Occasionally one comes across tome of the most astounding claims in the vernacular newspapers.on behalf of Japanese brains. Some ime ago, for instance, one was tonished to read tha a Japanese physician, "after years of incessant toil and experimenting," had managed to discover a cure for rabies. On reading further, one discovered that this" {simply was that of Lo Which an over-zeal patriotic editor perhaps thought he might advantageously claim for Japan, Inventions, long used and known in the West, also have undergone similar Japanization. A missionary, whose word one has no reason whatever to doubt, once remarked that some of the primary' school text-books in the country [claimed that the Japanese invented electricity and the streetcar!
The latest of these newspaper inventions sis mining instrument" paper reporting thi ment of Japanese genius" declares! that the is the result of painstaking care and study of an operative of the Yokohama tele~ phone office." It is claimed that this "invention" makes it possible, at a glance, to know the whereabouts and' movements of enemy aeroplanes provided one knows the direction of the wind. fed, however, that it the article winds up, articles generally do, by saying that the military authorities, being of {the opinion that the invention is of grave importance from the point of view of national defence, prohil further details being appended.
Alli this sounds petty, but the fact remains that millions believe all newspaper drivel and even be-jove that the foreigners come here to learn' these wonderful Japanese contributions to the benefit of mankind and to take them back to their respective countries. Which makes one remark that, though the Japanese may be 90 per cent. liter-fate, such literacy, like a little learning, is a dangerous thing where ordinary powers of thinking are lacking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.