The Critic in the Orient (Classic Reprint)

THIS book of impressions of the Far East is called .I. "fJ'he 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 aI/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

Table of Contents

CONTENTS; INTRODUCTION ?; THE BEST RESULTS OF TRAVEL IN THE ORIENT; JAPAN, THE PICTURE COUNTRY OF THE ORIENT ??; First Impressions of Japan and the Life of the JapaneseThe; 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 CharacterWill; the Japanese Retain Their Good Traits?; MANILA, TRANSFORMED BY THE AMERICANS ? ?; First Impressions of Manila and Its Picturesque PeopleAmerican; Work in the Philippine Islands-Scenes in the; City of Manila and Suburbs; HONGKONG, CANTON, SINGAPORE AND RANGOON; Hongkong, the Greatest British Port in the Orient-A; Visit to Canton in Days of Wild Panic-Singapore, th:; Meeting Place of Many Races-Strange Night Scenes in; the