When the world takes hold of aa idea, ladies' fashions cannot coms-pare with its vogue. To-day all Europe is busy with trade fairs, travelling business exhibitions and the like, and we find that Japan is following suit. The scheme she has adopted is to fit up a steamer as an exhibition, and then send it off on its travels accompanied by a group of business men who will explain the different sections and, we presume, take all the orders going. The Egypt Maru, a vessel of 10,300 tons, has been selected for the enterprise and arrangements are being made for the necessary equipment. It is expected that preparations will be complete about the middle of August, and= then after a visit to Japanese, Korean and Manchurian ports, she will call at Shanghai and Hongkong. From the latter she will make her way to the Dutch Indies, British India, and before finally returning to Japan probably also visit America. The spirit of enterprise is admirable, but there is one point, already raised in connexion with the travelling fairs of other nations, that deserves attention, namely that exhibits, interesting and important to one country, may leave others. absolutely cold. It will be worth noting how far the Japanese merchants succeed in overcoming this difficulty.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.