The morning call., 1894-11-25

gage ON their backs and push and crowd
in. They patronize the station restaurants,
and every time the train stops there are
peddlers of cookies and tea who come to
the car windows. You buy all sorts of
food very cheap, and you can get teapot
of japanese tea, with a teacup on tor, any
where. I remember riding one day with
John w. Thompson, Washington banker,
and when the hour for lunch came we con-
cluded to buy two pots Of tea. / got them
and offered the man 10 cents. He looked
rather queer and | thought | had not given
him enough, and was about to hand
him out 20 more when, to our sur
prise, he gave me back cents. and our
guide told US that We were to keep the pots
and the CUPS This was two teapots, two
cups and about one quart of tea for the sum
of 5 cents, or for 2h cents in American
money. Such teapot at home would cost
at least % cents, and other things
were proportionately cheap. There is n 10
place in the world where you can travel
better and more cheaply than in Japan,
| and there is no place where you get 80
much for the money. There ara good no.
| tells everywhere, and the best hotels of
! TOXIC. Yokohama and Kobe are equal to
the best hotels of New York. The hotel
rates at the best houses are from 81 to S.
day in silver, which is just half those
| amounts when reduced to American
money. Clothes and other things are pro-
| portionately chear, and carrlages-you
ride about, you know, in jiDrikishas-cost
| you from 10 to Is cents an hour.
Speaking of Japan's postal system the
people are as great letter writers as any
| you will find in the world, and they use
the postoffice aud telegraph freely. You
must remembe they had n postal system
whate yer about twenty years ago. Still,
they carried last year over 200, 900, 900 let
tiers and more than 50,0000 600 newspapers,
while 100000 books went through the
| mails. They have money order
system, and they make postal cards
much cheaper than we do They
make their own postage stamps, and
they do the postal work of the east coast
of Asia. If you wish to send letters from
Shanghai, China, you put Japanese stamps
on them-or you did before this war be-
gan-and they had also their pos t0ffices in
Korea. Their mails are as safe as ours,
and it is an interesting thing to know that
their postal service was modelled after that
of the United States. 1t WAS founded by
Samuel Bryan of Washington. who left
the Postofice Department here to 90 to
Japan for that purpose. He did good
jub, and America has reason to be proud
of the work
Japan has now a number of "hello girls"
and in The central station at Toxic | saw
about fifty of them with black rubber re-
ceivers about their ears screechng Japa-
nese answers over the wire. The telegra oh
system is also growing and Japan sent last
year more than 100000 telegraphic dis
patches. The country is, in fact, growing
so fast that it 10 impossible to keep track
of it, and il publishes now almost as many
newspapers as we do, in proportion to its
people. There are more than 200 different
journals published in Toxic alone. and
Japan issues more than 200,0O0,OOO cop
les Of newspapers a yeap. Every one
reads the newspapers, and l have seen
jBrjkisha men pull papers out of their
| pockets and sit down and read while ]
went in to make call. The newspapers
pay fairly well, and they are circulated by
newsboys, who 60 about with bells In
their hands, which they ring as they call
out the names of their journal. Nearly
every paper has had one or more CORE
spondenis in Korea, and nearly all of them
have had illustrations by their special ar
fists on the ground. Some of their artists
command very high prices, and ]
have had illustrations for my letters
made by the best Of them. They
have their reporters everywhere, and
was interviewed a dozen times dur.
ing my stay in Japan. and l met q
nun Der of the editors. The Government
has, however. haC very rigid censorship
of the press during the present war, and a
number of the papers have been warned
that they would be suspended if they made
premature reports. Editors are now pun
ished nearly every day. and the real uames
Of the editors do not appear in the papers
The names which are published as those
of the editors represent poor scribblers
who are paid from $40 to $50 month, anC
who expect to take the blame if the paper
gets into trouble. They are ready to BIZ
dragged off to prison and serve out any
sentence that the court may impose upor
them for the improper statements pnb
Iished by the papers, and, provided thei,
salaries go on. they don't care now Ions
their sentences last.
Y ae>A< Z, ca.l,..,.-