Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1873-12-20
Fpm Correspondent to the Cleveland Herald.
JAPAN.


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place. Everything here is so totally
different from what it is at home, that i
really seems to me that / am in another
world. And yet have seen but littlt
of Japan since our arrival. I have beer
80 busy that as yet have no opportuni
ty to visit the country or see the sights
Since my arrival / have been at th.
"Grand Hotel" wish YOU could Sc,
this hotel at which am stopping. IL may
perhaps, seem to you that your CORES
pondent is in Heather country. Per
haps your dreams are disturbed by Wis
ions of the plights to which he has been
reduced by lack of the convenience
OF civilization. You see him, no doubt
seated on the matted floor, with his legt
curled up Turkish fashion, eating his
curry and rice, or chow-chow, with a
couple of long sticks. 1t may be even,
that ''long tailed rats" and juvenile cats
and dogs mingle themselves with your
ideas OF his diet. You wonder what he
will do for the little comforts and luxu-
ries of home. But don't let your con-
science or imagination worry you into a
fever. The Grand Hotel is not exactly
the grandest hotel in the universe, but
1T is nevertheless good one. A picture
OF my surroundings will give you some
idea of hotel life in Japan. First of all,
the room is lit by gas-and that is not
at all like the dim candle light of ignor-
ance in which Americans imagine Japan
is still groping. A good coal fire is the
next object that speaks of modern COM
fort. Add to this pretty Brussels car
pet, tasteful furniture and high-toned,
electric lightning communicating brass
bound bell knob, and you will begin to
get faint glimmering of the fact that
L am still in the nineteenth century. If
you don't believe me, come and see. /
don't care to be called a Muncbauson or
to be compared to Marco Polo.
Five years ago Yokohama was a
small fishing village; now its foreign
population numbers two thousand five
hundred, while from eighty to one hun
dred thousand japanese crowd its
streets and the rice fields Immediately
about it. Foreign trade and foreign in
fuences have made it what it is, and
you cannot, therefore, gain from it
fair or comprehensive idea of japanese
life or character. Still, it is unique in
itself and presents to the observer many
strange and new phases. Its people are
more particular in their attire when
they appear upon the streets and in pub
lie places than the people of Yeddo and
the interior, and yet it is not infrequently
that one comes across japanese gen.
tleman in Yokohama who has, in an ab-
stract mood, come out upon the streets
for morning airing, sans hat, sans
coat, sans everything else that is usual
ly considered necessary to an American
toilet, except that nondescript garne mt
similar to q wamus. But one soon
gets accustomed to these little eccen-
tricities.
l have not been long enough in Japan
to express an intelligent opinion con-
cerning its people or customs. find
that many of the ideas l once enter
tained were false and crude There is
an interest attached to it that does not
grow less on nearer acquaintance. In
some few particulars its people have
been overated, but in others they equal
and even excel my expectations. There
is one trait of character in all the high
est as we'll as the lowest classes of its
citizens that strikes me with peculiar
force, and cannot but impress every
stranger most fayorably. l refer to the
politeness of the people. Go where you
will, and do as you may, you will always
be treated with politeness. The Coolie
that receives your hard words and hard
er blows, even, will greet you with a
kindly smile and polite salutation. 1t
is a wonderful sight to see two Japan
ese meet and greet each other. The
bowling and scraping, the humming and
awi ng, are truly wonderful. When a
Japanese desires particularly to do you
honor, and wishes to show his special
and all-pervading interest in your tenn
poral or spiritual welfare, he has way
of making kind of supping noise, as
though he were tasting hot soup, that is
as laughable as it is odd to outsiders
Two Japanese meeting and making this
funny sound, remind one very much of
two old-fashioned steam engines, in a
very bad and wheezy condition. But it
is not in outward show alone that the
Japanese shows his politeness, for it
proceeds with him from genuine good
nature, and he is as ready to act as he
is to speak. l suspect, however, that he
can, like some of his European cousins,
be like the devil when the mood comes
over him, but at the same time am just
as firmly convinced that he will lie from
a good, natural desire to please, rather
than from malicious purpose to mislead
and injure. If you ask servant at the
table to bring you pudding, and there
does not happen to- be any pudding on
the bill of fare, he will trot off quickly,
and complacently bring back nice
beef steak or a mutton chop. If you
venture to kindly hint that that is not
exactly the kind of pudding you want
ed, he Immediately begins to protest
that it is the best kind of pndding, and
the very best bit in the kitchen. Such
an obliging disposition cannot but be
attractive, even if it is at times liable to
the charge of being occasionally little
out of the strict plumb line of verify.
While speaking of japanese servants, /
am reminded Of another of their pecu-
liarities, and that is the alarming NOR
tality that sometimes prevails among
their dear relatives A japanese boy
not unfrequently loses his father three
mr. four tines durino, gtha vaar uhiln n