Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-06-27
A 'Rickshaw Ride From Nagasaki to Yag
ami and Return.
The Tiny Farms Seen on the Trip
Tea on the Top of the Hill
The Hardy Bearers.


winter. We had felt ourselves gradually
falling in love with picturesque Japan"
now, that We have returned in this lovely
Maytime, when the whole rural world has
gone a-harvesting. We find our subjugation
complete. Each trip through the country
adds a rivet to our chains. but the 'rickshaw
ride through the golden sunshine, to the
little village of Yagami. added another chain.
We started in the early afternoon, were
trotted briskly through the queer little
streets Of Nagasaki. up. up. over the hills
our patient bipeds never stopping, never
looking upon the panorama OF beauty upon
which we were feasting-passed little ham
lets and tiny farm houses, with their slant
Ing. matched roofs, and miniature barley
fields. some no larger than our garden bor-
ders at home-passed little graveyards. with
Their. queer gray gravestones, some in the
form of sleepy stone god and right in the
midst queer mixture of the living and the
dead. appeared the matched roof and slid
ing doors of the home of some thrifty peas
ant Always up our bipeds trotted, casting
aside, as they hurried on, a superfuous
garment or occasionally hopping their drip
ping faces, but never stopping until We
reached our highest elevation, where We
rested at a tea house to enjoy the goodly
piece OF Nippon lying below u.s.
Getting Used to Things.
On first arriving in Japan ones heart Is
racked with the cruelty to animals In
allowing the jinrickisha man to carry one
through the level streets of Yokohama
but 1t Is astonishing how gradually one
becomes hardened, so that by the time
this southernmost island is reached the
tortuous streets and hills Of Nagasak are
assembled without a qualm or thought for
the poor beast of burden. The abnormal
development of the muscle OF the japanese
leg Is curious. Everything trots and runs
from childhood so II is really the exposure in
the winter that makes the average life of
jinrickisha man so short. One wet cold
day last winter five of them dashed through
the streets of Toxic. carrying a party to the
station in time to catch a train. They were
just in time, but the last seen Of them they
were standing in the cold rain, steaming
standing of all sorts of weather that makes
the average life but five years.
Ten House On the Heights.
The beautiful stir of nature is what most
impressed us this May afternoon, overlook
ing the lovely valley below, perched in the
tea house on the heights above. and we
wondered what would be the sensation Of
some good old farmer at home could he
be suddenly transported from his own ex-
pansive harvest field to the harvest field Of
Japan. All the hillsides are dotted with
barley fields like patchwork quilt, the
patches very small indeed. and The quilt
looking like a very crazy" one. the tiny
fields being of every shape conceivable to
the ingenuity Of the japanese brain, some
no bigger than a dining table. some but a
miniature triangle, and in the midst al
ways Ruth and Boaz with sickle indus
triously cutting handsful of yellow grain
and laying them down carefully in line.
a
lay down punches of choice roses. Some
grain had already been garnered in the
small court yard, and men, women and
children alike with true scriptural sim
plicity were beating the grain from the
chaff with primitive fails. or with jagged
pieces of wood in mortar and pes;le-like
affairs and always Ruth and Boaz APP
peared in the most abbreviated of costumes,
while with the little children sometimes
sunshine was consid cred sufficient cover
ing. Truly in summer Japan is one huge
life class" But one gets used TO such
small peculiarities in an astonishngly
short time. SO with only lazy thought upon
the difference of eastern and western CIV
ilization. ana after our men had imbibed
their saki. and had taken some restful
whiffs from their tiny pipes. and we our
selves had been inspected by some dozens
of small children. each with the latest edi-
ton to the family tree strapped for safe
keeping upon its back. and had given quite
a "cumSha" to the Chest Ia small coin TO
the childrsn). we started on our descent
on the other side to the village of Yagami.
Going Down tic Hillside.
Backward and forward. like the descend
ing wire of a corlIscrew. our road wound
the whole hillside. locking like a huge ter
raced park, our road peeping in and out
not unlike the gay ribbons OF May pole.
and all the time we were swiftly passing
the same quiet. busy scenes that had de-
lighted US on the other side. Here the view
was II ore extended: away off i'm the dis
lance was the sea, while near at hand were
the same cdd little hamlets and farm
houses Once we passed u primitive temple
in the midst of a beautiful grove. and APP
preached by the inevitable "torix," but on
we sped, until our patient, never-tiring
jinrickisha men told US only five minutes
more to ,he tea house; and sure enough, In
less than five minutes, they drew US up In
our big baby carriages to the archway OF
the tea house of faGami. such pretty
little tea house IL Isl completely embowered
In roses hanging in great red clusters ana
looking like a nest of boxes overhanging
the sea, the sliding panels all removed,
verifying open tc the free air of heaven.
the freshest of sea breezes cooling the
warm May afternoon. These same little
boxes are the perfection Of summer houses,
the most sumptuous being elegantly fu--
nished with only the tatami, or mating
covering on the floor. and the characteristic
kakamona, but In winter how the poor lit
tie people do shrivel up in their airy abodss,
their hands the only thing warm about
them, and these they keep warm by hang
ing over their hibachi, or small fire-box.
Coming to Japan in winte- ones sympa-
thies go out TO the people; all look so cold;
everything is lived out of doors, and the
houses are SO tiny and fiimsy and open.
Women take their sewing and sit in the
sunshine outside. doubled up their fu-
TONS or mats: the children never stay in
doors, and the Japanese. having no concep-
ton of the privacy Of home life, everything
Is done in the broad light Of day. In sum-
mer everything presents a different aspect.
and western civilization is apt to envy the
utte- simplicity of the east, the cool, I'M
conscious abandon of Japan
A CIcanIy People.
One wonders where everything is on so
tiny a scale, and children are so numerous.
how everything can be kept SO clean. and II
cleanliness is next to goodness" the Japa-
nese cannot be far from the kingdom of
heaven. The home may be poor and tiny
indeed, but rarely is il without its curious
little garden, with its camellia, or aZalia
BUSH or quaint. twisted shrub, and the or
rangement of flowers is taught in the
schools, the idea of heaven. earth and man
being embodied in every artistic bunch Of
their beloved cherry blossoms. Well, we
drank i'm the sea and the lovely landscape
al the same time we drank in the tea of
Nippon, that afternoon at the little tea
house at Yagami, and with our tea had
sponge cake served, Nagasaki being the
only place where we have found such Chris
tian refreshment as sponge cake, a relic of