the speed and tonnage of each. One feels almost sorry, on glancing over it, that so much industry should not rather have been devoted to something more generally useful, stone-breaking on the highways, for instance.
Book recommended. A History of Japanese Literature, by W. G. Aston.—For the Nō or Lyric Dramas, see Article "Theatre" of the present work.
Politeness is universally allowed to be a distinguishing Japanese trait. Personal intercourse with this people for more than thirty years has convinced the present writer that it is la politesse qui vient du cœur,—something deeper than mere bows and smiles,—that it is rooted in genuine kindliness, especially among the lower classes.
The politeness of the Japanese being thus a fact disputed by none,—least of all by the writer of these miniature essays,—there may be some interest in noting a few items on the negative side; for in some exceptional particulars this most courteous nation does offend glaringly against the canons of courtesy, as understood in the West. Japanese will dog your footsteps in the streets. They will contradict you fiat. They will answer in English when you have addressed them in their own language. They will catechise you about your plans: "Whither are you going? Whence do you come? What is your business? Are you married? If not, how extremely odd of you!" If you turn them off, they will interrogate your servant, and that to your very face. At other times, seeing that you speak Japanese, they will wag their heads and smile condescendingly, and admit to each other that you are really quite intelligent, much as we might do in presence of the learned pig or an ape of somewhat unusual attainments. But the most fundamental and all-pervading breach of courtesy (from the European standpoint) is displayed in the way servants and other inferiors behave towards their superiors. You tell a jinrikisha-man to set you down, that you may walk a hill. You probably have to do so four times before he obeys:—he assumes that you surely cannot mean it. You order your cook to buy
