The Critic in the Orient

Part 1

THE CRITIC IN THE ORIENT

The Taj Mahal at Agra. This Tomb, Built by Shah Jahan to Immortalize His Favorite Wife, Is Conceded to be the Most Beautiful Building in the World "Matchless, perfect in form, a miracle Of grace and tenderness and symmetry, Pearl-pure against the sapphire of the sky"]

THE CRITIC IN THE ORIENT

GEORGE HAMLIN FITCH

AUTHOR OF "COMFORT FOUND IN GOOD OLD BOOKS" "MODERN ENGLISH BOOKS OF POWER" "THE CRITIC IN THE OCCIDENT"

East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat. --Kipling

ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS · SAN FRANCISCO

Copyright, 1913 by PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY

The chapters of this book appeared originally in the Sunday supplement of the San Francisco Chronicle. The privilege of reproducing them here is due to the courtesy of M. H. de Young, Esq.

The author is greatly indebted to Isaac O. Upham, Esq., for the fine photographs which illustrate the section on Japan and for several photographs of Indian scenes

TO MY FELLOW TOURISTS ON THE MINNESOTA, WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP MADE MANY TEDIOUS JOURNEYS BY LAND AND SEA ENJOYABLE

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction IX

The Best Results of Travel in the Orient XIII

Japan, The Picture Country of the Orient 1

First Impressions of Japan and the Life of the Japanese-- The Japanese Capital and its Parks and Temples--The Most Famous City of Temples in all Japan--In Kyoto, The Ancient Capital of Japan--Kobe, Osaka, The Inland Sea and Nagasaki--Development of the Japanese Sense of Beauty--Conclusions on Japanese Life and Character-- Will the Japanese Retain Their Good Traits?

Manila, Transformed by the Americans 49

First Impressions of Manila and Its Picturesque People-- American Work in the Philippine Islands--Scenes in the City of Manila and Suburbs.

Hongkong, Canton, Singapore and Rangoon 63

Hongkong, the Greatest British Port in the Orient--A Visit to Canton in Days of Wild Panic--Singapore, the Meeting Place of Many Races--strange Night Scenes in the City of Singapore--Characteristic Sights in Burma's Largest City.

India, The Land of Temples, Palaces and Monuments 93

Calcutta, the Most Beautiful of Oriental Cities--Bathing, and Burning the Dead at Benares--Lucknow and Cawnpore, Cities of the Mutiny--The Taj Mahal, the World's Loveliest Building--Delhi and Its Ancient Mohammedan Ruins--Scenes in Bombay When the King Arrived--Religion and Customs of the Bombay Parsees.

Egypt, The Home of Hieroglyphs, Tombs and Mummies 135

Picturesque Oriental Life as Seen in Cairo--Among the Ruins of Luxor and Karnak--Tombs of The Kings at Ancient Thebes--Sailing Down the Nile on a Small Steamer--Before the Pyramids and the Sphinx.

Hints for Travelers 167

Some Suggestions That May Save the Tourist Time and Money.

Part 2

Bibliography 171

Books Which Help One to Understand the Orient and Its People.

Index 175

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Taj Mahal at Agra Frontispiece

