Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-09-19
GENERAL GRANT IN JAPAN


GENERAL.
The following is taken from Mr.. John Rus
sell Young's letter to the New York Herald,
describing the dinner given by the citizens of
Nagosaki, Japan, to General Grant:
It seemed good to the citizens of Nagasaki
to give General Grant dinner that was to
be in itself n romance and play. Instead of
doing what is done every day and rivalling
the taste of Paris, it was resolved TO enter
tain him in the style Of the daimios, the fcu-
dial lords of Japan. The place selected for
the ftte was an old temple in the heart of the
city, from whose doors you could look over
the bay.
The bill of fare was almost volume, and
embraced over fifty courses. The wine was
served in unglazcd porcelain wine cups, on
white wooden stands The appetite was pam
pered in the beginning with dried fish edi-
BILE seaweeds and isinglass in something of
the scandinavian style, except that the at
tempt did not take the form of brandy and
raw fish. The first serious dish was composed
of crane eeaweed, moss, rice bread and po-
tatoes which we picked over in a curious
way as though we were at an auction sale of
! remnants anxious to rummage out n bar
| gain. The soup when it first came-for it
| came many tmes-was an honest soup of
fish, like delicate fish chowder. Then came
strange dishes, as ragout and as soup, in be-
wilderng confusion. The first was called
namasu, and embodied fish, clans, chestnuts,
| rock mushrooms and ginger. Then, in vari-
Gus combinations, the following Duck truf
Hes, turnips, dried bonito, melons, pressed
salt, aromatic shrubs snipe, egg plant. jelly,
boiled rice snapper, shrimp potatoes, mush-
room, cabbage lAssfish, orange flowers, pow
| dered fish favored with plum juice and wal
nuts, raw carp sliced. mashed fish, baked
fish, isingass fish boiled with picked beans.
| wine and rice again. This all came in the
| first course and as a finale to the course
| there was swoetmcat composed Of white
and red bean jelly cake and boiled black
| mushroom. With this came powdered tea,
which had green, mOnitory look, and sug
! gested your earliest experiences in medicine.
When the second course was inished-thc
! ominous course that came to an end IN pow
dercd tea and swectncats composed of white
| and red bean Jelly cake and boiled black
mushroom there was an interval We arose
| from the table and sauntered about on the
graveiled walk, and looked down upon the
bay and the enfolding hills whose beauty be
| came almost plaiutive under the sympathetic
shadows Of the descending sun. One never
tires Of a scene like Nagasaki, rs you see it in
the evening more especially, the day ending
and nature sheltering for repose in the EN-.
braces of night. Everything is so ripe and
rich and old. Time has done so much for
the yent rable town, and you feel as the shad-
| ows fall that for generations, for centuries,
| they have fallen upon just such a scene as We
look down upon from the brow of our hill
But while we could spend our evening
strollng over this graveled walk and leaning
over the quaint brick wall and studying the
varied and ever changing scene that sweeps
beneath us. we must not forget our enter
-, hs,vs. 4,
candles. Before each table is "A pedestal on
which a candle burns, and the old temple
| lights up with new splendor To add to
| this splendor the wall has been draped with
heavy silks. embroidered with gold and sill
| yer, with quaint and curious legends of the
| history of Japan. These drapeTies lend Il
new richness to the room, and you admire
| the artistic taste which suggested them. The
merchants enter again bearing meats. Ad-
| vancing 10 the centre of the room, and to the
general they knoel and press their foreheads
to the floor. With this demure courtesy. the
course begins. Other attendants enter, and
! place on each table the lacquer bowls and
| dishes Instead of covering the tables with
a variety of food, and tempting you with aux
| iliary dishes Of watermelon seeds nud almond
| kernels as in China the japanese give you
a small variety at a time. | am afraid, how
| ever, We have spoiled our dinner Our amia-
bic friend, the japanese minister, warned us
| in the beginning not to be in hurry, to re-
| strain our curiosity, not to hurry our investi-
| cations into the science of a Japanese table
| but to pick, and nibble and wait-that there
were good things coming, which We should
| not be beyond the condition of enjoying
| What comfort, for instance, roll of bread
! would be, and glass of dry champagne :,
But there is no bread and no wine, and our
only drink is the hot preparation from rice
with its sherry flavor, which is poured out of
II teapot into shallow lacquer saucers and
which you sip, not without relish, although
it has no place in any beverage known to
your experience. We are dining, however,
in strict Japanese fashion, just rs the old dai-
mios did, and our hosts are too good artists
| to spoil feast with champagne. Then it has
| been going on four hours, and when you have
reached the fourth hour of a dinner, even q
| temperance dinner, with nothing more seri-
Gus than n hot, insipid, shcrry-iike rice drink,
you have passed beyond the critical and curl
ous into the resigned condition. Ii We had
only been governed by the minister we might
have enjoyed this soup which comes hlst in
! the course, and as You lift the lacquered top
you know to be hot and fragrant. II is a soup
composed of carp and mushroom and aro-
matte shrub Another dish is a prepared fish
that looks like n confection of cocoanut, but
which you st to be fish, as you prod it with
your chopsticks This is composed of the
red snapper fish, and is served i'll red and
white alternate squares. 1t looks well, but
! you pass it by, as well rs another dish that is
more poetic ut least, for ii is a preparation of
| the skylArk wheat -four cake and gourd. One
has "A sense Of the violation of propritt lies in
seeing the soaring lark shared from the
clouds, the dew and the morning sunshine, to
| flavor q cake of wheat. We treat the lark
| better at home, and we might pass this to the
| diseredit of Japan il we did not remember
how much the lark contributed to feasts in
tho Palais Royal, and that the French were
! alike wanting in sentiment. We are not Of
Tended by the next soup, which comes hot
and smoking, a suit of buckwheat and egg
plant. But buckwheat in soup is uniting,
and allied with the egg plant is degradation.
and no sense of curious inquiry-of investi-
gation-can tolerate so grave violation of
| the harmony of the table. You push your
soup to the end of the table and nip of the
| end of a fresh cigar, and look out upon the
town, over which the dominant universe has
thrown the star-sprinkled mantle of night,
and follow the lines of light that mark the
welcome we are enjoying, and trace the as
cending rockets as they shoot up from the
hillside to break into masses of dazzling fire
and illuminate the heavens for a moment in
a rhapsody of blue and scarlet and green and
silver and gold.
II you have faith you will enter bravely in
to the dish that your silk -draped attendant
now places before you, and as he does 50
bows to the level of the table and slides away,
This is called oh-hira and was composed, ]
am sure, by some ambitious daimio who had
given thought to the science of the table and
possessed an original genius. The base OF
this dish is panyu. Panyu is sea fish. The
panyu in itself would be a dish, but in addi,
ton we have fungus, the roots of the lily
is delicate aud reminds you of mushroom
but the pumpkin, after you had tshed it Out
and saw that it was pumpkin, seemed for
lorn and uncomfortable, conscious, no doubt
of better destiny in its New England home
than havoring a mess of pottage. The lily
roots seemed out of place. l could find nc
taste in them and would have been content
to have known them as turnips, But YOU