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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 16, 1905)
Juljr 1. IMS. TOE OMAHA ILLUSTRATED BEE. Laughter JAPANESE ACTOR MADE UP AS THH VT T . . yd 1.11 I I ence of The Bee.) I have lived In 1 Jfllun nn rilffomnt nonnalnna fnr many months, but not until yes terday had I ever been able to "It through' a Japanese play. Yesterday I did. I went at 3:30 in the afternoon, was In time to see the first curtain rise and re mained to see the last one fall at the con clusion of the eleventh act, nearly seven hours later., and It was a modern drama in a modern theater, acted by modern actors of the newest school. While we sat there gathering much food for reflection on tha evident occldentallsatlon of this most oriental nation, the fleet of Admiral Togo was . engaging the - Baltic squadron up in Tsushima strait in a naval battle such as has never been fought before In the world's history, but we knew nothing about it. If we had. I dare say -we could hardly have awaited so calmly the end of the much less Interesting drama we were witnessing. We should have been out eagerly listening for the excited jangling of the bells, of iie gogal boys. Who always follow so tardily upon the heel of . interesting rumor from the seat of war. -4- Japan's Wonderful System. The news that the Baltlo fleet, about Vhich wa in Toklo had talked hourly these months past, has been met and practically destroyed Is twenty-four hours old now, but It has not yet become "official." so one is supposed to know nothing. This Is a part of the marvelous Japanese "system." The arsenal blew up this morning, killing or wounding a couple . of hundred workmen, and this is the subject of paramount inter est. There are dark hints of Russian spies. Of treachery, and the air Is electric The great battle is still raging off the western coast and Japan is achieving one of the greatest victories in. all Its history, I sup pose, or In all the world s history, for mat matter. If the Tumors have any foundation at all, but It. doesn seem to matter much In Tokio. There will be an omciai an nouncement tonight' probably, but Toklo will merely aay. "Ob. so desuka?" (Is that o?) and go on Its way.. Nothing else could possibly be expected. ' And one of these days, when there la no battle raging, and no electric expectancy in the air, I sup- pose w may. go to tne oieiji lueaier see It all acted in wearisone detail by those marvelous actors of the newest school. I anouio not do ."Jfi'. .,... - find that .the name of the MelJI theater had fcrfvohnid bv the time "The all of Mukden." "The Siege of Port Arthur," and "TheDatruction of the Baltic Fleet,". ar ready for production, bocause already there' is a' noticeable resentment In Japan against the use of the word "enlighten ment" ln connection with anything Japa nese. The era of enlightenment, or meljl, begat) thirty-eight years ago. when Japan was in need of enlightenment, and recog nised the fact; but in the1 meantime she has learned that the world may sit at her feet and gather wisdom, and ln the mean- tlm two Port Arthurs, a Llao Yang, a Mukden, and the easy destruction of one of the world's greatest navies have an been achieved by her, and are only high p?aks In whole mountains of achievement. One gets heartily tired of singing Japan's praises, but what is one to doT There la :rt' THIS and Tears at a 'A (1 rJ - I : .: i . CONVENTIONAL MOTHER-IN-LAW, "Tamato damashtl," the spirit of Japan invincible, which might command the world; and one wonders If the world will not have to unite against its aggressions in the not very far-off future. It remains to be seen whether its aggressiveness ex tends beyond the point of most vigorous and masterful self-defense, and If It does, it is safe to say that the climax of Japan's greatness has not been reached, even in the complete defeat and humiliation of the "strongest military power on earth." Domestic Drama Ballt on Facts. But I am allowing the battle of Togo's fleet and the Baltic squadron to keep me away from the MelJI theater, which is easily accounted for by the fact that I am almost within sound of the guns and entirely enveloped In the '"electric atmos phere," but in the MeiJI theater there was much of interest, you may be sure, since we were held there through seven long hours. The play wa "Naml-ko," a mod ern love story In which some of the char acters are easily recognizable as person ages of vast Importance in Toklo. It aeems that a few years ago the Marquis Oyama, the great field marshal, had a Capital of (Copyright, 105, by Frank Q. Carpenter.) A VAN A, July 13. (Special Corre spondence of The Bee.) Havana is growing like a bamboo sprout. It had 235.000 people Ave years ago, and the census gave It 40,000 more in 1902. Its population Is now over 300.000. and there are those who. like Sir Wlllllm Van Horne. believe that It will m t,m(J approxlniate 1,000,000. There are less lnan a dozen cltlea