art, temples, a completely developed feudal system and good local industries, but she knew literally 24 PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. nothing of modern science, and was where Europe was about the year 800, without any of the impulses of what we understand of Christian development. To-day she has not only railways, telegraphs and machine shops, but a very complete and general system of popular education, beginning with the kindergarten and culminating in two great national universities one at Tokyo and one at Kyoto. There are more than 2,000 students in the university at Tokyo, and nearly half of the children of school age are in the public schools of Japan. " Now that she has fairly won to the front among the powers of the world, she is reaching out a hand to help China climb. There are in Japanese colleges and schools to-day more than 500 Chinese students, who are being educated by the Japanese in modern science and in Japanese methods. The foreign trade of Japan is constantly increasing, and we are not getting that proportion to which our situation on the east side of the Pacific and our industrial abilities justly entitle us. The English and the Germans especially the Germans are exploiting with energy and shrewdness, and they are getting trade that logically belongs to us. " I found new Japan calling Commodore Perry its father and cele brating the Fourth of July with more than Yankee fervor. When I sailed from Yokohama the town was fairly ablaze with our flag. This gratitude deserves our friendship, and I heartily hope that Japan may realize her brightest dream of effective friendship for China." PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 25 PROF. DAVID STARR JORDAN. David Starr Jordan, whose wide interest in everything pertaining to the Pacific Ocean and coasts, and in Japan in particular, has endeared him to the Japanese, was born January 19, 1851, at Gainesville, New York. His father was Hiram Jordan, and his mother s name before marriage was Huldah Hawley. He received his early education at the academy in Gainesville, and entered the first Freshman class of Cornell University in 1869. He was graduated from this university in 1872 with the degree of M.S. He afterwards, in 1875, obtained the degree of Medical Doctor from the Indiana Medical College, Ph.D. from Butler University in 1878, LL.D. from Cornell University in 1886. His career as an instructor and teacher began in 1871, when he was made an instructor in botany in Cornell University. He was Professor of Natural History in Lombard University in 1872-73, Principal of Appleton (Wisconsin) Collegiate Institute, 1873-74 ; student, and after- "vaicls Lecturer, in Marine Botany in the Anderson School at Penikese, Teacher of Natural History in the Indianapolis High School, 1874-75; Professor of Biology in Butler University, 1875-79; Assistant United States Fish Commissioner, 1877-91 ; Professor of Zoology in Indiana University, 1879-85; President of Indiana University, 1885-91; Trustee of Cornell University, 1887-92, and has been President of Leland Stan ford, Jr., University since 1891. In 1896-98 he was elected President of the California Academy of Sciences, and again in 1901. He was made United States Commissioner in Charge of the Fur Seal Investigations, 1896-98, and has been Commissioner in Charge of United States Fish Commission Investigations in Pacific Ocean since. 1901. Dr. Jordan has been and still is a prolific writer, as he is a recognized authority on a number of related subjects. His most important publi cations are the following : Synopsis of the Fishes of North America, with Dr. Charles H. Gilbert, 1882 ; revised and enlarged under title of Fishes of North and Middle America, with Dr. Barton W. Evermann, 1896; A Check List of the Fishes and Fish-like Vertebrates of North and Middle America, with Dr. Barton W. Evermann, 1896; Report of Fur Seal Investigations, 1896-97; A Manual ot the Vertebrate Animals of the Northern United States, 1875; Science Sketches, 1887; Footnotes to Evolution, 1898; Imperial Democracy, 1899; Care and Culture of Men, PROF. DAVID STARR JORDAN. President of Leland Stanford, Jr., University. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 27 1896; The Story of the Innumerable Company and Other Sketches, 1896; Matka and Kotik, 1897; The Book of Knight and Barbara, 1899; The Strength of Being Clean, 1900 ; Standeth God Within the Shadow, 1900 ; The Philosophy of Despair, 1902 ; The Blood of the Nation, 1902. He is a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, the Forum, the Ameri can Naturalist, the Dial, the Popular Science Monthly, Science. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science, a member of the American Ornithological Union, and Biological Society of Washington, D. C. The reputation of Dr. Jordan and his well known friendliness toward the Japanese have attracted many young Japanese to Leland Stanford, Jr., University. Many of these have graduated from that institution, and there are now some 35 students from Japan in the institution. The nightingale is fond of the plum in flowers, and a young girl had a beautiful tree in which a songster came daily to pour out its " full heart in profuse strains of unpremeditated art." But it so happened that the favorite plum tree of the Emperor died, and his servants, searching for one to take its place, seized the girl s. She thereupon wrote the following verses and secretly fastened them to the tree : " Claimed for our Sovereign s use, Blossoms I have loved so long Can I in duty fail But for the Nightingale, Seeking her home of song, How can I find excuse." The simple and deep beauty of it draws tears. Of course, the Emperor had the plum tree re stored to the girl and the bird. MR. JAMES ROLLAND MORSE, President of American Trading Company. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 29 MR. JAMES HOLLAND MORSE. James Rolland Morse, president of the American Trading Company, of 25 Broad street, New York City, was born in Fondulac County, Wis., January i, 1848. At the age of fourteen, in company with his father and brother, he went to Nevada, where he remained for three years, and from there went to California, locating in San Francisco. In 1868 he entered the employ of H. H. Bancroft & Co., publishers, booksellers and stationers, and remained with them until 1871, when, in company with F. B. Bancroft, he went to Portland, Ore., where the two started in business under the firm name of Bancroft & Morse, in 1873. Mr. Morse sold out his interest in the firm and returned to San Francisco, to enter again the employ of H. H. Bancroft & Co. as manager of one of their principal departments. In February, 1875, ne went to Japan to join the firm of Chipman, Stone & Co. The following year the firm failed, and Mr. Morse was selected to take charge of and close up the business for the benefit of the creditors, some of whom joined him, in 1877, in starting the American Clock and Brass Company, he becoming the general manager for China and Japan. In 1883 the name was changed to the American Trading Company, and Mr. Morse went to London to open a branch and appoint an agent to do the company s buying for their Eastern branches, which included Yokohama and Kobe, Japan; and Shanghai, China. Mr. Morse was the first American to have business relations with Korea, and was authorized by that Government, in 1883, to negotiate a loan for 600,000, offering as security all the mines of the country and the customs revenues. So little was known of the Hermit Kingdom at that time that financiers could not be induced to make the loan. A few years later Mr. Morse obtained a large mining concession in Korea, which is now being successfully worked by an American syndicate. He also obtained a concession for a railway to connect the principal seaport, Chemulpo, with the capital, Seoul. Associated with him in his enterprises were fifteen of the leading bankers of Japan, headed by Baron Shibusawa. The road was completed and formally opened in October, 1901. It is the only fully equipped American railway in the Far East and the first road to be built in Korea. For nearly twenty-eight years Mr. Morse has been closely identified with the development of trade between the United States and the Far East, and only recently gave up his home in Japan to return to New York to take charge of the enormous business his company is now transacting with nearly all parts of the globe. PROF. GEORGE TRUMBULL LADD. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 31 PROF. GEORGE TRUMBULL LADD. " The intellectual world of New Japan will ever feel gratitude toward Professor Ladd for his untiring trips, taken from a long distance, in order that his lectures may be delivered within its very gates. It is with a sense of pride for a Japanese to think that Japan was able to pursuade this man, one of the intellectual giants of the age, to come and assist in the development of her youthful intelligence. Japan has advanced on her material path, and, thanks to Professor Ladd and others, she has also made an intellectual advance." These are the comments on Prof. George Trumbull Ladd, the professor of philosophy and metaphysics in the Graduate School of Yale University, by one of the Japanese students under his instruction. His efforts for Japan have already been recognized, and his interest in that country is widely known, it is scarcely needed here to enter at length into the work that he has done, except to add what already has been said elsewhere, in order to emphasize the prominence with which he is connected with Japan. Prof. G. T. Ladd was born January 19, 1842. His first tour to Japan was in 1892. He was several times appointed a lecturer in the Doshi-sha University, Kyoto, and conducted the graduate seminary in the summer school of the university. In 1899 he was invited by the Dai-Nippon Educational Society of Japan, and again visited that country. He delivered a series of lectures in the Tokyo Imperial University. He was elected an honorary member of this great educational society of Japan, granted an audience with the Emperor, who conferred on him the decoration of the Order of the Rising Sun, third degree. A great number of the philosophical works of this distinguished psychologist have been translated into Japanese, and they are most deeply read by the progressive Japanese. Professor Ladd is, perhaps, the most widely known of the foreign instructors in the universities and colleges of Japan. Many intelligent Japanese, who at present occupy the highest chairs in philosophy, psychology, ethics or theology in the universities of Japan, have, either in this country or in Japan, received his instruction. This Yale pro fessor not only takes an interest in his Japanese students during lecture hours, but has a constant care for the Japanese students generally out side of their college life. His home is their Mekka, and a meeting is held in his parlor every fortnight, when he talks to them on some subject of philosophy, religion or other related topics. MR. FRANKLIN ALLEN, Secretary of the Silk Association of America. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 33 MR. FRANKLIN ALLEN. Franklin Allen is generally considered the best informed man living on matters relating- to the silk industry of the United States, which he has seen grow from moderate dimensions to its present enormous impor tance. He was the first secretary of the Silk Association of America, serving from 18/2 to 1878, when he resigned and went to Europe, where he devoted much time to the study of foreign methods. He : was re-elected secretary in 1898, on the death of Briton Richardson, whoj had been the association s secretary for ten years. Mr. Allen is a life member of the Political and Social Science Association, and is a certified public accountant of the State of New York, holding diploma No. 68, issued by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, under the law of 1896, to regulate the profession of public accountants. He is an indefatigable worker, a profound student, has a genius for statistics, and has been a prolific writer on matters relating to the silk industry here and abroad. He was an expert special agent for the silk branch of Anierican textile industries in the United States census of 1900. -He is a genial gentleman; a type of those men of the highest and broadest education, who, besides knowing all about one subject, can talk under- standingly and interestingly on many branches of human study and effort. PROVERB AND SHORT POEM. Neko n i koban, gold coins to a cat (casting pearls before swine). Hito koe wa ; - -Tsuki -ga -natta ka ? Hototogisu ! (I hear) a solitary note. Did the moon sing? (Ah!) the cuckoo! MR. ALFRED J. OSTHEIMER. Honorary Japanese Consul at Philadelphia. