Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-12-08
PICTURESQUE JAPAN,
The Great Mass of LabOrlng Peasants
Who Are Too Poor

KIoTo, JAPAN, Oct. 8, 1890.
Thus far | have found the temperature
of Japan during the past two months al
most ideal, Offering cool nights, never un-
comfortably hot. 1t rains in spasms of
about three days constantly, and then is
clear for the seven following The atmos-
phere is sufficiently healthful TO sanction
duck clothes and forbids the use of over
coats. One minute you fairly revel In a
pleasant odor which floats by and you
see a belated cherry tree in bloom, and the
next minute you run into a stencil which
an earthquake and an avalanche could not
bend
The chrysanthemum season and the au-
tumn tins are just beginning to appear,
and the fall fruit is now in its prime, of
which the persimmon is my favorite.
You will get faint conception of labor
as the Japanese perform it by knowing that
they cut all the grass here on their knees
with small knife. l occasionally walk
on the street with an oiled japanese UNI
brella marked in japanese characters with
my name, so you see it can be translated
and read, even though they can't pro-
nounce it with the final IS"
have seen but one leper on the street,
and he was in the suburbs and cautious of
everyone he aecosted.
| think failed to mention that every
trolley car here in Kiolo carries a small boy
who runs ahead of the car through
crowded street and around corners, warn.
ing all of the cars approach, and the fare
is regulated by the street you get on and
It's distance to the end of the line, so if you
get on at one end you pay the price of the
distance to the other end, even though you
ride but block, but the fare is reckoned
by the - sen ia c) so on our ratio the
fare is almost nothing.
Mr.. Mural, whom met on the Empress
across the Pacific, has great cigarette
factory here and his output last year
was PAS, 100000 cigarettes, which he re-
tails at l-2 sen Il 2-3d q box of ten.
These cigarettes are equal to the American
makes, and are made of American tobacco
which he imports, and on this basis he
makes profit of 20 per cent. 1t seems to
me that since American manufacturers
make 200 per cent that it would pay to i'm
port these japanese made cigarettes into
the United States.
An employer of farm hands here pays
his employees but 20 sen day, and the
great mass of laboring peasants are too
poor to eat the japanese rice, but have to
eat the cheaper Chinese rice, which is i'm
ported for them, in spite of the fact that
japan is fairly covered with rice fields
which produce 10 lbs. of rice to every six
feet cultivated.
Yesterday l went to Nara, where they
were celebrating the annual "horn cutting"
day. This city is famed for its so feet
Diabutsu (bronze idol of Buddah), its gi.
gantlc bronze bell, and its park of temples
and beautiful avenues of cryptomerias lin
ed with over 5000 stone lanterns (6-l2
feet high which fairly teens with tame
deer, who intercept you at every turn and
follow you as you walk.
Once year the buck with the largest
antlers are coralled, and their capture is
sufficiently crude and unskilful to make
the day one of interest to the people of the
surrounding country, who attend the
celebration with their families and lunches.
In an inclose 20 by 400 feet, containing
about 20 men with bamboo nets, the stays
are driven, and the vain attempt to hobble
them by throwing the bamboo screen over
the horns, which is usually accompanied
by the overthrow of the would artist, af.
fords the necessary amusement for the
crowd. AS soon as some unfortunate an
imal is handicapped by ENHANCEMENT he is
surrounded, held down and his antlers
sawed off and sold for about $50 ven.
This return is sufficient to keep the herd.
of over 1000 deer, in food during the win
ter.
Today went from KiotO about 20 miles
and shot the rapids of the Hodzugawa
river for II 1-2 miles, making the distance
in about an hour In sampan guided by
four men. The current was delightfully."-
swift, and quite enough disturbed and toss
ed to give me frequent undesired baths.
Winding through rocky gorges and around
loose boulders between two mountain
chains, which were covered with colored
foliage and rich picturesqueness.
Taking "tiffin" at the foot of the rapids
at tea house continued by jlnriklsha to
a landscape garden in the suburbs of Kloto,
built by one of the early shoguns whose
wealth enabled him to cover a neighbor-
ing mountain with white satin during hot
days in summer, to make it resemble snow
and thus give visionary relief to his
highness. In the garden.
which, like all japanese gardens are the
essence of picturesqueness and beauty in its
composition of made land, dwarfed trees
and lilied lakes, was pond about 200
yards long Astounding in gold fish about
foot long which followed you as you walk
ed along the shore, and would come in
schools whenever one clapped his hands
together.
My experience in hair cuts are rare, and
thus far I've had to do most of the cutting
myself, and teach the BARRIERS how to
work the comb, since the clippers are the |
only instrument of importance. However.
l am not going to kick until 1 get to the |
razoring race in China.
G. FRED CHILDs.
Take time by the forelock" If your blood is |