The Yomei-mori Gate, Ieyasu Temple, Nikko Facing 14

The Daibutsu or Great Bronze Buddha at Hyogo 30

Imperial Gate, Fort Santiago, Manila 56

The City of Boats at Canton 74

Hindoos Bathing in the Ganges at Benares 100

Front View of the Taj Mahal, Agra 114

One of the Main Avenues of Bombay 126

The Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak 146

PLATES

PLATE

Japan Following page 48

Street Scene, Asakusa Park, Tokyo I

Entrance Hall of Modern Home of a Tokyo Millionaire II

Bronze Lanterns and Sacred Fountain, Shiba Temple, Tokyo III

Sacred Red Bridge at Nikko IV

Avenue of Cryptomeria to Futaaru Temple, Nikko V

Avenue of Cryptomeria Trees, near Nikko VI

Great Bronze Torii, Nikko VII

Stone Lanterns, Kasuga Temple Park, Nara VIII

Religious Procession, Kyoto IX

Scene on Canal, Kyoto X

Street Scene in Kobe XI

Part 3

A Group of Japanese Schoolboys XII

Japanese Peasant Group by the Roadside XIII

Scene in Large Private Garden, Kyoto XIV

Iris Bed at Horikiri, near Tokyo XV

Private Garden, Kamakura XVI

Manila Following page 62

A Glimpse of the Escolta, Manila XVII

Old Church and Bridge at Pasig XVIII

The Binondo Canal at Manila XIX

On the Malecon Drive, Manila XX

View on a Manila Canal XXI

A Filipino Peasant Girl on the Way to Market XXII

The Carabao Cart in the Philippines XXIII

The Nipa Hut of the Filipino XXIV

Hongkong, Canton, Singapore, Rangoon Following page 91

Queen's Road in Hongkong. XXV

Flower Market in a Hongkong Street XXVI

Coolies Carrying Burdens at Hongkong XXVII

The Spacious Foreign Bund at Hongkong XXVIII

Chinese Junks in Hongkong Harbor XXIX

View of the Water-front at Canton XXX

The New Chinese Bund at Canton XXXI

A Confucian Festival at Singapore XXXII

A Main Street in the Native Quarter of Singapore XXXIII

The Y. M. C. A. Building at Singapore XXXIV

The Great Shwe Dagon Pagoda at Rangoon XXXV

Entrance to the Shwe Dagon Pagoda XXXVI

Burmese Worshipping in the Pagoda at Rangoon XXXVII

Part 4

Riverside Scene at Rangoon XXXVIII

Trained Elephant Piling Teak at Rangoon XXXIX

Palm Avenue, Royal Lakes, Rangoon XL

India Following page 134

One of the Main Gates to Government House, Calcutta XLI

A Street Scene in Calcutta XLII

The Great Burning Ghat at Benares XLIII

View of the Bathing Ghats at Benares XLIV

A Holy Man of Benares Under His Umbrella XLV

The Residency at Lucknow XLVI

Tomb of Itmad-ul-Daulet at Agra XLVII

The Mutiny Memorial at Cawnpore XLVIII

Detail of Carving in the Jasmine Tower, Agra XLIX

The Jasmine Tower in Agra Fort L

Snap-shot of a Jain Family at Agra LI

The Fort at Agra Which Encloses Many Palaces LII

Kutab Minar, the Arch and the Iron Pillar, near Delhi LIII

Shah Jehan's Heaven on Earth, Delhi LIV

Street View in Delhi LV

A Parsee Tower of Silence at Bombay LVI

Egypt Following page 164

A Typical Street in Old Cairo LVII

An Arab Cafe in One of Cairo's Streets LVIII

Women Water Carriers in Turkish Costume LIX

The Rameseon at Karnak LX

The Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak LXI

An Arab Village on the Nile LXII

The Colossi of Memnon, near Thebes LXIII

Part 5

The Great Sphinx, Showing the Temple Underneath LXIV

Introduction

This book of impressions of the Far East is called "The Critic in the Orient," because the writer for over thirty years has been a professional critic of new books--one trained to get at the best in all literary works and reveal it to the reader. This critical work--a combination of rapid reading and equally rapid written estimate of new publications--would have been deadly, save for a love of books, so deep and enduring that it has turned drudgery into pastime and an enthusiasm for discovering good things in every new book which no amount of literary trash was ever able to smother.

After years of such strenuous critical work, the mind becomes molded in a certain cast. It is as impossible for me to put aside the habit of the literary critic as it would be for a hunter who had spent his whole life in the woods to be content in a great city. So when I started out on this trip around the world the critical apparatus which I had used in getting at the heart of books was applied to the people and the places along this great girdle about the globe.

Much of the benefit of foreign travel depends upon the reading that one has done. For years my eager curiosity about places had led me to read everything printed about the Orient and the South Seas. Add to this the stories which were brought into a newspaper office by globe trotters and adventurers, and you have an equipment which made me at times seem to be merely revising impressions made on an earlier journey. When you talk with a man who has spent ten or twenty years in Japan or China or the Straits Settlements, you cannot fail to get something of the color of life in those strange lands, especially if you have the newspaper training which impels you to ask questions and to drag out of your informant everything of human interest that the reader will care to know.

This newspaper instinct, which is developed by training but which one must possess in large measure before he can be successful in journalism, seizes upon everything and transmutes it into "copy" for the printer. To have taken this journey without setting down every day my impressions of places and people would have been a tiresome experience. What seemed labor to others who had not had my special training was as the breath in my nostrils. Even in the debilitating heat of the tropics it was always a pastime, never a task, to put into words my ideas of the historic places which I knew so well from years of reading and which I had just seen. And the richer the background of history, the greater was my enjoyment in painting with words full of color a picture of my impressions, for the benefit of those who were not able to share my pleasure in the actual sight of these famous places of the Far East.

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