The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-04-20
AUTUMN IN JAPAN.

Alfred Parsons, in the April Harper's.
describes the Japanese Autumn, which
seems to be season of flowers, and is
pre-eminently the season of the chrysan.
them.
From the spring time, when / reached
Japan in the rain and began to grumble
at the weather, and all through the
damp and downpour Of the summer
months, had been consoled by the
promises of my friends. They assured
me that when the autumn came l should
have week after week of glorious sun
shine. a clear fresh air, and probably
not wet day between Michaelmas and
Christmas. Either the season was an
exceptional one, or else this is cher
ished myth; there certainly were more
fine days in October and November, but
not week passed without one or two
when work out OF doors was impossible.
They talked, too, of the glory of the
naples, of hillsides and rocky ravines
clothed with scarlet and crimson, and
their enthusiasm in this matter was
amply justified. but no one had told me
of the beauty Of the lilies of the field,
which decorate so many of the banks
between the rice patches with their tas
sells of glowing scarlet l saw them first
near Hamamtsu, a pleasant town on the
Tokaido, which / reached on the 10th
of September. after little tour in the
interior; their brilliant color at once at
tracted me, and ! fastened to make
drawings Of them. for my passport had
almost expired, and feared that might
not find them elsewhere. There was no
seem to grow abundantly wherever they
get a chance. Hamamatsu was quite
unlike any other Japanese town l had
seen; the houses had projecting upper
story and broad overhanging roofs, and
the principal trade seemed to be in toys.
There were shops full of drums and
kites and dolls with all their belongings,
and the thousand and one things which
the Japanese delight in giving to their
beloved children. AS l passed little
garden saw what looked like fearful
atrocity-dozens OF babies heads, pale
and gray as if in death, cut off at the
neck and impaled on short stakes, stood
about the ground; but on coming nearer,
the mystery was explained; they were
life sized dolls heads of papier. mache,
put out to dry in the sun before receiv-
ing their final coat Of paint. The neigh
boring villages were peculiar; every cot
tage was protected from the winds by a
high hedge of clipped yew, and the
street seemed to pass between two green
walls. over which the heavily matched
roofs just peeped. The openings gave a
glimpse of courtyards and cottage fronts
where women and men were hard at
work, threshing their beans of many
colors and spreading them on mats to
dry, weaving blue cotton cloths, or
winding off the skeins of shining yellow
silk. The typhoon a fortnight earlier
had strewn the Tokaido with pine trees;
passage wide enough for iinrikisha to
pass had been sawn through some of the
great PROSTATE trunks. and others were
still supported by their mangled limbs,
so that we could squeeze under them.
They sadly impeded the work of COM
pany of white-clad engineers. who with
all the latest military contrivances, were
laying field telegraph along the road.
What a contrast were these sons of
change to the fishermen returning from
their mornings work with heavy loads
of bonito. and to the peasants with their
simple and primitive implements. all
working and living as they have done
for centuries past! Politics and changes
of government matter very little TO them;
the rice crop and the take Of fish are af-
fairs of much more importance; they are
the real life of country, preserving its