The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-04-30
In Old Japan.

From Autumn tn Japan,v by Alfred Par
sons, In Harpcr's Magazine for April.
From the spring-time, when II
reached Japan in the rain and began
TO grumble ut the weather, and all
through the damp and the downpour
of the summer months, L had been
consoled by the promises of my
friends. They assured me that when
the autumn came | should have week
after week of glorious sunshine, a
clear fresh air, and probably not u
wet day between Michaelmas and
Christmas. Either the season was
an exceptional one, or else this is "a
cherished myth; there certainly were
more fine days in October and
November, but not a week passed
without one or two when work out
of-doors was impossible. They
talked, too, of the glory of the naples,
of hill-sides and rocky r~ayines
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 tassels of glowing scarlet. |
saw them first near Hamamatsu, Il
pleasant town on the Tokaido, which
| reached on the 10th of September,
after q little tour in the interior;
their brilliant color at once attracted
me, and / fastened to make draw
ings of them, for my passport had
almost expired, and | feared that |
mightnot find them elsewhere. There
was no need to be in such q hurry,
for they seem to grow abundantly
wherever they get II chance. Hama
matsu was quite unlike any other
Japcnese town | had seen; the houses
had Il 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 belong
ings, and the Thousand, and one
things which the JapaneseS delight
in giving to their beloved children.
AS | passed u little garden | saw
what looked Ikea 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
i'll the sun before receiving their final
coat of paint. The ncighboring
villages were peculiar; every cottage
was protected from the winds by IL
high hedge of clipped yew, and the
street seemed to pass between two
green walls, owe which the heavily
matched roofs just peepcd. The
openings gave IA glimpse of court
yards and cottage fronts where
women and men were hard ut work,
threshing their beans of many colors
and spreading them ON mats to dry,
weaving blue cotton cloths, or wind
ing off the skeins of shining yellow
silk. The typhoon Il fortnight
earlier had strewn the Tokaido with
pine-trces; n passage wide enough for
II %jinrlkisha to pass had been sawn
through some of the great PROSTATE
trunks, and others were still sup
ported by their manglcd limbs, SO
that we could squeeze under them.
They sadly impeded the work of a
company of white-clad engineers,
who, with all tho latest military
c~ontriyances, were laying a field
telegraph along the road. What u
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 imple-
mcnts, all working and living as they
have done for centuries past! Poll
tics and changes of government
matter very little to them; the rice
crop and the take of fish are affairs of
of much more Importance; they are
real life of a country, preserving it's
habits, costumes, and traditions, and
staving off for u time the influences
of railroads and steamships, which
threaten to reduce mans condition
throughout the world to one dull
level of uniformity.