The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-10

slioe OIL bough and waver down to the
water close to the Japanese doll, who in
ohother minute will be oversize in pur-
suit OF these miracles. The father-fsher
mas II by the pink hind leg, and this time
~ Is tucked away, all but the topknot, out
sight among lumber nets and sepia
ooruage. Being an Oriental it makes no
protest. and the boat scuds out to join the
little feet in the offing.
men TWO sailors of man-o'-war come
aiohg the sea face, lean over the canal be-
low the garden, spit and roll away. The
s ssiior In port is the only superior man.
a 40 MN an matters rare and curious are
either them things" or 'them other
tnlngs. He does not hurry himself, he
uoes not seek adjective other than those
"nich custom puts into his mouth for all
occasions; but the beauty of life penetrates
ms being insensibly till he gets drunk,
iaiis ioui OF the local policeman. smites
IA INTO the nearest canal and disposes of
the question of treaty revision with hic-
cough. All the same. Jack saws that he
mas grievance against the policeman,
VINO Is paid a dollar for eyery strayed
seaman he brings up to the con-
sular courts for overstaying his leave,
ana ana so forth. Jack says that the little
ieliows deliberately hinder him from get
ting back to his ship, and then, with
usVlllsh art and craft of wrestling tricks
,tnere are about hundred of 'em, and
tney can throw you with every qualified
one carry him to Justice Now. when
JACK IS softened with drink he does not
tell lies. This is his grievance, and he
says that them blackened consuls ought to
know. They plays into each others
hands, and stops you at the Hatoba''-the
Poilcemen. The visitor, who is neither a
seaman nor drunk, cannot swear to the
truth OF this, or indeed anything else. He
moves not only among fascinating scenes
ana lovely people. but, as he is sure
10 ma out before he has been a
nay ashore, between stormy questions.
lhree years ago there were no cues
lions that were not going to be settled
OH hand In blaze of paper lanterns. The
constitution was new. 1t had a grav pale
cover, with chrysanthemum at the back.
ana japanese editor told me then, Now
we nave constitution same as other coun-
Tries. ana so It is all right. Now we are
quite civilized because of constitution"
A perfectly irrelevant story comes to
nina here. Do you know that in Madeira
once they had revolution which lasted
Just long enough for the national poet TO
compose national anthem, and then was
put down? All that is left of the revolt
now IS the song that you hear on the
twangllng nachettes, the baby banios, of
moonlight night under the banana fronds
at the back of Funchal. And the high
pitched nasal refrain of it is CONSTITUTES
ounl'
Since that suspicious date it seems that
the questions have impertinently come I'D,
and the first and the last of them is that
OF treaty revision. Says the Japanese gov
eminent: only obey our laws. our new
laws that We have SO carefully compiled
from all the wisdom of the West, and YOU
snatl go up country as you please and
trade where you will, instead of living
cooped up In concessions and being
judged by consuls. Treat US as YOU
would treat France or Germany. and we
Will treat you as our own subjects
Here, as you know, the matter rests be-
tween the 1000 foreigners and the 10000
VoO japanese Godsend to all the editors
OF Tokyo and Yokohama, and the despair
OF the newly arrived. in whose nose, re-
member. is the smell of the East, and one
lndivisibie, lmmemorial, eternal and,
above all, instructive.
1t is only by walking out at least half
mile that you escape from the aggressive
evidences of civilization and come out into
the rice fields at the back of the town.
Here men with twists of blue and white
ciotn round their heads are working knee
deep in the thick black mud. The largest
heid may be something less than two table
cloths, while the smallest is, say, speck
OF undercilff, on to which it We're hard to
back q rickshaw, wrested from the beach
and growing its clump of barley within
spray-shot of the waves. The field paths
are the trodden tops of the irrigating cuts
and the main roads as wide as two peram-
bulators abreast. From the uplands-the
beautiful uplands planted in exactly the
proper places with pine and maple-the
ground comes down in terraced pocket on
pocket OF rich earth TO the levels again.
and 1t would seem that every heavily
matched farmhouse were chosen with spe-
cial regard to the view. If you look
clOCplv "a IL
will see that household spreads itself
over plots, maybe quarter of mile
apart. revenue map of a village shows
that this ScatteratIon Is apparently de-
signed, but the reason is not given. One
thing at least is certain. The assessment
OF these patches can be no light piece of
work-just the thing, in fact, that would
give employment to large number of
small and variegated government officials,
any one OF whom. assuming that he was
of an Oriental cast of mind. might make
the cultivator's life interesting. l re-
member nova second-time-seen place
brings back things that were alto
gether buried - seeing three years
ago the pile of government
papers required in the case of one farm.
They were many and systematic, but the
interesting thing about them was the
amount of work they must have furnished
TO those who were neither cultivators nor
treasury officials.
If one knew japanese, one could COL
logue with that gentleman in the straw
hat and the blue loin cloth who is chopping
within sixteenth of an inch of his naked
toes with the father and mother of all
weed-spuds. His version of local taxation
might be inaccurate. but il would be sure
to be picturesque. Failing his evidence. be
pleased to accept two or three things that
may or may not be facts of general applica-
ton. They differ in measure from state
ments in the books. The present land tax
Is noininally 2I per cent, payable in cash
on three, or as some say, five-yearly
settlement. But. according to certain Off
Gals, there has been no settlement since
1875. Land lying fallow for a season pays
the same tax as land in cultivation, unless
it is unprodCctive through Hood or caiam-
ity Tread earthquake here). The govern
ment tax is calculated on the capital value
of the land, taking 4 measure of about
600 square feet or quarter of an acre
as the unit
Now. one of the ways of getting al the
capital value of the land is too see what
the railways have paid for II. The very
best rice land. taking the japanese dollar
at three shilings, is about $50 los per
acre. Unirrigatei land for vegetable
growing is something over 50 lbs, and
forest 80 lis. AS these are railway rates
they may be fairly held to cover large
areas. In private sales the prices may
reasonably be higher.
1t is to be remem hered that some of the
very best rice land will bear two crops IN
the wear Most soil will bear two crops.
the first being millet, rape, vegetables, and
so on, sown on dry soil and ripening at
the end of May. Then the ground is at
once prepared for the wet crop, 10 be har-
vested in October or Whereabouts. The