ln the United States larger than Havana. It already outranks Detroit, Milwaukee, ' Minneapolis, Louis ville or Kansas City. It is twice as big as Omaha or Memphis, and away ahead of Newark. Indianapolis. Los Angeles. Col umbus or Toledo, it is growing ln wealth. likewise, and is more and more every day tne commercial, business and social center of Cuba My iaBt vl8t t0 Havana was made more than twenty years ago, in company wun Benator John Sherman, then president pro tern, of the senate and acting vice presi dent of the United States, Vice President Hendricks having died. By the then law had President Cleveland died ln offlce Mr. Sherman would have succeeded him, and when we reached Havana the papers, re ferred to him as the vice president of the United States. To show the condition of the island at that tlrrle I need only instance that a plot was gotten up by some brigands to kidnap Mr. Sherman and hold htm for ransom. The plan was to capture our party during a trip we were to make to a sugar plantation not far frirni the city. and it surely would hav. b.-on carried out had we not at the last nument changed our route and visited another plantation. The story of the plot was never given to the newspapers, but Senator Sherman firmly believed ln the truth of this statement, and it has always been a great regret to me that I waa not able to be the only H rtv- I w v 1 mm i ' ';! MALACO.N AT HAVANA MADS) BY iUKRICANB. : , v;..: : , - - . -- - v-.-: v;i.; - - - . If daughter, whom he gave In marriage, in the usual Japanese manner, to a young nobleman who was nn only son 'and heir to a large estate. The mother of the young man was very old and belonged to a period long before MelJI, and it was an unhappy fate for the young daughter of the -house of Oyama to have her for a mother-ln-law. According to the customs of the country, she had to become some thing but a little more exalted than an upper servant In her husband's household, and she had to give way in all things to her mother-ln-law and hourly propitiate the disagreeable old woman. In the course of a few months she contracted tuberculo sis, a disease so common in Japan, and during her husband's absence from home her mother-in-law divorced her. The ex cuse was given, of course, that there was danger of the young wife communicating the disease to her husband, who was the last of the noble name; so she was sent back home to die in her own father's house, and her husband was not told until after it was too late, in accordance with the Japanese code of honor, for him to do anything. This is a true story, and its dramatization is called "Kaml-ko." Identity Bat Lightly Veiled. In the play the husband is made a young naval officer, and It is while he is away fighting in the Japan-China war that his wife is divorced, but most of the other characters are hardly disguised at all, and it Is Interesting to hear the people frankly calling them by their real names. In the first act Naml-ko arid Takeo are Just mar ried, and are on their wedding journey to Iltao, the beautiful hot springs up In the Nlkko mountains. Here is glaring mod ernity number one, for wedding journeys are the very newest thing in Japan's newly acquired customs, and are looked upon by most people . with scornful suspicion and disapproval. Nami-ko is followed to Ikao by Chljlwa, a former lover and her hus band's cousin. : He is easily recognizable Cuba Under the correspondent to chronicle the real kid naping for ransom of a vice president of the United States. Havana Then and Now, At that time Havana contained 100.000 less people than It docs now. and the city was fifty years behind its present condi tion. It was dirty to an extreme. Stark naked children could be seen ln the poorer quarters and the draying and other heavy traffic was done by great carts pulled by ox teams with yokes strapped to their horns. There were no street cars and no modern Improvements of any kind. Today Havana has a good electric car line, with mere than fifty miles of track and something like 200 motor cars. The street car company took ln last year gross receipts of more than $1,000,000, and tt promises to be a very profitable, cor- Doration. The car lines are now beln bulIt ou't t0 thg Buburb, and they will I probably extend the system to the sur rounding country. I have never seen cleaner cars nor cleaner car conductor than those of Havana. The men dress ln light gray linen suits. They are poHte, and they handle the traffic In a gentle manly way. Havana will compare favorably with any town ln Holland or Switzerland. It la better v than Zurich, where the policemen arrest you for throwing paper on the street. Washington, Boston and New York are dirty beside It. The streets look as though they were washed and swept every hour. There is no dirt ln the cobbles and the ' asphalt shines like the floor of a Dutch kitchen. I don't know what they do with the garbage, but so far I have yet to detect a vile smell. During