ut it must be admitted that the strong
materialist bent of modern Japanese education and thought is making it
more difficult to appeal to the present generation."

An educator who has had much experience with Japanese said: "It looks to
me as though Japan would soon reach a grave crisis in national life.
Hitherto Buddhism and Shintoism have been the two forces that have
preserved the religious faith of the people and kept their patriotism at
white heat. Now the influences in the public schools are all
antagonistic to any religious belief. The young men and women are
growing up (both in the public schools and the government colleges) to
have a contempt for all the old religious beliefs. They cannot accept
the Shinto creed that the Emperor is the son of God and should be
worshiped as a deity by all loyal Japanese. They cannot accept the
doctrines of Buddha, as they see the New Japan giving the lie to these
doctrines every day in its home and international dealings. Nothing is
left but atheism, and the experience of the world proves that there is
nothing more dangerous to a nation than the loss of its religious faith.
The women of Japan are slower to accept these new materialist views than
the men, but the general breaking down of the old faith is something
which no foreign resident of Japan can fail to see. On the other side
patriotism is kept alive by the pilgrimages of school children to the
national shrines, but one is confronted with the questions? Will the
boys and girls of a few years hence regard these shrines with any
devotion when they know that Buddhism and Shintoism are founded on a
faith that science declares has no foundation? Will they offer up money
and homage to wooden images which their cultivated reason tells them are
no more worthy of worship than the telegraph poles along the lines of
the railway?'"

The Japanese way of doing things is the exact reverse of the American
way generally, but if one studies the methods of this Oriental race it
will be found that their way is frequently most effective. Thus, in
addressing letters they always put the city first, then the street
address and finally the number, while they never fail to put the
writer's name and address on the reverse of the envelope, which saves
the postoffice employes much trouble and practically eliminates the
dead-letter office.

The Japanese sampan, as well as other boats, is never painted, but it is
always scrubbed clean. The sampan has