"Fattening at the Trough by the Vultures"
From & Connesroxpant Tokyo, Aug. 28.
Considerably over one hundred millions of yen is paid out by the Japanese Government annually the form of pensions. Foremost among these is Count Yau formerly premier, one time of the Navy, an admiral ami now spoken of again as a possible compromised premier. Admiral Count Yamamoto receives only ¥. 6,000 per annum, the same amount sis paid to Viscount Kiyoura, the veteran politician and almost perennial a prospect for the premiership which he held for a brief und memorial Period. Out of the Y. 120,000,000 or $60,000,000 dollars" god, " being equivalent to 26,000,000 pounds ster-Jing, it is true, that some 20 per cent, is not claimed by members of the Imperial Family and. oth Who can afford to do without But the liability is there and the vension list does not tend to become any shorter, Altogether there are now 330,000 pensioners in Japan. Some alarmists and extremist writers profess to find state bankruptcys and 'a general "fattening at' the trough by the vultures fed upon the product of the poor and downtroddev," but as a matter of fact, the authorities point out that the pen-largely and mostly paid ughest tax-payers and the Imperial Family itself. leks carved in verse or dragon, There is evidently no such thing as a plain walking-stick; possibly this is forbidden by an Order-in-Council, or ukase, or whatever the thing is called in "Weihai," but the result is the same. Married men appear to favour the dragon, and their wives to be markedly sensitive about it, but the bachelors, one and all, select verse, and golfers occasionally have an injunction, such as "Fight not as one that beateth the air," engraved on their drivers, all very touching, and extremely interesting to the psychologist.
The Marks of the Sumurai That is Weihaiwei all over; you don't expect the commonplace and you don't find it. Yet it took me four seasons to discover why wives Insist on Weihai, and to make the acquaintance of that unique body of men, the Weihai Samurai. You will know them by the threadbare left elbow of the coat, and by a curious circular impression on and around the left ear. T must confess that I was quite in the dark till I found one of these remarkable individuals at the telephone, and then in a flash the circular' mark, was explained. 'Most of all, you will know the Weihai Samurai by the signs of long suffering, quietly fan bravely borne; by the' firm-net jaw telling of hard-fought struggles won against burning anger.
For Weihaiwei is not only a hol ay resort; it is a school for cha remember well the fearless attitude with which Taj proached for the first time a Weihai telephone, and asked for a number T ought to have known that. thi was no mere village system of five six subscribers; the central operation at Weihaiwei has to look after no fewer than 31 numbers. But I could get nothing from him except Hello!" "Hello!" "Hello!" in a far-away voice, like that of a sel gis! answering to the roll on her first day. I told him that I was not taking an English lesson, and that in any case the one word had been well memorized, but I might Jas well have addressed my remarks to the cold marble of the Chidian Venus.
The Speed of Weihaiwei found out afterwards that really rapid connexions—even minutes <are possible, but that it is part of the settled policy of the Weibai-Government to keep untested visitors waiting for at least 15 minutes. The more indignant the user, the sadder the still, small voice of the operator. When you have Jearned your e: son, and can stand patiently with the receiver pressed to your left ear for 20 minutes, then and only then are you given a tele-hone bisque, and in due course may work down' to the minimum 5 minutes, by which time you have all the marks of the Samurai.
General of the Wine ang Tobacco Bureau, proposes to establish la Shanghai a new and big cigarette factory. Funds are now being raised.
Osaxa, Sept. 3—Plans just published show that the Osaka Municipality will spend Yen 2,000,000 in the next few years in the cons-of five dams, to accelerate sage of water in the many which for centuries have provided a convenient means for the transportation of merchandise and made Osaka known as the Venice of the Far East Think what this means! The happy Shanghai homes, the lucky typists, of these men' who have deen through the furnace and come Jout chastened and purified, bette: and nobler citizens!
A final test takes place on leaving Weihai. Coasting steamers are fitted with wireless, and the shipping agents of the port, keen men, who have given years of study to the problem, finally have discovered that the expenditure of £5 on a simple receiving set would enable. them to inform the public with' certainty about arrivals and delays. Simple enough, you think. Ah! but, what about the Samurai? So you must wait on the uncovered jetty
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.