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 35 HON. ALFRED J. OSTHEIMER. Consul Ostheimer is a man who believes, as a great man once said, in the doctrine that God made out of the men of all nations one great humanity. It was not considered best to make them acquainted with one another, and that has been left to us. Wide oceans, high mountains, and broad rivers separate the various nations of the world, but the progressive men scale the mountains and navigate the oceans and rivers ; so that eventually nothing divides people but distrust, because they are not acquainted with one another. It had always been Mr. Ostheimer s desire to study the great country of Japan, and he considered it one of the highest honors of his life when he was appointed some years ago the first Honorary Consul of Japan in the United States. When Mr. Ostheimer was appointed consul, his selection for this honorable post was thus commented on by the " Public Ledger " of Philadelphia : " As a result of the constantly increasing importance of the com mercial relations between the Empire of Japan and the United States of America, his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, has just appointed Alfred J. Ostheimer as his Honorary Consul at this, port, and, it is said by the well informed, that this appointment is the first Honorary Consul ship in the United States, thus making it of considerable importance. " Alfred J. Ostheimer, who is exceptionally well equipped by his experience and knowledge of foreign languages for the position to which he has just been appointed, was born in this city in 1845, educated here and in Europe, and has been largely engaged in mercantile pursuits as an importer and exporter, having succeeded the old firm of Ostheimer & Woodward in 1872, and now being at the head of one of the largest export commission houses in this country. The firm of Ostheimer Brothers import and export wares from and to all parts of the world, and have their own offices in many of the large cities. Mr. A. J. Ostheimer was, in the course of business, brought into frequent contact with the Empire of Japan. He is one of our most prominent citizens, and is identified with almost all of the enterprises which have made our city so well known during the past twenty-five years. " Business men congratulate the Imperial Government of Japan in having chosen so competent a representative of their interests in this 36 PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. city, as Philadelphia, in having- been selected as the first American city to have an Honorary Japanese Consul, is thought to have been signally honored." Alfred J. Ostheimer was born in the city of Philadelphia in 1845, was educated at the best schools, and then went abroad for a number of years to make a special study of languages and political economy. The firm with which he is connected was established by his father in 1835 m Philadelphia, and the nature of the business was mainly the importing of all kinds of goods; until 1876, when the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia brought a large number of foreigners to that city, and the export trade of the United. States, which is now the largest in the world, found its first incentive to its present material development, and the causes of which were the great inducements offered to foreign buyers. Mr. Ostheimer has been Consul for Austria-Hungary in Philadelphia for a number of years, and in consideration of his services rendered to those countries, was decorated with the Order of the Iron Crown by Emperor Francis Joseph. He has always taken an exceptional interest in the island Empire of Japan ; and it was his greatest desire as a young man to be in business relation with the Japanese. In the export business, which he established after 1876 in Philadelphia, under the name of Ostheimer Brothers, which has grown to very large proportions, as they are now considered among the leading exporters of the country, he had many opportunities of doing business with Japan, all of which he took advantage of, and in considera tion of which he was appointed Consular Representative of Japan in Philadelphia. He has since made a trip to Japan to study the people and country, and is probably as much interested as any other one man in the United States in the great development which has taken place in the Empire of Japan during the last thirty years. He has done every thing in his power to enlarge the cordial relations which have prevailed between the Empire of Japan and the United States ever since the beginning of their official intercourse, and the intimate association and the generous rivalry of the two countries and their peoples in the paths of progress and material development the one representing the new era in the Far East, and the other the advancement of the Western Hemi sphere, together making the greatest combination of the world. Consul Ostheimer was also decorated while in Japan by the Emperor Mutsuhito with the Order of the Rising Sun. He is now considered as one of the best friends that Japan has in the United States. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 37 MR. JOSEPH MARSHALL WADE. It is safe to say that the majority of the Japanese in this country, and many of those now in Japan who have visited the United States, will recognize in the accompanying portrait the face of a friend who has undoubtedly taken more interest in their welfare here than any other person, except, perhaps, those \yho are direct representatives of the Government of Japan. The purpose of this sketch is to put on record the life of one who has done so much for the Japanese people, and to give to those who have not known him personally some information in rejgard to one upon whom the Emperor has recently bestowed the " Fifth Order of Double Light Rising Sun." Mr. Wade was born at New Wortley, near Leeds, England, on March /, 1832. He attended the " Armley Church Day School " untili about his seventeenth year, during which time, when not in school, he ranged the fields and woods and waterways and obtained an extensive kno\yledge of nature, knowing almost every bird, animal, tree and plant. He knew neither botany nor nrniilmlogy, but nature as she is, not as catalogued. \Yhen about to leave school he had learned all that it was ^necessary to know, and his intuition was intense. His boyhood, and even his early manhood, was marked by extreme J)ashfulness, and he sought the woods, where he found more contentment with the com- pani<pnship of birds and animals. In October, 1850, he was brought to tlje United States by his parents. He first started with his brother as a -weaver in Lawrence, and, with no teaching or apprenticeship, he became at once an expert weaver. The history of his mill life is a succession of advances from weaver to the leading designer of America, and in 1864 he was agent of a large woolen mill, with a salary of $8,000 a year. The first publication undertaken by Mr. \Yade was the " Fanciers Journal. Though he had no knowledge of the publishing business, lie was in love with the subject chosen, and, with a thorough knowlegde of the matters upon which his journal was to treat, he made it so valuable and of such general interest to the keepers of fancy poultry, pets, etc., that its success was assured. His early associations with nature were bound to crop out in his writings when he became a publisher, and he started other papers, called the " Ornithologist and Oologist," " Familiar MR. JOSEPH MARSHALL WADE. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 39 Science " and " Truths of Nature." As he became known as a pub lisher, his services were sought by publishers of trade papers, who knew of his superior and practical knowledge of manufacturing. He became connected with the Boston " Journal of Commerce " as editor, and in 1885 he established " Fibre and Fabric," a weekly textile journal de voted to the cotton, woolen and other similar industries. As editor, publisher and general manager of " Fibre and Fabric," now in its eighteenth year, Mr. Wade is actively engaged at his desk every day. Besides the work connected with the paper, he is able to find time to correspond daily with Japanese, both in this country and in Japan. Professors in the technological schools and heads of the Chambers of Commerce in the large Japanese cities receive from him regularly papers, magazines, samples, clippings, etc., that are useful in the devel opment of Japanese industries, as well as helping to promote Japanese trade with America and other countries. While publishing " Fibre and Fabric," Mr. \Vade has also constantly written of the deeper prin ciples of natural law. In 1893-1895 two volumes of a magazine entitled " Occultism " were published, in order to put on record some of his deepest writings. Mr. Wade is still a most energetic business man, positive and unflinching. He has not taken a voluntary holiday since 1850. He never enters a church or seeks society or a meeting of any kind ; he is a hermit in a busy city he lives within himself. In his business dealings he is prompt and just, and pays cash for everything when purchased. He knows nothing of grammar, but writes in plain English, simple and straight to the point, in as few w r ords a^> possible and without any technical construction. He writes naturally, dispensing with man s teachings and rules, and those who read his writings are surprised to note the smoothness of his sentences. One of his friends, one who knows him best, has written : " Mr. Wade s golden rule is, Work, and his motto is, Non Sibi Sed Omnibus (Not for one s self, but for all). This motto will tell you what Mr. Wade s daily life has- been and is to-day, though financially he has no need to do business. Every day finds him first at his office, and he takes no note of holidays. He has to do no scheming, has no anxiety, wear and tear of body and brain that ordinary business men are subject to, because he never borrows, owes no man anything. He lives in harmony with the law of life; his business goes on in an orderly manner, and always prospers. He 40 PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. works for the benefit of his neighbor, and not to overeach, defraud or depress him. lie is hale and hearty, free and happy, at seventy, while the ordinary business man is broken and aged, wretched, and finds life a burden and a barren waste at fifty. Mr. Wade has no joy in anything- he does or has except for the benefit it may be to others, but he never casts his pearls before swine. He is careful to find those whom he can truly benefit, and ministers to each one in the way he can be of most use to them. At his beautiful home in Dorchester he has surrounded himself with treasures that symbolize his spiritual progression in his nature studies an ornithological library and engrav ings of birds marking one period; precipitated spirit pictures another; crystals another, and Japanese ancient art objects another. Here are gathered rare and beautiful treasures from that rare and beautiful country Japan. There are a number of pieces .11 his collection very ancient. He has a Japanese garden outside his