The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1879-10-31
Dining In japan.

1uefe Is Ho piau, no form, IN Jap
| anese dinner, simply to dine with COM
fort. Of the quality of the food have
not confidence enough in my judgment
to give an opinion. Dining has appeared
to be one of the misfortunes that came
| with Adams fall, and have never been
able to think of it with enthusiasm. I
know that this is painful confession, the
| display of ignorance and want of taste,
but it cannot be helped. gave myself
| seriously to my dinner, because 1 am
| fond of Mr.. Yoshida, and his gracious
and refined hospitality. Then I thought
| it would be something that might want
to write about. But the dinner was be-
yond me. cannot say disliked it, and
liked it about as well as nineteen out of
| twenty of the dinners you have in New
York. It was picturesque and pleasing,
and in all its appointments so unlike any
thing in our close and compact way of
living that you felt somehow that you were
| having good time; you felt like laugh
ing, and if you gave way to your impulse
| it would have been to roll about on the
| floor in the delight and abandon of boy
hood. If you did not want to eat you
| could smoke, and if not to smoke to drink
and there was drinking, smoking and
| were maidens, comely and fair, who knelt
| in the middle of the floor and watched
you with amusing features, tanning you
and noiselessly slipping away your dish
es and bringing new ones. They were SO
modest, so graceful, that you became un-
conscious of their presence. They be-
| came, as it were, one of the decorations
of the dinner. They watched the guests
| and followed their wishes, as far as COM
| fort was concerned. Beyond that saw
no word or glance of recognition. At
| home your servants are personages with
all the attributes of human nature, and
| sometimes in form so aggravated that
| they become serious care, and you dine
| under fear in the presence of some oppres-
sive responsibility. But our maidens
| might have been sprites, they were so far
from us, and at the same time the grace
| and quickness made the mechanism of
our dinner smooth and noiseless. My
main impression was that we were having
| good time, that we were amusing our
selves, playing, romping-not dining. I
have never been upon the stage, but can
fancy that if had taken part in comedy
I should have had the same sensations
with which enjoyed Mr.. Yoshida's din
ner-that I was having merry time and
giving others merry time. To chat
| and listen, to lie prone on the floor and
| see the red lanterns among the trees,
| to see the universe beyond, the calm
| and infinite stars, to run into light and
| airy talk about music, and books, and
| songs, and folk lore, to hear our friends
| tell us of the martial songs of Japan,
| and chant for us some OF their stirring
strains; to try and tell them something of
| our own martial songs, what our soldier
| boys sang during the war; to note the
| energy and conscientious desire to please
and give instruction with which the
| Colonel sang ''John Brown" and ''Sher-
mans March Through Georgia." and
Johnny Comes Marching Home
these are the impressions I recall
Neither the Colonel or myself knew any
thing about the words or music of these
songs, nor about music in general, and
would have given large part of our
fortunes if for that evening at least we
had had any musical faculty. But what
could we do? Our friends were curious
on the subject and there was no way of
changing the theme, and we told all we
knew-who John Brown was, and what
Sherman marched for, and who Johnny
| was supposed to be. There was line in
the Sherman song-something about the
| soldiers marching off with turkey gob-
| blers-which amused our friends, al
| though it was difficult to explain to them
| the meaning of the word s'gobblers J"
| Our evening with the Prince was very
pleasant. He lives in palatial style.
He has many children, and children's
children have come to bless his declining
years. He took an apparent pride in
| presenting us to the various members of
his family. Our dinner was served
partly in European, partly in japanese
style. There were chairs, a table, knives,
forks, napkins, bread and champagne.
| This was European, There were chop
| fish and salvi. This was Japanese. There
was as surprise special compliment
| to our nation-a compliment that came
| in the middle of the feast-a dish of
baked pork and beans which would have
done honor to Boston. Who inspired
this dish and who composed it are mys-
| teries. It came into our dinner in a
| friendly way, and was so well meant and
| implied such an earnest desire to please
on the part of our host that it became
| idyllic, and conveyed a meaning that I
venture to say was never expressed by a
| dish of pork and beans since the May
| flower came to our shores. The dinner
| over, we sat on the porch and looked out
| upon the river. In the courtyard there
were jugglers who performed tricks nota-
BILE for dexterity, such as making fan
go around the edge of an umbrella, and
keeping bevy of balls in the air on the
wing like birds. Then we returned
home, part of the way by river, and as
the night had fallen in the meantime,
and the sea was too high for us to ven
ture out in the boats, the remainder in
carriages. Correspondent N. z. Herald.
Pittsburg, Pa, has been greatly
troubled about its water supply, which is
pumped from the Allegheny river. The
oil wells and refneries higher up the
| river cover its surface with crude oil,
| and throw in tar and acids which move
sluggishly along the bottom. The city
tired of drinking petroleum has spent
several million dollars building new
pumping works five or six miles
higher up the stream At first the new
pnmp drew in gravel, oil and acids, but
| it is hoped that these have been escaped
by carrying pipes 160 feet out into the
river, and building crib of railroad
iron, timbers and stones through which
the waters is filtered below the river sur
face. It remains to be seen, however,
whether the cribs will Withstand the win
ter's ice.