Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-09-04
YEDO.
strange sights-Prettys Tea Girls
IA Great Fire, Etc.

Under date Of June 10th, Mr.. James
Brooks, Of the New York Express,
writes from Yedo,
What / saw on this Tocaido good
New York fancy reporter could make a
thousand columns Of, with pictures
added on to make althousand more; but
man don't see much when riding back
ward in an American Minister s carri-
age, in the hi, hi, hi style we were going,
with guardsmen and betto. All the way,
more or less, are planted pleasant tea
houses. We "tea here, when we must
stop by the wayside, and in such little
bits of cups that could drink the con-
tents Of, twenty of them, and then want
more. Pretty tea girls stand by the en-
trance their teeth not yet blackened),
with pretty ways and courtesies so fascin-
ating, that tea, even without sugar or
milk, becomes agreeable, Tea houses
are the grogshops of Japan. I Our pretty
lacqured waters, the tea girls, hand you
your little tiny cups, with a monthful in
them and you squat down on the nice,
1 clean mats, if squaty you can I hayelto
stretch out at full length, and fill up halt
tea room, and you sip, and sip,
land sip this mouthful of hot tea, as II
/ the gods nectar was going down your
throat in infnitesimal drops Of micro
scopic invisibility. Tea, like sleep, is q
great invention. There's Bass beer, all
the way from London, stuck up in the
corner of the tea house shop, for beer
drinking travelling Englishmen but
what's Bass beer to tea-tea, if you
only can get enough of it, this hot
weather, with the thermometer over
ninety? A Japan tea house keeper
picks out as pretty a place for the tea
house as he or she (thel keeper can get,
The Keeper covets, if possible, a view'of,
and the air of, the Bay Of Yedo, along
which, the most of the way here, runs
the Tocaido, The grand tea house IS
cut up into numerous little rooms, with
paper partitions between to part them,
running on sides, but all removable at
Twill, to restore the whole to one grand
room. Cakes, sweetmeats and candies
are brought in with the tea, all put on
the clean matted floor (there are no
seats), and we all squat or stretch out
on that floor 1t is sitting hot IN these
tea houses Just now, and stretch out is
La great relief to a traveller. !" =
= Yedo is a fresh-born city in Montana,
or Wyoming, on the Pacific railroad, say
"a city of pine-board, bamboo, thatc he'd
hnts; one story high, seldom ever that,
though occasionally with two stories on
the upper mounted sometimes by a
lladdernand sometimes by steps almost
Perpendicular, kept so clean and well
polished as to be almost as slippery as
| ice. But don't misunderstood me. Yedo
lis at least 1000 years old. The pine
boards are beautifully planned by some
of the best carpenters in the world. The
banboos are the slide doors, with paper
windows, and the roofs are prettily
matched, if not covered, as most of them
are. with tiles. The floors are all GOV
cred with beautiful mats. The walls are
often lined with artistic drawings, and
paintings, and sketches, that indicate o
! high degree of refinement. The win
dows are of paper; the outer shntters
and doors of bamboo. They are lit al
night by tapers of vegetable wax, with
paper wicks, to fare well when the wind
blows. Hence the universal use of Ian.
terms to protect them from the wind.
! There is no neatness in the world like that
| in these wooden houses, not even among
the Dutch in Amsterdam, or Rotterdam,
or Schiedam, or any other Dutch dam;
| They shiver all over when foreigners
rough shoes tramp on their nice, spotless
mats. They never thus tread on them
themselves, never--they always take of
their shoes and leave them at the door,
while they ramble and seamper, to their
terror, over mats they sleep on-soft and
nics beds they are, though plague on the
wooden pillow. We look, peep and spy
into. and feel of everything, and they
laugh at our curiosity, while they look,
lpeel, and spyinto our ladies' habiliments.
Long ringlets astonish them more than
their skewered-up, sticky waxed hair
does us. They peep into our carpet
bags, as we peep into their closets, and
they dance about, and jump, and wrig-
gle before mirror they take ont, as we
do before their curiosities. Hoop petit
coats astound them more than ystraw
shoes and naked ancles do us. Every
fashion you see that is not our fashion
Is funny to us, and vice versa. I, n n e, 4
And, by the way shoes are of many
fashions here, as well as hats. The
horse, the pony, the working bullock, are
straw shod.. The workingman and wo-
man, are straw-shod. Nor are straw
shoes so very ridiculous as the word
seems. to import. A straw-bottomed
shoe, fastened over the big toe, with
straw. straps around the ancle is not a
shoe to be laughed at on a hot day. ]
wish 1 couldwear a pair in lieu of my
leather boots, this hot day The Straw
shoes of the horses and bullocks seem
stronger-but they are cheap, cost only
a cent, and are everywhere to. be had;
and when worn out, can be refurnished.
They wear, however, good while. The
swell Japs are initiating the foreigners,
and putting iron shoes on their horses;
but the great body of the people stick to
the straw. There are other men and
women's shoes; some. cost three cents,
some six, the high officials wearing blue
cloth, or silk, as cover to the foot and
the shoe of the country underneath.
There is a very nice, shoe, for Chinese
horses, made all of wood-two story
shoes, /. may call them, on two props,
\ which 20 clatter, clatter, clatter, but
keep the feet nice and clean. Allshoes
are put of, as the house is entered, and
thus everywhere are clean mats and
clean rooms eu1rA
They burnt three hundred houses last
night-(in honor Of our arrival2 Idon I
write that)-only three hundred But
three hundred houses on fire is not much
Of a FIRE for Yedo. The houses don't
Hcost much-only 800, or $QOG, or 5000
(this is my. guess, only, and all the fit
tings and furniture can be carried off,
with screens, and mats, and paper-slid.
ing partitions. and pots and kettles, by
two coolies, as the fire comes along. I
gin-rick-d-sha'd by the runs this morn
ing, and while in one place the 6remen
| (thev have them here) were sputtering