house which contains stone Japanese lanterns, an immense bronze eagle which is a wonderful piece of Japanese art, about forty varieties of Japanese maples, and many other shrubs and plants. To these kindly and gifted people his doors are ever open ; he is Boston s, and perhaps America s, welcome to Japan. He also published a magazine, Light from the Far East/ partly in the interests of the Japanese. This periodical contained items of interest relating to the Japanese, both :.n this country and Japan, and also presented Mr. Wade s revelations of truth." The remarkable thing about Mr. W;ulc is that up to seven years ago i iS<)5> he had never seen a native of Japan or read any book describing- Japan or the Japanese; but from his first meeting with them he began buying Japanese maples and other plants, and finally importing them each year in large quantities. He has also spent a great deal of money in bnmy.es, Satsuma s carvings and other ancient bric-a-brac from Japan. His method is to give away his first purchases to make room for later and rarer and costlier acquisitions, so that he has now one of the finest private collections in his home, and a garden that attracts many persons inter ested in such things. Mr. Wade s magazine, " Fibre and Fabric," was founded in March, 1885. He was formerly editor and publisher of " Familiar Science " and " Fanciers Journal," and of the " Ornithologist and Oologist," and was editor of the Boston " Journal of Commece " and the " Textile Manu facturer in Drv Goods Bulletin." PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 41 The following verses to Mr. Wade were written by Abbie Walker Gould : JAPAN S HONORS TO JOSEPH M. WADE. When on this earth in ages past, thou wast reborn, It was not cold North land that met thine eyes ; But the sunny skies of fair Japan ; Mid fragrant flowers and blooming bowers, Where softly passed the summer hours. Mikado and the Mandarin sought oft from thee of mystic lore ; For the Gods had lent great gifts and asked return of greater power ; And as thou gave, in lettered gold, Upon the Temple shield where all behold Twas written thus to thee : The future years in other lands shall see the triumphs of a Mystic s victory." And now behold, from far Japan the gift appears ; It bears no hint upon its face of missing years. But -as no God bestows what is not earned, And; by the high Ideal in Soul that s burned ; Just: where you stand, The. gift you earned so long ago in that far land. MR. ISAAC STIEBEL, President of the Japanese Fan Company. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 43 MR. ISAAC STIEBEL. Isaac Stiebel was born in Baltimore, Md., United States of America, in 1844, being at the present time fifty-eight years of age. He has been identified with the Japanese trade for the last twenty-eight years, under the name of the Japanese Fan Company. He has always taken a great interest in the Japanese, and promoted their interests wherever and whenever possible. He visited Japan in 1880, and acquainted himself thoroughly with the country and its people. The business of the Japanese Fan Company has always been identified with that of the China & Japan Trading Company, Limited, through whom all of the purchases in Japan are made. His interests at home are varied. He is connected with several mercantile enterprises, and also with a bank of which he is vice-president, as well as with several other financial institutions. A FAMOUS WATERFALL. Taki no oto wa Taete Hisashiku Narinuredo Na koso nagarete Nao kikoe kere. (Dainagon Kinto.) Though the waterfall In its flow ceased long ago, And its sound is stilled; Yet, in name it ever flows, And in fame may yet be heard. MR. CARL SCHEUER, Of K. Sugawa & Co. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 45 MR. CARL SCHEUER. Mr. Carl Schcuer, who is a member of K. Sugawa and Company, was born at Worms, Germany. After graduating from college, he came to America in 1864. He went to Kansas and Missouri, where he lived from 1867 till 1873, following- mercantile and mining pursuits. He returned to Cincinnati in 1873, an( l represented one of the largest manu facturing houses, travelling over the West and South. In 1877 he married Miss Hattie Thurnauer in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of Max Thurnauer, deceased, one of the largest wholesale dry goods merchants of Cincinnati, who retired in 1870 with a large fortune. Mr. Scheuer has four sons. Arnold L., Max G., James T. and Percy C. Two of them are in the banking business and two in the mercantile. Max G. Scheuer is now with K. Sugawa and Company. In 1886 he moved to New York and opened a wholesale house of his own, but as he did not like the business, he connected himself with one of the oldest and largest English importing houses, remaining with the same for ten years. By accident he met Mr. K. Sugawa, of Yokohama, some four years ago, and the two became friends, and when Mr. Sugawa returned from his visit to Japan in the spring of 1901, Mr Scheuer joined K. Sugawa and Company August 1st, 1901, and opened an office in the Silk Exchange Building, now having offices at 458 Broadway. The business consists of the general importing of Japanese goods and the exporting of American goods which the Japanese market desires. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. MR. JAMES J. HILL. James J. Hill was born in Guelph, Upper Canada, September 16, 1838. He was educated at Rockwood Academy, and entered a steam boat office in St. Paul in 1856. He was made agent of the North western Packet Company in 1865, and later established a general fuel and transportation business on his own account. He was head of Hill, Griggs & Co., in the same line of business, from 1869 to 1875 ; established the Red River Transportation Company in 1875 5 organized, in 1873, a syndicate that obtained control of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad from the Dutch owners of the securities, and recorganized the system as the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad; was its general manager 1879-82, vice-president 1882-83, and, since 1883, president. In 1890 it became a part of the Great Northern system, of which he has since been president. The Great Northern Railroad line has connections with the Nippon Yusen Kaishas line at Seattle. Since this line was opened there has been an ever-increasing commerce between Puget Sound and the Far East. PROVERB AND SHORT POEM. Hana wa sakura ni, hito wa bushi. The cherry is the king of flowers and the warrior is the king of men. Asagao ni Tsurube lorarete; Morai midzu ! " My well bucket has been seized by the morn ing glories ; give me water ! " This exquisite gem is a famous hokka, by the great poetess Chiyo. The hokku, or haikai, is the shortest and most compressed form of poem in all litera ture, and is peculiarly Japanese. MR. JAMES J. HILL, President of the Great Northern Railroad Company. MR. SILAS D. WEBB., President of {lie American Asiatic Association. MR. JOHN FOORD, Secretary of the American Asiatic Association. 50 PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. THE AMERICAN ASIATIC ASSOCIATION. The American Asiatic Association was formally organized at a meeting held in New York on June 9, 1898, and its declared purpose was, among other things, " To foster and safeguard the trade and commercial interests of the citizens of the United States, and others associated therewith, in the Empires of China, Japan and Korea, and in the Philippine Islands, and elsewhere in Asia or Oceanica." The association had its origin in a conference of merchants and others interested in the maintenance of the commercial rights and privileges .possessed by the United States in China, held on January 6, 1898. This conference was prompted by a desire to bring to the attention of the Department of State at Washington the probable effect on these rights and privileges of the movements of certain European powers which had recently occurred within the territory of the Chinese Empire. The first representation on the subject was made through the medium of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, and was duly acknowledged by the then Secretary of State, Mr. John Sherman, who assured the Chamber that the matter was receiving the most careful attention. The Chambers of Commerce of Philadelphia, Boston, Cleve land and San Francisco were also communicated with, and those of Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco took action by sending similar communications to the President. Since its organization the association has addressed itself, in a variety of ways, to the education of public sentiment in the United States in regard to the magnitude of the industrial and commercial interests involved in the maintenance of existing treaties with China. By bringing about the formation of the American Association of China and the American Asiatic Association of Japan it has greatly expanded the representations and organization of American interests in the Far East. Its steadfast purpose has been to secure equality of commercial opportunity for all in the great markets of eastern Asia, and in its championship of the policy of the " open door " it has kept constantly in view the value and necessity of a common understanding between England, Japan and the United States. In persistently urging the American Government to oppose any movement or policy tending to impair the commercial integrity of China, and in repeatedly protesting PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. SF against the acknowledgment of any exclusive right or interest on the part of Russia in Manchuria, it has been always in line with the policy and interest of Japan. The diplomatic representatives of Japan have been among the honored guests of the annual banquets of the association, and some of its most prominent members took the oppor tunity last June to entertain at luncheon the distinguished Japanese financier, Baron Shibusawa. On that occasion the toastmaster expressed the sentiments of the association by assuring the Baron that, in the advance of Japan along the path of progress, he might always count on the friendly co-operation of the United States. The speaker went on to say : " Our association has hailed the conclusion of the Anglo- Japanese treaty as an effective guarantee, no less of the maintenance of the open door for commerce in the Far East than of the independence of Japan. The preservation of that independence we regard as indispen sable to the peaceful development of the great communities of Eastern Asia, and anything that assails it is as hostile to the interests of our country as of yours. Though not formally a party to the agreement between Great Britain and Japan, the policy of which that is the expres sion is also the policy of the United States, and the purposes which it is intended to subserve are also our purposes." The first president of the association was the late Mr. Everett Frazar, of Frazar & Co., a firm well known in Japan. Its present president is Mr. Silas D. Webb, the head of the China & Japan Trading Company, a corporation with branches in Yokohama, Kobe, Osaca and Nagasaki. Mr. Webb is qualified by a long residence in China to be a very competent judge of the relations which ought to subsist between that Empire and the United States, and the very large trade done by his company with China and Japan renders him an exceptionally capable exponent of American interests in the Far East. The secretary of the association is Mr. John Foord, formerly editor of the New York " Times," and at present a member of the editorial staff of the "Journal of Commerce" and "Commercial Bulletin." Mr. Foord is also the editor and publisher of the monthly journal of the association, which serves as a medium of communication between the community engaged in Eastern trade here and that hav iig American connections in Eastern Asia. The American Asiatic Association. OFFICERS. President. SI LAST). WEBB, New York. