The Opelousas courier., 1889-03-16
AMONG THE JAPANESE.
Some OF the Pleasant Things to BE Seer
in the Land of the Mikado.

Some OF the Pleasant Things to BE Seen
in the Land of the Mikado.
The first thing that strikes the visitor
to Japan is the exceedingly civility OF
every body, qustom-house gpficers in
cluded. Cheerfulness, gouA temper
and politeness are UNIVERSAL Ihe
mothers smile, the children chatter
without ~quarreling in the streets, and
it is a pleasure to- watch the ordinary
work-people as they meet and go
through the prescribed etiquette OF
bowling and shaking hands with each
other. Differences over the carriage
of your person and effects-if they
exist-are speedily settled without the
usesof bad Language and angry oaths'
and in less time than it takes 20
write, the traveller and his bag
gage are put into ''jinriktshas" Tor
light carriages drawn by one or
more men scantily dressedj with dunny
white hats shaped like ~mushrooms),
| and are trotted of to the Grand Hotel,
lctamous for its English comfort eand
French cuisine. These ..jinrikishas,"
or man-power carriages, deserve a
word or two in passing. Ut modern
invention, they have been ~improvised
to supply the want of horses and iys,
and 1t is marvellous to see what power
of endurance and capacity for toll is to
be found amongst the little broad
shouldered coolies who draw them. 1t
ID quite q common thing for them to
keep up a good stea6y pace of six or
seven miles an hour. on a diet OF rice,
fish or tea, for as many hours in the
day, and all this for the scanty wage
of a little over two cents a mile.
| These are stubborn facts, which,
by comparison, make n tremble
for the future of the English working
classes, unless they make up their
minds to grid themselves up for the
looming struggle. The bitter cry OF
employers at home increases yearly
with the increasing dislike o. the ris-
ing generation to hard manual labor.
Throughout Europe and Asia is the
same story-Germans and Japanese
beat us with our own weapons. because
they work harder, longer and for less
wages. 1t was not always SO: but edu-
cation has softened us, and philan-
thropy, with the best intentions, i
doing all it can to destroy the sturdy
feeling OF self-dependence, once the
pride of the British workman. 9
In Japan man certainly wants but
little here below" With cotton clothes,
8 diet of rice and fish, and a7house O
waffle and daub, domestic balls are mo-
high. An ordinary coolie or laborer il
the fields Is content with half q dollar
d week. Al clerk In q government OF
ice ii well paid with $3.50 q year, ant
q Cabinet Minister with $1,000. Ih'
se-called necessities Of life in all classe
are at least one-third OF what the.
would be in the United States, or il
Europe.
The street and roads in and abou
the capital are good, clean, fa1rI
lighted and admirably policed, and Tn
: railroad Of eighteen miles TO Toxic
, built, like all the railroads Of the conn
try. after the English model-leaye
little to be desired. The capital itsel
/ extends over d large area. and Is sal
. to contain q million Inhabitants. In
area 1t covers II enormous, embracln
as 1t does nunssrous temples surrotlne
cd by groves Of Evergreen trees, an
nar,ss laid mt IN E,,,,, uealf Hashion.-