Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-03-01

tell how I shall feel after seing Nikko, it
seemed to me to-day that it would not be SO
dreadful to be dead, if one could lie so safe
" and 80 quietly and so remembered as do
those honored rulers whose sepulchres we
visited. Six of them sleep at Shiba, six at
Nyeno, and two at Nikko. Entering peb-
bled court yard you see on either hand long
lines of stone lanterns, uniform in size and
shape, and weighing each ton or more, be-
ing the gifts of the Fudai darmos. The fol-
lowing will serve as specimen of their in
scription:
To the
nlustrious Temple of Learning.
(Posthumous title of the Shogun.)
This stone Lantern
Set up before the tomb at the temple of
Zozoji,
In Musachi,
Is Reverently Offered
By the
Ruling Daimio,
Noble of the Fifth Rank,
Masuyama Fujinara Masaio,
Lord of Tenshima,
In the Second Year of the Period of Strict
Virtue, Z.
In the Cycle of Midzuno Ye Tatru.
There are hundreds of these lanterns,
many of them of bronze, in the various
court yards leading to the different tombs
and when lighted of summer evening.
their faint glmmer half revealing the deco
rated roofs of the galleries, the many pan
eled walls richly wrought in Arab esunes and
high relief must add greatly to the weird
sombreness of the place and intensity its
cloister-like appearance.
Hidetada, the second prince of the line, is
buried several hundred yards from the other
tombs, and, accompanied by priest, who
keeps the keys of SO much sacredness, we
passed up hill, through heavy iron gate,
and waited within stone palisade surmount-
ed by camellia trees in bud and cherry trees
in full bloom Though everything else was
frozen around us) while the priest, call
shaver and shorn," tried for half hour to
undo the great gates of the gorgeous sepul-
chre. At last, with the help of our interpre-
ter, he succeeded, and we stood spell bound
before an octagon shaped structure built
nearly 300 years ago, finely lacquered in gilt,
and in almost perfect state of preservation.
This structure is fully forty feet high, and
on huge stone pedestal within is the mon
umental urn containing the remains of
Hidetada.
The building is in the pagoda style, COM
mon to nearly all of these far east countries,
rising from the base about twenty feet to the
rafters, which project fully fifteen feet, and
all over the sides and under the out-reaching
roof, are wonders in gilt and lacquer work,
and inlaid mosaic. As usual, the dragon is
conspicuous, while every little ways appear
lions and birds, some full life size, carved in
wood or made of bronze, the wood thickly
coated with black lacquer, with panel out
lines of finely wrought brass and bronze, the
intervening space filled with flowers, vines
and strange characters of marvellous beauty
and skill. The roof is steep, the apex being
at least forty-ive feet from the floor, with
about forty feet in the clear between it's eight
sided walls, and outside and inside walls and
roof are fall everywhere of carvings and
gilt and bronze.
Our guide gave us, as souvenirs, some
sprays of cherry blossoms, we drop sub
stantial remembrance into the palm of the
priest, and pass downward to one of the
temples which we may not enter until We
have removed our boots, and which, there
fore, we decline entering until warmer
weather; on through avenues of evergreens
and camsllias, to other temples and other
IOuDS, uuIA OuL ACOe Soh ~ AAO As@AeAA0AS oAN
We seek our jinrikishas, turn our faces
homeward and. defer until another and
| warmer time our examination of the won.
ders and beauties of Shiba.
An hours ride by rail past many a shrine
and temple and cemetery, past the snow dis
| mantled forts, through irrigated rice fields,
through many a crowded village and yet al
| ways close beside the bay or under the
| Al Ll,,ffo pl rooah VnHohorno met
| as the sun is setting, and see futtering from
| the stern of the steamer that is to carry this
letter to you, our own beloved stars and
stripes, never 80 welcome and never 80 ap-
preciated as now that thousands of miles lie
between us and the land that is our home.
The progress made by this people in the
last quarter of a century is marvellous, or, to
state 1T nearer correctness, the advancement
made by the few intelligent and energetic
natives, who have been educated in Europe
or America, and upon whom has fallen the
duty of giving direction to popular taste and
thought, is most marked and compared
with that of other nations-most remark
able. The present condition, however, of
the mass of the people, is such that all new
enterprises must be inaugurated and con-
trolled by the government to have hope OF
| success.
Thus all railroads, factories, ETC., ETC., are
of necessity, the government work; private
citizens operate capital, make but little, if
| any, effort to.put in operation those thousand
and one things for the comfort, or develop
| ment of the people, which in our
country are left entirely to unofficial
control. Imagine our general govern
ment attempting to build and operate
every railroad, every water and gas
works and every mandatory in the United
States and you have an idea OF the colossal
undertaking of this government of 81, 00O, 600
of people.
The government is trying to do too much
the people, because of this, are not taught
to depend upon themselves, nor induced to
invest their private capital-looking for
compensation as the result of close applica-
ton, and great industry.
The interior of the empire is, am told,
uncultivated. The want of proper roads or
outlets of some sort--forces population
into the already packed cities, leaving miles
of the richest soil in the world, as uncul-