He is anxious to speak the very best English, and to say that a word is slangy or common interdicts its use. Sometimes, when the weather is fine and things go smoothly, he is in an excellent and communicative humour, and talks a good deal as we travel. A few days ago I remarked, âWhat a beautiful day this is!â and soon after, note-book in hand, he said, âYou say âa beautiful day.â Is that better English than âa devilish fine day,â which most foreigners say?â I replied that it was âcommon,â and âbeautifulâ has been brought out frequently since. Again, âWhen you ask a question you never say, âWhat the dâl is it?â as other foreigners do. Is it proper for men to say it and not for women?â I told him it was proper for neither, it was a very âcommonâ word, and I saw that he erased it from his note-book. At first he always used fellows for men, as, âWill you have one or two fellows for your kuruma?â âfellows and women.â At last he called the Chief Physician of the hospital here a fellow, on which I told him that it was slightly slangy, and at least âcolloquial,â and for two days he has scrupulously spoken of man and men. To-day he brought a boy with very sore eyes to see me, on which I exclaimed, âPoor little fellow!â and this evening he said, âYou called that boy a fellow, I thought it was a bad word!â The habits of many of the Yokohama foreigners have helped to obliterate any distinctions between right and wrong, if he ever made any. If he wishes to tell me that he has seen a very tipsy man, he always says he has seen âa fellow as drunk as an Englishman.â At NikkĂ´ I asked him how many legal wives a man could have in Japan, and he replied, âOnly one lawful one, but as many others (mekakĂŠ) as he can support, just as Englishmen have.â He never forgets a correction. Till I told him it was slangy he always spoke of inebriated people as âtight,â and when I gave him the words âtipsy,â âdrunk,â âintoxicated,â he asked me which one would use in writing good English, and since then he has always spoken of people as âintoxicated.â