Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1896-11-05
Balconies.

~ ' s: si f S: :, ' : ;@s$:
hl{&R4S wv and superior folks,
and the fair ravine
e.: ssEsszss@ holds the MONTH
-ctssszS<-E| Tor Maple Lead tea
- house-most be-
$500 witching cluster Of
lighthouses in the most picturesque set
ting ever found in Japan, says the Cen
fury. There is the usual large living
room or Office Of the landlord and q
general food preparing" room for the
establishment opening on the roadway,
but within the gates one finds deep,
green glen, an awful chasm some If
teen feet deep and twice as wide, all
filled with delicate airy branches of
cut-leaf naples. A terrible torrent
some two feet wide dashes madly down
the mountain side, spreads out into a
lake the size Of large dinner-table,
with a wooden sauce-boat moored at
one side. Each vantage spot on the
steep bank holds a one, two or three
roomed doll-house-such exquisite
little toy dwellings, with such fairy bal
comics, such spotless screens and soft,
shining mats that one hesitates to des-
ecrate them with the clumsy, defling,
destructive appurtenances Of the sim
plest foreign living; and as for himself
fitting into one Of these midget man
sions 1t Is CULVER alive among the
Lilliputians. Our life in that glen Of
maple leaves was full of interest, from
the moment of slipping back the
screens in the morning with some anx-
iety lest the mite of a glen and its
midget lake were not there or real
rolled up over night, and some other
charming Japanese drop curtain put in
its place-to the last hanging Of the
amados or wooden outer screens at
, night. The deer were friends and
neighbors from the moment of our ar
rival, coming to drink from the musical
fountain-jet in our three-feet square
court Of entrance and then to the edge
Of our porch to bob their heads in we'll
hammered appeals for deer-cake. These
pretty beggars, with their lovely eyes,
their sharp muzzles and delicate feet,
seemed to know the value of their
charms, and having no fear of man,
had only to pose few moments to
move the stoniest and most indolent
heart to wait on them. It was even
more idyllic in the early morning to
find some antlered friend, or an equally
fearless doe and her tiny fawn, wait
ing by the lakeside to share our break
fast. After Miyajima one may well
boast Of having lived in Arcadia, and
each day, more idyllic than the other,
puts one in the better spirit Of enjoying
the rare Japanese charm of 1t ALL The
peace of the island is as perfect as its
piety and few sounds but the gentle
dashing stream and the 1utter of
maple leaves disturbed our enchanted
little glen. One spoke softly, as befit-
ted q place Of such perfect beauty.
Neighbors came to the dollhouse
across the chasm, but only the rat-tat
Of their pipes ON the bamboo cups Of
the tobacco trays was evidence of their
presence there. In that simple, init
mate life there was no mysteries, not
even Of the menu. All the villagers who
passed might stop and watch our cook
make his highly colored curry for our
midday meal; and peddlers who came
to tempt the tea-house maids with gay
kimono patterns watched his strange
concoctions and sought pretexts to
watch our further play with the knife
and fork, as we sat at feast on our
little veranda over the lake. The small
boy of the tea house added the comic
element, and his morning pursuit of
our dinner chicken was always a fea-
ture. He would chase the angry hen
around and around the lake, and when
it fed cackling up the bank, swift
movement of his palm across the lake
would squirt such showers Of water
on the rufFled fowl as might soon empty
the whole vast deep and rob the ravine
of It's choicest landscape ornament.
When the tea-house staff had combined
against the hen, our maior-domo would
bring the captive to us in his arms and
display the fine "stew chicken" There
was a solidity and an adamantine fiber
to the Miyajima fowls that resisted
ordinary cooking, and We commanded
one day that the bird should be divided
at every joint, the body quartered, and
all kept stewing of three hours during
which we expected to be gone on an
excursion. Summoned to see If it was
all right, we found the pallid, uncook-
ell chicken dismembered to the last
Joint; but the whole puzzle had been
neatly put together again, and the bird
wound over and over with the closest
network Of fine spool cotton-a strange
travesty on that CULVER to whom we
were always comparing ourselves.