Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-09-14
THE PARIS OF JAPAN.
INTERESTING DESCRIPTION OF TOXIC
AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
a City of 100000 Inhabitants = Its
Gardens, Streets, Bridges,
Police and Shops.

Toxic Is the most interesting city of
Japan, and he who has not seen it has not
fairly seen the Sunrise kingdom. Like
London, Toxic is made up of a great num-
Der of villages, ard its population of a
million and a half people is scattered over
an area of 100 square miles. 1t seems
thickly populated, although one frequently,
in walks and rides about the city, come
upon great gaps where the villages do not
meet, and where the streets widen out
into clearings of rural appearance The
palaces are all within stone walls, SO that
in that they add nothing to the architect
ural beauty of the city. They are low,
unimposing buildings.
Toxic is city of gardens. Besides its
hundreds of acres of temple groves, there
are many public parks open to the people
at all seasons of the year. The most
noted one is Oeno, where are good zoologi-
| cal gardens and fine art museums, which
are being constantly improved by the
| Government. Here the great celebration
| IN honor of General Grants visit occurred,
and the trees which he and his wife
| planted still flourish But in addition to
| these, every house has its tiny gardens,
with little waterfalls, miniature lakes and
mountains, and dwarfed trees. These are
| always at the rear of the house, inclosed
| by high walls and bamboo fences, so that
! the streets are not enhanced by their
| beauties.
| Toxic streets are always clean and hard.
except during rain, when they are decid-
edly muddy and inconvenient, as there are
no pavements. The old stone walls have
decidedly interfered with straight streets.
and the corners are SO sharp that inrik-
isha boys are obliged TO keep up a constant
yelling 10 notify people around the corner
of their approach, and even then. collis-
ions are not always avoided. Each of the
few carriages that are driven in Toxic has
an outrider to clear the way.
There are, however, many wide and
beautiful streets, those around the palace
parks being especially beautiful, circling,
as they do, for miles around the moats,
! whose green banks, slopIng gradually back
for hundred feet or more, are shaded by
the dark pines.
|
streets are often narrow and cut in every
direction by canals, which are dry when
the tide is out. But there are open sew
ers on every street. and while these do not
conduce to the health of the people, their
! absence would revolutionize the household
| economy Of the citizens. Within the dis
lance of square one can see gardeners
washing their vegetables in them, iinrik-
isha men scrubbing their faces, and iinrik-
Isha women securing their pots and wash
ing their rice, laundrymen using them for
tubs, street sweepers piliEg in dirt, and
housekeepers emptying household refuse
Toxic streets are as crooked as Boston
streets and more difficult to find ones way
around in, for, to say nothing of the strik-
ing monotony in architecture and ones
inability to read the signs, the houses are
numbered in the order of the sale of the
lot by the Government, SO that numbers
one and forty-nine may be side by side,
and the intervening numbers in so many
directions
Bridges-regular old Roam bridges they
are-are numerous, and these are all
named, so that, having become familiar
with them, they are helpful in locating
points.
There are now between FIVE and ten
miles of street-car line, AMI nearly twenty
miles more are projected. The street-car
and railway companies here have every
encouragement to build, fro no people in
the world are better patrons of all modes
OF conveyance than the japanese. Cars,
boats and trains are crowded every day in
the year, as are also the shabby old hacks
that ply up and down Broadway with such
miserable horses that you expect every
trip will be their last one But the jap
anese driver can make horses 90 when no
other driver could He is paid to drive
them, and drive them he does standing in
!, his seat and applying the whip at every
step, until the horses clench their teeth
brace their backs together, and gallon off
with noise like freight train.
The japanese policemen, of whom there
seemed to be an army in Toxic, are from
the old Samurai families, who furnished
the brave japanese in feudaI DAYS. They
are an intelligent class, and in addition to
passing rigorous examination in military
tactics when they enter the service, are re-
quired to practice fencing every day in the
official drillrooms and to pursue other
studies as well. English is much coveted
by them, and many are being reached by
the missionaries who use no other English
text books than the Bible
They wear black uniforms, with gilt
banded cap and buttons, and carry swords.
Instead of whistles, they rattle two bones,
Thieves and others are always notified Oh
their approach by their clack, clack, clack,
as they walk up on down the streets, call.
ing out the hour, although their purpose
Is to thus reassure peaceable people The
solemn-faced little men never get out Of
, their regular pace, and towards foreigners
are particularly accommodating. Their
detective system is so efficient that cities
of the west have written for information
in regard to it.
Toxic is we'll lighted, not only with the
lanterns and lamps which illuminate the
shops and which iinrikisha men are
obliged TO carry, but with gas and cleo.
tricity. The japanese have entered SC
vigorously into the manufacture of cleo
trio apparatus that electric bells and light.
can be used in their houses at less cos,
than in America.
Gina, silver seat, is the Broadway O.
Toxic, and stroll down this street give.
one bird's-eye view of all that is being
done in arts and industry not only in
Toxic but in all the empire, for the pro
ducts of Japan are found here. Nothing
in Toxic shops is shut in by glass door!
and windows during business hours, and
one can look and handle to his hearts con.
tent, the shopman or the shopwoman, as il
generally is, leaving you to your own
devices, apparently unconcerned as tc
/, whether you buy or not. Indeed, the
most trying thing in japanese shopping il
this indifference on the shop peoples part
One can never hurry in shopping here
but must take his time or pay double the
worth of an article.
+ The japanese bazaars, where everything
is kept, and which are subject to inspec.
, ton by the Government, are the only
places where there are fixed prices Every
2 H.. ILL.,. l-...,....=.