Life — May 12, 1904 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ While there is Life there's Hope.” VOL. XLII. MAY 12, 1908, No. 124. 17 West Tuuery-First Sraeet, New Yous. Published every Th Union, stor ny couisies 1a The Vomall year exten. “Single current copies x humbers. after three mouths tr publication, 23 cents No contribution all be accompanied by stamped envelope The illustrations in Live. are copyrighted, and ave not to be reproduce returned untess and addressed Prompt notification should be sent by sub- aes RE we going to like the Japs when we know them better? And shall we ever re: These important are questions as thingsare going now in the East. Mr. Meredith Town- ina bern of senc wise discourse, long experience and ut Asia, avers that there ipassable tween the European and the ration neither attains tor of the oth Perh who are pa themselves, are is said an exception It that they really th all the Asiatics except the Japanese, when they don’t happen to be kill Are the Japanese an exception on the other ng them, side? Is it going to be possible Europeans to fraternize with them s« time without a rising of goose-flesh and mental reservations? Hereabouts J: siderable xaunese abound Washi In be n con- numbe: In sto’ are lots of the h cities: non the streets Lin the d just now they all look pleased They the only Asiatics who have caught up with the times, except the Jews, and the Jews pretty well abandoned Asia cen- turies ag and are a cheering sight. are and have been trying for a thousand years to domesticate them- -LIFE- selvesin other quartersof the earth. And their experience certainly illustrates how wonderfully hard it is for the de- scendants of Shem to establish easy and intimate relations with the descendants of Japheth. The Jews are the Asiatics we know best, the only ones we really know at all, and in this country, where. of all the world, the conditions are fi to talk most favor bout as far ble to intimacy, with them over the fence is The fence is invisible, Without doubt it exists nd the Japanese, too, and probably it alway at present we admire the Japanese heartily and with good reason. It is strange about the Asiatics and the Europeans; strange that whom God, apparently, has separated, no effort or purpose of man should avail to as we have got but it is there. as yet between us will, though unite. Progress has long been dead among the and the arti by the E Asiatics, except the Jews nese, and except as it has been cially propagated in India itish. By some means the ated again after rested development, and vast masses of Asia must be st to get_a move on them centuries of lumber along with the world’s great processi Is the mov really at last, and are the little Japs going to be the leaders of it? com big Fair is open at St. Louis. They tell us the buildings are all completed ; the exhibits, with very few exceptions, installed, and that a tardy ing is at last showing some sense of its obligations towards the shrubbery and the visitors. It is a fifty-million- dollar show to start with, and there is no doubt that it is a very indeed, and that persons who get to see it will admit that their visit was an epoch in their lives. This part of the country is not yet excited about it. People talk more about Presidential prospects than th and make plans fc about as usual. great show do about that Fair, the summer just But the show has now begun to advertise itself, and in pro- portion as it fills the ne the papers it will fillthe minds of men and women and lure them tow: s columns of itself. By the time the Democratic Convention meets we shall have formed the habit of turning our eyes towards St. Louis every morning, and it won't be long after that before we settle down seriously to consider which sacri- fice we shall make in order to get there. 'S it not excusable to admit a gas; of astonishment at the appearance in the Century Magazine of the auto- biography of George Washington by Dr. Weir Mitchell? Dr. Mitchell is a person of manifold accomplishments and of a long and varied experience of life. If he had written his own auto- biography we should certainly -have read it, and with entire confidence that it would prove profitable. But where he got a license to write the autobieg- raphy of General Washington beggars surmise. General George, a hundred years dead, coming down out of the picture frame and entering the compe- tition for a fre magazi reverence. place in the band of ¢ writers somehow shocks our To m talk a bit in a historical novel is pardonable, but t ake put on his venerable buff waist draw on his small clothes, buckle polite sword, and swell with contempo- rary wind his illustrious lungs—where, where did Dr. Mitchell find the a ance to undertake so ¢ of reine: jon? something about sure ny a work Perhaps there is Philadelphia which renders its inhabitants imperfectly capable of estimating how things will strike their fellows who still live in the world. We seem to recall that it was astute Benjamin Franklin who once lertook to make over the Bible so that it would be good reading. COMBINATION that is much applauded for the Republican Presidential ticket is Roosevelt and Cannon, Tt will not do. ‘The place for any man who runs on the same Presidential ticket with Uncle Joseph is behind the gun. comicbooks.com