Mr. Bland refers to the increasing rudeness of the man in the street. Old residents in Japan will hardly endorse him. Manners vary from district to district in u!] countries. George Borrow in his "Wild Wales" records instances where the man on the road showed considerable rudeness, although there is ample evidence as to the kindliness of the Welsh. Even between the North and South of England there have been found differences according to various observers. Some references to this will be found in Charlotte Bronte's "Shirley." In the same way foreign visitors to Japan have compared the manners of the eastern and western parts of the country.
No doubt the rush of industrial life has done away with some of the tedious part of the old-world courtesy, but those who remember conditions in Kobe 20 years ago wilt hardly agree with Mr. Bland on the increasing rudeness of "the man in the street.''
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Mr. Bland also thinks that the Japanese are "much more ready to resent the real or fancied assumption of superiority on the part of the stranger within their gates than they were before their country became one of the Big Five." This again is a sweeping conclusion which is difficult to prove. Of course, an offensive assumption superiority expressed either by deeds or words is likely to be resented. They would be a poor spirited people who did not resent it, and altho
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.