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Lowell Lincoln, New Yo; k. John H. Converse, Philadelphia, Pa. John B. Cleveland, Spartanburg, S. C. Everett N. Bee, San Francisco, Cal. E. C. Potter, Chicago, 111. S. G. Hopkins, Washington, D. C. Ellison A. Smythe, Pelzer, S. C. Treasurer, Joseph R. Patterson, New York. Secretary, John Foord, P. O. Box 1500, New York. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: 1903 1904 Francis B. Thurbsr, New York. Clarence Gary, New York. Thomas A. Phelan, New York. Albert Cordes, New York. William H. Stevens, New York. Chas. S. Gawthrop, Wilmington, Del. Samuel Hill, Minneapolis, Minn. James J. Hooker, Cincinnati, O. William T. West, New York. Stephen W. Baldwin, New York. D. A. Tompkins. Charlotte, N. C. A. T. Leftwich, Baltimore. M.I. The American Asiatic Association oi Japan OFFICERS. N. E. Smith. President. T. C. Howard. Vice-President. G. H. Scidmore, Secretary. W. L. Merriman, Treasurer. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: T. W. Copmann. E. S. Booth. G. W. Bramhall. F. H. Ziegfi-ld. .. H. Jewett. D. II. Blake. E. \V. Erizar. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 53 MR. BASIL H. BETTS. That the oldest life insurance company in America should appoint a special representative to Japan was peculiarly appropriate. The first feeling of friendship between the United States and Japan began with the visit to Japan of Commodore Perry of the American Navy. It has been abundantly proved ever since that memorable voyage that its results are appreciated, by the increasing friendship and ever-widening commer cial relations of the two countries. It was in 1853 tnat tne guns of Commodore Perry s squadron thun dered their salute to the Japanese Empire. Just ten years earlier the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, the pioneer of such organizations in the United States and the largest in the world, was founded. To-day, although the two events are in no way correlated, the fact that the latter is establishing a permanent representation in the former is of interest, if only as a further evidence of the closer union into which the two nations are being steadily drawn. The man whom the Mutual Life has appointed to represent it in the Far East Basil H. Betts is well qualified for his mission. He has travelled extensively in Japan and China, and possesses the personal acquaintance of many prominent Japanese. He is comparatively a young man, being still under forty, and the reputation which he has acquired for business acumen, integrity and intelligence assures him success in his new field. It is not necessary that a history should be given here of the company which Mr. Betts goes to represent, but a few facts will be interesting as showing the importance of the position which he has been selected to fill. The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York is not only the. oldest life .insurance company .in the United States ; it is the largest in the world. Its funds amount to more than $380,000,000 the largest accumulation of trust funds in the world. It has three times the combined capital of the Banks of England, France, and Germany, and its assets exceed the total national bank circulation of the United States by many millions. The assets of the company are also more than two and a half times the value of all the gold and silver coined in the United States in 1901, a year of abnormally large coinage on account of the great output of gold from MR. BASIL H. BETTS, General Manager for the East for the Mutual Life Insurance Company, of New York. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 55 Alaska. During the sixty years of its existence the company has paid to its policy holders over $590,000,000, which is larger than the amount paid by any other company in existence. Its present annual income exceeds $70,000,000, and the total amount of its insurance in force exceeds $1,300,000,000, and is increasing at a rate of over $100,000,000 annually. Figures, though proverbially truthful, are as proverbially dull, yet in no other way is it possible to describe financial operations. To say, for instance, that the largest life insurance policy ever paid was paid during the present year, would be quite without interest were the figures of the amount omitted. When it is added that the policy was for a million dollars, substance is given to the bald statement, and both substance and color are found in the further fact that the policy was taken out in the company which Mr. Betts will represent in Japan. The story of this policy is also not without its own incidental interest. Mr. Frank Hutchinson Peavey, a well known grain merchant of Minne apolis, Minn., determined to take out $1,000,000 of insurance on his life. Before deciding with what company to place the policy he engaged an agent to make a thorough investigation of the conditions, advantages, and policies of all the principal companies doing business in the country. He selected the Mutual Life, and in a communication announcing the fact, said : "You will be glad to know that my decision was made after a thorough investigation of six months by competent authorities." "My object" (he said further) "is to lend strength and to give courage to my young partners, who are my sons, in case of my accidental death." Within two years from the issue of the policy Mr. Peavey died of pneumonia, and the claim was paid by the Mutual Life Insurance Com pany with a check for a million dollars. So large are the resources of this company that this risk was written at no more proportionate risk than a policy for $1,000. It may be mentioned incidentally in this connection that the only other million-dollar policy ever issued was by the same company to Mr. George W. Vanderbilt. The largest premium ever paid on a life policy was also paid during the present year, and as in the case of the largest policy, the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York was the company with which the transaction took place. Mr. Eben Smith, of Denver, Col., sent his check in August last to the agent of the company for $349,621.78, in payment of the premium on holdings of about $600,000. In a letter accompanying 5 6 PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. the check Mr. Smith wrote : "This, I understand, is the largest premium ever paid in the world on one policy." There was a third event or perhaps "incident" would better describe the last of the three which has made the present year a more than usually interesting one from the point of view of life insurance. This other incident was the tribute paid to the company of which Mr. Betts will be the Japanese representative, by one of the most successful bankers of New York, a man who was for more than thirty years the president of one of the national banks of the city, and twice president of the New York Clearing House Association. In his will this banker, in limiting his executors, restricted them in investing his estate, left in trust for his wife and children, to such securities as were on the list of the Mutual Life Insurance Company s investments. Considering that the banker had no connection with the Mutual Life Insurance Company, no higher compliment to the latter s business methods and soundness could have been paid than this. Enough has already been said to show the importance of the post to which Mr. Betts has been appointed, and the responsibilities which will be his to discharge in his new field. Mr. Betts has for his assistant Mr. N. Amenomori, and the main office for Japan is at No. 14, Bund, Yoko hama. It is suggested that those who may take an interest in this brief outline of the company should write to the above address and secure a copy of the prospectus of the company, which has been recently printed in the Japanese language. Yufudachi ya Ta wo mi-meguri no Kami naraba. If the summer shower Would but round the rice fields go As it were a gocl ! PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 57 MR. JOHN T. HAMILTON AND THE EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES. The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States was organized on the 26th of July, 1859, and the results of its management during the forty-two years of its history are matters of public record. Its business is conducted on the "mutual plan." under which the profits are accumulated for the protection and benefit of the policyholders exclusively ; and the dividends declared from these profits are paid to policyholders and to policyholders only. But the Equitable is a mutual company in a still broader sense, for by its reforms (and by successful measures taken by it to increase the value and efficiency of life assurance) it has not only advanced the interests of its own policyholders, but has made possible the present popularity of life assurance in general. That these methods have been appreciated is shown by the fact that during the forty-two years of its history the Equitable has achieved greater results than any other company during a similar period. Brief History of the Society s Growth. The foundations of the Equitable Society were firmly and broadly laid : at the same time its beginning was characterized by judicious mod eration and strict economy. The Society s first office was a single room. Henry Baldwin Hyde, the founder of the Society, was in the beginning its sole business manager, and George W. Phillips, the first Actuary, kept the books and attended to all correspondence. At the close of the year 1859, the Society had assurance in force of $1,144,000, and assets of $117,- 102.39. The strength of the organization and the character of its management were tested at an early date. The Civil War broke out when the Society was less than two years old, and in 1866 the Asiatic cholera made its appearance in the United States, and spread as far west as Missouri. But the advance of the Society was not checked, and in 1867 the increase in the Society s business prompted the directors to invest in land upon which to erect a building, and in 1870 the business of the Society was transferred to its own building at No. 120 Broadway. MR. JOHN T. HAMILTON, General Manager for the East for the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 59 Two years prior to this the Society had devised a new form of policy under which only those who keep their policies in force for a stated period participate in profits. It was agreed that those who died before the arrival of the dividend period should receive the full amount of the assurance, but without profits ; while those who lived and continued their policies should receive not only their full share of profits, but could also, if desired, withdraw the full cash reserve on their policies. This reform so stimulated business that at the end of the year 1870 (the year in which the Society moved into its new building) its assurance in force amounted to $143,970,984, and its surplus to $408,434. In 1873 the Society was subjected to another test, for one of the severest panics ever experienced in the United States was then encoun tered. In reference to this, the President, in his report to the directors, said : " The recent convulsion, while not without its temporary embarrass ments, has served to demonstrate the security of a properly managed life assurance society as a depository for savings, both for the rich and for the poor. . . . The directors of the Equitable may justly feel satisfaction that in the midst of one of the most trying emergencies which has ever threatened the stability of American commerce and industry, our Society stands as a mighty rock in the midst of an angry sea, the bulwark and support of those who cling to it. " But," he added, " this business cannot be conducted without the exercise of the greatest skill and caution." To which the Hon. O. W. Chapman, then Superintendent of the New York State Insurance Depart ment, added : " No matter how the subject be broached, that word management is the keystone to the arch." Hence it is that in this brief review attention is directed especially to the crucial tests to which the Equitable Society has been subjected from time to time. The panic of 1873 an d the succeeding five years of commercial depression were successfully weathered, and the Society s business con tinued to increase. In 1889 the President, commenting on the Society s Thirtieth Anni versary, said : " Thirty years ago we had upwards of six hundred thousand dollars of assurance in force; to-day we have upwards of six hundred millions. 