The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-08-16
JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE.

and although grass and noWerS give no hint of the change of season the air is cool and invigorAting, and evenings and
 mornings fires are often necessary. We feel settled for long term of earnest,
 unremitting work until the relaxing in-
 fuences of the moist heat of midsummer
 shall again be upon us.
 Now that the foul odors of bad drains
 no longer tint the air, the Japanese look
 brighter and healthier. All Japanese
 cities are clean as far as the people un-
 derstand cleanliness. The firm, macada-
 mized streets are carefully swept several
 times day and the little homes are
 models of neatness. but imperfect sewer-
 age and impure wells are fruitful sources
 of disease.
 Osaka is situated on plain bounded
 on all sides by distant mountains. The Yodo-gawa," shallow river, whose
 average width is less than half mile,
 crosses the northern part, aud there di-
 viding into two streams, flows again through the city, and by different mouths
 empties into the inland sea few miles
 below. Two large canals, intersected by eight smaller ones, form perfect net
 work of waterways, afording every ad- vantage for the transpostatioa of mer- chandise, thus causing osaka to be the leading commercial city of Japan. These
 and the river are spanned by two hun
 dred and three bridges tn the evening.
 when the. many lamps on these are lighted, and their reflections are Rleam- ing in the water in every directipn. the scene is really beautiful. Sill Oslka Is by no means pretty city-the buildings are low and the streets narrow. The foreign concession, however, although small, is, with the exception of that of Kobe, the most pleasant of any in Japan. The site is an old temple ground, and fine trees line the bank of the river which flows by it. On the opposite shore are the government buildings of the native city, and some Of these are quite impos. ing with their flights of granite steps and handsome grounds, in which are palms and flowers. The broad, well-hghted streets of the concession, with its com fortable, and some of them very tasteful, homes and gardens, remind one of the suburbs of New England town. It is a very easy matter to take the census of a Japanese city, as at each door, on a billet of wood, are the names of the in- mates of the house, and their number yet on account of the fluctuations of trade the population of Osaka often changes, SO 1t is variously estimated from 900, 800 to 800 GOO.
 To one fresh from the whirl and rush of western life, the placidity of the Asiatic is very noticeable, and it is rest full to nerves that have been kept at tense strain, to watch their easy, deliber- ate movements still the Osaka people manage 10 accomplish great deal in the way of manufactures and commerce. As the largest junks are able to enter the mouth of the main branch oi the river, cotton, rape-seed, isinglass, indigo, sugar, vegetable wax, cotton carpets, artificial flowers, agricultural implements, silks, tea and rice are largely exported.
 We have lately visited a tea exposi- ton. The governors of the different provinces desire, by holding annual ex- and by awarding prizes to the producers of the best quality of tea, to stimulate the ambition of tea-growers, and to check the injurious coloring and of teas. The arrangement, in pretty glass, and metal jars, many of them covered with a network of silk, and each carefully labelled with the name Of the producer, province and quality of tea, as we'll as its age, in both English and Japanese, reflect great credit upon the people for their nice ways of doing things, as we'll as for the new, but grow ing, desire on their part for thorcughness. They are learning kst-these quick witfed people-and after the sleep of centuries are now thoroughly aroused, and are eagerly grasping western ideas. Oh! if the best, only, came to these shores, while they vere yet % unde- between the true and she fnlse. If in6del books. forsisn liquoEs, and, worst of all, the bad exampo1 q the lives of dissi. pated merchants and travelers could only be withheld from them, there would be fewer snares for their feet, and obstacles in the path of the missionary.
 There is now in progress in Osaka kakura1kuwai (sxposition) ef the silk and cotton mAnnlAc1ugogs of the cify. The building is larga and ssronGly buik and used ooly for such purposes, ss they have a series of exhibitions during the year. The grounds before it are not ex- eensive, yet are made to appear % by their peculiar methods of landscape gardening. A small stream, by artificial means, is made to wind in and out, ap- bearing and disappearing 1t is bndged in many places and overhung by droop- ing trees. Small elevations here and there have rocks grouped picturssquely about their base, pots of flowers set in the crevices, and the whole surmounted by a palm. A pretty conceit o( the Japanese in their little gardens is to have a miniature representation of Fujisan, small, white pebbles placed near the top of the cone arc made to resemble its snow-crowned summit. In the rooms devoted to the display of cotton fabrics above each case was a cotton plant with its root. and the unplucked cotton still in the bell Below was the cleaned cotton "a downy mass-and in the case the manufactured cloth of various degrees of excellsnre. Of course, with their and rude machinery the best results cannot be obtained. In one room.