YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Bought with the income of the ANN S. FARNAM FUND I. No. I Christmas Number Price 25 Cents NKIO MATSUKI, Publisher 380 Boylston Street, Boston THE LOTUS ISSUED EIGHT TIMES ^' ¦''^'^ :^;>.i«t<'-'^^i|^ 1 '¦ . "s '^^'-Jl^i-W' B^^^^S^^^ BSn ^^^^^P ff-L- -^ ^^^;^;.^ ^^^^^P ¦•^¦'¦m^^-^-^'/ ¦., '^'^"^7;^;^ ;>-^:7;;:|i^< ,¦ -iut^ I^^Pi^^^ app^i^&^j^ v^'^^-':;'t|iC^ ' ?^^S^P^ ^j^^^^^^^ -'¥' >/:.- B^^^M B^^S MM^^rv^^^l^ ^gft'^p'^ffPfffMMH No. 3 No. 4 first to introduce naturalism in gardening into England, and they but followed, as well as they could, Chinese and Japan ese models. On the Continent, this naturalistic style, in troduced from England, had a great vogue in that most artificial of centuries, the eighteenth. It became the direct opposite of the formal French and Italian style. Later gardeners, such as Downing, Parsons, and, especially, Fred erick Law Olmstead, broke away somewhat from the park like style of Shenstone and re-introduced the formal balus trades, terraces and broad avenues of the continental style. Some of their contemporaries in England studied the classic landscapes of Claude Lorraine and Poussin, and have decor ated their landscapes v^ith broken columns, or, perhaps, a circular temple like that of Tivoli, sheltering a statue of Venus or of Flora. We are now turning again to the East, to the original source of our inspiration, and we find, some what to our surprise, that the Japanese stone lanterns and Buddhas, neglected by Shenstone and 'Walpole, are much more in harmony with natural forms than our pseudo- classic nymphs and graces, and deliberately broken Corin thian capitals. Pious Buddhists, who trace the beginnings of every thing back to the time of Buddha, attribute the origin of the eastern garden to his childish love of nature. The prince "in his early stage of enlightenment," was already tired of the pomps and vanities of the palace, and was fond of rambling in the forest, where he indulged his innate love of meditation. The father of the Buddha tried in every way to cure this rambling habit, but in vain, until he hit upon the expedient of surrounding the palace with an art fully contrived wilderness representing the natural beauties, at once, of all the four seasons. This* so says the legend, for a little time satisfied the nature-loving prince. [28] Other authorities see in the oldest Chinese gardens the attempts of travellers to renew in their home-keeping old age the delight once inspired by the romantic gorges of the Yang-Tse, or of the River of Golden Sands, which it had been their lot to see in their adventurous youth. How ever this may be, the naturalistic garden in the Far East is assuredly of a very great antiquity. In Japan, the beginnings of gardening as a fine art are referred to the time of the Emperor Mon-mu, who had laid out for him a famous garden by the artist, Yoshi-Fusa. His successor, Montuku, describes, in a little poem in the Chinese style, the pleasures which he found in his moon- gazing arbor. We subjoin a rough translation: — THE VOYAGE OF THE MOON ^ A sycamore boat on a sea of mist, The moon goes coasting by isles of amber. And trembles now in my cup, I wist, And now stands poised o'er my leafy chamber. A broad light gleams on the lake, afar ; Cool blows the breeze from the forest, yonder ; And, forth, convoyed by many a star. In the open heaven, she sails — a wonder. Yoshi-Fusa's garden, admirably simple it is said to have been, remained the model until about 1380, when Muso Kokushi, a famous Buddhist priest and artist, ar ranged at the rear of the Shio Kokuji Temple, a garden held to be finer. Another garden by Muso at Kinka-Kuji on Kitayama, near Kioto, is still kept up and is a splendid example of his skill. That at Ginkakuji by So-Ami, a painter-gardener of eighty years later date, is also still in existence. You enter at the level of the roadway, proceed r " Sunrise Stories." Charles Scribner's Sons. No. 5 No 7 [ag] for a little way down a slight declivity, and then, turning the shoulder of a great rock, find yourself suddenly in a deep ravine where ancient and wondrously gnarled pine trees bend over rocks draped with the moss growth of five hun dred years. But, as an appreciative traveller has said, the great charm of the place is in the evidence perceived on every hand of unceasing and sympathetic human tendance, continued from generation to generation through the cen turies. Everything is extraordinarily old and vigorous, and every tree and rock and stream has had its natural char acter developed by an education carried on from father to son, with loving insight and patience. Several fine gardens of Kioto, as that of Katsura palace, that of Kodaiji temple, and others, attributed to Kobori- Yenshiu, who flourished between 1590 and 1620, are also still well cared for. To a European or an American, one of the most curious things about these gardens is the importance assigned, not only to great rocks, but to stones of small dimensions, though of a specially characteristic or picturesque form. Amateurs of stones justify their predilection by their inde structibility. They are proof against fire and vsrater, and a life history of centuries is written in the marks of weather ing and of water action. Those most sought for are the curious vrater-worn rocks picked up along the coast. There is an artistic feeling (rather than scientific knowledge) that the structure of the stone is, in little, that of the mountain. So that in their miniature landscapes large stones, carefully chosen and grouped, represent surprisingly w^ell the outlines of famous mountains celebrated by travellers and poets. Weather-worn and clad with lichens, the stone lantern, which at night throws a mysterious ray through tangled foliage, is sometimes scarcely to be distinguished at first [30] sight from the rocks among which it stands. The