The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

A Cruise in Japanese Waters. By. Captain
Sherard Osborne, C. 8., author of "Leaves from
an Arctic Journal," " Quedah," &c. Blackwood.
Many will before this have become familar with
this work in the pages of Blackwood's Magazine, in
which periodical its several chapters appeared. It
is, however, gratifying to meet with it again in a
collected form, and it will, there is no reason to
doubt, obtain a favourable reception. It possesses
the advantages of treating of a most important
topic, and it is also to be considered as a most in-
teresting book, from the pleasing manner in which
it is 'written, and from the varied information it

imparts concerning a place and people not often
chronicled in the pages of travellers who record
their wanderings. The various descriptions given
of the Japanese are very entertaining, and the
reader who commences the voyage with the amus-
ing narrator will not be likely to part from him
till he has said his last farewell to Japan. Captain
Osborne may be congratulated in having contri-
buted so valuable an addition to the experiences of
foreign lands as the present remarkable work, in
which we meet with a most graphic account of im-
portant events, and a delightful description of the
sights seen, and the adventures encountered in his
momentous voyage.

American Photographs. By Jane M. E. Turnbull
and Marion Turnbull. Two vols. Newby.
One of the most remarkable changes in the lite-
rary world of late years has been the great increase
of feminine authorship. The reign over the world
of fiction has long been disputed by female sove-
reigns, and they are now proceeding to compete
with the travellers' tales which modern enterprise
has made so common. Many ladies have recently
given us their impressions of various parts of
Europe, Asia, and Australia, and two adventurous
sisters have now added to the list a fresh and viva-
cious account of their visit to the great continent of
the West. Five years' wanderings in the various
States of America enabled them to gather much
information respecting the manners and habits of
our transatlantic cousins, and to witness some of
those marvels of Nature which so amply repay the
traveller's toil. The work does not enter upon the
vexed political questions of the day, but in a series
of photographs gives us a view of American life
and scenery as they appeared to the quick observa-
tion and lively spirits of the two adventurous
authoresses. They speak throughout in cordial
terms of the people with whom they mingled, and
thus repay their hospitable reception. A few ex-
tracts will give the best idea of the vivacious and
entertaining style of the work. Here is an account
of a shopping expedition which one of the party
undertook in company with an American lady,
very shortly after their arrival :
" The day was very cold, and the streets were as slip-
pery as glass, and just as I was going out of the door the
American lady said, take cane how you go down the stoop'
(steps), for I see you have no creepers on. ' What are
creepers ?" Why, rubbers to be sure I' If you attempt
to walk in such weather as this without them you will fall,
so we will buy a pair as we return. Now, my dear, we will
drive down Broadway to the principal dry goods store in
the city. Never having heard of a dry goods store, I con-
cluded in my own mind that it meant a store house, packed
with groceries—a sort of wholesale place; but judge of my
surprise when we stopped at a most magnificent building of
pure white marble, with all the blinds down, and on entering
found, instead of groceries, a second Howell and Co. on a more
extended scale ; for the enormous size and splendid exterior
of this shop is extraordinary. It is called Stewarts,' and
everything of the best description, for ladies' and gentle-
mens' wear, or for furnishing a house, can be here procured .
After we had walked all through this really wonderful
shop, the lady said she wished to make a few little pur-
chases. The first thing she asked for was to see some ' bed
spreads.' What did you ask for ?' I said. ' Bed spreads.'
Not liking to ask again what she meant, I quietly waited
till they were produced, and they turned out to be counter-
panes. A white sun shade' was the next article—that
was a parasol. My curiosity was again excited by her
asking for paper cambric,' and twelve yards of cotton
batting.' I began to despair of ever being able to make my-
self intelligibly understood in the shopping line. These
latter articles were common glazed muslin, and wadding,
which is sold by the yard instead of sheets, a great conveni-
ence. Our next visit was to Ball and Black, the great
jewellers; to look at some brooches, bracelets, and rinds,when, to my astonisment, she asked for I breast pins,'
wristlets,' and 'finger rings.' We now went into
Thompson's to have luncheon. She asked me what
I liked best; but thinking that perhaps the eat-
ables might be called by names I knew nothing
about, I enquire of her what was best, to which
she replied, ' let me order what I think will suit you.'
Her orders were as follows Waiter, will you bring stews
with crackers, soft shell crabs, squab owl, with Irish pota-
toes and fixings—and waiter, don't forget some cold slaw,
and squash pie. It was with the greatest curiosity that I
waited the appearance of viands with such outlandish
names, and it was not long before the waiter appeared with
our wonderful luncheon. The stew' was a sort of oyster
soup, which is eaten with biscuits, and is exceedingly
good. The 'soft shell crabs' were fried, and about the size
of a person's hand Squab owl' meant game
out of season. Irish potatoes were simply our own sort of
potatoes, but they invariably put the paddy' before it.
I [may also enlighten you as to what the fixings' are
—fixings means vegetables, relishes for the meat; and
biscuits, or bread for soup; in fact, any of the little e
cmteras that are required. Cold slaw' is the hearts o
raw cabbage cut fine. The squash pie and cabbage I de.
dined.