60 PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. " Thirty years ago we had upwards of one hundred thousand dollars of assets ; to-day we hold upwards of one hundred millions. Then we had little or no surplus ; now we have between twenty and twenty-five millions. The Equitable has succeeded because : under a united and contin uous management, it has sought to give its policyholders the best assur ance possible. It has consequently sought : " (i) To give the utmost security. " (2) To offer the largest benefits. " (3) To sweep aside every cumbersome restriction. " It is therefore known as the originator of every important improve ment in the business, and is preeminently noted for devising the only system erf assurance under which a full share of surplus is given to surviving policyholders. The Society passed through the next panic, that of 1893, with the same success that characterized its management during the former periods of financial disturbance, and made such great progress that on the 26th of July, 1899, the following announcement was made : An Unparalleled Record. On its Fortieth Anniversary, July 26th, 1899, the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States has on its books outstanding assurance for over a billion dollars, which is twice the amount accumu lated by any other company in the world during a similar period of its history. Its assets amount to over $270,000,000, which is more than twice the amount held by any other company in the world on its fortieth anniversary. Its surplus amounts to over $60,000,000, which is also more than twice the amount held by any other company at the end of its fortieth year. In the short period that has since intervened, the Society has made still greater progress, and largely increased the above items, as shown by .he following table: PROMINENT AMERICANS INTERESTED IN JAPAN. 61 The Society s Growth Since Its Fortieth Anniversary in J899, Showing the Position Attained December 3f, J902. Outstanding Assurance $1,290,000,000 Increase 290,000,000 Assets 360,000,000 Increase 90,000,000 Surplus 75,000,000 Increase 15,000,000 The officers and directors of the Equitable are men of the highest status in their own business and in affairs generally in the United States, and are as follows : President, James \V. Alexander; vice-president, James H. Hyde; second vice-president, Gage E. Tarbell; third vice-president, George T. Wilson; fourth vice-president, William H. Mclntyrc; registrar, James B. Loring; comptroller, Thomas D. Jordan; treasurer, Sidney D. Ripley; actuary, Joel G. Van Cise; secretary, William Alexander; auditor, . W. Jackson; associate auditor, A. W. Maine; assistant auditor, H. R. Coursen; medical director, Edward W. Lambert, M. D.; medical director, Edward Curtis. M. D. Board of directors: James W. Alexander, Louis Fitzgerald, Chauncey M. Dcpew, William A. Wheelock. Cor nelius N. Bliss, George H. Squire, Thomas D. Jordan, Charles S. Smith. V. P. Snyder. Edward W. Lambert. William Alexander. John J. McCook, C. Ledyard Blair, Brayton Ives, Melville E. Ingalls, Joseph T. Low. James H. Hyde, John A. Stewart. Jacob H. Schiff. A. J. Cassat James J. Hill, T. Jefferson Coolidge, John Jacob Astor. Sir William C. Van Home, Gage E. Tarbell, Marvin Hughitt, C. B. Alexander. T. De Witt Cuyler. Henry C. Frick, M. Hartley Dodge, Sidney D. Ripley. J. F. de Navarro. E. H. Harriman. Alfred G. Vanderbilt, Levi P. Morton, August Belmont, William A. Tower, D. O. Mills. Robert T. Lincoln, George J. Gould. John Sloane. William H. Mclntyrc, J hernias T. Eckert, H. M. Alexander, Samuel M. Inman, George T. Wilson. H. C. Haarstick, David H. Moffat, William H. Baldwin. Jr.. B radish Johnson, H. C. Demiug and James B. Forgan. The Equitable has been doing business in Japan with marked success for several years. Its General Manager for the East is Mr. John T. Hamilton, No. 10, The Bund, Yokohama. PROMINENT JAPANESE :IN= AMERICA HON. KOGORO TAKAHIRA. Japanese Minister at Washington. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 65 THE HONORABLE KOGORO TAKAHIRA, JAPA NESE MINISTER AT WASHINGTON. The Japanese Minister at Washington, the Honorable Kogoro Takahira, is a fine example of a diplomat and gentleman of the Far East. He has been in the Imperial diplomatic service since 1876, and has had a most successful and distinguished career. In his twenty- seven years of service he has held posts of high honor in China, Korea, Holland, Italy, Austria and the United States. His experience embraces all of the varied changes in Japanese history in recent times. He is old enough to have known and to have felt keenly and deeply the ancient feudal life of Samurai and Shogun ; was a youth when Japan abandoned the old order and set her face toward a new sun rise, and he has grown and developed with his new national life. Every prominent man of the East, at least of China and Japan, must needs be a man of intelligence and education. In no country of Europe or the Americas can the public men compare in intellectuality and culture with the leading men in China and Japan. Not even in the Greece of Pericles did the public men possess the culture and training of the political leaders of these two countries of the Ear East. Of these men Minister Takahira is at once a type and a brilliant example. He is learned in Chinese philosophy and language, the most difficult field of all scholarship. He speaks and writes fluently in several European languages, and he is a thorough scholar in the vast and intricate literature of his own country. He has risen rapidly in the diplomatic service. After completing his education in Tokyo, he entered the foreign service in 1876. In 1879 he was appointed attache to the Japanese Legation in Washington, and became secretary of that legation in 1881. He became Secretary of the Foreign Office in 1883. He was made Charge d Affaires in Korea in 1885; Acting Consul-General at Shanghai in 1887; chief o political bureau of the Foreign Office in 1890; Consul-General at Ne\\ York in 1891; Minister Resident to Holland in 1892; Envoy Extraor dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Italy in 1894; Envoy Extraor dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria in 1896; Vice-Minister 66 PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. for Foreign Affairs in 1899, an( ^ ls now Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States, to which post he was appointed in 1900. In an address in the city of New York in 1901 Mr. Takahira said, referring frankly to the object of Japanese diplomacy : " We want the power that flows from a great trade and a great prosperity at home. The efforts now making by Japan to increase the commerce between herself and the United States and the rest of the world are, in themselves, a guarantee of long peace. The two countries are seeking the same object, but each can obtain it best and quickest through the peaceful competition of trade, which will bring about closer relations of friendship and commercial interests between the two peoples." As to possible rivalry between the United States and Japan, he said: " Each country offers to the other an extensive field for trade development. We have much that we. can sell to America; you have much that we want to buy. It is for these reasons that we have been able to watch without feeling or envy or jealousy the marvelous growth of your country. We have felt, also, that Japan is a young nation, that the transformation accomplished within the last few years has given us a new birth among the peoples of the world. We start fairly with the United States, then, in this friendly rivalry for the trade of the Pacific. " My idea for Japan, as to the position she should take in regard to her affairs, is to do with the whole heart all that he is able to do, if she thinks it just and proper, and to leave the result to the judgment or criticism of others, thus deriving the means of further improvement from such judgment or criticism. It is not my intention to say anything about Japan in the way of self-assertion ; but, in regard to our endeavors for progress in modern civilization, I must say that we have been always earnest, honest and sincere, and there has not been a bit of humbug in the search and adoption of any thing, either administrative, educa tional, financial or judicial, that can be found effective to improve morally and materially the condition of the country after the American or European model." His views on this subject were afterward expressed much more freely in an article which was published in " Japan and America." From that article the following quotations are made : " Japan feels very near to the United Slates. This feeling of PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 67 friendliness began with the visit of Commodore Perry to our shores, which let in a great flood of new light from the West, and it has increased as American ingenuity has shortened the distance, measured in hours of travel, between the two countries. It has .also been very greatly increased and deepened, I am sure, by the association of the armies of the Empire and of the Republic in the movement to safeguard the highest interests of civilization in the East. This association re vealed, in a striking way, the fact that the United States is now an Eastern power, and that the interests of America are very closely related to those of Japan. It was the beginning, I believe, of a new impulse in the development of a far greater trade in the Pacific and of warmer feelings of friendship. " Japan especially welcomes this prospect. I do not believe that any country has shown a more earnest desire for the improvement of commercial relations with other countries than has Japan. While we have shown this desire with respect to all countries alike, we have been particularly anxious to better our relations with the United States. I shall give some specific reasons for this further on, but shall say here that Japan feels more and more convinced that, for trade, she must eventually look to the shores of the Pacific, and that the greatest of waters must be dominated in the near future by the merchant vessels of the Empire and of the United States. "We have witnessed, without envy or jealousy, the swift growth of our young rival across the Pacific. We felt that it was to be for all time a rivalry of friends, an amicable and good-natured competition for trade. There is room enough for both countries to exploit them selves. There is trade enough for both ; and, while there must in evitably be sharp competition in certain fields of commerce, the presence and labors of each will aid the other. If America develops the Phil ippines and Hawaii, Japan will be benefited to a large extent. If Japan, on the other hand, more extensively opens up Formosa and other parts of the Empire to trade, the United States must reap their share of the harvest. Both, it is clear, must benefit by the development of China, for which both are now striving. The Japanese are greatly in tavor of American products and ideas. We want the latest mechanical devices, the most advanced theories and principles of industry and manufacture, and we feel that we can get them from America. This was not true a few years ago, when the 68 PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. United States were not so far advanced as they are to-day, and Japan looked mainly to Europe for Western ideas and Western trade. We have now begun to look across the Pacific. The United States has recently taken important steps toward the development of commerce in the Pacific. I refer principally to the acquisition of Hawaii and the Philippines. The conduct of the Ameri cans in China, and the general attitude of the American Government and people will also, no doubt, have fruitful results when the Chinese Empire is finally opened to the commerce and trade of the world. But the result in the Philippines and in Hawaii will, of course, be seen sooner and will be felt more directly. Prior to the occupation of the Philippines by the United States there was little or no trade with the islands and Japan. Either insurrection was in progress or threatened, and no efficient effort could be made to develop trade, even in times of peace. The Americans are changing all that. They are restoring order, and trade is springing up. The Philippine archipelago will some day be very important in a commercial sense. Its agricultural, mineral and timber resources are excellent, and only need encouragement and continued peace and good order to be profitably exploited. The commercial interests of the Empire and the Republic pre so closely related that, if properly iostered, they will insure a fuller and more friendly intercourse between the two countries." FILIAL LOVE. Kimi ga tame Haru no no ni idete Wakana tsumu Waga Koromode ni Yuki wa furi-tsu tsu. (Koko Tenno.) It is for thy sake That I seek the fields in spring Gathering green herbs, While my garment s hanging sleeves Are with falling snow beflecked. