The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-09-04

came, sent up a written notice to the
second office and our quarantine in
spection was over.
Yokohama was in full view. a long
breakwater, with curving sweep, en-
closes a portion of the bay. Two tow
ers, one red, one white, mark the mid
die entrance, into which our steamer
slowly passed. A fleet OF sampans
quickly fiocked around. These yellow
brown, implanted boats are longer and
larger than our Honolulu harbor-boats.
Two men with huge, double-edged
SOULS, with handles tied on, propelled
these antique vessels. One Of the men
was often a boy about 10 years old.
The mail bags that had been taken out
of the hold two hours before were now
dropped one by one into the hold of
the mail tug-boat. Then the hotel
steam launch came alongside, the bag
gage was lowered, and when all was
ready the passengers babe goodbye to
the Captain and to fellow-voyagers and
passed down the gangway. 1t was be-
ginning TO rain, and the married folks
disappeared into the little cabin below.
We passed alongside of the long iron
pier and were soon at the landing
place, walked up the long, low stone
steps and were on shore in the Land Of
Zipangu, Jeh Pun, the Land of the
Rising Sun. The hotel porter took
charge OF our baggage, which had to
pass Custom-House inspection. We
walked a short distance on the wharf
TO the Police Station, where jinrikishas
awaited us to take us to the Grand
Hotel.
We were soon assigned our room,
near the corner of the canal and open
ing out upon the bay. There was not a
breath of air stirring; what air there
was was Ifeless, and we did not won
der that breathing seemed a fruitless
effort, when we learned that the Their
mOmeter that afternoon had marked
102 deg. We looked out of our window
in the moonlight, watching the myriad
of boats at anchor with their glowworm
lights. So still was the surface of the
water that there was not culver in
all of the reflected lines of light. Two
large Japanese war vessels lay outside
of the breakwater, a half-dozen of other
nationalities within and ocean steam
ers by the score In fact, they are
coming and going all day long, almost
as frequently as ferry-boats.
Dinner in these hotels of the Orient
comes at the close of the days bust
ness and outings. But the dining room
is kept cool with punkas Dinner is
served at 7:30, and after $3.50 smoking
is allowed. The Grand Hotel seems to
be full, judging from the appearance of
the dining room this evening, when, by
the kind permission of the Admiral
the band of the United States Flagship
Olympia played during the dinner.
To one accustomed to cosmopolitan
sights of Honolulu, Yokohama does not
seem so strange as it probably would
coming from the States by the Cana
dian-Pacific route. 1t is commercial
city of the ordinary appearance of mod
ern cities. The strange sights, so far as
the architecture is concerned, apart |
from the public buildings of brick, |
trimmed with granite, are the tiled |
roofs with their queer gable ends; the |
Iowness of the buildings, some of them |
of gray stone that has grown dark
with time, almost as dingy-block as
those in Chicago; the narrownesS of
the streets and their cleanness, swept
by Japanese labOrers, who gather the
refuse in a hand-cart, and Sprinkled
from hand-carts, drawn by other Jap
anese laborers.
Other strange street scenes are the
carriages, barouches drawn by short
legged, long-haired Japanese horses.
Much of the carting is done on hand |
carts; if a horse draws a dray, he is
not driven, but led along with hal
ter, in place of a head stall. Some two
horse drays here are with a drivers
seat on the goose-neck, such as we see
in Honolulu; but the drays are larger
and have a light iron frame with an
awning. The suns rays have pecu-
Iiarly penetrating power in Japan, and
anything like sunstroke must be care
fully avoided, and umbrellas are neces-
sites In the busy hours of the day
the streets are full. Groups of Japan
csc walk along together looking hither
and yon as we see them doing in Ho-
nolulu. The jinrikisha men are the
only people that seem to be in hurry.
Some few impetuous people are drawn
by a running team of those. H.