strange, almost basaltic shapes of these lanterns seem something like such as stone might naturally grow into. But the forms are really adapted from those of Japanese architec ture and Buddhist monuments. There is, of course, a story of the origin of the stone lantern. It appears that Prince Iruhiko, son of the Em peror Suijin (20 B. C.) acted at one time as village chief of Kawachi, near Sayama. In this capacity, he had had dug an ornamental pond for his village, as had long been the fashion in China. But at night robbers infested the neighborhood, and Iruhiko, to make his pond safe for his villagers, caused his brother, Ishitsukuri, who had become famous as a sculp. tor, to make a lantern of stone to light up its banks. This first of stone lanterns he solemnly christened — if we may use the expression — with a name as long as a princess' — Ishi-wa kengo, jin-wo kuda-kazu, hi-wa yo yami-wo tasuku, meaning, "The stone, eternal, never oppresses benevo lence; the fire, energetic, enlightens the darkness." This lantern, still existing in the garden of a Buddhist temple in Yamato, is about eight feet high, square in form, with a round pillar, the fire-globe is cracked and has been bound with a copper belt. Stone lanterns are now common all over Japan. Every little dooryard, even in crowded cities, has its miniature landscape garden, and if the ov^ner can by hook or crook compass it, a stone lantern as well. It is often the most important element in the landscape composition. It is seen gleaming at night above the reeds and lily pads of a little pond ; it occupies a corner by the well, a few stalks of iris planted between; it is placed on a stone bridge across a little stream which goes grinding on among flat rocks and grassy spaces ; it illumines dark pine branches and snowy No. 9 No. lo [31] cherry blossoms ; it stands close to the garden gate of pleated bamboo, or is perched above the garden wall to light the highway as well as the little private demesne. Usually it is placed where its light will be reflected in the running or still water. The forms of stone lanterns are varied almost to infin ity, and yet they may be reduced to a few types. There is that of the miniature cottage, perched on a pole, with a gable roof sometimes imitating tiles or thatch. There is that of the more elaborate temple roof with its lotus finial and carved emblems. There is that of the pagoda with several lights, one above the other, and that of the Buddhist sotoba or stone of commemoration, later to be described. But these are varied in a hundred ways ; and there are, besides, nondescript lanterns of fantastic shape, such as that of the Badger God, whose cunning eyes gleam through the pine leaves with an internal light. Let me describe a little more minutely a few of the famous lanterns in my own collection. Plate I represents a Corean lantern of the seventh or eighth century A.D. The square base is carved with pairs of standing Buddhas in an attitude of prayer. 1 his and a few others were brought from Corea at the time of the in vasion by Hideyoshi, A.D. 1590. They are very highly prized in Japan. Plate II shows an elaborately decorated lantern in the form of a roof of a pagoda, surmounted by the customary ringed spire and the curved roof ornamented with carved tiles and cloud forms. In Plate III we have a pagoda-shaped lantern with three lights, in a miniature garden scene. There was a foreground pool, not shown in the photograph, into which runs a little torrent stream, the rocky bed of which, dry when the photo- [32] graph was taken, is crossed by a small foot-bridge. The dry torrent bed is associated in the Japanese mind with the Milky W^ay, which is supposed to be the sandy bed of the Stream of Heaven, the gathering-place of the gods, — point ing, doubtless, to the time when the early Japanese tribes held their meetings in dry river beds. Plate IV shows the form called Oribe-Gata, with a relief of Buddha on the base and a semi-spherical roof. This form was that most often adopted by the amateurs of the tea ceremony. It is called after Oribe, the great tea con noisseur of about 1550. He was so fond of this style of lan tern that he made a disposition in his will that this, and no other kind, should be placed near his grave. The other pagoda shaped lantern in this plate is a very rare example of the eleventh century. Plate V shows an uncommon form called Miya-Gata, that is shrine-form. It is cut in granite. The form shown at the left in Plate VI is that most often seen in the old temple yards, and is very difficult to be procured as the priests will seldom sell a lantern. It is about one thousand years old. That to the right is called Yukimi Gata, or snow-view lantern, common in Japanese gardens, though this particular example is of rare and ex quisite taste. The somewhat flat roof holds the heaped-up snow better than any other form. Plate VII shows a Kuzuya-Gata lantern, shaped like a poor man's hut, standing near a bridge of bamboo. On Plate VIII are three varieties of low lanterns, the purpose of which is to guide the owner's feet along his gar den paths. Plate IX is a Japanese attempt at the Corean style of pagoda-shaped lantern, and Plates X, XI and XII show Buddhist sotoba or tomb-stones, which are frequently used ¦ HS H IH ^^^^H ^Vxr!^^^f jAhH jP^jB^^^^B HI f ..tS-?^^^ ^ ^^BB ^^K ^ r^' _ /'/j^' ^P^^H ^^Hf^V jjlife^y^ '','-^V' ' ^r .;i?^C '"'^•^^ ' '^i^^^l ^I^P'''<- Sin^^' ""-*¦ .. ^§4^ kw- v"^ ^V9 ^^ ^ ^^ kk p^ '-'^-jsL^ifc^'**- ¦•^«*!3ii^B ^^^^^1 r-^5y*^.51£ *" •*• - --j ^9nk^SH^^^ fl ^1 ^^^9 ^^L'- --:^^- .-^ HpSe ^^rai^^9 ^^?i^- ^(.^v *^ >^^^_^^^w^l ^¦^-. ^'^^'TS^^ PP^ ^^^^P^J ^^^^^^ k^' """""^"^^SMm .W" ^^Pi^^^^y^^ ^^H^ ?*''?$^Xl^W ,^^^p^^^^H ^^^K^^* -"" _jBf1fc^ • J>iS"'*^i d^i'Vvi^^^^^^^^^^B ^^^K^^ ^^&^J^^ -; >V^ jM?^---diKg '"¦*^^^^^*^.J^^H ^^¦^ ^^^^' '^^^^™S '^i^M^Pi '^^!d^^^w^^l ^^^^^^^^ '^^vjJiSi^MMBR .