Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-01-31
LIFE IN JAPAN.

Houses--NobOdy Worried on the Subject
Luxurious Standardization They Live
Among the Heathen--Ja Japanese New
Years--A Three Acre Fire--The Weather.
Especial Correspondence of the Globe.
YOKOHAMA. Japan, Jan. 2, 1S80.-The ex-
element over the fire in Toxic Oh the 28th
ult.-a fire in which sixty Fights streets, con-
tanning II AGA houses, were burned, and over
| 10000 people rendered homeless-is wholly
subsidized, and already all over the burnt dis
trict may be seen little clusters of houses,
streets half built up again, and nobody seems
mind it much, even the sufferers them
selves, or the native portion, smiling as they
look down on the ruins of all their worldly
goods, and seeming quite contented with
| their lot.
There is no knowing how many families
one Japanese house will hold, but among the
| lower classes one small room suffices for the
day and night use of from three to dozen
persons; portion of it covered with mat
ting, very soft and very clean, on which,
without undressing, all lie down and sleep
together. For food, a little rice for those
| who can afford it, but for the very poor only
barley: but more commended and happier
people apparently one need not wish to see.
OF course the newly built houses in the
burned district of Toxic are mere shells,
viewed from our stand point, something like
our summer houses, with the light and the
cheer left out.
At least thirty persons persisted in the
flame some were trampled to death in the
streets; many wounded and conveyed to hos
oitals, and hundreds of little children found
wandering about the great city too young to
tell where or to whom they belonged.
Several churches, residences and school
houses belonging to the missions, together
with personal effects, are among the lost,
and for the missionaries to lose their homes
must be to them terrible blow, since no
matter what kind of churches they build,
their own dwellings are of the finest, and the
fullest of servants and luxuries. An old res
ident here said to me, ''Mr. -" one of
the American missionaries here in Yokoha-
MA on salary Of $75 month, sis living in
style that cannot be sustained on five times
that amount, and yet if one mentions such
facts at home one is accused of prejudice if
not of something worse"
ellis is not, then, an exceptional case?"
Iasked.
.'By no manner of MEANS" etc.
And I remembered the self denials of
many have known and some whom yet I
know in my own dear land, the CIV
ing up of this or of that little comfort, that
its cost might go ''to the poor missionaries
in the heather world" and thought "if they
only knew! Alb, if they only knew! But
they do not know, and even if they were to
see the words write they would say: "Of
course she believes all that, but she is pre-
JUDGED, poor child, and needs our earnest
prayers"
We were greatly amused on board ship by
an account given by Capt. Brights, an &C
complshed American gentleman who lived
| many years in China, of a very Intelligent
Chinaman who said to Baptist missionary:
"You got one God. He write you one
book. Alice same he tellee Baptist min,
Plesbytelesm man, Methodist man, but you
! no tellee Chinaman alice same. One say
one ting; one say something else. One say
book teIlee SO: another say book tellee SO.
No tellee same. Me no like one God. Tel
le he not alice same every time. China
| mans god heap better"
But I am to write in this, my second let
Ter to you, of the japanese whose odd faces
and odder ways are now quite familiar to
us, but among whom we could never, never
feel at home.
The Japanese New Years, commenced on
| the first, is to continue fourteen days. All
their streets ale gaily decked, long lines
of straw fringe, about eighteen inches
deep, stretched for miles and miles along the
low caves eff the houses; arches of camelia
| and orange boughs III bloom and in golden
fruit; tables everywhere filled with pots of
| bossoming plants; and the whole heaven
clouded with kites. Even our little Nab
must have her kite, and her toys made all of
straw. Japanese can make anything out of
straw, from a ships cable to toy baby,
and it is really interesting to walk along
their streets and examine leisurely their
New Years offerings to their gods and their
thousand and one one devises to catch the
"sens'' of the children and the 'yens'' of
their papas.
Among my callers New Years
day we're three Japanese gentlemen,
each bearing a gift of Lacquer on
laqured tray and piece of folded red
and gold paper, which is their compliment
| of the season, and which they present to you,
Immediately falling upon their knees before
you, leisurely spreading out on either side OF
| them the gaily embroidered skirts OF their
| robes and proceeding with great deliberatlon
10 touch lQ6lT IOI6u6duS W LILO uOOl3 q LOU
| which have in vain tried to get my lord to
| initiate, and which Nab does to perfection.
l forgot to mention three-a acre fire here in
Yokohama last week, ga third rate fire." 1
am told, but sufficient to do vast amount
of damage. There are no steam fire engines
in Japan, and as the houses are of most in
dammable material, usually fire once start
ed makes rapid Roadway and sometimes can
| only be checked by tearing down whole
blocks of buildings in its advance and max
ing cleared place, as one does for himself
on prairie when chased by the hungry
flame.
The weather remains pleasant but cold.
The Gaelic, bringing our first home mail,
arrived on Wednesday, twenty-five days from
San Francisco, having encountered heavy
storms and lost some of her boats To call
such sea as lies betwixt US and the shores
of California Pacific is delusion of the alb
surdest kind, especially at this season. l
speak only of what know.
The City of Pekin sails your way to-mor-
row, and as many letters must be made
ready for the mail, 1 will add no more to
this. HESTER a. BENEDICT.
TIE CURTIE-YOCUM CONTEST.