of the well-known piling house known Mr. Ohashi Sahei, managing proprietor as the Hakubun Kwan, has lately been touring in Europe and the United States—as many are aware—and his return to Sapan is signalized by an interview reported in the columns of the Kokvmin Shimbun. Here are some of his statements: they speak for themselves. Bribes, we are told, are extensively used in dealing with European and American journals, especially in matters in any way bearing' upon the question of pence and war—and when bribes are given the amounts are not on a par with the sum said to have been given to Hoshi Toru on a recent occasion. Mr. Ohashi, having thus unburdened himself, proceeded to remark on th® influence exercised by journals in the present day the bribes in themselves were evidence of the fact. The immense buildings occupied by. newspapers abroad also bore testimony to the power of the press, The number of newspapers in the States astonished this extremely wide-awake visitor; and he is disposed to regard America as an outcome of modern journalism. London, he said, is different—but he does not appear to have bestowed much attention upon English journalism, a fact which I can only deeply regret. Mr. Ohashi might have added so much to our stock of ideas, and his criticism could scarcely have failed' to prove suggestive and valuable. It is not often one is found to speak so fully as Mr. Ohashi ready to.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.