^ ^^l^'^^jH^^^^I ^^^K iSalK^ i'MmL^ ' Bi.Jiyitac ^^ELrS^^^^I ^Hp I^M ^^^^^^H ^H K^'^^^H ^P »S^^(^9j^JJS|l ^SI^^^^B ^^^^nt' i-'V-ipS^^ ^k^a^mB^^H ^^B9B r^^jj^i^ '- ^^^SSlraB^^^H ^^m'.r ^Wfi^, '"-^L. . ^^^^^H ^^^^|Lf^ ^ ol No. 13 No. 14 No. 15 [33] as garden ornaments. The component elements of a sotoba are the pointed globe, the crescent, pyramid, sphere and cube, representing respectively. Ether, Air, Fire.Water and Earth. Plate XII shows the sotoba of the great tea connoisseur Kobori Yenshu, already mentioned. The platform is not shown. The little bowl in front is for offerings of water. From the actual light of the lantern to Amida, patron of the spiritual light, is, physically and metaphorically, only a step. Buddha, in his various manifestations, may be called the garden god of old Japan. His benevolent and medita tive countenance certainly far better befits fair garden scenes than our classic fauns and pans, and satyrs leering from the bushes. He is seated on the Lotus, the jewel of life in his clasped hand, under the pine branches ; or, as Kisannon in prayer, against a background of rain-worn boards ; or several manifestations occupy together rock-shelves on a little holy mountain ; or, surrounded by fresh blooming azaleas, he has been so long lost in contemplation that the lichens have accumulated on his breast and knees and have designed a white star on his granite forehead. The earliest celebrated stone sculptor was Tamba Sasuke, contemporary of the great wood carver, Jinguro, who lived in the latter part of the sixteenth century. On Plate XIII is figured the sword-clasping dragon surrounded by flames, which is an emblem of Fudo. It is cut out of Tamba granite from the province of that name near Kioto. By the same sculptor is the statue of Kongara Doji shown in Plate XIV ; a peony blossom, signifying wealth or abundance, is carved on the base of Mikage granite. Kon- garo holds an unlit torch. With the dragon this figure usually stands by the side of Fudo ; they are known as the Averters of Evil. [34] The statue shown in Plate XV must, according to the inscriptions, be about nine hundred years old. It represents Fugen Bosatsu. The halo is in the form of a lotus petal. On Plate XVI is a figure of Kwannon in low relief. Its excellent state of preservation is due to the fact that it has not long been exposed in the open garden but has been kept in the veranda of the temple. To the right on this plate is Amida on the lotus, dating probably from about 1400 A.D. On Plate XVII a standing figure of Jizo, the protecting god of travellers, is accompanied by two conventional guardian lions, frequent in Japanese gardens. Plate XVIII shows Kwannon seated on the Lotus, hold ing a model of a sotoba in her hands. The date is probably the fourteenth century. Lastly, it may be of interest to know that the most esteemed stone for sculptors in Japan is not soft marble, but hard-grained granite. The Yamato granite takes first place, Tamba granite following, and then Mikage granite, { Shirakawa granite from Yamashiro, and Kida \ granite from the province of Omi. No. 17 No. i8 [35] JAPAJ^ESE INFLUENCE IN JlMERICJiN SCHOOLS By HENRY TURNER BAILEY Formerly State Supervisor of Drawing for Massachusetts, Editor of the School Arts Book THE JAPANESE have influenced the public schools of America, first, in the matter of color. The atti tude of the Anglo-Saxon adult male towards color is a phenomenon worthy of attention. One of these days, when the psychology of races shall be investigated, some learned clerk will tell us how it happened that after aeons of male insects, birds, and animals all more brilliantly adorned with color than the female ; after millenniums of male savages and centuries of male barbarians, gorgeous in feathered cloaks, tinselled tunics, dyed garments and bejew- eled head gear, the Anglo-Saxon male is colorless in his attire. The robes of Chinese mandarins, and of Japanese noblemen, bloom perpetual in our museums ; the vestments of Greek patriarchs and Italian bishops glow beside them ; European officers are splendid in scarlet and gold ; even European scholars glitter with decorations, upon occasion ; but from the President of the United States to the chieftain of Tammany Hall, robed for occasions of state, not a vestige of color is to be found throughout male Anglo-Saxondom. In England color did appear at the coronation, because it always had ; high functionaries of the church do wear a little red occasionally, the last echo of a splendid past ; but there, as here, pallor and gloom alone sit upon the males at every feast. Our learned clerk will tell us how much the Reformation had to do with all this, and the re-reformations under Puritan and Quaker, and the poverty of America in [36] the early days, and the growing conviction that a man's a man, and his clothes should be subordinate. But whatever the psychology of it all, whatever the environing influences, the fact is that down to about 1890, these colorless males had so managed, that all the schoolrooms of America were colorless. If women had controlled education, it might have been otherwise. \Vho know ? But women did not control education, and the schoolrooms from the sea-board to the slope and from Texas to the Canada line were deserts of black, white and gray, except for the rosy faces of the chil dren and a girl's dress here and there. Not only were the walls untinted, and pictures unknown, flowers never thought of, and ornaments of every kind non-existent, but every means of expression was colorless. Blackboards and white chalk, gray slates and gray pencils, white paper and black ink, these, and these alone, were used. I was punished for using a vermillion pencil the first day of a new year. At home my Christmas gifts might make me glad, but not in school. The spirit which, in 1630, fined Alice Flynt for wearing a silk hood, and Jonas Fairbanks for parading