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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

The prevalence of gambling in China and

it, yet the contrast with China in this particular is greatly to the credit of the Japanese. In Korea throughout the world. the passion is widespread, and is apparently unre

strained. 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.

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. It 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,
Korea, and China.

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.? 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

1 Chamberlain, "Things Japanese,” p. 292.

2 Ibid., p. 285.

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.

pling with the evil. "The finest houses in Japan belong to the woman in scarlet. . . The licensed government brothel, covering acres of land, is the most beautiful part of the capital. Oriental splendor-a myth in the streets-becomes reality when the portals of the Yoshiwara are crossed."1

In Korea a severe code of reserve surrounds woman; yet concubinage, amounting, in fact, to practical polygamy, is legal and common, while harlotry flaunts itself with exceptional boldness. Vices of the deepest dye, "suggestive of the society of Gomorrah," are known to be practised even in the highest social circles.3 Dancing-girls of immoral character are employed and paid by the Government, and are subject to the call of the magistrate at any time.

In China female chastity is severely guarded, and there is no licensed immorality; yet a state of things which is frankly acknowledged in Japan is simply an open secret among the Chinese.4 Society regards it with a sly frown, the Government prohibits and professes to discipline it; yet vice festers in every city of China and presents some shamefully loathsome aspects. The traffic in young girls, especially those who may be afflicted with blindness, is the usual method of supplying brothels with their inmates. The infamous trade of the "pocket-mother" and her colonies of native slave-girls, and its relation to the opium habit in the Straits Settlements and China, have been recently brought vividly to the attention of the British public by Mrs. Andrew and Dr. Kate Bushnell.5 In the every-day conversation of the Chinese, especially of the poorer classes, expressions so exceptionally vile that they cannot be hinted at are only too well known. "An English oath is a winged bullet; Chinese abuse is a ball of filth," says the author of "Chinese Characteristics." The notorious books and placards of Hunan are an indication of the interior furnishing of the Chinese imagination.

In Siam adultery is lightly condemned, and unclean vices are practised. In Tibet the moral status is low. Marriage is often a convenient fiction, and may be adjusted as a temporary bargain wherever a man may happen to be. Not only is polygamy common, but polyandry is recognized and practised among the peasantry.

1 Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," seventh edition, pp. 362, 368.

2 Griffis, "Corea," p. 251; Gilmore, "Korea," p. 109.

3 Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," p. 352.

4 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 179; Douglas, "Society in China,"

p. 205.

5 Cf. The Christian (London), March 28, 1895, article entitled "Social Morals in the Orient."

6 Marston, "The Great Closed Land," pp. 47, 49.

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