Middletown transcript., 1884-03-07
JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE.
BY ADA NJ. DAUeHADAY.
A VISIT TO DEL BUTUz.

A VISIT TO DEL BUTUZ.
One bright March morning a caVal
cade consisting of four ladies, four jim
rikishas, and eight coolies, swept ava.
from the pleasant "Home of the La
dies Uniou," at Yokohama-the on
that Mrs. Pruyn, of Albany, helped t.
found. Although we carried no ban
ners excepting black, prosaic sun-um
brellas, nor did we go forth with thu
h5lftf 5lftfe Of II ttif.tieett and tsiiid clash Of cynhas
unless the cries of our men to each 9th
er might serve for that, yet we were
triumphal procession. We had met
and overcome obstacles innumerablt
by stern resolve and feminine persis
tence, and we were actually on our way
to see Del Butuz Great Buddha.
Dashing through narrow streets, scat.
tering bare headed men, women and
children, in every direction, tearing
around corners, rattling over bridges,
over hills and down dales, our human
steeds carried US along our winding
way.
Too fast we sped for those Of us who
were newly arrived, for, to our mex
perienced eyes, there were wonders to
behold on all sides. First there were
the street scenes of Yokohama. By
these 1 do not refer to the ''Bund''
with its handsome, foreign-built resi-
dences and hotels, neither to the
Bluffs" where are pleasant mission
ary homes (some of them spelled with
a large H, and the bungalows of
foreign merchants, surrounded by
semi-tropical vegetation, nor to the
business streets where foreign and Jap
anese stores, consulates with flags fly
ing, and some fine public buildings,
are all mixed in a bewildering way, but
to the Japanese quarter, where we
could observe what we were especially
intetested in-Japanese people, and
get glimpses of their home-life. They
impress us as being small, puny race,
yet they seem capable Of great endur-
ance. In their lane-like streets, their
little, low, unpainted shops appear to
be crowding each other, and the fruits,
fish, and curious wares of all kinds
seem to be overfowing ng-not to the side
walks, as there are none, but to the
public highway. We are told the
people live in their stores and small
rooms back of them, but judging from
the numbers thronging the streets,
and sitting in the open fronts of the
houses, we would say they live out of
doors. Propably this accounts for the
rosiness and plumpness of the children
and young women but the latter
must very soon lose their freshness, as
nearly all the middle aged women we
have seen look worn and wrinkled, and
walk with stoop. Sitting on mats,
Japanese fashion, and carrying heavy
burdens on their backs from early child
hood, no doubt cause this position.
Married women are indicated and dis
figured by shaven eyebrows and black
ened teeth. The withered, bowed
hopeless appearance of the old people
touches our hearts, and we long to
tell them of that which would be
staff and comfort to them in their old
age, and an insurance of joy beyond the
grave.
The most striking feature of the
streets to US, on account of their vast
is the babies. They abound
everywhere and seem as a class to be
treated with great consideration, but,
to our western ideal, not
with tenderness. Yet, held high on
the mothers or older sisters back, with
their little shaven crowns bobbing up
and down, they look rosy and jolly
enough. One cannot help pitying
them, though, as the strong sunlight
shines into their poor, unprotected
little eyes. No wonder eye troubles
prevail here and that there are so many
blind people. Sometimes group of
little girls may be seen running and
playing with clogs on their feet and
babies on their backs. l wonder how
our small Americans would like to
play "tag" handicapped in that fash
ion ?
Here and there are groups of men
with little pipes of less than the capa-
city of small thimbles, enjoying social
smoke but what with tailors sitting
at doorways plying their trade, women
spinning OF selling goods, men making
confectionery consisting of various pre-
parations of beans, rice and sugar, or
compounding a fish paste, nearly all
seem to be, in small way, industri-
Ous.
We are told while all the men, and
many of the women, smoke, they do so
only little at a time, and as a relaxa-
lion from work, and while most of
them are addicted to saka, their saka
cups are very small, and as beverage,
unless taken hot, it is not very intoxi-
eating. When under it's influence they
become silly, but not quarrelsome. One
,annot help hoping while foreign liq-
lors are being imported into this coun-
,ry, and poisonous limitations of them
Ire being manufactured here, that the
poverty which is so general may pre-
vent this people from indulging in
hem, else brawls, at home and abroad,
md crime, will as surely follow as in
Christian America and England.
A close acquaintance with the Jap
lnese may develop some unpleasant
and we expect to know
If their having some vices that, with
heir uneducated consciences, they
would naturally indulge in, but at