We now set off to finish our shopping, and went into
a fine boot shop to get my creepers, where I succeeded in
obtaining a very nice pair of what we should call over-
shoes, with rough soles. Here I must again confess my
ignorance in understanding what the lady wanted, when she
said she wanted to try on a pair of gaiter boots,' and also
a pair of congress gaiter boots,' with paper soles.' Well !
I thought, I had heard of American ladies wearing very
thin sales to their shoes and boots, but never understood
that they were made of paper. These boots I immediately
inspected, and found them to be what we call thin single
sole boots, with elastic sides ; and the other pair were made
to lace, with rather a thicker sole, in every respect the same
as ours, except in their Americanised name. On our way
home, she said, " now, I have nothing more to buy except
some' spools' of silk and cotton, and to order a ' shingle.' "
On hearing this, I fairly gave up the idea of understanding
the American language without a vocabulary. We soon
purchased the spools, (reels) but the 'shingle' was the
thing that I was anxious about. We stopped at a shop,
and she said, will you come in, or remain in the carriage?'
'Oh 1 I said, I will go in;' for I was determined to
know what a shingle was. Imagine my astonishment
when she ordered a door plate, with her husband's name
on it I after this, I really did think it was time to go
home."
The travellers give an enthusiastic description of
their visit to Niagara, but on this, as on many
other occasions, the sublime was not far from the
ridiculous

Almost all our evenings at the Clifton House were spent
in wandering about the grounds, and sitting or walking on
the spacious verandahs, listening to the continued and
everlasting roar of the cataract. The evening before our
departure for Toronto we entered the public parlour, and
there in one corner sat a woman strangely attired, with her
black hair streaming over her shoulders, and in her hand a
dirty-looking little small-tooth comb, with which she was
combing her hair at a furious rate, a most unusual proceed-
ing in a drawing-room I As she was evidently a character
from whom we thought we might extract some amusement,
one of us walked up to her and said—
"l suppose you are travelling ?"
" I guess I am."
Have you come from a considerable distance ?"
" Well, I guess I have, for I've rid in the hot thirty mile
to see Niagara Falls, although my people 't hum told me
it wern't worth the trouble; but you see sometimes I heard
it a roaring and a roaring at nights,'and I thought I should
like to see what sort of thing it could be, and I tell you it's
real nice and elegant, and worth the trouble, anyhow."
This was almost equal to the tailor who thought Niagara
would be " a fust rate place to sponge a coat in."

During their stay in Boston the travellers became
acquainted with all the beauty and inconveniences
of an Americen snow-storm :

The last winter we spent in Boston was an unusually
severe one ; and the snow in the streets in some places was
upwards of six feet in depth. The streets presented a most
curious appearance; the people who lived in the houses
had thrown the snow up into the middle of the road from
the flags, and when walking on the pavement you might
see carriages and houses above you, on the road.
Oxen were used to tread down the snow, and after a few
days the streets became almost impassable, having become
one mass of corrugated snow. The Bostonians call these
corrugations " cradles," and every person who went out in
a closed vehicle came home sea-sick ;it was exactly like
being at sea, and the sleigh appeared to ascend and descend
waves with the greatest regularity. •
The city authorities were obliged to have the streets
ploughed, and the work was so heavy, that oxen had to be
employed instead of horses. After the streets were ploughed
the huge lumps of frozen snow were carted away and
thrown into the harbour; the road was then made as smooth
as they could under the circumstances by the use of the
pickaxe and shovel ; hundreds of men being employed
night and day in this manner, at an immense expense, to
keep the streets in a passable condition.
One day some of our friends came to us, and advised us
to go and look at the common. ,When we arrived, the
common presented a most splendid appearance. The heavy
snow had melted on the branches, and then a sudden frost
had come, which froze the snow as it dripped from the
branches, leaving every tree laden with heavy icicles, some
more than a yard long, every trunk, branch, and twig being
clothed in a transparent robe of ice. The ground was
covered with the pure white snow, out of which rose
dozens of glittering frozen trees, with their crystal branches
glistening in the sun. The wind among. the glassy'
branches emitted a peculiar creaking and whistling seund,

Ebb and Flow. A novel. 8 vols. Newby.
This story has certainly variety to recommend it,
if it cannot lay claim to anything remarkable in
the way of ability. Some of the incidents are of a
painful nature ; indeed, the author seems to delight
in the details that border on the horrible. The
most awful scene described here is the railway train
passing over the carriage of Mr. and Mrs. Elmsley,
who were most imprudently crossing the line. The
only really pleasing character in the book is Mr.
Smith, who never pretends to be other than he is,
and whose spirit and energy are powerfully exem-
plified in the struggles he had to make in the
cause of his oppressed wife and sister-in-law. The
wrongs of Julia are enough, indeed, to arouse the
deepest indignation, and it is quite a satisfaction to
learn that her cruel betrayer meets the fate he so
truly deserves. The humiliation was the more com-
plete, as the period was then fixed for his marriage
with an heiress. The story will serve to amuse
those who like to find something out of the usual
even tenor of a novel, and to such it can be fairly
recommended.