The National tribune., 1888-10-11

and they are the carriages of the people.
These 'riksha men will pull you up and down
hill, but unless you have extra man to help,
in which case there is double fare, they will
expect you to walk up the hill. They are
very nice thing to ride in, and | would
recommend them for America if there was any
chance to get our laboring men to work for 10
cents an hour and board themselves. But
Japan is country in which human meat is
the cheapest of any meat and these 'riksha
men are willing TO be lords at q dollar day for
FIVE years, and then go off quick by heart dis
ease. Few Of these iinrikshas viii accommo
date more than one person, though the natives
sometimes ride double. You enter the machines
from the front, the shafts being let down for
the purpose. Upon moving from the hotel TO
the depot the other day, took trunk with
me, and upon asking for a baggage-wagon of
the clerk, was told 10 get an extra jinriksha.
/ did SO, and my baggage followed me TO the
depot at cost of 10 cents
This town of Yokohama has the largest for
eign population of any i'll Japan. There are,
all told, about 1900 Europeans and Americans
here, and about 2, 900 Chinese. The British lead
among the Caucasians, and there are more than
twice as many sons of John Bull as of Brother
Jonathan. The Americans are connected with
the legation, engaged in various kinds of export
and import business, and in endeavoring to
ChristianiZe the japanese. This last class are
the missionaries. They all live very well, and
the portion of the city conceded to them by
the Japanese Government looks more like a
watering place in the South of France than
japanese houses. Their houses are of foreign
architecture; they have good hotels, churches
and schools and a foreign residence in Japan,
if ones lot is cast in Yokohama, is by no means
so bad as is supposed. Separated from this
settlement by canal is the native town. and
here $4,000 japanese are packed together.
The two civilizations join close to one another,
and the east and the west can almost shake
hands across the canal. Yokohama was moth
ing but fishing village when the country was
opened to foreign trade in 1859, and the Japan
ese put the foreigners on this narrow strip of
land and cut them off by this canal, as it were,
that they might be the easier taken care of in
case of any outbreak. Their residence, how.
ever, has turned the fishing village into great
city, and this is now one of the chief shipping
ports OF Japan. A city has grown on the site Of
the village, and millions of dollars worth of
goods are exported yearly. 1t is here that all
the Transpaciie steamers land, and the chief
things brought from America are grain and
petroleum. You see American coal oil burning
here in nearly every house, and the old-fash-
ioned glass oil lamp is used. Some of the hotels
are lighted with oil lamps, and kerosene seems
to have taken the place of the candle. Our
chief competitor as to supplying Japan with
coal oil is Russia, and I am told that $4,000
cases of oil have been imported from Russia
within the past month. An American importer
said TO me that the oil sent from America was
of very low grade. and that if the shippers
were not careful they would be crowded out
by the Russians.
This oil forms the store lights of Japan, and
glass lanterns are much used in the Y0ko-
hama stores. Paper lanterns with candles
hang on the outside of the stores, and the
jinriksha men trot about with paper lanterns
fastened to one of the shafts of their jim
rikshas. The whole population Of the native
quarter seems to be on the streets at night.
The stores are more like booths than