in great boots, held my nose in a corner for thirty minutes, in 1870, because my eyes, like their's, loved color. At home I had my tea-chest cover with its gay pattern, my wrappers saved from the fire-crackers, and that never-to-be-forgotten Japanese fan with the queer lady in purple which my rich uncle brought from New York ; but in school, — ah, that is another story, as Kipling says. Somewhere about the year 1890 the influence of Japan ese art began to be discernible in the exhibition of drawings of public school children. Just how or where it first began leavening, just who was the first to introduce an element so potent, it is hard to say. In Massachusetts no one person deseives more credit for the transformation than Miss [37] Irene Weir, supervisor of drawing for the town of Brook- line. Miss W^eir was the first, as far as I know, to adopt the Japanese brush as a means of expression, and to make free use of watercolors in all grades. The rapidity with which the color wave rolled over the country was not due to a single cause. There were several. The students of psychology and of children were beginning to emphasize the importance of color as a means of expres sion, and the desirability of some freer implement than the pencil. The kindergarteners believed in color in the lower grades. The manufacturers of kindergarten material, nota bly Mr. Milton Bradley, of Springfield, had expended thousands of dollars in perfecting colored papers which should have an educational value. Publishers of drawing- books had prepared other colored-paper systems of instruc tion. People everywhere were dissatisfied with the old, colorless, mechanical, dry-point mediums.and were anxious for something better. Just at this juncture, Japanese art appeared. Japanese art was not unknown in America before 1890, but Japanese art in a usable form v^as not to be had until about that time. The print, the novel book with its quaint drawings, the fabrics of dainty patterns, and of an excellence all out of proportion to their cost, the good- sized brushes with such point, such snap, and so much better than the moppy "camel's hair" in quills, so much cheaper than the red sables in their nickeled ferrules, — all these came in abundance just when they could be appre ciated by a thousand waiting teachers. The coming of color from Japan has transformed our schoolroom. In the work of our children it has given beauty for ashes, and to our children themselves, the gar ment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. [38] THE INFLUENCES THAT SHAPED WHISTLE'K'S jlRT ARTHUR JEROME EDDY'S " Recollections and Impressions of James A. McNeill Whistler," re- .cently published by the Lippincott Company, will help materially to an understanding of the great painter's extraordinary personality. The work is finely appreciative and is full of interest, as a book that records in sympathetic fashion the writer's personal association with the artist could not well help being. What Mr. Eddy has to say about the influences that shaped Whistler's art is particu larly noteworthy. It is claimed that that art finds its only congenial place in the midst of American art. It is noted that of all the various manifestations of art with wrhich W^histler's has come in sharp contrast, English painting has been the slowest and most stubborn in yielding to in fluences from the far East ; whereas of all painters of the nineteenth century Whistler w^as the very first to recog nize the wondrous qualities of Chinese and Japanese art and absorb what those countries had to teach concerning line and color; and in so far as the painters of England, and more conspicuously those of Scotland, have learned aught of the subtleties and refinements of the East, they have learned it ihroagh Whistler, and not direct. " In other words, Whistler has been absolutely immune to English influences ; there is not the faintest trace in any of his works, etchings, lithographs, or paintings. In tempera ment, mood, fancy, and imagination, in what he sav7 and the manner that he painted it, he was as far removed from any ' English School ' as Hokusai himself. On the other hand, England for some time has not been immune to his [39] influence, and things after— a long way after — Whistler appear at every exhibition. What is known as the • Glasgow School,' — that body of able and progressive painters — long ago frankly accepted him as master." As to French claims upon Whistler it is pointed out that French recognition was exceedingly slow. " France no more taught Whistler to paint than it taught him to etch. His masters were older and greater than the art of France. Before he was twenty-five he had absorbed all and rejected most that France had to teach. At twenty- eight he painted a picture which, scorned by the Salon, startled all who visited the ' Salon de Refuses,' and then — still under thirty — he shook the dust of France from his feet, obliterated every vestige of her influence from his art, and started out to make his way alone and unaided in the domain of the beautiful. In 1865 he again stirred the critics with that novel creation of color, ' The Princess of the Land of Porcelain.' Nothing of the kind had ever been seen in either French or any other art. It was the application of ^Vestern methods to Eastern motives ; it w^as plainly a study primarily in color, secondarily in line, not at all in character. It was the first great step taken by the Western world tovrards abstract art . . . Before France cared very much for Velasquez, before it so much as knew there v^as an island called Japan on the art map, Whistler was playing with the blacks and grays of the master of Madrid and with the blues and silvery whites of the porcelains of the Orient. And it was he, — Whistler — the American, who turned the face of France towards the East, and made her see things in line and color her most vagrant