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 69 DR. JOKICHI TAKAMINE. Dr. Jokichi Takamine was born in November 5th of Kayei (1852), at Kanazawa, Kaga Province, Japan. At the age of 12 he was selected, and sent to Nagasaki to study there, by order of the provincial authority under the feudal government. He afterward entered the Osaka Medical School. In 8th of Meiji (1875), he began to study applied chemistry in the engineering department of the Tokyo University, graduating from the institution three years after. In the following year he was ordered by the government to study in England. In the spring of I4th, Meiji (1881), he returned to Japan via America, attached as an engineer to the Agricultural and Commercial Department, and engaged in special inves tigations in chemical technichology, especially in sake brewing and indigo manufacturing. In 1884 he was appointed as Japanese representative in the New Orleans World s Fair, dispatched to America, and made an especial study of artificial fertilizing. He returned with a view to advance his own country s agricultural enterprise, and carried with him the necessary materials for the purpose. The artificial fertilizer he had brought home was distributed among the farming districts by the Agricultural and Commercial Department, and tested with a successful result. The prospect of manufacturing this important ingredient for farming purposes was at once seen ; he resigned the governmental position and entered with Yeiji Shibusawa (now a baron) and Takashi Masuda into a movement for establishing a manufactory. The Tokyo Artificial Fertilizer Company resulted. Dr. Takamine again went abroad in 1885 to purchase machinery for the company, and, incidentally, studied the brewing methods of Europe and America. The idea of introducing the Japanese brewing method into theirs occurred to him, and, with this in view, he obtained patents for the sake brewing from the governments of Europe and America. He returned to Japan and devoted himself to the artificial fertilizer work. In 1890 Dr. Takamine, on request of his American friends to come and conduct experiments on the brewing in their country, came to America. His experiments proved successful. Whereupon, he made further investigations, which resulted in the discovery of the process of DR. JOKICHI TAKAMINE. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 71 obtaining ferment, the indispensable element in brewing, from the wheat bran waste. Heretofore malt was chiefly used for ferment in Europe and America, and Koji in Japan. But this newly discovered ferment has more strength than either of them. It was desirable to produce this new ferment in a large quantity and to distribute it. The Takamine Ferment Company was established, to which he was elected president. The Takamine Ferment Company entered into a contract with the Whisky Trust, and after a series of experiments with the new ferment, finally succeeded in producing a large quantity of liquor daily. Where upon, the malt manufacturers of the country began to fear because of the prospect of the new discovery, which may at the end render the old ferment useless. They bitterly criticized Dr. Takamine, and tried indirectly to prevent his further success. But the patience and earnest ness of this Japanese scientist pressed him forward in spite of the difficulty. Misfortune was, however, waiting him ; the Ferment Com pany was completely destroyed by fire, and, to add to the misfortunes, the malt manufacturers, who were strongly prejudiced against him, took the opportunity to spread the report that he had himself fired the factory building for the purpose of hiding the traces of his unsuccessful attempts at brewing. % Despite of such difficulties the Ferment Company was soon started again, and its work was slowly progressing, when a new trouble arose, which resulted in the permanent dissolution of the company. The trouble came this time from the Whisky Trust Company, in which disagreements as to the control of the brewing work began to appear. Dr. Takamine was obliged to sever his connection with the Trust Company. But he was still bound to it by the terms of the contract previously entered into, and could not undertake an independent work. He finally instituted a suit against the " trust," and recovered his right to the discovery. But owing to the predominating influence of the Trust Company, he could not persuade enough to assist him in instituting a new company. He abandoned the ferment work. Dr. Takamine had never known despair ; for there is always open a new field in the mind of a profound student of nature, such as he is, for investigations. He continued his studies in analytical chemistry, and was rewarded by the discovery in which he succeeded in isolating what is now called " Taka-Diastase," from certain ingredients in germinating grain. 72 PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. The Taka-Diastase is now extensively used for amylaceous dys pepsia, and is obtained principally from koji, the Japanese ferment. It became an indispensable article of the medical men of the world, and is patented in many countries. Another discovery, and perhaps one of the most important of modern times, is the isolation of the active principle of the suprarenal gland known as adrenalin. This discovery had long been sought for by the scientists of Europe and America, but without result. The announce ment of the discovery in 1901 by the Japanese chemist was therefore very warmly received by the scientific world. This new drug has a marvel lous power on the blood vessels, increasing their blood pressure, and is an indispensable agency in performing surgery operations. It is also a most expensive drug. It is described by the discoverer himself as: " Adrenalin is a light, white, micro-crystalline body, showing itself in five or more different forms. It has a slightly bitter taste, and is spar ingly soluble in water, but perfectly stable in the dry form. Adrenalin possesses a slightly alkaline reaction, and combines with various acids to form corresponding salts. The solution of adrenalin gives a beautiful green coloration with ferric chloride, and a red coloration with iodine. It is a powerful reducing agent, and may be employed in that capacity in various arts and manufactures, such as a developer of photographic plates. It causes no precipitation with an ordinary alkaloidal reagent, showing that it is not an alkaloid in the common sense of the term. Its ultimate analysis gives the empirical formula as CioHi5NO3. While a good many able chemists spent years and years in an investigation to find out the process of isolating the active principle, yet when you once discover how to do it, like a good many other instances, the process of making it is very, very simple. " The suprarenal gland of sheep or oxen is disintegrated and extracted with water. Such extract is treated with alcohol to throw down the non-active constituents, both organic and inorganic, and the filtrate is then evaporated in a vacuum to proper consistency and treated with alkaline substances, which process throws down the active principle in a crystalline form, which is afterwards purified by repeating a similar method. " The physiological activity of adrenalin is something astounding. A fraction of one drop of solution of adrenalin, or its salt, in the strengths of 1-50,000, blanches the normal conjunctiva within one minute. It is PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 73 the strongest haemostatic agent known. The intravenous injection produces powerful action upon the muscular system in general, but espe cially upon the muscular walls of the blood vessels and heart, resulting in an enormous rise of blood pressure. The results of various other experiments demonstrate a similar conclusion. Generally speaking, adrenalin when locally applied is the most powerful astringent and haem ostatic known ; also a very strong stimulant of the heart. It is non- irritating, non-poisonous, and non-cumulative as far as it has been observed. It is indicated in a condition produced by morphine and opium poisoning. It has produced good results in circulatory failure, in the prevention of collapse of anaesthesia and allied conditions. It is invaluable in carrying out bloodless operations in nose, ear, eye, and throat work." This achievement in modern medical science by Dr. Takamine is only paralleled by the discovery of a remedy for diphtheria by Dr. Kitazato. Dr. Takamine, for the purpose of conducting further investigations, has established a chemical laboratory in New York City, where he is conducting experiments with his two assistants. It may be said that he has always succeeded in every attempt in scientific research. The Artificial Fertilizer Company in Tokyo is now in a very prosperous con dition, having raised its capital to more than 1,000,000 yen. The agri cultural interests of Japan have thus been greatly promoted by him. The Ferment Company which he once had in this country is now being established in his own country. The Japanese Government has already gotten the approval of the Diet for the purpose. Dr. Takamine is married to Caroline, a daughter of Col. E. V. Hitch, who was a Southern officer in the Civil War, and has two sons, the elder, Jokich, and the younger, Eben ; the elder sister of his wife is married to Mr. Atkinson, the Commissioner of the St. Louis World s Fair ; her younger sister to the son of the late Henry George, the famous expounder of the single tax theory and a candidate for Mayor of New York, and her younger sister is living at present with Dr. Takamine. MR. GOJURO NAGASAKI, Agent for the Yokohama Specie Bank at New York. