Fifty years in Wall Street

would banish all thought of a disruption of our pleasant relations. The Yankees of the West respect and admire the Yankees of the East, and every effort should be made to increase the harmony which now prevails. Hoping, my dear Prince, that you are enjoying good health and happiness, I remain Faithfully yours, HENRY CLEWS. MARQUIS ITO, TOKYO, JAPAN. * * * * * FLEET TO VISIT JAPAN. INVITATION ACCEPTED. NEW PROOF OF FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO NATIONS. _Official Statement from Washington, March 20._ The American battleship fleet is to visit Japan. The desire of the Emperor to play host to the “Big Sixteen” was expressed to Secretary Root yesterday by Baron Takahira, the Japanese Ambassador. The invitation, which was in the most cordial terms, was considered by President Roosevelt and the Cabinet to-day. Secretary Root was directed to accept the invitation, and the acceptance was communicated to Baron Takahira this afternoon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER LXXXVIII. THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN. * * * * * DECORATES HENRY CLEWS WITH THE ORDER OF COMMANDEUR OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ORDER OF THE RISING SUN—ON THE INSIGNIA IN JAPANESE LETTERS IS “KUN-KO-SEI-SHO”—WHICH MEANS “EXALTED MARK OF MERITS AND SERVICES.” * * * * * LETTER FROM VISCOUNT KANEKO. _New York Tribune_, March 21, 1908. TOKYO, March 23, 1908. MY DEAR MR. CLEWS: Please accept my heartiest congratulation on the new honor which has been added to your already distinguished life by His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor, who was pleased to confer upon you the Imperial Decoration, in recognition of your valuable service to this country. In due time, I know, Ambassador Takahira in Washington will officially present it to you. I hardly need say how gratefully I am appreciating your kind friendship which enabled me to perform whatever was entrusted to me, though to a very modest extent, during my sojourn in your land in 1904-1905. And in this connection, I assure you that I now look back, with much feeling, to those pleasant times I had with you in America. I sincerely hope that our next meeting will soon be in this country where your special interest in us is already so greatly appreciated, as is shown in the recognition which has been given you by the Emperor this time. With my renewed assurance of the warmest regards to yourself, and hoping that this will find you well, I remain, Very sincerely yours, (Signed) KENTARO KANEKO. MR. HENRY CLEWS, NEW YORK CITY. COPY OF LETTER TO VISCOUNT KENTARO KANEKO. April 25, 1908. MY DEAR VISCOUNT: I am in receipt of your most highly appreciated letter of March 23d, for which I cordially thank you; and I am daily expecting to be honored by receiving the Imperial Decoration which you state is to be conveyed by Ambassador Takahira. Upon its receipt I will formally express my gratification to his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor, for the great honor conferred. If Japan were nearer to New York I might be able to promise that our next meeting would be in your own country—the Land of the Rising Sun—but as you have achieved so much good for Japan, in the United States, I doubt not that business, or international diplomacy, of which you are one of the masters, will bring you here again, when, I assure you, you will be received with the honor and respect which your distinguished services and your high personal character entitle you to expect. With assurances of the highest regard and friendship for you and your countrymen, I have the honor to remain, Very sincerely yours, HENRY CLEWS. VISCOUNT KENTARO KANEKO, TOKYO, JAPAN. CONSULATE GENERAL OF JAPAN. 60 WALL STREET, NEW YORK CITY, April 27, 1908. ESTEEMED SIR: Referring to the official dispatch of even date, I take liberty to ask you to appoint some afternoon in the near future which will be convenient for you to receive me at your home or elsewhere when I will have the honor and pleasure of carrying out the important mission of presenting you with the distinguished mark of honor. With kind regards, Yours very respectfully, (Signed) K. MIDZUNO. MR. HENRY CLEWS, 630 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY. I named Sunday, May 3d, at half-past one o’clock, at my residence, 630 Fifth Avenue, and invited a large number of friends to luncheon, which made the occasion a most enthusiastic and enjoyable one. The Honorable Kokichi Midzuno, said: Mr. Clews, acting under the instructions of His Excellency Count Tadasu Hayashi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, I have the honor to inform you that His Imperial Majesty, the Tenno of Japan, my August Sovereign, as a special token of Imperial good will, has graciously been pleased to confer upon you the decoration of Commandeur of the most distinguished order of the Rising Sun, and I have the honor to present to you the said decoration. In performing this most pleasant duty, I deem it my privilege to avail myself of this occasion to tender my hearty congratulations and to convey to you, Esteemed