The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-10-11

The lines are built and worked by the
Japanese. and all kinds of material and in
struments are turned out of the imperial
workshops. Therefore, you see, in many
respects this is not slow nation.
The JinricIsisha.
This fact is further cxemplified in the
general use of the jinrickisha, the some
what high sounding name of a vehicle on
two wheels, not unlike what Oliver Wen
dell Holmes called 1.-THE one horse shay
Literally, the word means imam power We
hicle." Hence II witty English friend in
sists on calling it n pullman car" That
is about what it is. But what u comfort,
You can hire cody Mt from 81 to Is cents
day. and he will await your beck and call.
morning. noon and night He will whirl
you over the ground at the rate of six miles
an hour and can easily make 60 miles day.
common trip is from Kioto TO Nara, 30
miles apart. Starting at o'clock in the
morning from one of these points, we have
returned i'll time for dinner The cody
will run all day, stopping for say only two
hours rest out of IL. OF course the speed
and the luxury of this kind of travel is
due to the lightness of the ''rickshaw," as
Englishmen abbreviate the word, and the
admirable character of the roads Ny own
particular cody, on pinch, once carried
me five miles in 30 minutes NAV saw
here that servants of all kinds in Japan.
While not averse to fees, never ask for them
and VIII treat you just as we'll without
tip" as with one. have observed, too,
that they will stand great deal of iii
treatment from inconsideratc persons with
out retaliating. They seem to enjoy being
called "a liar" My only explanation is
that, being anxious to acquire European
CUSTOMS they regard the epithet as n com
pliment.
An Evening Stroll.
Another of the enjoyable features of life
III Japan Is when you submit yourself to
the operations of the blind shampoocrs.
They go through the streets ut night staff
in hand, with peculiar whistle that is
one of the characteristic sounds of every
Japanese village. Their treatment is re-
ally species of massage and consists of n
peculiar way of picking up every muscle,
ana, so TO speak, kncading it until your
pans and aches disappear and you feel re-
1reshed. so expert are they that they will
lind ont the seat of your trouble in two
minutes without your telling it. The pro-
cess is much recommended to tired pcdcs-
trians and TO persons suffering from lum-
bago and rheumatism. liaving an attack
OF the grip, found the treatment of one of
these bind slampooers better than all the
medicines that had been prescribed and
tho Ice was only 30 cents an honr.
When you have got this far around the
world, lourneying by way of the Mcditcr-
ranean, Red sea, India and China and set
foot on the soil Of Yokohama you feel as if
you were almost home, though yet thou
sands of miles distant. You begin to see
modern Europeanized buildings, hotels,
banks, government offices, asyums and IA
miliar faces. There are homelikc club and
reading rooms, libraries, billiard tables and
bowling Kinks, yet there is something indie
scribably interesting in the things that arc
foreign, and you want to linger You are
attracted by the quaint little houses, the
native dress which western fashions and
fabrics have not yet completely driven out,
the open air life of the people, the CHATTER
OF the clogs, the dainty children who follow
you about in crowds, scanning every article
OF your own and wife's attire and laughing
Ill great glce, the grotesqueness of the so
called European costumes of many of the
ladies and gentlemen of the middle class
and the manner in which they IRE worn,
and finally the shops and shopkeepers, DO
lite, eager and ever anxious to drive n bar
gain.
In fact, to stroll down the "Broadwav"
of Toxic or Yokohama of an evening is a
liberal education in everyday art, for what
ever these people fashion, from the toy of
an hour to the triumphs of the highest
skill, Is touched by n taste unknown else
where. l must add, however, that while
there is much here that appeals to the eve.
Doth Yokohama and Toxic possess not Il
little that appeals to the nose
G.. w. c.