my first visit I found the natives ragged and many of the poor ware half It'll i ;j f ! Japanese "TV MODERN THEATER IN TOKIO. as a young officer of high family who re deemed a very serious disgrace by con spicuous bravery at the first siege of Port Arthur. In the play he has forged Takeo's name to a note, which is about to fall due, and he is consequently in very great trouble. Naml-ko knows nothing about this, of course, and she resents the atti tude of easy familiarity he assumes to ward her in such a way as to make him a bitter enemy. After that he becomes the conventional villain, plotting, with clinched hands and gleaming eyes, the downfall of the gentle and unsuspecting heroine. He is very entertaining. In the second act we were taken boldly into the modern home of Marshal Oyama, who In the play becomes General Kataoka. Here we meet the present marchioness, the mosC modern woman In all Japan, a graduate of Vassar college, and altogether Ameri canized, who was step-mother to the elder children of the house. With her were two little children, one of whom I know as a beautiful young woman so beautiful and tall and' velvety soft and dark. Indeed, that I call hrr "Lady Iris." At least, I suppose little Kl-chan, of the play, was she, for the Marchioness Oyama has no other daughter. Self-Dcceptlon General. . The field marshal Is played by a very tall man with dignity enough for two or throe field marshals, and the audience was im mensely pleased with him. This vividly Il lustrates a very peculiar Japanese charac teristic. As a people, they lie to them selves constantly and believe impllclty In their own falsehoods, and In nothing Is this so noticeable as In their conception of their own size. They don't think they are a small people at all, and I think they would rather resent a pictured or imper sonated Oyama under 6 feet in height. In the wonderful prints of .lurid , war scenes one finds in the windows of book shops and in - all the bazars, the overestimation of naked. Today every one is well dressed and the poor are cleaner than Americans of the same class. All are busy. XWages are high and all . have plenty to do. As to health, the death rate Is lower than that of our best cities, It is about 14 per 1,000 and, thanks to the American intervention, this city has become one of the healthiest in the world. Old and Quaint. Havana is one of the quaintest cities on the American hemisphere. It is more so than any South American capital. There is not a town in Europe north of the Alps which Is more picturesque or more Interest ing. It Is a combination of the Spanish and Moorish, with slices of North and' South America mixed In. As you look at It from the sea it forms a mass of bright color. Its buildings rising almost straight up from the water. Interspersed with green trees. On one side Is the Malecon, with a sea wali in front of 'It, against which the spray dashes high into the air. On the other side of the harbor entrance stands Morro castle, more picturesque then any castle of the Rhine, and on the hills beyond it are bar racks and fortifications. Coming into tho harbor the entrance is not more than 1,000 feet wide. The sea, which is of a deep blue outside, turns to light green near the shore, and you now see that the bmises are painted all colors of the rainbow, which seem brighter than usual under the dazzling light. The Havana harbor has altogether an area of about twenty quarter-section farms. It Is three miles long and two miles wide and It winds in and out among the hills. It ha considerable shipping, boat from all parts of the world being anchored here and there, with the rusty wreck of the Maine In the center. Cuba has a commerce of about 1150,000,000 year, and three-fourths of it passes through Havana. It is very expensively handled, as one may see by the great light ers which are uaed for"4oadlng and unload ing the ships. The lighterage companies re opposed to the building of wharves, and for this reason no such concessions hav yet been granted.- The cost of the lighter age Is about S3.000.Ono per annum, or, ln round numbers, at least J per cent on all the goods taken In and out of Havana. Maine Will lie Raised. In going to and from the steamerr-dur-tng the past few weeks t have had occa sion to pass by the Maine. Only a small portion of the vessel Is still above water and this Is red from the accumulated rust. About a year ago a contract was made with the government by an American named De Wyckott to remove the wreck fiom the harbor. The work was to be done at the expense of the contractor, who was to pay $5,000 to Cuba, and In exchange to be given title to the property recovered. A company with a capital of $&X,G00 was Incorporated at Washington, V. C, last fall to do this mork. and connected with It was Dr. EL L. Corthell, the well known engineer, and others. So far nothing ha been done, but I understand that the con tractors expect to build a water-tight cofferdam about the versel and to raise it to the surface. According to their ar rangement wltii the government, the Main Is to be entirely removed by next Decem ber. American steamship (or Caba. There are five American steamship com - panies which - now have connection with Havana running regular steamer her Drama m ..'v,ai"l: t.:v i- ,Me.i . .' 