The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-12-03
The City Is Not Nearly So At
tractiVe As Is KyOto.
OF COMMERCIAL PROSPERITY
Japanese Of the Present Day Fond
of Statistical and Tabulat-
ed Reports.
Especial Correspondence

which seem TO constitute the greater
part of Japan, arrived at this city. We
| thought Kyoto the cleanest. and pleas
ATTEST city in Japan, most homelike.
We find Osaka a busy manufacturing
| commercial place. AtKyoto we were the
guests of Prof. Learned, formerly con-
| nected with the Doshisha University.
The reaction of national sentiment in
| Japan against too sudden adoption of
| foreign methods, and the assumption
| by the Japanese Trustees of full con-
troll of the Doshisha buildings, funds,
and curriculum, have necessitated the
withdrawal of almost all of those
who were formerly connected with
| the institution. 1t is wonderful
| how sudden and complete has
been the reverial of the original policy
| of the Doshisha. I can see but little
hope, under the present management,
of any speedy return to the prosperity
and predominence of former days.
Here at Osaka we are the guests of
Miss Colby and her associate Miss
Case. They are teachers in a Girls
Boarding and Day School, founded by
the japanese, and under Japanese
management from the beginning. But
the ladies are here as missionaries of
the Woman's Board, teaching in the
schools, but having no official respon-
sibility. They are doing hard work
hoo hot
few would care to assume; but pa
tiently and cheerily using every mo-
| ment of their time in personal work
! for all with whom they come into So
| cia1 relations. They have persistently
and successfully maintained, as far as
| they could, the Christian character of
! the school, and made their influence
tell in many ways for the spread of
spiritual life in the conversion and up
building of souls.
| We have come into the region of
persimmons, and the street stalls are
| filled with the yellow ovals, as man
| goes are sold in Honolulu arrayed in
piles. l cannot say that l have any
great admiration for the fruit. Another
sight by the way side was multitude
| of flowers, of as brilliant red as Lo-
bella Cardinals of New England brook
sides. But the Japanese hold it in such
| low esteem, as fit only for dead folks
and for children, that it is never used
| in their floral decoration Women
| working in the fields, now that the rice
crop is about ripening was another
common sight, hanging the cut rice in
| bamboo piles to dry. In KyOto they
| were the street sweepers in the I'm
perial Park, hoeing the weeds from the
gravelled roads, cutting the grass with
awkward hooked knives, gathering it
| into bundles with bamboo rakes, and
carrying off on their heads huge loads
tied with straw ropes.
Osaka has very narrow streets, and
the houses are more ram-shackle af-
fairs than any we have yet seen The
street officials were repairing the open
drains that run midway of the blocks
OF houses, and the granite blocks used
| for the drains were piled in the middle
OF the streets making locomotion diff
cult; while the dirt removed from the
drains and dumped into the streets
turned them into mere mud holes. But
the many tall chimneys of widely
| spread brick factories told of large
manufacturing establishment and
new order of industrial enterprise, and
many Japanese are growing wealthy.
We saw fields of cotton, and the white
cotton balls spread out today, as we
came into the region. But the Japan
csc cotton is not suitable for such
weaving as is done now, and large
| qualities of raw cotton are imported
| from India and also from the United
States, There are several bazaars and
commercial museums, where native
wares and foreign importations are
exhibited and sold. Entrance tickets
are sold at two sen, Zone cent each),
and number of birds and animals
IN cages, made an additional attraction
as Geological exhibition.
We find in the waiting rooms of the
R. R. Stations files of Japanese news
papers. The growth and sale of news
papers is one of the wonders of Japan
One of the most important ones recent
ly celebrated it's 5,OOOth issue by a
many-paged edition, with cuts that are
more fearful and abominable if posi-
BILE. than those in American papers of
modern date. AS in the Islands the
newspapers are carried free in the
mails. The need of larger revenues
has led, however, to the proposal to
increase the rates of postage.
Another strange sight was the strips
|
of maccaroni we saw hung up today
The japanese use wheat for this addi-
ton to their bill of fare One prepar-
alton of rice, that reminded us Of Ha-
waiian taro cakes, is "amo" by the
men and "moshi" by the women. 1t is
made by steaming rice, pounding it,
and frying small pieces of this glu-
tinous mass till it puffs up into fan
tastic shapes Roasted chestnuts are on
sale, sometimes strung on bamboo
splints in shape of a fan. Slices of
sweet potato are toasted, and pieces of
boiled sweet potatoes in big chunks
| tempt the hungry wayfarer. The
night lunch carts of our up-to-date
cities are an old institution in Japan.
| CONNECTIONS of all colors, sizes and
shapes abound in the many shops for
| their SALE We notice kerosene cases
marked Manufactured in Sumatra,"
| from some Dutch Company on that