The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1888-11-22
JAPANESE hotels.
Clerks Without Diamonds, and Rooms
Without Furniture.

Hotels Made of Paper. and Dinners With Chop
sticks-The Gay Geshas Of Japan. and Japanese
MaidSeryants-A Look at Pottery Workshop,
and How Cloisonne Ware is Made-Japanese Boys,
and Their Remarkable PreeOeity-HOw Hiss
tOricaI American Ship Works for the Japanese
Merchants-Tbe Story of the 'GOldeH Age''-
The Bells of Japan, and How they Serve
Town CIOCks-A Look ut the Feudal Castle of
NagOya, and How it Compares With the Castles
of the Rhine and the Danube-The Left-Handed
Artist and His Wonderful Cat.
COPYRIGHTED BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.l
Special Correspondence NATIONAL TRIBUNE.
KIoTA, November /, 1888.
How small the world is, after all / saw
picture of Mrs. Cleveland used as an advertise
ment in photographers shop in Yokohama.
The hotel at which | stopped in Toxic had a
portrait of Rutherford B. Hayes hanging in one
of its reception rooms, and / found a copy of
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE for sale at picture
store in Nikko. / travelled from Yokohama to
Nagoya on an American-built steamer and
] am writing this letter by the light of American
coal-oil in q lamp of American make. The
steamer referred to is now in the service of
the Japanese Government, and it is one of the
noted steamships of history. When it was
built, 35 years ago, it was the largest steamer
in the world aud when it lay in the docks at
Liverpool an admission fee of a shilling head
was charged for seeing it. 1t ran for years
from New York to Panama. during the gold
excitement, and its name, 80 The Golden Age"
will be familiar to many of the old Forty
miners. 1t carried passengers and freight for
years between Liverpool and Australia, and it
is now making daily trips between Yokohama
and Yokiche, q distance of something like 200
miles. 1t is a big side-wheeler, with state
rooms as large, almost, as the ordinary paror,
aud with great four poster bedsteads in some of
them. The room l occupied was the bridal
chamber and l rested my weary limbs on the
same bed which his Royal Highness the Mikado
of Japan had used not very long ago. There
were only six first-class passengers on the ship,
and three of these were Americans. One was
a missionary maiden from Kanazawa, a big
town on the west coast of Japan, where the
Pfesbyterians have schools and churches. l
chatted with her about her work, and found
her enthusiastic. The children of the Gov
ernor were in her school, and she told me the
Governor was very anxious that his children
should wear the proper European clothes. 1t
was through her advice that everything was
bought, from hats to shoestrings, and the gar
ments were made under her direction.
The officers of this ship were foreigners, and
this is so with all the ships of the Japanese
merchant marine. Japan is fast growing as a
shipping nation, and it had In 1885 Sl4 vessels
of European build, and one-half of these were
steamers. 1t had also 10000 native ships or
j y HSDs "a
Asiatic countries The Golden Age" upon
which l rode, was officered by Dane, and its
First Mate was an Engishman. 1t was one of
the ships which was lately sold by Iwesaki, the
Jay Gould of Japan, to a company subsidized
by the Government Iwesaki is worth $13,-
000,000 and he made his pile out of steam
ships. When the revolution took place he saw
there was going to be great demand for for
eign ships. He organized company, and
bought all that he could. He ran them sue
cessfully, and sold out at an immense profit.
His fortune is now largely invested in coal
mines and he supplies the ships of this part of
Asia with coal at the port of Nagasaki.
I sailed up the river to Nagoya in little
Japanese sampan, sculed like gondola, from
the stern. There were none but japanese
on board with me, and we moved in and out
through big junks and little straight-sailed
skiffs. A boy from the hotel had gone along to
take charge of my baggage, and this boy man
aged everything. 1t is the custom in Japan
for the hotel to buy your ticket for you; to
put you on and off the trains and boats, and to
act, in fact as sort of courier. 1t was
through the hotel that / got my jinriksha,
e. AAA q q &c