Background
House was born at Boston, Massachussets, in 1836, the son of Timothy and Ellen Maria (Child) House. His father was a banknote engraver and desired his son to follow the same vocation.
(Excerpt from The Japanese Expedition to Formosa Ir will ...)
Excerpt from The Japanese Expedition to Formosa Ir will be obvious that the following pages make no pretence to the ality of a historical record. They are chiefly collected from memoranda of personal observation of the incidents described, and of authentic narratives of the diplomatic transactions between the governments of Japan and China. Their necessarily hasty preparation makes them incomplete in many particulars, and there are, indeed, reasons why a full and unabridged report of the events connected with Formosa might be inexpedient at this moment; but, within the limits prescribed for them, they are believed to represent the leading features of the subject with accuracy, and to be sup ported by sutficient evidence upon all points concerning which discussion may hereafter arise. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Excerpt from Japanese Episodes A' purpose of this little...)
Excerpt from Japanese Episodes A' purpose of this little volume is to represent a few social and physical fea tures of Japan which have seldom been. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Originally published in 1888. This volume from the Cornel...)
Originally published in 1888. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
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(Excerpt from The Midnight Warning, and Other Stories I w...)
Excerpt from The Midnight Warning, and Other Stories I was in a state of such bewilderment that I could scarcely control my thoughts. Only a few hours before a strange and startling event had occurred, for which I was totally unprepared, and which had gone far to unsettle many of my boyish ideas of right and justice. It was not easy for me, at my age, to recover from a Shock so suddenly and so unexpectedly received. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Excerpt from The Simonoseki Affair: A Chapter of Japanese...)
Excerpt from The Simonoseki Affair: A Chapter of Japanese History V after many delays and postponements, the last instalments of this amount were paid in July, 1874. These are the simple facts, which are acknowledged by all parties. They have hitherto been put forward in a manner calculated to fix all the error and wrong of the various transactions upon Japan a circumstance which need not be wondered at, inasmuch as all the accessible reports have proceeded from parties more or less directly interested in establishing this view of the case. It is the purpose of this paper, by examining them with stricter impartiality, to exhibit them in a different aspect, and to demonstrate. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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journalist musician publicist author
House was born at Boston, Massachussets, in 1836, the son of Timothy and Ellen Maria (Child) House. His father was a banknote engraver and desired his son to follow the same vocation.
Young House preferred music, and for three years after 1850 studied orchestral composition, producing a few pieces which were occasionally performed.
In 1854 he became music and dramatic critic for the Boston Courier, transferring in 1858 to the New York Tribune which he served in the same capacity. The following year this paper sent him to report the John Brown raid, and during the Civil War he was a special correspondent with the Federal armies in Virginia. After the restoration of peace he spent three years in New York and London in theatrical management, returning in 1868 to the Tribune.
In 1870, he joined the staff of the New York Times. Earlier, while in New York, he had met Richard Hildreth, author of Japan As It Was and Is (1855), who had excited his imagination by tales of the Perry Expedition and given him a strongly pro-Japanese bent. As a result he sought and obtained appointment as "Professor of the English Language and Literature" at the Nanko (Kaisei Gakko), in Tokyo, an institution now forming part of the Imperial University. He arrived in Japan in 1871, but found the title of his position unduly ornate for the almost elementary work involved. He devoted his leisure to writing on topics connected with Japanese drama, and to explanations of current political affairs. His theory of the identity of Ghenghis Khan with the Japanese hero Yoshitsuné (later worked out in great detail by his pupil, Suyematsu), flattered Japanese pride, and a brilliant defense of Japan for protecting 200 Macao coolies who had escaped from the Peruvian slave-ship, Maria Luz, in Yokohama harbor in 1872, won him the warm friendship of Shigenobu Okuma, an imperial councilor and later marquis.
When, in 1873, Okuma was sent to Formosa in charge of a punitive expedition, House resigned his professorship and accompanied the army as a correspondent. His dispatches to the New York Herald were reprinted in Tokyo in 1875. On his return from Formosa the Satsuma Civil War was imminent, and House eagerly accepted the proposal that Okuma subsidize for him a weekly English-language newspaper, the Tokyo Times, to offset the three pro-rebel English papers published in Yokohama. During all of 1877 the Times fought a vigorous journalistic campaign to secure immediate abolition of extraterritorial rights, to gain customs freedom for Japan, and to secure a high protective tariff. It also demanded the return to Japan of the indemnities exacted by the Powers for expenses incurred at the bombardment of Shimonoseki in 1863, when the daimyo of Choshu attempted to close the straits. Through House's efforts, the Japanese believe, the American share was remitted. In the interest of these objects the Times insisted on the recall of Sir Harry S. Parkes, the British minister, whom House made the scapegoat for all alien residents.
House's predilection for Japan was strengthened by his acquaintance with the foreigners resident in Yokohama and in Tsukiji, the foreign settlement in Tokyo. Diplomatic attachés, businessmen, and missionaries were favorite targets for his caustic wit. His antagonism to missionaries was later embodied in a novel, Yone Santo, a Child of Japan, serialized in the Atlantic Monthly in 1888 and published in book form in 1889. Despite his brilliant and doggedly persistent service in Japan's behalf, the tall, robust, and sallow-faced newspaperman stirred up too many enmities among the foreigners whose friendship the Japanese government desired to cultivate. Accordingly, at the close of 1877, when the subsidy expired, the Tokyo Times ceased publication, and government support was transferred to Capt. Frank Brinkley, a more tactful publicist, whose paper, the Japan Mail, continued as the government organ until Brinkley's death in 1912.
House returned to America in 1880 and the following February moved to London, where he lived with Charles Reade. According to his own story (published in the Century Magazine, December 1897), he helped to launch Edwin Booth's British tour of 1881. He then became connected with the management of St. James's Theatre, London, but was incapacitated by a stroke in 1883. Through Okuma's influence he was awarded a life pension by the Japanese government, and was decorated by the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Second Class. After completing a number of magazine articles and publishing his novel, he returned to Japan with the purpose of popularizing Western music. He trained the Imperial Band and aided in the founding of the Meiji Musical Society, which developed into the Imperial Conservatory of Music. He died in Tokyo. In addition to Yone Santo, House published in America, Japanese Episodes (1881), a collection of his Atlantic, Harper's, and Tokyo Times articles, and Midnight Warning and Other Stories (1892). In Japan, he published The Kagoshima Affair (1874), The Shimonoseki Affair, A Chapter of Japanese History (1875), and The Japanese Expedition to Formosa (1875). Two magazine articles appeared in the New Princeton Review, "The Tariff in Japan" (January 1888) and "Foreign Jurisdiction in Japan" (March 1888).
(Excerpt from The Simonoseki Affair: A Chapter of Japanese...)
(Excerpt from Japanese Episodes A' purpose of this little...)
(Excerpt from The Japanese Expedition to Formosa Ir will ...)
(Excerpt from The Midnight Warning, and Other Stories I w...)
(Originally published in 1888. This volume from the Cornel...)