Sir, the assurance of my highest consideration. Which was replied to by me as follows: MR. MIDZUNO: In receiving at your hands under the instructions of His Excellency Count Tadasu Hayashi, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Empire of Japan, the decoration of Commandeur of the most distinguished order of the Rising Sun, bestowed upon me by His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, as a special token of his good will, I respectfully acknowledge my high appreciation of the honor, and shall always value the distinction as one of the greatest that could be conferred upon me. I shall ever regard it not alone as a flattering compliment to myself, and a recognition of such services as I have been able to render, but as an emblem of the friendly relations that bind Japan and the United States together in a bond of sympathy; and I trust that this tie of friendship will never be weakened. I at least will always endeavor to strengthen it. I have long been intimately conversant with the affairs of Japan, and been deeply and sympathetically interested in the rapid and wonderful development of the Empire, and all the more so in consequence of my good fortune in having had the personal acquaintance, while they were in New York, of those two distinguished Japanese Statesmen, who are now Prince Ito and Viscount Kentaro Kaneko. Moreover, the correspondence that has passed between us since their return to Japan has only quickened my regard, and heightened my admiration for them and their Country. Both have proved themselves great in peace as well as war, and may the light of the Land of the Rising Sun never grow dim, and America and Japan be joined by their mutual interests in unbroken peace and concord forever. With many thanks to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor, for this great honor, and to His Excellency Count Tadasu Hayashi, as well as yourself, for your courtesy in the fulfilment of your duties, and for the evidences of your personal friendship for me, which touches me deeply, I assure you that my appreciation cannot be expressed in words. This symbol of the Rising Sun indicates the coming of the day of greatness of your nation, and my fervent hope is that darkness may be unknown in your land. In the midst of our festivities to-day there is a cloud, and I desire to express my deepest sympathy to the people of Japan in the loss of so many young lives in the disaster which visited them during the past week. Though dead, these young men still live as an example to others that a life given to country in time of peace deserves the same lasting glory as though given in battle. I then requested the ladies and gentlemen to fill their glasses and rise and drink to the health of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan. The Consul General of Japan answered the toast as follows: MR. CLEWS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: As the local representative of Japan, I have the pleasure and honor to thank you for the toast to His Imperial Majesty, proposed by our esteemed Host and so heartily joined in by you all. It is high honor as well as great pleasure that I was in a position to personally present that high mark of honor to Mr. Henry Clews. But what makes me most happy is that this came in most opportune time, when the international horizon which was said to be more or less clouded for some time has become clear—so clear that even the yellowest journals of this country which are sparing no efforts to stir up anti-Japanese feeling among American people, can no more find any meteorological item for a pessimistic weather forecast. Now that all transient and incidental questions between your country and ours have been settled in an amicable way, now that your government, on behalf of your people, have gladly accepted our invitation to participate in the Grand Exposition to be held in Japan in 1912, and now that my fellow countrymen in Japan have most pleasant anticipation to welcome the officers and men of your mighty fleet of battleships in our beautiful ports, I hope and trust that the most friendly relations between two nations, which have existed and are happily existing, will be an everlasting one. In conferring upon you, Mr. Clews, that high mark of honor which I have just had the pleasure to present, His Majesty is reflecting the friendly feeling and unfeigned affection that fifty millions of His faithful subjects entertain toward the people of this great Republic for their kind guidance and unshaken sympathy shown to Japan and her people from the time when your great Commodore knocked at the door of our Island Empire to invite its secluded people to the comity of nations down to the present day, not to speak of the most trying time Japan passed through a few years ago, and their gratitude for the most valuable service rendered by American people to effect the termination of hostilities and restoration of peace through the far-sighted, active, and able good offices of your great President, whose toast I beg to propose. My acknowledgment by letter of the honor conferred upon me: May 2, 1908. DEAR SIR: