Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/116

 have to deal with very difficult conditions at the open ports. The big, muscular, foreign sailor, primed with liquor and craving for a fight, disdains the notion of having Oriental hands laid on him, and finds it intolerable to be haled to prison by a diminutive Japanese. He resists so efficiently that some of the native constables have become persuaded of the necessity of clubbing him at the first symptom of opposition. Such cases, however, are exceptional. As for the average foreigner, it may be truly said that beyond the limits of the treaty ports, beyond the districts where his own masterful way has given umbrage or his own misunderstood familiarity bred contempt, he finds everywhere civility and a sunny welcome. If association with him has not improved the manners of the Japanese towards him, the responsibility must be at least divided. On the whole, however, there is no country where a stranger can be more certain of freedom from unpleasant molestation of every kind than in Japan.

Japanese officials are divided into four grades: the first comprising those that receive their commissions direct from the Emperor and are entitled to report personally to him; the second, those that receive their commissions through the Minister of a Department and have the entrée to the Palace on State occasions; the third, those commissioned similarly to the second, but not having the entrée to the Palace; and the fourth, those temporarily engaged and having the status of mere