fancy had never before conceived." As to Whistler's Americanism as an artist Mr. Eddy claims that the entire body of American painters, at home [40] and abroad, constitute the one "school," has already given to the world "the greatest artist since the days of Rembrandt and Velasquez, — and greater than either in some respects, as we shall see,— and also the greatest of living portrait painters, not to mention a half dozen more who are recognized internationally as masters in their chosen fields; the one "school' that contains more of sobriety, more of sanity, more of youthful vigor and viril ity, more of indomitable energy and perseverance, more of promise and assurance of mighty achievement than all the schools of all the other nations taken together." Of the eminent American artists residing abroad, Mr. Eddy says there is not one who has not sacrificed some thing of his originality, something of his strength, something of his native force and character on strange altars, saving and excepting always, Whistler. Regarding the Oriental influences in ^Vhistler's art it is observed : " Back of the art of Japan is the purer art of China ; and to that source must we go if we seek the factors that influenced ^Vhistler, for he loved the porcelain and pottery of China long before they were collected by the museums and amateurs of Europe. . . . This art of China, as reflected and elaborated in that of Japan, influ enced him — of that there can be no doubt — and he recog nized what was good in Japanese art before others gave it any attention." [41] BLUE JiND WHITE STORIES THOSE little azure-tinted simulacra of men and women that live upon the collector's blue porcelains — what stories they might tell could they speak, were it only in pidgin English ! Strange they would be, for sure, stories of the wars of the five kingdoms, of Buddhist and of Troist miracles, tales of the lovely Hsi Wang Mu, of the renowned Shun, of the Phoenix and the Dragon and the sprites that govern the dust-heap behind the door in untidy houses. Hold ! here, on this little snuff-bottle, on a ground of finest cradele, covered with a glaze translucent as spring- water, who is this youth who leads a Bactrian camel and its calf through a battlemented arch in the great wall ? Is he not a merchant returning from the Court of Genghis Khan ? Those fighting youths whom the angel parts, rushing down through the pine boughs, doubtless they are twin brothers, and their parentage is knov^n to the tyrant who has incited the combat. The v^eird dragon, fanged and whiskered, who prances among clouds and lightnings on this cylindrical bottle of oily glaze, is really a beneficent monster. He is the spirit of the rain, whose duty it is to refresh the earth and to promote the growth of vegetation. The plants them selves, have their stories, the bamboo, the willow, the chry santhemum ; and here on this fusiform jar are two boys with branches of the fortune-telling water-hemlock, and one is plainly instructing the other in its mystical uses. On this miniature incense-box in the shape of a cu cumber and decorated in lively blue with cucumber leaves and tendrils are two butterflies with interlocking antennae, the symbol of mutual affection — not at all like Whistler's [42] butterfly, you will say, They remind one, rather, of Chwang-tse's dream. " Yes, I, even I, Old Chwang," the philosopher himself, tells us, " last night I dreamt I was a butterfly. A butterfly, with my airy wings, I fluttered about from flower to flower, until I awoke and found I was only Chwang. " But since, a doubt assails me, insinuates itself and will not be put aside. — Was it really, then, Chwang-tse who dreamt he was a butterfly, or is it not now the butterfly a-dreaming he is Chwang? " A curious doubt for a philosopher to entertain, was it not? But how delightful it must have been to be at once a philosopher, not a cynic — and a butterfly. No emblem derived from vegetation, except the lotus and the chrysanthemum, is used more frequently than the peach upon blue and white vases. It is the symbol of longevity and is especially a favorite with the followers of another great philosopher, Lao-tse, who flourished about three hundred years earlier than Chwang-tse, about six hundred before Christ, and w^as a contemporary of Con fucius, Buddha Sakyamuni and Pythagoras. Let me tell you as the first Blue and White Story, that of Lao-tse's departure from civilization to live as a hermit in the wilder ness. If you do not quite understand it. let it sink quietly into your mind ; in future years its significance will become plain to you. LAO-TSE AT THE BORDER TOWER The day was ended, his life-work done, Lao-tse dis missed his pupils, closed for the last time the doors of the royal library, and, mingling with the evening crowd that [43] poured out of the gates of Lu, was lost among the simple country folk like a drop in water. A week later, Yu, the warden who guarded the pass into the savage land of Chin, looked down from the terrace of his tower over the highway that led to the distant capital. Seated on a fat ox which leisurely took both sides of the road, proceeding from one inviting tuft of herbage to anotheri a traveller approached. He was clothed in black, like his ox, and appeared as indifferent to the rate at which he was going. As he drew slowly nearer, the stranger's abstracted gaze, his enormous forehead, his pointed ears, impressed the watcher upon the tower. Might not this be the great master, the librarian of the king, the fame of whose teach ing had reached him at his lonely post and had filled his mind with conjectures about the way ? Wild stories that he had heard of Lao-tse's skill had set him dreaming, too, of the elixir of long life and of that quick and mobile substance which the master had extracted from earthy matter and which transmuted base metals into gold. Many a day had he bent over