n purpose in mankind, or even the
acknowledgment that such a common purpose is possible, would alter the
face of world politics at once.--GRAHAM WALLAS

There was a bad landlord who was nicknamed "Devil-gon." He was shot.
There was another bad landlord who, as he was crossing a narrow bridge
over a brook, was "pistolled through the sleeve and tumbled into the
water." Although the murderer was well known, his name was never
revealed to the police, and the family of the dead man was glad to
leave the district. The villagers celebrated their freedom by eating
the "red rice" which is prepared on occasions of festivity. In another
village, the _guncho_ who spoke to me of these things said, there were
several usurious landlords. "The village headman got angry. He called
the landlords to him. He said to them that if they continued to lend
at high interest the people would set fire to their houses and he
would not proceed against them. So the landlords became affrighted and
amended their lives." The rural people of Japan have always three
weapons against usury, it was explained to me. First, there may be
tried injuring the offending person's house--rural dwellings are
mainly bamboo work and mud--by bumping into it with the heavy
palanquin which is carried about the roadway at the time of the annual
festival. If such a hint should prove ineffective, recourse may be had
to arson. Finally, there is the pistol. I remember someone's remark,
"A man does not lose a common mind and heart by becoming a landowner."

I could not travel about the rural districts without there being
brought under my eyes the conditions which lead country girls to go to
the towns as _joro_ (prostitutes). A considerable agricultural
authority who had been all over Japan told me that he was in no doubt
that most of the girls adopted an immoral life through poverty. I
spoke to this man, who had been abroad, of the disgrace to Japan
involved in the presence of thousands of Japanese _joro_ at Singapore
and so many other ports of the Asiatic mainland. Did these women go
there of their free will? My informant was of opinion that "half are
deceived." I remember that on the Japanese steamship by which I went
out to Japan there were several Japanese girls, degraded in aspect and
apparently in ill health, who were returning from Singapore. They were
shepherded by an evil-looking fellow. The parting of these
unfortunates from their girl friends as the vessel was abou