Another thing that is troubling the Japanese terribly is the nile in art. Although so much accustomed to the nude in nature, they are stunned by the most innocent or elevating form of the nude in art, while foreigners, on the other hand, though so much accustomed to the nude in art in public squares, picture galleries and the like, especially on the continent, are in the opinion of the Japanese ange d affected by the rinds in nature. One of the funniest things the Japanese schoolboy finds in the whole range of English literature is a passage bearing on this subject which is to be met with in Robinson Crusoe, a work that every Japanese schoolboy reads. The passage is "There were also several thick watchvoats of the seamen's which were left indeed, but they were too hot to wear; and though it isi true that the weather was so violent hot that there was no need of clothes, yet I could not go quite nared;, no, though I had been inclined to it, which I was not, nor could I abide the thought of it, though I was all alone."
This is one of those things that a Japanese young man or maiden can never quite get over.
But to proceed with the artistic part of the subject. The unfortunate thing is that it is the police who are the guardians of public morals in this country, and hence if You cee a picture of John the Baptist as a child carefully draped, or a statue a hundred feet above the ground, that is on the top of some public building, also draped most Gecorously, you need not ask anybody who did it—you may safely conclude it was the police. The provincial police are the greatest sticklers for morality of any.
At Takumatsu they lately vetoed the display of a design nttuched to a certificats of merit granted by the Commissioners of the Columbian Exhibition toa Japanese who had exhibited a sample of Omi rice. There is an arch in the foreground through which the Capitol is seen. "Che arch is flanked by naked figures of females, and in front of it ree ines Columbia with a recumbent holding out 2 hand of welcome or cone' tion to some naked savages, men and women, at the other buttress of the arch. "The owner ofthe picture wanted to hang it at an E hibition that was being held in his native town, but the Tt must be note: lo police sternly forbade him. however that the leading papers of Tokio laughed at the police for their pains.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.