'V - ill" ( the size of the Japanese soldiers is tha funniest thing in tho world. They are al ways as large as their Russian foes, and many times much larger, and the attitudes they strike would make the fortune of any melodramatic actor. For Instance, the other day I came across a picture. In brilliant reds and yellows, of the meeting between Generels Stoessel and NogI at Port Arthur. Nogl towered at least two Inches above his crestfallen foe, and he clasped hUn by tho hand with an air which plainly said, "There, little chap, never mind. Tou did all that could possibly have been expected of you, considering who I am." So the audience at MelJI was delighted with tbt 6-foot Oyama, and fully believed in him. Just Like Theodore Kremer. In act third we meet a famous capitalist who Is supposed to have made much money fraudulently and at the expense of the august government during the-Japan-China war. He is very rich, but nobody In Japan envies htm his wealth. He, it was, who cashed the forged note for Chljlwa, and in this act the villain has it thrown In his face by the righteous hero after it has been quietly paid to save the honor of the family. I suppose in the old days this would have led to a "revenge," as all mur ders of this character were called, and to an honorable hara-kiri, or self -execution. But this is the era of MelJI, so the villain clinched his hands, tore the bit of paper in pieces and stamped upon them, then shook his fist menacingly at the retreating figure of Takeo. It couldn't have been done better at the Fourteenth Street theater In New York. In the fourth act we have Takeo , and Naml-ko together at Zushi, down on the seacoast, where they have a little summer place. Naml-ko looks to be in Just about the last stages of consump tion, while Takeo is ! that could be de sired In vigorous young health. Now, it Is said there is no such thing as marital love In Japan, but It seems to me the effect upon, the audience of this scene between New Government trom our several ports. They were crowded all last winter and they .are making preparations for a great increase of travel .during the coming season. I came to Cuba from Mobile on the steam ship Saratoga, which is operated by the Munson company. That service was put on for the first time last season and the vessel has not been able to carry all the passengers. It has been so crowded and has paid so well that Mr. Munson expects to have additional steamers next year. The trip from Mobile to Cuba is ' only forty hours. Leaving Tuesday evening you are landed In Havana Thursday morning after a sail more delightful than that from Baltimore to Boston. The ship Is good, the rates are low and the accommodation comfortable. The Southern Pacific Railway company has a steamer sailing every Saturday from New. Orleans which arrives at Havana on Monday. This voyage is from forty to forty-eight hours, about twelve hours be ing consumed in going down the Mississippi river. The Peninsula and Occidental Steam ship company has steamer from Tampa, Fla., and also from Miami, which take you in little more than a day from the United States to Havana. The Tampa boats leave Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights, and the Miami boats on Wednes day and Saturdays. All of these lines are overcrowded, and the same Is true with the boats from New York. The latter belong to the Ward line, which plies between New York and Mexico via Havana and also has large steamer ailing to Havana direct. The fastest of these ships make the trip In three days. I understand thaf the Wards will put on a new line of steamers next year which will go from New York to Nlpe bay, the new TUE PRADO J"T of Conjugal Love .. . v v tiki .-.....,-, . w 1 v. ' jit V ACTOR IN THE ARMOR OF A flAMURAI-DISCARDED SOLDIERY LESS THAN THIRTY YEARS AOO. Naml-ko and Takeo quite disproves the as sertion. Husband and Wife In Japan. In his masterful book on the social and psychic "Evolution of the Japanese." Mr. Sydney L. Oulick says: "In no regard, perhaps, is the contrast between the east and the west more striking than In the respective Ideas concerning women and marriage. The one counts woman the equal if not the superior of man; the other looks down upon her as man's Inferior In esery respect; the one considers pro found love as the only true condition of marriage, the other thinks of love as es sentially Impure, beneath the dignity of a true man, and not to be taken into con sideration when marriage is contemplated." Then the editor of the Japan Mail, an Englishman who Is himself the husband of a Japanese wife, says: "The woman of Japan is a