St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-11-14

l 4
Sassa.
One drosssy noon the town crieS cams
70 the Aeof. clapped two pieces Of wood
together, and in long chant besought.
al people Of Miyajima to come to the
temple for ''spesk meeting" at two
o'clock that day and. for the fve sue:
ceeding days, to lear read the oficial'
news from the army in Corea. We sent
our agent to listen for 'tfl,; and our err
ratio 'SaH1. only InudzukH returned
breathless, to tell, in excited japanese,
English and jargon, Of the victory OF
the Hello. We had intended to make
farewell Offering to the temple to Sc
cure an illumination as q fitting close
20 our Stay in Arcadia, an1 here WINS an
opportunity. TIN the shortest time In
udzuka was speeding back to the tenn
T.le to bcseech the high Priest to have
The thousand oil saucers .H,khe &pnterns
filed at once. the illumipatioq 70 begin
at dusk without waiting.toF the mid
night high tide. "a.
The priests shook their heads at such
IN irregularity, such 4 iisregarfof an
Gent custom on short notice. "Dut this
is an American rpatsuri, and in honor OF
the Heiio! How ean you say you have
any custom for such an illumination?
And when did yoYever illuminate at any
tide for q battle won in Cprea?" And
the high priest said: "Sdfrely surely!
Yes; for Beikokn TAmefica1 ind the
Heiiowc can do ~, And the circle Of
eagle-eyctl. excited priests sprAngde-
lightedlv.to hagiA preparations. -.
Our. joyous. seYtlo was Mt the temple
steps with the sampan rs usual before
the sunset hour. and he lad not pushed
III until he let Us know that the village
vas agos ut the double news Of victory
and the, haaiosabie illnnsinatioa. We
could see the lay brothers all along
shore ilhng,.thss oil-saccers, laying
wicks and FASTING fresh papers on the
tall stone lamps, and when we sculled
back, long after sunset. lights had be-
gun to twinkle under the temple caves.
4 lantern came forth and went bobbing
clong clearwater line, stopping a mo-
mcnt, and q .xseond light shone forth.
then third and a fourth. and SO on
along the shore, a. the lampiighter
went his way. y
Soon the wholc curving bay from
headlanl to headland was outlined in
lising lights that cleaned dOubly and
wavered in long reflections toward us;
and the temple was great set piece OF
! fireworks, each shrine n sun goddess
glowing cave, with the r1any jeweletl
pyramids of votive candies. The spec
tacle lasted in full splentlor for more
than an hour. the villagers tiocke9l
along shore, trooping through the tenn
| pie galleries and drifting abesk In hotq
| to watch the splendid specGke9es Yel1
lights dropped out here and &1g4q
| the glow of the rising moon made the
ornament pale; but even then the
shore-line was lost in darkness, It.
sukushima's inner shrine by the sea was
still aglow with votive lights.
The next morning the Village officers
called 90 thank your spirit" in cele-
trating Japan's victories; the high
priest sent sacred gift paper filled with
rice. and asked for the honorable names
in full. that they might be written
among the temples contributors; and
when he went to the village everyone
lowed and made pretty Speeches about
the American matsuri. Weeks later a
Toxic artist wrote in his quaint idiom
that he lad heard of my "!avorably pre-
senting great deal of money to the
temple praying for the war, and lighted
the thousand lamps Of Miyajima for the
war. seen it in our Japanese news
papers" Surely never did one obtain
so much pleasure and glory by the cx-
pentliture of four. yen 1.-TWO dollars in
United States 'goND Mia Ruhamah
| pcidmore, in Century.