crucibles and alembics; many a sleepless night had he pondered the strange sayings brought to him in distorted versions by ignorant and careless travellers. It was no wonder, then, that he felt something tighten about his heart as surmise gave way to certainty, and he hastily descended from his tower to stay the stranger in the gate. " Whither would you go," cried he, "without stopping to enlighten me ? Long enough have you been shut from me in Lu, and long enough, I make no question, will you be hidden in the wilderness. ^Vould you have me, later, mad dened by the thought that I had let you slip, seek you out by the badger's track through the fennel, or voyage with Hsi Wang Mu' in her bark of coral to your cave in the western 'The Fairy Queen [44] mountains ? That shall I not be compelled to do. I have you, and I will not let you go before you have eaten and drunk and talked with me. Tomorrow you shall go your way, tomorrow you shall begin the perfect life. Tonight is mine. You shall leave what can be communicated of your wisdom with me ; these tablets shall preserve it, and, ages hence, others, more worthy, shall read it in my book." The black ox laid down in the cool of the archway, Lao-tse dismounted. As one drifting, full to the gunnel and saturated with experience, he allowed himself to be taken in tow by the warden, who guided him to the stairs that led to the upper terrace. " And may I not also learn of you," he contmued, as they ascended, " those useful arts of medi cine and of gold-making by which I may gain favor at court ? You, master, are quitting the banquet where I would fain be seated in my turn." As he finished, they reached the terrace. His guest half-turned toward him, and, laying a thin hand on Yu's full sleeve, said mildly — " If I mistake not, here's the top ; It is time for us to stop." Yu Started. He had heard of Lao-tse's habit of speak ing in rhymes and of folding up wise counsels in apparently trivial observations. He felt the implied rebuke, for had he not, in fact, attained the summit of his ambition in becom ing the Master's host? What, in Lao-tse's absence, did court or capital contain for him ? What should he ever gain by possessing the golden secret ? Lao seated himself on that part of the terrace that over looked the great wilderness of Chin. The sun was setting behind the western mountains. Their shadows stole across the lowlands where the gray mists rose to meet them. Soon ravine and plateau, forest and lake were wrapped in obscurity. [45] and only the ghostly airs that blew through the pass and the voices of falling streams were heard as they made their way unseen down into the universal valley. Yu recovered himself. " What of the great elixir, Master? " he ventured, as he advanced with a cup of fra grant tea, the first ever offered by one civilized man to another. " This draught will refresh you after your journey, but the savages wrho drink of it die as we do. It is said, however, that you have found the means to prolong life indefinitely." He stumbled as he spoke. "Careful! Yu," said Lao-tse. "Better the cup unfilled, Than the full cup spilled." And Yu comprehended that he was admonished not to waste his life in futile efforts to abolish death. He vras, now, fully alive to the master's method. As he blewr up the fire under the kettle, Lao bade him — "Blow, Yu, blow! The cool wind makes the fire to glow." " Aye," thought Yu, " the wind from the dark hollow of my bellows. And so, you would say, you wizard-like man, our poor spark of life is kindled and kept alight by the spirit-wind out of the great, dark, hollow land. "You, Master," said he aloud, though with some trepi- dation, "you who have trod the whole round of the way, from life to life again, through the vast shadow, will you not explain to me the mysteries that are hidden in the land of death?" The last gleam had, by this time, faded out in the west. Yu placed a candle at the master's elbow, but he pushed it aside. [46] " Trust not to the taper's light, If you would see into the night," said he. And his host knew that the taper light which he was advised to put away was the light of reason. " But this is incredible!" cried Yu, referring to what he knew was Lao-tse's real meaning. " Yet I have heard say that the aged man who goes to Lao-tse bent with study is told to make himself like an untaught babe." The warden's infant son, who had been furtively peep ing out at the white-bearded stranger from the door of the upper chamber, had just come forward boldly to be caressed. Lao-tse said : — " Who denies the child for age ? Who will turn the guest away ? Yet neither in the house is lord. The child, desire, the guest, the word." " What, then, is lord and warden of the Way, but the Way itself," said Yu. " But is that necessity, or is it love, or benevolence or foreknow^ledge ? Tell me, Master, for I much wish to know." Lao-tse picked up a lute that lay upon the tiles, and, touching its chords, sang in a low voice, — THE WAY INEFFABLE (Tao Teh King. Ch. i. 14 : 41) The Way, by which strength is subjected to weakness, And conquering armies are worsted by meekness ; The Way by which joy is begot by abstention. And peace is brought forth in the midst of contention. Or outer or inner, the south and the north of it. The first and the last, and the long and the short of it. Is that, whatever you say or gainsay of it, Your yea shall be nay, and your nay shall be yea of it. [47] The good, would you call it ? I'll do without doing it ; Truth ? — find without seeking ; Love ? — win without wooing it. " But Master, Master ; ah ! Master," cried Yu despair ingly, " what shall I believe ? That the Way is all and all is one — that my fundament is my head-piece ? How shall I conceive a thought too big for me ? " And you, you will lose yourself in the wilds to be a morsel for the tiger, or to roam naked and raving among the rocks. Stay with