ABSTRACT
The Kyushu students of the Government College, or Higher Middle School, can scarcely be called boys; their ages ranging from the average of eighteen, for the lowest class, to that of twenty-five for the highest. The impression produced upon the Kumamoto students was very different from that received on first acquaintance with Izumo pupils. The delightfully amiable period of Japanese boyhood, and had developed into earnest, taciturn men, but also because they represented to a marked degree is called Kyushu character. Kyushu remains, as of yore, the most conservative part of Japan, and Kumamoto, its chief city, the centre of conservative feeling. This conservatism is, however, both rational and practical. Kyushu was not slow in adopting railroads, improved methods of education, agriculture, and applications of science to certain industries. The ancient samurai spirit still lives on; and that Kyushu spirit was for centuries one that exacted severe simplicity in habits of life.