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 75 MR. GOJURO NAGASAKI. The Yokohama Specie Bank is the only organ of the Japanese foreign traders at present in existence, for though there are several hundred financial institutions in Japan, no other banks have ever had a branch office in a foreign country. There has recently been a movement to establish a Chino-Japanese bank, but it is still far from being accomplished, so that the Specie Bank will yet have the almost sole control of Japanese money abroad. The man who is chosen for the important function of conducting this firm s affairs in New York City is Gojuro Nagasaki. He is a native of Kagoshima, the province where the majority of the distin guished soldiers of Japan have been born. He comes of a wealthy family, and enjoyed full opportunity for higher education. Soon after the graduation of the Tokyo Imperial University, in 1886, he was appointed by Count Matsukata, Minister of the Treasury Department at that time, as an official in that department. He was afterward trans ferred to the office of Public Loan, and promoted to the head of that office. It was here that his remarkable ability was shown in the management of finance. The betterment of the public loan condition was a great work. The object was to reduce interest on loan certificates issued by the Government at the beginning of the Meiji era thirty-five years ago. The certificates were in two forms those bearing six per cent, and those bearing seven per cent, interest and the aim of the officials was to reduce both to five per cent. It was decided during Matsukata s financial administration that this adjustment should be at once effected. In 1887 a new loan certificate regulation was issued, and, as its results, the desired reduction of interest was obtained on the certificates, amount ing to 175,000,000 yen, their face value. Great care and patience were required, however, to prevent a financial panic that might be created by an issuance of too large an amount of the certificates at once. It was here that Mr. Nagasaki s experience and skill were useful, and he was kept in this work until 1889. At this time there came an application from Mr. K. Ogawa, the president of the Nippon Bank, to the Treasury Department, for a man to fill the position in the draft department. Mr. Nagasaki was selected. 76 PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. He was afterward ordered to study abroad, and to acquaint himself particularly with the method of managing drafts practiced in Europe and America, and he spent two years, from 1890 to 1892, abroad. As the result of his study his service was called for in more important function, and he was given a position in the management of the Yoko hama Specie Bank. This bank has intimate and close connections with the Nippon Bank. It was at that time not so extensively branched as no\v, and before putting the project into action it was deemed advisable to have a thorough examination of conditions in p laces selected for new branches. Mr. Nagasaki received the order to proceed to various points in India to ascertain such conditions, and he started on his mission in 1892. The cotton weaving industry began to flourish about this time in Japan, and the raw material used came chiefly from India. But the Japanese importers of Indian cotton were suffering much because of the lack of a financial medium directly connecting them with the Hindoo merchants. They were obliged to rely on a Hongkong bank for issuance of drafts, payable, through Frenchmen there, to the Indian dealers. It was for the obvious purpose of relieving this inconvenience that the Yokohama Specie Bank undertook to establish a branch in India. Mr. Nagasaki was afterward sent to this city. The New York branch of the Yokohama Specie Bank is located in Wall street, the business center of the metropolis and of the United States. At the beginning of Mr. Nagasaki s management this important branch of the Japanese firm had some difficulty in disposing of drafts that came in excess from Japan, because the trade between this country and Japan was not balanced and reciprocal. More goods were being imported to the United States from Japan than the latter was receiving from the former. This condition of trade was probably due to the fact that the most of the things that Japan needed, such as machinery, etc., had formerly came from Europe, especially from England. Thus, drafts sent from Japan could not be directly returned. The New York branch of the Specie Bank had, therefore, to send in cash, through a London bank, to Japan. It was largely through the efforts of Mr. Nagasaki that American cotton was made a direct export to Japan. His experience in India PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 77 enabled him to show the value of American cotton to Japanese mer chants. He discovered, however, that some American cotton had already been introduced into Japan through Liverpool. Mr. Nagasaki saw at once a disadvantage to both the Americans and the Japanese merchants by such trading, and finally effected direct exportation, and in 1895 the first American cotton was handed from American imme diately to the Japanese. Thus he was slowly adjusting the difficulty of disposing of the excess drafts, and, at the same time, fostering the commercial intercourse between the United States and Japan. Mr. Nagasaki is a man of the most amiable character, of admirable business methods. In short, he possesses every quality that is required for a financier. THE FROSTS MAGIC Kokoro-ate ni Orabaya oran Hatsu-shimo no Oki madowaseru Shiragiku no hana. (Oshikochi No Mitsune.j If it were my wish White chrysanthemum to cull ; Puzzled by the frost Of the early autumn time, I perchance might pluck the flower. MR. KENZO IWAHARA, New York Representative of Mitsui & Co. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 79 MR. KENZO IWAHARA. Mr. K. Iwahara, the New York representative of Mitsui & Co., Tokyo, was born on October 21, 1863, and received his education at Osaka-Eigo-gakko, which was under the direct control of the Depart ment of Education, and the College of Mercantile Marine, in Tokyo. He entered the service of Mitsui & Co., in Tokyo, in 1883. From 1883 till 1895 he served at their offices in Tokyo, London, Osaka and Kobe. While he was at Kobe he was director of the "Wada Warehouse Company, Limited, and also the honorary member of the Chamber of Commerce (Tokubetsu-Kaiin). In 1896 he was sent to this country to study the prospect of trade in relation to Japan, in view of establishing a branch office here. Under his initiative the present office, at 445 Broome street, was opened, on August i, 1896. He was the organizer of the new department of raw silk at Yoko hama and New York offices. In 1901 he successfully carried through a most delicate and com plicated negotiation of a loan from one of the great manufacturing concerns here for a company in Tokyo. He enjoys the most intimate relations with a number of " Trusts " in this country in the line of all kinds of manufactured steel, being their sole agent in Japan. The company is also the largest shipper of cotton to Japan. Though I would conceal, In my face it yet appears, My fond, secret love ; So much that he asks of me "Does not something trouble \ou?" COUNT HIROKICHI MUTSU, First Secretary of the Japanese Legation, Washington. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 81 COUNT HIROKICHI MUTSU. Count Hirokichi Mutsu is the First Secretary of the Japanese Legation, Washington. Count Mutsu s study abroad began in 1886. He sojourned in England for seven years, that is to say, until he received the degree of Barrister from Temple College, London, in 1893. He returned home, and, in August of the following year, was appointed a translator in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo. Soon, however, his service was called for by the more important diplomatic relations created by the Japan-China War. Count Mutsu was ordered by the same department to accompany Marquis Ito on his peace-making mission to Shimonoseki. After the conclusion of the treaty which restored peace in the Far East the Count remained for some time with Marquis Ito, whom he served in a capacity similar to that of secretary. In October, 1895, Count Mutsu passed the examinations prescribed for a consul by the Foreign Department of the Japanese Government, and was soon dispatched to China and attached to Baron Hayashi s diplomatic mission at the Peking court. He was there raised to the rank of third secretary. Count Mutsu served at Washington during Minister Hoshi s time. He returned home in 1897. In the subsequent year his appointment for the American mission was renewed. He was sent as consul to San Francisco, Cal., and continued in that capacity for about three years. In 1900 the Count returned to Japan, and in the spring of last year he was dispatched to the Japanese Legation at Rome, Italy. He served there as second secretary. In the summer of the same year he was again attached to the legation at Washington and raised to the rank of first secretary. MR. TAKENOSUKE FURUYA, New York Representative of the Japan Central Tea Traders Association. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 83 MR. TAKENOSUKE FURUYA. Mr. Takenosuke Furuya, New York representative of the Japan Central Tea Association, was born in May, 1867, in the province of Ibaraki, and was educated in Tokyo. In 1888 he came to the United States and he studied in Adrian College and Ann Arbor High School. He graduated from the Law School of Michigan University in 1892. He took his course of study by self support. He lived in Chicago from 1892 to 1894. He was first commissioner of the Japan Central Tea Traders Association, which was established in 1884 under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce of the Imperial Japanese Government, at the World s Fair in Chicago, in April, 1894. He was sent by the Association as its repre sentative and ever since has continued to be so. His office is at 96 Front street, New York. He also represents the Japan Tea Exporting Company of Kobe, the Japan Tea Firing Company of Yokohama, and the Toyo Tea Trading Company of Shizuoka. THE REBEL, LOVE. Akenureba Kururu mono to wa Shirinagara Nao urameshiki Asaborake kana. (Fujiwara No Michinobu Ason.) Though I know full well That the night will come again, E en when day has dawned; Yet, in truth, I hate the sight Of the morning s coming light. MR. SHAW T. NISHIMURA, Montreal Representative of the Japan Centrai Tea Traders Association. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 85 MR. SHAW T. NISHIMURA. Mr. S. T. Nishimura, who is the representative of the Japan Central Tea Association in Montreal, Canada, is a native of Yokohama. His father is a well-known tea merchant, and in the early days of the opening of Yokohama as a foreign trading port began business there. Mr. Nishimura entered the mission school in Yokohama at the age of fourteen to learn English. Later he went to Tokyo and Shiguoka, and finally he entered the Sapporo Agricultural School, Hokkaido, which is conducted on the American school system under many American teachers. In 1884, his father dying, he took charge of his father s business. A little later he was employed by the Rea Company, an English com pany that exports tea from Japan, where he remained for twelve years. He visited America in 1896. After returning to Japan he entered the Japan Tea Firing Company, in Yokohama, which is conducted by Mr. Kahei Otani, now the president of the Chamber of Commerce in Yokohama. He was also in the branch office of the Japan Central Tea Trade Association in Chicago, and took charge, in 1900, of the branch office of the Japan Central Tea Traders Association in Montreal, Canada. Nikumarete Nikumi kaesu na Nikumarero Nikumi nikumare Hateshi nakereba. Hated though you be, Hate for hate do not return ; Hatred given accept. If for hatred you give hate, Then to hating comes no end. MR. TOMOTSUNE MITSUTANY, Chicago Representative of the Japan Central Tea Traders Association. