The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-05-08


curious. l have seen young man
walking proudly up the principal
street of the capital city with collar
and four-in hand tie on, but no shirt.
We may see others wearing overcoats,
with fur collars turned up, but with
legs and feet bare, in as severe
weather as we have here; and men
and women go splashing through
the mud and snow footed, with
out seeming to think anything of it.
Our baggage checked, we are soon
aboard the train. The cars are first,
second, and third class, as in Europe.
They are built on the English plan,
with entrance at the side. The guard,
or conductor, fastens the door, and
you see no more of him till the next
station. All the cars seem to be
smokers" and nearly everybody
smokes-men and women, both. The
railway system of japan is English,
the medicine and military affairs and
government are German; the law,
German, with bit of English and
French; the Christianity Protestant
(mostly American), Roman Catholic
(French), Oriental Greek Catholic
(Russian). It remains to be seen
what will be the result of the MKT
ure.
The Rice Fields.
The run to Yokohama is interest
ing. On one side is the bay and
along the track are the rice-fields,-
low-lying flats, divided into little
plots of all shapes, and about as
large as a good sized bedroom, by
ridges of earth, from foot to
eigh'e cen inches high, and about
foot wide, along which are paths
which keep one above the water
which covers the floor of these little
plots, from one to four inches deep.
Here in time of tillage may be seen
the poor peasants, men, women, and
even girls, standing in the sticky
mortar-b beds, above the knees, when
the air is chilly and uncomfortable,
digging over the mass with hoes, for
the spring setting. Almost all till
age in Japan is done by human
labor. l do not remember to have
seen horse or an OK at such work
since / have been here. You can
imagine how hard the work of these
poor people must be, and how small
must be their earnings. The wonder
is, how any of us can eat mouthful
of rice without thinking what hard
ship it has cost. Perhaps it is we'll
we do not think too closely about
such things.
The rice is sowed early in the
spring in seed-bed then men and
women. boys and girls wade through
the mud and set it in rows of little
clumps as big as your thumb. about
four to six inches apart. Then the
water is turned on, and remains till
the grain begins to turn yellow, when
it is cut, handful at time, with
rude sickles and laid upon the divid-
ing ridges, or hung on strings, head
downward, until dry, when it is
threshed by beating over the edge of
a board or tub, gathered on mat,
and winnowed in the wind or by large
hand-moved fans, when it looks
somewhat like barley and yet re-
mains to be hulled. Yet, after all this
hard work, many of these people are
too poor to eat the rice which they
have raised, but must use less expen-
sive grain and send their rice to be
eaten by those who have not been
exposed to such labor to raise it,
Not only do these rice fields occupy
the low lands along the bays and riv-
ers, but the little valleys along the
brooks reaching far up into the noun
tains are terraced wherever a few
square feet can be made level, and
the water is led on to it from higher
grade, the same water irrigating in
succession many terraces. To look
up one of the little valleys that run
up among the hills is like looking up
fight of broad stairs.
Japanese Pears.
Another strange sight on the Yo-
kohama road is the pear trees. Poles
are erected about 10 feet high and on
the tops of these, other poles are laid,
forming a level floor of trellis cover
ing acres and acres, and the branches
of the trees, instead of being allowed
to grow up naturally are trained out
upon these trellis-like grape vines to
form an arbor. When in full leaf they
completely shade the ground, and
when in full bloom their snowy bios
SONS make beautiful sight. But
the fruiti 1t is perfect in shape, per-
fectly globular except at the stem
and the blow, 1t does not look like