me, and gradually teach me ; or let me accompany you with bow and spear. For I begin to doubt of all things and I no longer see the pleasant com pany of the immortals and the fairy bride awaiting you at the ferry across the Shining River ; but, in an unknown pass I see a heap of whitening bones that mark the limit of your wanderings." He ceased, for Lao-tse sang again — THE MYSTERY OF THE WAY (Tao Teh King, Chapters vi, xxi) In the sole pass to the valley, From an undivided Root, Guarded by a sleepless spirit. Trees of earth and heaven shoot. Whose the eye has pierced their leafage. Whose the foot that soil has trod. Where shapes unshapen wait existence, Essences of flower and clod .' Sightless is that land elusive. It flees the thought, it flees the sense, Though the substance and the seeming Of all things that are, are thence. Hither push the boughs of knowledge, Yonder — who of that shall sing. [48] More than. There lies hid the deathless Root of beauties blossoming ? Fade, they must, and pass away, But the root shall not decay. There was a moment's silence. Then Yu — "Old songs ; old songs ! The eternal root may send up new suckers, truly, but the rotten stump will never flourish again." Lao-tse did not answer. Yu hastily jotted down the verses upon his tablets, and none too quickly, for a sudden gust of wind blew out the candle. The fire was dying. Thinking over the master's hard sayings, Yu fell asleep. W^hen he was awakened by the morning chill, Lao-tse was gone. Strange — considering his dark doctrine — considering, too, the stories of his miraculous birth and his faun-like ears, and the nickname which the Chinese themselves, have given him — "The Old Boy" — strange that those good missionary folk who have translated Lao-tse and wondered what he meant — that none of them, I say, has seen in him — the devil. Instead, with their connivance, he keeps company with the great Christian mystics, with St. John of Patmos and St. Teresa. [49] "THE DARLING OF THE GODS" JlS SEEN BY A JAPANESE AFTER having heard people talk so much about "The Darling of the Gods" last winter, I twice . attempted to secure seats. But I failed, owing to the great demand. I saw it, however, and to my horror, very lately in Boston — the town of enlightenment I must say : Hovsr can the Boston people, so proud of their high ideals in morals and in art, stand such a production ? Did they not decline the Bacchante statue for the Public Li- brary, on grounds of inappropriateness, and did not the mayor of Boston interdict the performance of "Sappho" in one of the theatres ? Indeed, if the American public can find entertainment in such a play at the expense of Japan's reputation for morality, I must declare that it is due to Japan to send out missionaries to this country and enlighten its Christian public more than it is the duty of Christianity to send its missionaries to Japan. I cannot refrain from a few comments on the subject. As I am a Japanese in heart and soul, I feel that I must defend my own country against the fostering of such a false sentiment concerning it. Since Japanese institutions, as represented in the "Darling of the Gods" and the ' Jap anese Nightingale," are placed in a totally wrong light I will endeavor to indicate the source of such error. The fault is largely that of many so-called " Globe-trotters," who, returning from the Orient, give a false idea of Japan. For example, take an American or an Englishman whose morality is open to question. Should he abide in Paris, his conduct is liable to be noted by compatriots sojourning there. He will, therefore, not dare to misbehave himself. [50] save in secrecy; and vsrhen he returns home he vi^ill like wise be careful of what he says concerning his experiences. But in the Far East where such conduct is likely to be little known outside, it is another matter. There, many visitors behave in scandalous ways, shameful to be spoken of or v(rritten about. It is natural that in the nevtrly opened ports their demands should be met. It is the fault of the one who makes the demand, and the power of his money prevails. Now when the evil-minded globe-trotters return home, they bear a mixture of mischievous lies and mischievous representations concerning these things, and appear to be as proud as if they were heroes of the occasion. I have often met gentlemen returned from Japan who assert that in regard to the social evil it is the cleanest of countries, while others \who are involved in evil conduct wrhile in that country could not see their own behavior in its true light. The latter, intoxicated by their own bad morals, convey a most false idea of conditions in Japan. I have heard some persons assert that Japan is an immoral country because every hotel-keeper asks his guests if they wish to have sleeping companions. I say that this statement may be true concerning the second or third-class so-called European hotels ; but it is absolutely untrue con cerning the purely Japanese hotels in Tokio or Kioto, or anywhere else. A similar comparison may be made between good Parisians and the foreigners who frequent Paris. It can be said of certain crown princes, dukes, lords and various millionnaires that they, one and all, are making horrible impressions upon respectable Japanese, and greatly to the detriment of the reputation that your Christian morality bears in that country. These sensational plays which have no motive but mere excitement, are all misrepresentative of Japan. It is [51] like teaching innocent children to appreciate a horrible pic ture as an example of aesthetic work. How would any American going to Japan enjoy seeing a play in a native theatre representing the institutions of his own country in the fashion that Japanese institutions are represented by the plays in question ? How would he like to see a play written by a person ignorant of American institutions and played