The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-10-30
PRICE FIVE CENTS.

ber of pounds allowed on each ticket.
we were given a duplicate receipt,
each piece and its weight being speci-
fed, and were soon on the train speed
ing 10 kyoto at the rate of twenty
miles an hour.
We were fortunate in securing two
opposite corners for ourselves and our
hand baggage but not so fortunate in
having for fellow passengers Japanese
who smoked cigars and cigarettes, as
did young German also who was
travelling, with all the appurtenances
that wealth affords. We had a rail-
road ride eleven hours, with no re-
freshment stations en- route But at
the hotel luncheon had been put up
for us in neat wooden boxes. Boiled
rice and Japanese relishes, put up in
similar style. were sold at different
stations; also, fruits, cakes, and con-
fectiOus, beer and aerated waters. We
bought at one station pot Of tea and
a cup for three sen, a cent and a half,
and found it palatable and refreshing.
A paternal government, like the Jap
anese, has surely missed a great op-
portunity in not protecting it's public
highways from the Disagreement of
sprawling and disfiguring advertising
signs. Pictorial advertising is worse
here than in the States, for it's crudi-
ties are more exasperating. The rail-
road companies mark each change Of
level by low sign boards, by which the
change is denoted not only by figures
and words. Level, 1 in 200, but also
by inserting the arms on each side
of the post at the exact angle indi-
Gated. There is immense over weight
carried in the buffers and couplers,
and the engines look more like black
boxes with big brass button than our
American locomotives, bright with
FURNISHED pistOns. seemingly instinct
with quivering life. Ninety-nine per
cent of the engines on the Govern
ment roads are of English manufac-
ture. American locomotives are slow
ly working their way into use as the
new roads in the Northern districts.
Of the 1927 foreigners in Yokohama,
S6S are British; 2,29O miles Of Govern
ment railways are now operated. There
are 357 Japanese steamers. Yet the
Nippon Yusen Kaisha with all the sub
sidizing of the Government ran it's
steamers at loss last year: but with
true Japanese indifference to condi-
tions that ought to be considered in
doing a successful business, declared
an annual dividend of ten per cent.
American commerce is. largely repre-
sented by the kerosene imported; 49,
28O,O00 gallons from the United States
to which Russia adds 1O,57O,OO0.
.owithfiehes km-osefthesi,l txoryrvmm
We passed near Kambara, about so
oilac frOp, Kozu covora1 folds Of c,,por
cane. But the canes looked thin and
weak, compared with the rank growth
and large joints of Hawaiian canes.
1t is the Chinese variety that is culti-
waited. The process Of manufacture
must be very crude, for as seen in the
shops, Japanese sugar is much of 1t
as black as tarO patch mud. Near
Shizuoka, 20 miles from Kozu, we no.
ticed more tea bushes than before.
Judging from the nature of the soil,
the tea paint, which is species OF
camelia, flourishes' beat in a gravely
clay We have seen it growing in
every district, but Uji is the district
where it was first planted and is most
cultivated Some bushes are said to
have been picked annually for 300
years. We were told that the Japan
ese tea is not allowed to wilt before
rolling as is the Chinese tea, but roll
ed at once when brought in by the
pickers 1t must be dried a second
time, retired, before it is suitable to
export. The order of the tea under
going this process in the Yokohama
godowers was noticeable as one passed
by them. H.
Kyoto, September 30, 1897.