himself face to face with the puzzling enigma of how the condemnation is right when pronounced by Buddhism, and of indifferent value when pronounced by Christianity. He will find it difficult also to restrain a lively and irrepressible inquiry as to why, if the Government, "believing the condemnation to be right," feels under obligation to prohibit forever the Burmese race from using it, it should not also carry out the same prohibition in the case of the Indian races, and, so far as its participation is concerned, in the case of the Chinese race. The truth seems to be that the report of the recent Royal Commission was rendered in the interest of financial and political expediency rather than with any profound consideration of the moral responsibility involved. As to the real extent of the evil, geographically, physically, morally, and socially, the evidence seems conclusive to one who receives it in an unprejudiced spirit and studies its significance. habit, and the evils of its use. A geographical survey of the area of the opium The area of the opium habit presents at the outset the striking fact that Japan is free. The wisdom of her statesmen has guaranteed her by treaty against the introduction of the drug, while the laws against its manufacture and use are of exemplary severity and are strictly enforced. It had been carried into Korea by the Chinese, and was rapidly gaining headway, but there is reason to hope that if Japanese influence and supervision rather than Russian are to prevail in Korea, the evil will be checked. Throughout the length and breadth of China, even in her far western provinces of Shensi, Szechuan, and Yunnan, it prevails to an extent which may be regarded as a frightful and demoralizing social evil. The testimony as to its prevalence in Yunnan and the remoter provinces reports as high as eighty per cent. of the men and fifty per cent. of the women addicted to the pernicious habit.1 In Formosa opium and whiskey have been counted as two of the main evils to be contended with. The recent prohibition of the opium trade by the Japanese has, however, given the hope of a change for the better. In the Eastern Archipelago there is the same story of its desolating effects. In Siam and Laos it ranks as a baneful custom. the Straits Settlements it has securely established itself. In Burma it was rapidly doing its deadly work until the revolt of the Burmese effected a remarkable change of policy on the part of the British Government. In India, owing to the Government custom of licensing for a consideration its use, and practically facilitating its consumption, it is an evil which is growing with alarming rapidity. Testimonies from 1 China's Millions, December, 1894, p. 168. In all parts of India leave no doubt upon this point. Opium dens are becoming a feature of dissipation in the cities of India, and are not unknown even in the larger villages. The Island of Ceylon is plentifully supplied with them, especially its principal city of Colombo. One of the most distressing aspects of its use in India is the habit of giving it to children, even during infancy, to stupefy them into quietness. Its effect upon their physical and mental constitution induces a state of paralysis and collapse which frequently results in lifelong injury.1 In Persia the drug is both cultivated and used in considerable quantities. In Teheran, Meshed, and other cities opium dens are to be found.2 Beyond the boundaries mentioned, while there is a scattering and dangerous tendency to the prevalence of the vice, yet we cannot regard it as in the same sense a dominant social evil, as it certainly must be considered within the above-indicated geographical limits. As to its physical and moral effects a large volume might be written.3 We cannot enter into the subject at any length, and yet it should not be dismissed without at least a decisive verdict. To a candid student of the testimony of those whose assertions can be relied upon and who speak from personal observation, there can be but one conclusion, and that is that it is one of the most threatening and militant evils of China, and, indeed, of all sections of the earth where it is gaining headway.4 1 Friend of China, December, 1894, p. 111; The Missionary Herald, August, 1894, p. 324. 2 "The opium poppy is grown in many parts of Persia. The surplus opium is exported to China, India, and England. The commercial value of the opium exported from Persia per annum probably approaches $2,500,000. The quantity of opium consumed in Persia is comparatively large, and is no doubt on the increase. I think it is a low estimate to say that one third of the adult population, including both sexes, use it immoderately, and a very large proportion of the remainder use it to some extent. During a recent visit to the city of Meshed I went into two opium dens, and the people I found were the vilest of the vile. More recently, one night, I visited twelve of these dens in the city of Teheran. I found therein in all about one hundred and fifty people. I do not suppose that it is known how many of these public opium dens there are in Teheran, but I should not be surprised if there are one hundred of them, besides the ordinary tea-houses where the brittle opium is smoked, and private houses where a few friends meet regularly to indulge. Probably a million and a quarter of people in Persia are addicted to the opium habit. They consume at least 3,881,410 pounds in a year, which at present prices is worth $9,125,274."-Rev. Lewis F. Esselstyn (P. B. F. M. N.), Teheran, Persia. 3 Dudgeon, "The Evils of the Use of Opium." Cf. also "Report of Shanghai Conference," 1890, pp. 314-354. 4 For a recent sketch of the present status of the anti-opium movement see Missionary Review of the World, April, 1896, p. 265. In Korea The prevalence of gambling in China and throughout the world. 3. THE GAMBLING HABIT.