Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-05-03
A GLOBE ENVOY ABROAD.

Life in Japan--One of the Shake-U Ups
Which That Country Is Subjected to-
Record of What Has Been and a Promo
milton of What May be Again--A Glimpse
atJapanese High Life.
Correspondence of the Globe.
YOKOHAMA, Japan, March. 1851 wonder if
will be able to tell of anything in this letter
to you. dear GLOBE, except the great earth
quake which, on the morning OF the 22d ult.,
shook houses as the most reckless children play
with toys, and surprised everybody, as every
body prays never to be surprised again?
know l have thought of little else since then,
until yesterday when the City of Peking ar
rived, bringing the home mail, twenty four
days out from San Francisco In reading the
dear letters and in glancing through the piles
of magazines and papers 1 quite forgot for
time that which would fain forget forever,
the minutes that seemed ages, and the horror
that never can be described. But when the
hands are empty the head seems rocking yet
and when the lids shut down in sleep, the wind
rafting leaf against the shutters or stirring
aittle louder than usual, here or there, startles
and arouses till the hands involuntarily clutch
the curtains of the bed, and all the walls seem
crashing in, and closing close about you.
Often, during last month, and indeed ever
since our arrival here. the ground would trem-
BILE suddenly, but only for an instant; chande-
liers would sway to and fro, and the head be
giddy as if at sea; but all this wss the shadow
before the storm, and there have been many
similar shadows since.
The Japan Daily Herald under date of Feb.
3d. has the following:
"The earthquake of yesterday morning was the
most severe, beyond doubt, since Yokohama became
foreign settlement. The natives declare it to have
been the greatest one in this part OF the country
since the tremendous one of 1885, which devastated
Yeth (Tokio), in that year, and felt far
| Hodogaya, Enoshima and Urago. in this direction,
and far in the interior in others. Fissures
opened and closed upon the unfortunates engufed in
them. No less than a. 2l4 dwelling houses, and 1649
reproof godorons overthrown, and, as is usual
in calamies of the kind, fires broke out in nearly
every quarter of the suffering city. The loss of life
was enormous, and has never been correctly known,
the native accounts varying from $4,000 to 100000 VIC
tins.
"Some years ago the Japanese government establish
ed at Toxic the necessary apparatus for measuring the
DURATION force etc. of these very unpleasant phenom
ena From the native papers of to-day we learn the
exact details. The first shock took place b. 49m.
22s, and lasted IA seconds; the second one at Oh.
80 49,, and lasted for minute twentysix Sec
onds. while the third at Oh So m. 15s and lasted
only six seconds OF these the second by far
| the heaviest. The index of the seismograph showed
that the shock was in a north northwest and south
southeast direcon the force of the shock WAS reg
istered at 70 Degrees
The house in which we board, a two-story,
low supported by heavy columns, is said to be
the strongest and best built dwelling on the
Bluff, (the Bluff is that part of Yokohama
where most of the foreigners reside, and where
the legations are,) but its chimneys were
thrown down; vases, etc., demolished. and the
| plaster fell around us in pieces three feet
square, and from one to one and one-fourth
| inches thick. Two such pieces were taken from
the canopy over our bed the following morn
ing, and but for the canopy and our remaining
, under it during the shakes we would have re-
| caived serious if not fatal I'M uries. Indeed
the Bluff looks as if it had suffered lombard
meut, as it surely has; and that too, at the
, hands of foe the time of whose coming none
may be aware, and against whose attack no
preparation will avail.
| Imagine that in the middle of the night you
. | are awakened by the tossing up and down and
rocking sideways of your bed, accompanied by
the crash of falling materials, the chimneys,
the ceiling, and every loose thing in the house,
and with the air thick with plaster, SCOT and
dust, while the creaking and grooming of the
house timbers threaten to bring ali down in
one ruin and nothing but darkness, and you
know not what danger about you, and you have
| some faint idea of our experience. But it to
this you add the slukeniug feeling.
: which, either from the rocking of
the earth or from the electrical
condition of the atmosphere, always forms a
} part of the horror of the moment, and then go
|
| noise, and in fear of the least disturbance of
wind, or even the shifting of the clouds, fan
| ewing the roof over you and the walls around
you ready to tumble, then you have better
idea of what we feel and suffer even now.
And think that no twenty-four hours has
passed since the night of the 2lst without one
or more slight trembllngs OF the ground, pre-
ceded by rumbling sound of loaded wa
} gon crossing bridge, and followed by high
Winds as was the one great earthquake of which
| / have written.
To-day the ground is covered with snow to
the depth of three inches (the first of the sea-
, | SOM, and all out-of-door work is suspended,
but dwellings are being rapidly repaired Chin
neys rebuilt, walls Strengthened, etc., etc.,
, | though some, am told, are not worth repair
, ing, having been so utterly demolished, and
within the last two days have actually seen
people laugh! But that was when the ship
came in floating the stars and stripes and bear
!, ing to us our letters.
HIGH Life.
Since the date of my last, we have had the
honor to see not little of Japanese high life
and of the personal appearance. manners and
customs of the better class. At an entertain
ment given by His Excellency Yoshida, minis
ter to the United States, at Enrio-kwan, the
| emperor's summer palace, where Gen. Grant
was quartered during his stay in Japan, we had
our first glimpse of a real palace we'll as of
social life in high places in the empire. There
| were present our own minister
and consul general, and some
half dozen other Americans besides ourselves;
but the majority were Japanese officials of the
highest rank accompanied by their wives and
daughters, all in European dress, and all of
the best culture, refinement and education.
Carriages were sent for the Yokohamians to
Shimbashi, the railway station in Toxic, and
drive of ten minutes brought to the outer
gates of the palace grounds, the gates guarded
by soldiers, and the grounds brilliantly illumi
mated. Alighting under a canopy that seemed
resplendent with myriad stars, and passing up
carpeted aisle bordered with many blossom'd
trees and plants of rarest beauty to the wide
entrance of the palace, it ali seemed like
dream of fairy-land, such a dream as used to
come to me in the summer nights after the
loving mother (God bless herD had knelt by my
trundle bed and kissed me off to sleep.
1 When I tell you that the hand-painted paper
on the walls of the two principal drawing
rooms cost 81 the square inch, and that every
thing else proportionately costly and
elegant, you can imagine all that fail to de-
scribe. The dinner was served European style,
the menu was elaborate and dainty. l remem-
Der, just here, two Japanese houses made of
pure white confection, whose roofs being lifted
revealed TO our astonished eyes marvel of
whip-syllabub; and we dined and wined and