Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-11-10
JAPANESE BUILDERS AT WORK.
An Interesting Exhibition of Their
Methods on the Worlds Fair
Grounds,

An Interesting Exhibition of Their
Methods on the Worlds Fair
Grounds.
[From the Chicago Herald.l
Eighteen 1.-THE limbed, black-eyed little
fellows, with costumes that give them the
appearance of human tea boxes, attract
many spectators nowadays on the north
end of the wooded island at Jackson Park.
They are the Japanese laborers at work on
their first building, one Of the series of
three Japanese palaces, and they are worth
watching, not only on account of their
quaint appearance, but because of their
odd methods of working and droll actions.
Although the beginning of work was
made just eleven days ago with formal
ceremonies, in the course of which the god
of the ground was invoked and then i'm
| paled on stick in the shape of ragged
| piece of white Japanese paper, there is
| nothing to show for the labor expended SO
far except thirty-fiye square holes in the
soft, black loan, which do not look to
have required any extra amount of labor
to dig. The god still waves in the breeze,
| but he does not seem to have been potent
factor in pushing the work. The holes
ton, and the workmen dig them carefully
and labori ously with their sharp-pointed
kuwas, or spades.
The Japanese have queer way OF doing
things When they make a hole they
straightwsy proceed to fill it up again.
This does not seem to be q very ssgacious
method of procedure, but it is their way,
and it passes muster in Japan They do
not fill it up with dirt. They first put in
Il E., a. 1r;a h Nd
cement nearly to the surface, and on top
of it all several more fiat stones. These
serve as resting place for the pillars of
the superstructure. AS the holes are
about ten feet apart and only about foot
and a half square, the foundation thus
formed is not a very substantial one.
} All day yesterday the agile little labor
ers, clad in odd-looking blue garments,
manipulated pile-driver, or machine
that much resembled one. They were
driving the bottom layer of rocks into the
, ground, but their antics very much more
, resembled those of set of children al
play than of men earning their daily rice
by the sweat of their brows. In the first
place they did not look like workmen
with their tightly. fitting blue trousers
, which reached to the soles of their feet
their curiously patterned roundaboutl
7 with labyrinthine figure on the sides and
3 front that doubtless meant something won
derfully interesting in Japanese; theil
snug cloth caps with long attachments
3 which serve to completely obscure the ears
, | and their strictly Oriental shoes, which
: had NO upper part to protect the feet from
the chilly breeze that came from Lak'
, Michigan, they looked for all the world al
/ if they were about to walk a rope or pitct
. a top up into the air and spin it on tht
surface of a rapidly revolving parasol o.
< the Joseph's coat pattern.
T Nobody would ever have recognized
t their pile driver for what 1t was. Made o
=, light timbsrs, 1t did not have a nail in ii
5 construction Instead of nails the who'll
structure was tied together with ropes o
J, rice fibre, but 1t was strong enough to An