The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1899-10-06
LETTER FROM CHINA.


others, recently left Morristown to go
as missionaries to China:
Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita, Hakone.
Wednesday, Sept 9Th.
We have at last landed in Asia and
spent two days and a half here, and
know could write books full of what
we have seen already. And so much
of it has already been written far bet
ter than lean hope to that / will only
Ay~to give first impressions.
+ Text morning we turned up the bay
of>Takl0 about breakfast time, and in
two Hours or SO were at anchor. We
were just preceded by the ''Zealan-
dia, " U. S. Army Transport, from
Manila, with the Montana regiment
on the way home The Valencia"
also arrived the day before. The har-
Dor is full of warships, principally
British, and the streets are full of
American soldiers and British blue
jackets.
After two or three hours delay we
passed the quarantine officials and
moved up to near the dock. Swarms
of sampans surrounded US, and the
company launch and the hotel
launches came out. We went ashore
at three and took rickshaws to find
accommodations. We had decided to
try boarding house away up on the
Bluff, mo. p, which is the usual
place for missionaries to go. So our
little procession of five, including
Harry Bruen, trotted through the
business streets and then up a native
street to the bluff. This was our first
glimse of the east and the impression
of novelty and strangeness was ex-
ceedingly strong. In going to Europe,
even to Venice, nine-t enths of the
things You see are familiar, or you at
least understand their use and mean
ing. But here scarcely anything is ia
miliar and of very large proportion
of the things that meet you, you
neither know origin, use nor purpose.
So much is strange that you cannon
really even see one quarter of the
things that pass while you are in
tently examining some new object,
three others pass unseen.
Perhaps the clothes strike you first.
There seems to be no national or GUS
tomary costume. Every man almost
seems entirely different from the rest.
Among the lower classes great num-
bers wear light cotton outer coat
with an immense Chinese character or
other design occupying the whole
back. Almost none wear shoes The
rickshaw men all wear sandals and
everywhere you go, in every road and
path, the cast off sandals are seen
every few feet. Others wear wooden
pattens held on by straps; in front
these straps pass between the great
and second toe and if stockings are
worn they are made like mittens with
separate stall for the big toe. The
straw sandals are held on the same
way. Hats are very various. Coolies
wear those mi-spherical straw hats
now worn somewhat at home by golf
fiends and others. Or you will see
man in pattens, trousers, Japanese
upper garments of blue cotton, (some-
thing like a short kimono) and
broad brimmed straw hat of the fashion
worn at home four or five years ago,
with parti -colored ribbon; looks as
if it had formerly belonged to some
(" dude" at home. Many laborers
wear so little clothes they are hardly
worth mentioning; as Mulvaney
might say, about enough to dust a
flute with. "
The Japanese houses you have seen
described often; but it seemed very
strange to see them. They impress
one as being so very much smaller
than even the descriptions lead one to
imagine. A whole house of three
rooms is only a little bigger than my
room at Presbyterian Hospital. OF
course you know about the mating
covered floors, on which no shoe is
allowed to tread.
Well, we went up this long street
past numberless different kinds of
shops, and not one in three did I
have the least idea what was the
business carried on. When we got to
the hill we each had to have an extra
man to push to the top. But when
we came to No. they were full. So
following the example of the King of
France, we returned and went to see
Mr. Loomis, of the Bible Society,
to whom Mr.. Speer had advised us to
go for advice and help. We found
him most kind and he has already
given us invaluable help in planning
what to see. He sent us to the Hotel
de Geneve, which we have made our
headquarters. 1t is very reasonable
and is comfortable.
In the afternoon we took the train
to Kozu, southwark along the coast,
about one hour and forty minutes in
time. From there we took horse
tram car for ten miles to Yumoto, at
first along the coast till we reached
Odawara, at one time the capitol of
Japan (A.D. 1900, then up a river
short distance. There the ladies
took rickshaws while we tramped the
five and one-half miles to this place,
getting in about 7. Is p. M, a little
tired but with ravenous appetites;
dinner tasted better than anything
since we left Morristown.
Coming down from Yokohama, the
country we passed through was most
ly very beautifully cultivated. Level
fields of rice, which is now bright
green, were everywhere ankle deep
in water which is apparently abso-
lutely necessary to the best results in
rich rice-culture. The water is diver
ted from the rivers and runs from one
level to another through the fields
watering each terrace in turn. We
could see large numbers of the farmers
in the fields. They wore so little
clothes that one could see their great
strong muscles stand out beneath
their dark brown skin as they worked.
The women wear very nearly the same
costume everywhere, and /, it is very
becoming. Many of them, especially
the young women and little girls
(who are dressed just like women)
carry babies on their backs just the
same as the pictures show. On Mon