ABSTRACT
ONE of our amusements as we strolled about the towns we visited was to study the signs along the streets. There was human interest in them. But a few of those we saw were unique. Yet in spite of their oddity they are truly signs of the times; there is some history in telling how they came to be, for they are of the period when Japan was stepping from her old clothes into her new. Feudalism with its daimiyos and military retainers was disappearing, and so were caste distinctions. The Government had just established a system of schools on a German- American plan, with much English and much military drill, and had set all the youth of the nation to school together to gain Western knowledge. Children of the four classes of society—warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants, and even of the outcast “ Etta,” met on a common footing for the first time.
