Emperor Appzaled to Respecting Eta: System Outside Law 'The recent attempt of a private soldier to make a direct appeal the Emperor has drawn attention fo the hard Tot of the Japanese "Eta," or outcasts, known. nowa-Gays, for reasons' that wi apparent later, (literally "Water-level people").
The soldier" in question was a member of this despised class and hed long been smarting under the discriminatory treatment meted out to himself and his fellow-ontensts, both in the Army and in ell life, By taking the unusual step of leaving his place in the ranks in order to present a petition tothe Emperor person while the Japanese Ruler wat holding a military review at Nagoya, he hoped to ease their lot and. to"have an end put to. the ingulfs heaped upon. them.
The exact origin of the Japanese outcast. class has always been Something of a mystery." The most Tikely explanation, however, seems to be that it is closely connected with: Shintoism, a religion which insisted on the avoidance of all Impurities, especially defilement. by blood. by mutilation, and ty death, As blood bad to be shed and. the dead buried, a" special class of people was set aside for the per-Yormance of such duties. At frst no stigma attached to those detail. ced to these tasks, bat in process of time they. became objects of contempt. and. became. ostraclsed. by their fellows, a Tokyo. correspond: ent informs the "Morning, Post."
Equal by Law In 1871 the Emperor Meijt issued decree putting this special class people on an equality with other commoners; but, though equal by Taw, they stil Temain social" outcasts in the eyes of their country. tmen, despite the fact that ethnolog!- cally and physically there is nothing to distinguish them from" other Sapaneso and. that not a few of them have risen to great wealth, The. discrimination complained. of la, therefore, social, not legal Consequently "it fe all "the more Aiffente to remove.
Members of the Eta class, though they may be men of culture and of Imeans, are debarred from all social Intercourse with those who know them to be of the outcast cla fand inter-marriage in virtually un renown, except in instances such those in which the Eta the marriage has hidden his or her real identity. Sometimes. the. deception has' been found out later, fand this has been considered Just one for divorce casts, who ate said to number be-Tu recent years, however, the out-
tween two and three million, have Started to assert themselves and take common action in order t0 rid themselves of the stigma, under which they Tabour, The Suihelsha movement, as it ie called, has, in Consequence, assumed. the proper: lone of a serious social problem. Blood has been spilt on more than tone occasion during the past few Sears in clashes that have resulted From this movement, and houses have been burned. down or oth wise wrecked by Suibeicha men who have banded themselves together to inge some real. or imaginary insult to one of thole number, Growing Power So much do these outcast people resent the contempt shown towards them, that" nowadays a" Japanese newspaper which is foolish enough to refer to them, even in friendly terms, by the name of "El ame' by which they were always Known in former times and which isan offensive term signifying ber straightway visited by Suihelsha representatives with a demand to apologise or else Take the conscauences, "Nor is this mere empty threat.
While, therefore, i is true that the members of the outcast clare fare grossly discriminated against socially, they are now beginning "get some of their own Unck."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.