Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-04-23
Audience of the MikadO.

| lou are luVltcu W Gail upon MS
Majesty at the Imperial Palace, on New
Years Day, to offer your congratnla-
tons to his Majesty the Tenno, (Son of
Heaven"
1t was an invitation written upon an
imposing piece of Echizen paper, and
inscribed in the largest and most beau
tiful Chinese characters. The same
had been sent to about twenty-five out
of the hundred foreigners resident in
Toxic, who were in the civil and educa-
tional service of the Japanese govern
ment, the latter branch including mill
tary and naval instructors. We of the
educational service doomed the usual
black and white uniforms of civilians,
and in the universal jin,iki-sha IMAM
power carrlage) set out for the palace.
We had food for thought as we rolled
over the bridge that spans the third
castle, e"ceinte and moat. and entered
the portals of the gate named after the
house Of Hitotsu bashi, the last of the
t,coons. 1t was new thing for Japan
that New Years day should come on
January l, instead of in the middle Of
| February, as of old. 1t was newer still:
indeed it was the last wonder of won
der showering Japan that the Son of
| Heaven should invite the foreign envoy,
and even his foreign servants, too, to
meet him at his palace. Indeed, had
an old native chrOniclcr of feudal days
related the event, he would have writ
ten that :" the barbarians of the western
ocean came to bring tribute and to
PROSTATE themselves before the sacred
throne, and to gazs, awestruck, upon
the dragon countenance.
We enter the second line of walls and
meats over another bridge, under anoth-
cr gate, and alight at the end Of the
long bridge which leads into the citadel
within which stands the palace. Over
the convex bridge. under massive gate
towers we must pass then under still
another gate, reaching at last the walt
ing-room ofsthe palace, and enter.
We have spoken of castle" We
do not mean u pile OF turreted masonry.
Tue castle, or shire, is n vast Enclosure,
surrounded by stone walls and moats,
In speaking of palace we mean u
plain building, which is only a palace
by sort of architectural er-.Bicio. ."
conventional ideas, except the neatness,
which is striking.
In the waiting room are clustered the
foreign Off .ers of the Japanese govern
ment, German surgeons, in spiked he'll
NETS, French military instructors in
uniform. British navy captains, Ame'i-
can professors, Russian tutors, Dutch
engineers, ETC., In every sort of full
Dir, IS and uniform, from the plain black
college gowns to stiff cloth regimentals.
smeared with gold"
The word is given and we march into
the throne room. Let us have truth.
There Is nothing gorgeous here but the
throne itself-a canopied and gilded
chair, with II golden NEUROLOGICAL ami
NAL ON either side. The walls are
handsomely papered in panels of pine
trees. storks Il d NEUROLOGICAL emblems
The ceiling is of plain wood, the sliding
partitions of paper. the floor of mating.
We arrange ourselves in rows. About
twenty courliers, all in robes of re-
splendent blocade, with heads topped
by black lacquered caps, which suggest
bricks tilted on end, and with swords
in their girdles, arrange themselves on
the right of the throne. The pictur-
esque barbaric effect is spoiled by their
leather boots appearing beneath their
flowing skirts of crlnoline proportions.
A few seconds more and his Majesty
enters. He is dressed in loose lower
garments. like very wide pantaloons, of
crimson silk. His coat is of heavy
white silk, very loose and long. On his
shortcut hair is the cap OF black and
gold, with its upright plume. such as
ouly the mikado wears. His face is
4 rly nj 10 hot hn
takes his seat. A speech is expected,
or a word, or something. But before
some of the bowed heads of the visitors
are raised the mikado is up and off, and
the last seen of him are the sk',ts Of
his robe, vanishing down the corridor.
Perhaps the officers OF the imperial
household considered the reception a
success. The dragon countenance had
been seen. That which daimios and
tycoons had waited for, but died with
out the sight, had been visible to us.
the western barbarisns, standing up
right on our feet. How the conserva-
tive japanese mobiles mourned over it |!
These booted foreigners standing before
the unveiled sacredness, where the
highest of them had kneeled and bowed
their heads before the yelled dragon
countenance!
This was our first sight of the mikado
in 1878. Since that time 3 mighty rev.
olution has changed the etiquette of
court and emperor. Clothed in Euro
pean dress and frequently appearing in
public, his Majesty lives very much like
u European sovereign, and graciously
accords frequent audiences to his own
subjects of meritorious life, even
though of comparatively low rank !;
while many foreigners with and with
out distinction hsve stood in his pres
ence.-W. ELLIOT GRIFFIs in Home
Journal.
A country which is pauperized every
fifteen or twenty years, and which would
be pauperized every five years but for
remittances from abroad, must either
be improvident in the extreme or it's
institutions are radically wrong. Per-
haps both causes operate in the case of
Ireland, which certainly would be- sub
ject to famine every five years but for
emigration and the money sent from