also by ignorant actors, who had never seen "the land of the free and the home of the brave "? How would they enjoy seeing in such a play American history repre sented with George W^ashington arrayed in the uniform of a fire-laddie, and Paul Revere riding upon a donkey and talking of speeding to the " town of the witches, " instead of to Concord? How would they like to see their governor dressed in the costume of a funeral ceremony and taking his seat in the pulpit of a Christian church where eternal fire was represented as burning beneath ? Would they not be disgusted with a Japanese dramatist who mixed up Trinity Church in Boston with the gilded dome of the State House ? Again, how would they like to see a fair American girl from the Back Bay, of the highest social standing, dressed like an Italian immigrant girl vsrith a hurdy-gurdy, without any manners whatsoever, and keeping company with an outcast youth in her chamber, and in his com panionship eating meals every day from one dish together ? Yet that would not be one whit worse, nor in the least more exaggerated, than the misrepresentations of Japanese man ners and customs in the plays of this kind. Do not ask me, therefore, as hundreds of others have asked me, how I like the "Darling of the Gods?" I have seen it in that light, and I advise my friends rather, to go and see Henry Irving in " Dante." [52] A new line of Yankee steamers across the Pacific to the Orient! The news is welcome to one who ranks as an " old salt" among travellers, having crossed the Pacific twenty- seven times. In the course of my voyaging I have grown heartily sick of the monotonous and not particularly palat able fare that is served on the average Pacific liner. I have often longed for the taste of a real home-made New England apple pie, and even some genuine Boston baked beans would be welcome now and then in the course of the long voyage. Since the new line is so distinctively New England in its origin and in the personelle of its ships' officers, perhaps we may hope for these things. It is really remarkable that more attention is not given to the table on the Pacific liners. One of the big steamships, attractive in all other ways, has such a reputation for stale eggs, the flavor of which perme ates all the cooking, that many passengers studiously avoid her. The American line to Australia is an exception in this regard. A friend who made the trip round the world told me that on that line the table was unsurpassed. Such fine things are related of the big steamships of the new American line that I hope the attention paid to the cookery w^ill be commensurate with that which otherwise appears to be given to the comfort of the passengers. It is the Boston Steamship Company which has established the new line running from Seattle, in connection with the Northern Pacific Railroad, to Yokohama, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Manila. The company is owned by Boston capitalists and already has a fleet of four great steamers, the two newest boats having been fitted up with passenger accommodations equal to those now found on the first-class new Atlantic liners. These fine boats are called by the two original names, Indian and English, respectively, of the peninsula that became the site of Boston, the " Shawmut " [53] and the "Tremont." They are of fifteen thousand tons each, have twin-screws, and maintain an average speed of fourteen knots an hour. The first and second-class passen ger accommodations are amidships in the great double-tiered house, typical of the big modern liner. Since passenger travel is not so great on the Pacific as on the Atlantic, a smaller number of passengers are provided for than on an Atlantic liner of corresponding size. These ships are designed to carry sixty first-class passengers, forty second- class and two hundred and fifty in the steerage. The space available, however, is so great that there is much more room to each passenger than on the Atlantic liners. The state-rooms are remarkably large and comfortable, with every convenience, including steam heat for northern lati tudes and electric fans for the tropics. The saloons, smok ing-rooms and social halls are described as fitted with excellent taste. The library and reading-room should be a welcome feature. Invariably I have got mortally tired of seeing nothing to read during my voyages but the same dry old " London News " and the everlasting pictorial dul ness of" Black and \Vhite." It would be pleasant to have a good supply of the American magazines and a store of well-selected books at command. CANADIAN PACIFIC ROYAL MAIL STEAMSHIP LINE JAPAN AND CHINA CANADIAN-AUSTRALIAN ROYAL MAIL STEAMSHIP LINE HAWAII AND AUSTRALIA THE SHORTEST AND MOST ATTRACTIVE TRANSPACIFIC ROUTE For sailing lists LOCKE Glass Stainers and Decorators Office, Show Rooms and Factory 250 and 252 FULTON STREET OVINGTON BUILDING BROOKLYN, N. Y. OTTO HEINIGKE Telefiwtic y6j ijth St. owen j. bowen HEINIGKE & BOWEN STAINED, MOSAIC AND WROUGHT GLASS WORKERS 'Makers of MEMORIAL WINDOWS 24-26 EAST 13TH STREET NEW YORK CHADWICK COMPANY Importers of Antique Brocades, Velvets, Silver, Furniture, Spanish Pottery, Etc. 307 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK FREDERICK A. CHAPMAN Important Paintings by the Masters Near 36th St. 3d Floor. Elevator 39 1 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK ^^ OmeTK( ny Japanese Necklaces Designed by Mr. Bunkio Matsuki, from Old " Ojime" or Slides and rolled gold chains. The Ojimes are exquisite little works of art in bronze, silver, gold, ivory and precious stones, each with a story of its awn. fewelry so odd and beautiful has never before been offered to the public Prices fr o tn $iS'00 to $48.00 BUNKIO MATSUKI j8o BOYLSTO-N STREET At the Sign of the White 'Kabbit Eastern Printing" and Engraving Company 387 Atlantic Avenue^ Boston '"'••: .'' 'Mil « Mun ¦ •*¦ -_?