The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-01-28
A CITY WITHOUT HORSES.

A CITY WITHOUT HORSES.
SIR Edwin Arnold on the sights and
silence of the Great japanese city.
Nature has done much for Toxic
She has given her not merely seven
hills as TO ancient Rome, but seventy,
which rise all round about the great
sea marsh on which the city is princi-
pally built rcdeeming it's appearance
with handsome rolling border of rich
foliage and lofty banks of residences,
besides bestowing the two intraurban
parks Of Ueno and Shiba, which are full
of noble forest timber, cryptomeria,
oak, bamboo, camphor and elm. 1t is,
moreover, when you begin to traverse
Toxic from end TO end, on various
errands of pleasure or business, in diff
ferent directions, that you learn what
n huge and busy world of life and in
dustry it is There are over $500
temples and shrines in the streets and
lanes, of which ten out of eleven are
Buddhist There are thousands of
bridges, argc and small, for Toxic is
as full of rivers and canals as Bangkok
or Venice. Tens of thousands of quaint,
high-prowed boats and barges go up
and down these networks of water. On
their banks and in the open spaces are
to be seen thronged and busy markets.
Every street and lane is lined with
shops, large and small, wherein
all sorts of trades and small man.
ufactures are pursued. An endless
stream of citizens, male and female,
old and young, lettering for pleasure or
Fastening upon business, fills the cause
ways, whi, h have no sidewalks, and
therefore seem to run like living rivers
banks high. All the children of each
neighborhood, moreover, make the adj
jacent street their playground. They
fly their kites there, there they beat to
and fro their shuttlecocks: they play
there, in merry little demure groups, at
ken, the Japanese "Buclxl Buck! how
many fingers do l hold upP' or at the
foN-game, or at the "blind-devil;" or
they gather round the Ameya, to see
him blow sweetmeats of grotesque shape
out of bean-paste; while the vender of
fish shutfles along with his tubs; the
newspaper man rings his bell; the
babies ''wobble' on the backs of their
mothers, sisters and aunts; and the neat
ly declled geishas with sober haori cov-
ering their fnery, and black tresses
coitfeed until not a single hair is astray,
trot on Gathering geta to the dinner
party where they are engaged to dance
and sing
Why is it, then, you ask yourself, that
in this vast capital there prevails such
peace and calm? Fresh from New York, |
from Chicago, from San Francisco, the
immense solitudes of the Pacific have
succeeded in effacing from
your tinSling nerves and throbbing
ears the rattle and hurry and clamor OF |
modern American existence in the great |
centers of republican civilization What
makes Toxic so different? Why can
you stroll along its endless streets
absorbed in fancies or memories, |
being recalled to vigilance by
deafening uproar or by actual danger |
to life or limb? The answer lies in the
absence of horse traffic 1t is that and
the happy lack of tram cars, electric
cars, omnibuses and all the other We.
hicles of daily use in america, which
gives to these Asiatic highways their
and safety. Except in the
Ginza and Nihombasni. with one or two
other main thoroughfares, those noisy
necessities of locomotion will not be
seen. The little two-wheeled '"ricksha,"
gliding everywhere innocently and
transacts almost all the
movement" of the great capital, sc
that the streets are as safe for children
and infirm people as they are quiet fol
everybody. There must be more than
100, 600 jinrillishas in Toxic for all the
world rides in these cheap, commodious
and rapid, if ridiculous, conveyances,
Of which the two-legged steeds never
shy nor iib nor bolt, and very seldom
or fall Not the least marvel.
ous or remarkable thing about modern
Japan is the manner in which she has
invented, and universally adopted, a
mode of locomotion that so exactly
suits her people, her towns and cities
and her narrow roads. The happy con
sequence is that all her days are peace
fui, and that at night her citizens sleer
The ''sleep of the just" undisturbed by
any noise except that of the ubiquitos
nezumi, the Toxic rat and the occasione,
sound of the hansho-tho
dreaded firebell Cosmopolitan.