The glance that we have taken at the habits and customs of life among the Chinese people, shows that while they lack many of the things that we have been taught to believe essential to civilization, they nevertheless are equipped with many good things. They have the same human instincts, and are ready and able to absorb learning with great rapidity, when once they become convinced of the value of it. It is their conservatism and their belief that they are the only truly civilized people in the world, while all others are barbarians, that has made them so slow to adopt any of the better things of western civilization. The war which this work records may prove to be the most effective means that could possibly have been devised to awaken China from the sleep of centuries, and convince her of the value and efficacy of western methods. If this prove true, a description of China written a generation in the future may have to describe the things here related as existing conditions, to be historical facts after twenty years.
Japan
JAPANESE MUSICIAN.
THE MIKADO AND HIS PRINCIPAL OFFICERS.