charming personage in many ways gracious, refined, womanly before everything, sweet tempered, unselfish, vir tuous, a splendid mother, and an ideal wife from the point of view of the master. But she is virtually excluded from tha whole Intellectual life of the nation. Poll- port of northeastern Cuba, and that through tickets will then be sold from New York to Havana, landing the passengers at Antllla, the port on Nipe bay, and car rying them across Cuba by railroad. It is probable that ships will be put on from New York to Jamaica, calling at Nlpe bay, so that Jamaica passengers will be able to come to Havana on their way to and from New York. At present there are regular steamship lines from Copenhagen to Havana connect ing this island with Antwerp, Havre and Bilbao, Spain, and Spanish steamers from the Spanish ports which call thrice a month. The North German Lipid has steamers from Bremen to this port and the Hamburg-American have monthly sail ings from Hamburg. Oar New Winter Resort. Cuba in fact is fast becoming a winter resort for Americans, and If the present health conditions prevail, which seem prob able, this Island will be the Riviera of our continent. There were three times as many American tourists here last year as ever before, and were it not for the lack of hotel accommodations the travel would be enormouRly Increased. In talking with one of the leading railroad managers of Cuba I was told that the several American tour ist associations were anxious to send par ties to Cuba, but that this was discour aged because there was no place to take care of the crowd. There are only about a dozen hotels In Havana, and 'these are generally of small capacity. There 1 no such thing a an American hotel on the Island If one excepts that at Camaguey, which was opened last January by the (Continued on Page Eight.) 4 V 'A - THB FIFTH AVENUE Or CUBA'S 4 " 3 v rr7 r; ' JM BY TUB JAPANESBl tics, art, literature, science are closed book to her. She cannot think logically about any of these subjects, express herself, clearly with reference to any of them, or take an Intellectual part ln conversa tions relating to them. She Is, ln fact, totally disqualified to be her husband' Intellectual companion, and tha luovilabl result is that he despise her." This is a very large and most Inter esting subject to one who knows the Japa nese woman, and the least observing for eign visitor in the country could bring for ward much evidence In things he ha him self seen to prove all that ha been said re garding the wickedly loose construction of Japanese socio ty; but at tha MelJI theater yesterday I was Introduced to an other side of the question and saw some thing I had never seen in Japan before. Naml-ko and Takeo wera alone on tha beach. The realism of the scene waa en hanced by the regular washing of wave made by a mechanical device behind. Nami-ko sat on a rock under a little Shinto shrine, weeping bitterly. Takeo had been ordered to join hi ship and proceed to the seat . of war, and she never expeoted to see him again. He paced up and down the sands, assuring her that she would s6on be well and that he would return safely to her to enjoy a long and. happy life. He sat down beside her, but he did not touch her. She was weeping aloud in an agony of grief, but It would have been unseemly from a Japanese standpoint for him to have bestowed upon her a physical, caress. It would have been resented as a vulgarism, indeed, so he sat apart and wept with her, assuring her of his unchanging love; and not until he was about to leave did he so much as put his hand upon her. Then he put his arm over her shoulder limply and howled down the back of her neck In way that to me was intensely funny. But I controlled my mirth, seeing that the audi ence was ln a state of hysterical grief- Grief is Genuine. The Meljl theater, like all others, 1 made like a huge egg box, in partitioned squares about three feet each way, and into one of these little places a whole family crowds itself along with a tobacco-bon and a tea pot. . They all sll flat upon the floor, which slopes up very Bllghtly, and when a theater is full the "orchestra" present a more or less entangled appearance, it being difficult sometimes to discover where one person leaves off and another begins. It is not a "seething mass of humanity," how ever, for these people sit still, sit quietly upon their feet, with somebody touching thorn on all four sides for seven and eight hours at a stretch! Well, this mas of humarflty wa blowing it nose and sniffling audibly when Takeo said goodby to Naml-ko, and I saw several women, and men as well, completely overcome and sobbing quite frankly into their handker chiefs. I thought to myself, if there 1 such a complete absence of marital love In Japan, and if sex expression is con sidered "essentially impure, beneath tha dignity of a true man, "v how is it that tha (Continued on Page Eight.) ( J. i ' , I J J.X- A CAJOTAU il 0 -."It