'A uivesy writer in the Japan Mail, in a recent article entitled "The Inevitable Typhoon," contrasts with much animation and cleverness the advantages and disadvantages of Eastern residence. The subject is obviously not a new one, but itis a theme which one is compelled to be always discussing, or thinking about; and therefore we may be pardoned for noticing a very fresh and original re-statement of an old case. The dweller in Japan has much to be thankful for. He has charming scenery, a delicious climate, and that incomparable blessing a progressive Government; but yet there is the recurring peril of the unavoidable typhoon. Once a year at least, the enterprising student who has resolved to commence his survey of mankind in "the Land of the Rising Sun," finds his fences and garden walls thrown down, the ornaments of his wife's drawing room smashed to atoms, the paper dropping from his walls, and possibly his ceiling tumbling about his ears. This, to say the least of it, is very unpleasant. He possibly, for some brief moments, ex-cerates the bright land of his adoption, and bitterly regrets the unhappy hour which beguiled him from his London suburb, his trim bouse in Boston, or his provincial town in Scotland. But it is very soon over, after all. And he reconciles himself to the life he is to lead, by recollecting the solid comforts that he gets in exchange for the domesticities of home. He has more freedom than he would have in England, and many little luxuries and appliances which cushion one's life and, if one has no very high aspirations, enable one to live contentedly. To quote the arti: cle before us: "if moderately successful in his chosen career, he Jeads a life which is easy and superficially enjoyable, and though cut off from the higher pleasures which life in Europe or America affords, his day is on the whole more free from care and irksome Jabour than it would be at the same age at home."
Shanghai wearefree from the startling interruptions of the typhoon, but then we have not the privilege and boon of dwelling under the ever-changing' shadow of a Government indoctrip ated with Western ideas, and march. ing with rapid strides along the Path of Progress. Still the conditions of existence in the two countries are pretty much alike. On balancing them with much considered and wise impartiality, the conclusion arrived at by the writer is as follows: "The place of. exile is fixed possibly in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.