-Although gambling is to be found in Japan, and apparently in some places to excess, despite a laudable effort on the part of the Government to suppress it, yet the contrast with China in this particular is greatly to the credit of the Japanese. the passion is widespread, and is apparently unrestrained. China, however, seems to lead the van of the gambling fraternity throughout the world. The indulgence of the Chinese is immemorial and inveterate; in fact, it is justly regarded as the most prominent vice in China, its only rival being the opium habit.1 To be sure, it is forbidden by the Government, but the prohibition seems to be a dead letter, either through bribery or through the utter inefficiency of the authorities, and it can hardly be said that there is the slightest official restraint upon the universal passion, which seems to hold sway among all classes, from the mandarins and literati down to the homeless and poverty-stricken beggars, who are often in their way the most hopeless slaves to the habit. It In Siam the vice seems to carry the nation by storm, but vigorous attempts at suppression have been made by the authorities, and it is now forbidden, except on holidays, when it is allowed unchecked. cannot be said, however, that the efforts of the Government are ingenuous, as it draws a large revenue from this source by licensing lotteries and gambling-houses. These licenses are farmed out to the highest bidder, and give him a monopoly, with the power of prosecuting all competitors. It is next to impossible for a government to suppress a vice with one hand and encourage it for its own private gains with the other. We are not surprised to read, therefore, that "gamblinghouses and their natural concomitants and next-door neighbors, the pawnshops, are numerous in Bangkok," and that "this deadly national trade can but increase so long as a native government prefers to use it as a source of profit rather than to check it as a national curse." 2 In Burma it is "the bane of the country," and in India, although checked by the British Government, it is still a social vice of large magnitude. It is a special feature of some religious festivals, when the British policy of non-interference in matters of religion leads the Government to allow it, on the ground that it is a concomitant of a religious celebration. In Persia and the Turkish Empire it is apparently increasingly prevalent. It hovers around the coast-line of Africa, 1 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., p. 825; Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 82, 383. 2 Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," p. 421. including Madagascar, but is little known in the interior. The whole Continent of South America seems to be under the demoralization of this social curse. In Central America and Mexico it is found to excess in all its forms, and often under official patronage. The South American Government lotteries are sources of vast revenues, portions of which are applied to the support of philanthropic institutions, and the remainder is appropriated by the State. Prizes as high as six hundred thousand dollars are given, and some as high as a million are already in contemplation.1 4. IMMORAL VICES.-The immemorial story of human frailty and lust, with their cruel adjuncts of brutality and crime and the wretched aftermath of shame and misery, is still in our day the most indelible moral taint of society which the world's history presents. There is no temptation more universal and more formidable than the solicitations of immorality. It is a theme which leads us by a short cut into the depths of human depravity, and we soon find that there are sins which cannot be named and revolting aspects of vice which can only be referred to with cautious reserve. It is in this connection that Christian morality wages its most stubborn conflicts and vindicates most engagingly its saintly beauty and its heavenly charm. It is the same old story in all ages, and the state of the world to-day, except as Christian purity has hallowed the relation of the sexes, is as abominable and nameless as ever. Immorality in Japan, The old Roman status in its essential abandon is faithfully reproduced in the licensed and wholly undisguised Yoshiwara of Tokyo, which is quite as much a matter-of-fact feature of the city, in spite of its horrid commerce in girls, as its hotels and temples. The same plan of government provision for "regulated" vice prevails in all Japanese cities, and seems to be regarded with quite as much complacency as the public parks and the innocent-looking tea-houses.2 The inmates are virtually the galley-slaves of lust, having often been sold by fathers or brothers to the cruel servitude; yet, strange to say, they do not necessarily lose social caste, so that the transfer to the relation of legal marriage with the assumption of an honorable position in the home is entirely free from the shock which such an incident would 1 The Gospel in all Lands, July, 1894, p. 313. 2 Norman, "The Real Japan," p. 269. Cf. also "How the Social Evil is Regu lated in Japan," a pamphlet printed in Tokyo for private circulation only. involve in Western or even in other Eastern lands. A Japanese may find there either a wife or a concubine, as he prefers, with hardly more comment upon the act in the one case than in the other. The fact that this is only rarely done may be conceded, but the possibility of its being accomplished with the easy and complacent assent of social sentiment. is a significant sign of the lax views that prevail. Many Mikados, even in recent times, have been born of concubines.1 It is true that Japanese law prohibits bigamy, and that marital fidelity is exacted so far as the conduct of the wife is concerned, but there is no such demand upon the husband, and still less upon men who are not married. A dual code is as clearly recognized as the distinction of sex itself. The man is under no bonds which society or even his own wife can insist upon. He is free to legally register concubines as inmates of his home, and his indulgence, however open, meets no challenge or rebuke, not even from Japanese law, which does not recognize this kind of infidelity as even a partial plea for divorce.3 A candid survey of the social history of Japan would indicate immorality as her national vice. Relics of phallic worship are still to be found, and its spirit as well as its openly displayed symbols form even yet a feature of festival or holiday hilarity in certain sections of Japan. Hardly an expression of profanity is in use, but obscene references are common. Indecent pictures are tolerated with strange indifference in some sections in the interior of the country, even in public places where they catch the gaze of multitudes. Art and literature are made the medium of gross suggestiveness, and in too many cases are defiled with shameless indelicacy. Some strange and startling unconventionalities in connection with bathing customs and scantiness of attire seem to characterize the every-day life of the people. We should not, however, judge too hastily and severely customs like these as necessarily an indication of special moral depravity, since so much depends upon the spirit of the participants and the atmosphere of local sentiment. It cannot be disguised, however, that the "social evil" and all its concomitants are the open shame of Japan more than of any other people outside the license of tropical barbarism. An extract from Neesima's diary in 1864 gives an insight into the shocking condition of the coast cities and towns.5 There has been no change for the better, except as Christian effort has succeeded in grap Griffis, "The Religions of Japan," pp. 124, 149, 320. 4 Edmund Buckley, "Phallicism in Japan" (Chicago, The University Press). Davis, "Life of Neesima," p. 22. |