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The Commoner.
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WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
Vol. 6. No, 3
Lincoln, Nebraska, February 2, 1906
Whole Number 263
CONTENTS
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. Mb. Bryan's Letteb
"What about John D?
Me. Roosevelt and Democrats
A Nebbaskan's Discovery
"The Gbeat Wobld's Altar Stairs"
Senate Inconsistencies
Painted to Look Like Ieon.
The Commoneb's Banneb Tear
Washington City Letter
Comment on Current Topics
Home Department
The Primary Pledge
News op the Week
TAKE HOLD OF THE TOWLINE
The attention of Commoner readers is invited
to the good showing made by the special offer on
page J5 ..off-this, issue. The readers of The Com
moner are'doingVa?og5eat.work in the effort to
widen the Sphere "of ThfetJofmnfoner's"' Influence W
th'e materialMncf easeof fcit'gs circufaWhV,,!!
sections, of the country The Commoner is receiv
ing kind words these days and receiving, also, en
couragement in the substantial form of new" sub
scribers. A special effort is now being put forth to
make a marked increase in The Commoner's cir
culation preparatory to the congressional . elec
tions of 1906. To this end the co-operation of
everyone who believes that The Commoner is
doing good work is invited.
Let every Commoner reader take hold of the
towline, and with a long pull, a short pull and
a pull altogether The Commoner will soon have a
large circulation in every county in every state
and territory of the union.
JJJ
LET HIM FIGHT NOW
One of Mr. Roosevelt's enthusiastic admirers
says that while Mr. Roosevelt does not desire' to
become a candidate for another term "if duty
demanded" he would "continue this fight." In
other words, this admirer says that if it is nec
essary for Mr. Roosevelt to be a candidate for a
third term in order to wage war against special'
interests, he will not shrink from the task.
That is all very interesting, to be sure. But
Mr. Roosevelt is already in ofllce. He has more
than three years yet to serve. He is now possessed
of all the power he would have after an elec
tion to a third term. Let him justify the con
fidence the people have shown in him by proceed
ing to exercise that power.
It will be time enough for Mr. Roosevelt's
friends to talk about a third term when he shall
have engaged in something more than a sham
battle. We do not mean to say that every battle
waged by Mr. Roosevelt has been on the sham
order. But it cannot be denied that in many re
spects lie has been a serious disappointment to
those who have believed in him. The people are
suffering from real evils and thes.e must be met
by real reforms. At least they must be met by
serious and determined efforts at real reform. In
vestigations of beef trusts resulting as Commis
sioner Garfield's investigation did, not pnly in the
conclusion that' there is no beef trust;but also jn
practically the r surrender' of the government's
strong points in, the prosecution, wili;neither pro
vide the people with relief nor inspire theni with
confidence, ' ' v
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THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND
Japanese Customs and Hospitality
MR. BRYAN'S THIRD LETTER
Every nation has its customs, Its way of do-'
ing things, and a nation's customs and ways are
likely to be peculiar in proportion as the nation
is isolated. In Japan, therefore, one would ex
pect to see many strange things, and the expecta
tion is more than realized. In some things their
customs are exactly the opposite of ours. In
writing they place their characters in vertical
lines and move from right to left, while our let
ters are arranged on horizontal lines and read
from left to right Their books begin where ours
end and end where ours, begin. The Japanese
carpenters pull the saw and plane toward them,
while ours push them from them. The Japanese
mounts his steed from the right, while the Amer
ican -mounts from the left; Japanese turn to the
left, Americans to the right. Japanese write it
'.'Smith John Mr.," while we say "Mr. John Smith."
At dinners in Japan wine is served hot and soup
cold, and the yard is generally at the back of
the house instead of the front.
The Japanese wear white for mourning and
often bury their dead in a sitting posture. The
deafti is sometimes announced as occurring at
the houso when it actually occurred elsewhere,
and ,the date of the death is fixed to suit the con
venience of the family. Thfs is partly due to the
fact that the Japanese like to have the death
appeal as pccurring at home. Sometimes funeral
services are heft over a part of the body. An
American lady whose Japanese maid died while,
attending her mistress in the United States, re
ports an incident worth, relating. The lady cabled
her husband asking instructions in regard to the
disposition of the body. He conferred with the
family of the deceased and cabled back directing
the wife to bring a lock of the hair and the false
teeth of the departed. The instructions were fol
lowed and upon the delivery of these precious
relics, they were interred with the usual cere
monies. The handshake Is uncommon even among
'Japanese politicians, except in their intercourse
with foreigners. When Baron Komura returned
from the peace conference in which he played
so important a part, I was anxious to be present
at his arrival, partly out of respect to the man
and, partly out of curiosity to see whether the
threatened manifestations of disapproval would
be made by the populace, it having been rumored
that thousands of death lanterns were being pre
pared for a hostile parade. (It is needleas to
say that the threats did not materiajize and that
no expressions of disapproval were heard after
his arrival.) I found it impossible to learn either
the hour or the landing place, and, despairing
of being, present, started to visit a furniture fac
tory to inspect some wood carving. Consul-General
Jones of Dalney (near Port Arthur), then
visiting in Yokohama, was my escort and, as good
fortune would have it, we passed near the De
tached palace. Dr. Jones hearing that the land
ing, might be made there, obtained permission
for us to await the peace commissioner's coming.
We found there Marquis Ito and a half dozen
other officials. As Baron Komura did not arrive
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