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 87 MR. TOMOTSUNE MITSUTANY. Mr. Tomotsune Mitsutany, the representative of the Japan Central Tea Traders Association in Chicago, was born in September, 1872, in the province of Chiba. Until 1892 he continued his study in the Higher Middle School in Tokyo, and later he studied English in Kokumin Egak- kai in Tokyo. He was sent to the World s Fair in Chicago as commis sioner of Japanese tea merchants. In 1894 he entered the political school of the Imperial University, where he studied for four years. In June, 1897, he was appointed as the representative of the Japan Central Tea Traders Association in Chicago, where he is still. In May, 1901, he opened Gottliebe, Mitsutany & Co., at 34 Wabash avenue, in Chicago, in partnership with Mr. Gottliebe, for importing Japanese tea. The business is growing in all its branches. THE FLEETING LIFE OF FLOWERS. Hisakata no Hikari Nodokeki Haru no hi ni Shizu-kokoro naku Hana no chiruran. (Ki no Tomonori.) In the cheerful light Of the ever-shining sun, In the days of spring: Why, with ceaseless, restless haste Falls the cherry s new-blown bloom ? MR. DAIJIRO USHIKUBO, New York Manager of Yamanaka & Co. I PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 89 MR. DAIJIRO USHIKUBO. Among the exports of Japan the artistic goods and potteries have attained a unique position in foreign markets, and it is by this fact that our shrewd merchants are liable to be led on, and design to obtain profit by an unworthy means. The inevitable consequences of such attempts are the loss abioad of our commercial reputation, in particular, and a blemish upon our national character, in general. It was to provide against this evil that the Yamanaka & Company (limited partnership), was formed at Osaka. A branch office of this firm is in New York City, and its manager is the man of whom we write. Daijiro Ushikubo belongs to a Samurai family, of the Tango Province. His father, a retainer of the Tanabe clan, had from early times been a great admirer of Western civilization, and directed his son s training with remarkable foresight. Younk Daijiro was sent to Yedo (now Tokyo), Nagasaki and elsewhere in order to be in touch with men of the most advanced ideas, and so he determined to go abroad. In 1888 he had an opportunity to carry out his cherished wish. The World s Fair held in Spain called for Japanese representatives of com merce and industry to that country. Mr. Ogoshi, now the Japanese Minister to Argentine Republic, South America, was chosen by our Government for the mission, and Ushikubo accompanied him. During their stay in Spain Ushikubo had earnestly endeavored to introduce Japanese artistic goods. After spending about a year there, he went through England, Germany, and France, always on the lookout for the possibilities of introducing into these countries of Japanese goods. He returned to Japan in 1890. In the same year he was appointed by the Industrial and Com mercial Association of Japan to a position in its New York branch. The head of this branch was at that time Mr. H. Shigyo. For three years Ushikubo, with his extraordinary devotion to business, assisted in this important branch of the association. But his effort and faithful service came to nothing, for, in 1893, the great financial panic in America brought upon the firm s business so damaging an effect that it had to be closed permanently. In 1894 the Yamanaka & Company arranged to have a branch at this city, and Ushikubo was chosen as the man to render this movement MR. BUNKIO MATSUKI. Head of Matsuki & Co. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 91 successful. His business ability again showed itself. He principally directed his effort to the field which he had already studied while in Europe ; he encouraged the introduction of artistic goods into this coun try, and at the same time made a careful study of the American taste for Japanese art. It was chiefly this study of his that insured the success of the company in this country. It is not too much to say that Ushikubo possesses what Mr. Andrew Carnegie terms the " secret of business success " : honesty, faith and impartiality. He also possesses, to a remarkable degree, the power of choosing artistic pottery, and the faculty of discriminating the workman ship of the various Japanese potteries, which is only developed by deep study and extensive acquaintance with the art of both ancient and modern times. MR. BUNKIO MATSUKI. Mr. Bunkio Matsuki was born in Sewa, in the Province of Shinao, Japan, in April, 1867. When a child he was named Takasaburo Mat suki. He is the third of a family of five brothers and five sisters. When he was fourteen years old he was attracted to the Buddhist priest, Illi, who was at the head of the Nichiren sect. In his fifteenth year he became his attendant, and two years later he became his disciple, when he was given his present name, Bunkio. Like many other Japanese, he had a desire to see the outside world. He went to China in 1886 and remained there one year and a half, after which he returned to Japan. He then left his native land for the United States, arriving in San Francisco in 1888, where he remained only seven days, when he went East to Boston with $67 in his pocket. He got acquainted with Prof. Edward S. Morse, and through his kindness got into the Salem High School, from which he graduated in 1890. He revisited Japan for the first time in 1891, representing the Syndicate Trading Company. Mr. A. Swan Brown was then president. He opened the first Japanese store in Boston in October, 1883. In the same year he built the first Japanese house in Salem, Mass. Beginning in 1891, he visited Japan every year, as he found it necessary to select ancient and modern art goods in person. He originated many ideas of commercial value which he has offered in his store at 380 Boylston street, Boston, Mass., and in his art sells in various cities. Mr. Matsuki s aim in commerce has always been to handle only the real and highest quality of Japanese art objects, importing only genuine articles, instead of buying imitations in what is known as the " Yokohama style." Mr. Matsuki is a liberal contributor of illustrated articles on Japanese art in different papers and magazines of this country. MR. MUMAJIRO YAMADA, New York Representative of Okura & Co. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 93 MR. MUMAJIRO YAMADA. Mr. Yamada was born in 1871, in the province of Kyushu. .He graduated from the Higher Commercial School in 1894. In the same vear he entered Okura & Co., and was in the branch office of the Company in Yokohama for three years, after which he moved to the Tokyo office. In 1900 he went to London, after visiting the Continental countries of Europe. Okura & Co. are the largest contractors for the Government, and have many branch offices throughout Japan, China, England and Australia. In April, 1901, Mr. Yamada came to New York for the purpose of opening an office, and in August he established his head quarters at ii Broadway. His business is mainly exporting machinery and all iron work to Japan and the Far East. The main office of Okura & Co. is in Tokyo, and its managing partner is Mr. Kihachiro Okura, who is one of the millionaires of Japan. Mr. Okura has donated half a million yen to the public for establishing the Okura Commercial School in Tokvo. THE MOUNTAIN CHERRY-BLOOM Takasago no Onoe no sakura Saki ni keri Toyama no kasumi Tatazu mo aranan. (Gon-Chunagon Masafusa). On that distant mount, O er the slope below the peak, Cherries are in flower ; May the mists of hither hills Not arise to veil the scene. MR. JIRO SAKABE, Of Kyoto Manufacturing and Trading Company. PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 95 MR. JIRO SAKABE. Jiru Sakabe, of the Kyoto Manufacturing and Trading Company, of this city, was born in December, 18/3, at Kameoka, Tamba Province, Japan. He comes of a Samurai family. His father, a judicial officer of the province under the feudal government, died early, leaving his immature son, Jiru, to the mother s care. Noble in birth but poor in means, Jiru Sakabe had from his early boyhood to struggle for an education. He found at length a helping hand in a charitable man, who furnished him the means necessary for the purpose. This man was Gentaro Tanaka, who possessed a consid erable fortune, which he readily appropriated for the welfare of this Samurai youth. At the age of seventeen Sakabe graduated from the Kyoto Com mercial College, and at once decided to step out into the actual world, and to face this time a struggle of manhood. It is a strange destiny that a Samurai, who inherits the soul to rule or the hand to wield a sword, should have adopted the occupation of loss and profit accounts. Nevertheless, such is the case often happening in the era of the Meiji, which opened Japan to the world s commerce, although this never happened in the days of old Japan. The ambitious youth was seen among the prominent business men of Kyoto in an effort to organize a trade association. At the formation of the Kan-zei Trading Association he entered his name among its members. This trade organization grew rapidly, and, in four years after its founding, it began to take interest in international trade. More extensive trade with America was desired by the association, and a branch firm was establshed in New York, and called Wooyeno & Co. Mr. Eijiro Wooyeno had charge of this branch. Sakabe was sent to this country and attached to the New "York branch. This was in December, 1895. His merits were quickly recognized. K. Hamaoka, the president of the association, and G. Tanaka conferred with Sakabe as to an important movement to advance the interests of the association, and, as the successful result of this movement, Sakabe was given the sole power to deal in the American market. In a short time Eijiro Wooyeno, who had the closest relation with the association, retired, and with him went the name of " Wooyeno & Co." Sakabe, after conferring with Tanaka, an influential member of the association, obtained permission to continue the branch on a more extensive plan. The Kyoto Manufacturing and Trading Company, which is located at 532-534 Broadway, New York, was the result. It began business in April of this year. ?.,:? ^^ . co I-H O ,^T Jf^wg .2 of . . S~ N PROMINENT JAPANESE IN AMERICA. 97 HINODE CLUB, A SOCIAL ORGAN OF THE JAPA NESE IN NEW YORK CITY. An association of the Japanese bicycle riders in New York was formed in 1897, and called the Hinode Cycle Club. As indicated by the name, the aim of the club was primarily the mutual benefit and pleasure of Japanese cyclers. As cycling, however, gradually became less in favor, and at the same time, the number of the Japanese residents having varied inclina tions to sports increased, it was felt that the purpose of the club should be broadened so as to include a wider field of amusement and members from various classes. On January i, 1901, at a New Year celebration gathering, a suggestion to alter the name of the club so that it would designate the wider purpose was proposed by Dr. J. Takamine, and in May of the same year it was decided to drop the word " cycle " from the name of the club. The club was then reorganized and formally adopted, on May 29, 1901, the name of Hinode Club. Its meeting room was fixed at Vienna Hall, and the opening exercises were held the same day. A number of prominent Japanese outside of the original club members were invited. Among them were Minister and Mrs. Takahira. The occasion was a very successful one, and ended by a dinner. Dr. J. Takamine was elected as the first president of this new club. The present president of the club is Mr. Zenjiro Horikoshi, of the Horikoshi silk firm. The members number fifty. They are of the select class of Japanese residents, of various inclinations to sport, and are highly accomplished men. Its gathering is now held once a month ; a general meeting is also called annually. During the summer a com fortable place is selected in the suburbs, seven or eight miles from the city, for the pleasure of the members. The club fee is fixed at $12 annually. An entrance fee of $5 is also required. Proposals for mem bership from any person can be considered by recommendations of two members, and an election requires the approval of three-fourths of the entire membership. 9I DEPARTMENT 202 Mam Libran ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS nth DUE AS STAMPED BELOW RET D AUG CIRCULATION NQV03~198 uCT j 1989 GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. BERKELEY