The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-01-15
ALIVE AND A DEBIIooD.

Mr.. Lafcadio Hearn, Greek, Irishman,
American, Christian, Buddhist and Japan
esq., has led a varied life and has written
much that will live during its course, but
his latest book, "Gleanings In Buddha
Fields: Studies of Hand and Soul In the
Far East has had the approval of those
most competent to judge as containing the
very essence of oriental life. He does not
conf1ne himself to any one aspect of Japan
csc customs, manners and society; but
dwells for a time. it would seem, upon every
phase which that country can present to an
appreciative and sympathetic man who has,
so far as it is in human power, identified
himself with the people of whom he writes.
There is a deal of shadowy metaphysics
shadowy themes is no unusual matter there.
He is equally at home in toto, which is the
seat of the ancient national worship, and
in Osaka, where the modern manufactures
of the empire chiefly thrive. He knows
the banker, the merchant, the nobleman,
the peasant-and it Is of this last that he
tells story or two that will take rank
with the best. None of these can excel the
story of Hamaguchi, who while yet alive,
was made demi-god, and that by those
who knew him best, his lifelong friends
and neighborS.
As everyone knows, Japan is a country In
tested by earthquakes TO such an extent
the architecture, other than that involved in
the construction of low wooden buildings,
is an unknown art. A shock seldom aWak-
ems more apprehension there than thun-
der storm does with us. Use has made
them bold. Yet extensive and frightful de-
struction sometimes waits upon one of these
trlr1 n LIST n
having gone by since a wave like that
which destroyed Lisbon centuries ago burst
upon the unprotected coast of the islands
and swept thousands to death along hun
dred of miles in extent.
It was more than 100 years ago that Ham
aguchi, his harvest in and his days work
ended, betook himself to the little balcony
which crowned his house. This by itself,
would have given him small command of
the view, the house being low, though
somewhat extensive, since it's owner was
the chief of his district and reputed the
weathiest man. But he was fortunate in
having set it upon an eminence from which
he could overlook the village below, and
still further away, the great green ocean.
The world had gone well with his neighbors
and they had given themselves UP to merry
making the old man, too old now to
take active part in the fun any longer, stood
looking down upon them from the little
tableland where his farm land lay
There came a shock to him as he stood
there, not great earthquake, such as suf-
| feed to alarm even an accustomed people,
but long, deliberate, elastic rising and
falling of the ground which did not inter-
rupt the festivities below for a moment.
Hamaguchi glanced seaward and his
heart fell. The waves had darkened and
were driving against the wind and away
| from the land. Some of the villagers near
est the rapidly widening breach were run
ming out with the water, as If to learn what
| it could mean. Hamaguchi knew already
and there was little time to act.
| Agile for once beyond his years, he calls
| to his grandson for fire, with his own hand
sets his whole crop of rice, standing ready
| in the stack, ablaze, and then rushes to the
| bell in the temple near by. The sound and
| the light do not fail in their double appeal,
| and the nie4ghbors come rushing UP the
| steep, only to jeer when they see what
| he has done. But he persuaded them to
| look seward There stood towering a wave
| of waves, touching the sky through the
| twilight and rushing on the land swifter
| than thought. A moment more and the land
| shuddered beneath its thunderouS stroke.
| Over the place where the village had stood
| it howled and swirled, up the steep, almost
| to the level of the tabiehand itself. -Four
| times it swept back and four times more
| it billowed upon and over the land. Then
| as if vexed by days of storm. What had
| 1t left? Destruction everywdlere-not a
| trace of the village, of the lower lying
| fields, of the terraces along the siope-de-
| struction everywhere; but, thanks to
| Hamaguchi not death. The terror-stricken
] villagers looked fearfully about them,
| dumb. Then came shrill old voice saying
| softly, not wishing to be overheard "That
| was why I set fire to the rice"
| So life began in Hama guchis village, a
yAatfa ftl NM nh stuff i'm
| everywher along the coast because of the
| ravages of the seismic wave. But there
| was always the thought, "Our lives and
| the lives of our children were spared"
| There was nothing to give their savior;
| they could not even restore to him the
| property he had sacrificed for them; SO
| they made him god-Daimyojin, thinking
| his soul stood nearer to heaven than theirs
| He lived to a great age after this, loving
| and beloved. And his memory is revered
| to this day. In Japan they do not forget.
YOUR MO- e.