The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-08-04

4
in earnest she was about adopting Jap
anese manners and customs. She was IN
the first flush of that enthusiasm Whlch
Japan always excites in stranger, ana
sat cross-legged on her mat with heroic
perseyerance i asked her what she had
heard from Temehichi, and she told me
she had only received one short letter,
but that his friends in Yokohama had
shown every wish to be of service to her,
and had taken a great deal of trouble TO
install her comfortably in her japanese
abode.
'I begin to believe" said 1, that you |,
are taking all this wild talk of his very
seriously, and / am afraid you are going
to find yourself in a scrape before 1t is /
over"
II found myself in a scrape before 1T
began" she replied, for | call it good ,
deal of a scrape to have man standing ,
ready to chop off your head
"Oh, you were no doubt right to say
anything the boy wanted you to, in order
to get him out of your room that night,
said 1; but / can't make out why you
encouraged him afterwards. 1t isn't pos
sible that you mean TO marry him?
II don't know what L mean," she said
I" IF he succeeds in all his wonderful
schemes don't know why shouldn't. 1t
would be nicer in a good many ways to
marry an American, but then an Ameri-
can couldn't meke me a queen"
Nor can Temehichi, for that matter"
I replied. eff he is not altogether out of
his mind, he has been trying to impose
on you; but I incline to believe that he is
a lunatic. 1t all sounds to me like wild
dream. There is lot of opium-smolking
in San Francisco, people say, and the
Europeans learn it from the Chinese. Per-
haps your friend the japanese boy took to
the habit, and it has affected his head.
III won't say positively that L know he
can't be of the great Tokugawa clan, be-
cause the Europeans to whom / have
talked take no interest at all in the de-
scendants of fallen dynasty. and the
japanese themselves are very shy of
talking about the Tokugawa people. You
see the affair of 'sixty-eight isn't a mere
| episode in the history of Japan. 1t is
7 still so recent an event that the Japan
ese don't like to talk about it. But 1
have my doubts all the same. And /
cant understand all that stuff about his
, using two swords. So far as / can make
out, the daimio and the samurai classes
used to wear two swords, partly for
Z show, and partly to have spare weapon
| in reserve, but I don't believe they ever
3 used them both
= II don't call that any argument" said
] Mrs. Potwin. Poor Temehichi might
! very easily have got muddled about a
little detail like that. According to his
D own story, he wasn't born until the ole
e customs were all done away with, ano
: he may have mixed up what his father
: taught him."
: ITS queer business altogether.
i said /, land the queerest part of it all /:
n that 1 can't quite make up my own mint
n what to believe and what not to believe
d / have asked one or two very well-in
n formed men here about the political sit
t ,uation of the country. of course withou
Saying a word about this extraordinar.
I.&. - zxxI f~lw~ -l,.N @Ix0x- -
: me there is nothing less likely than evel
"a an unsuccessful Instruction. let alon
an accomplished revolution. There hav
been one or two little disturbances sine
= the establishment of the mikado's gov
10 eminent, but there Is no serious politica
- party in Japan which wants to restor
- the old order of things. / asked one o
y these men whether he believed Their
were any revolutionary reactionar.
societies at work, and he told me that
!, although there might be some small as
~ sociations of ambitious and hare-braine
~ young men, there was certainly no or
~ ganization of any Importance"
10 WELL" said Mrs Potwin. "if you be
10 lieve that, don't see how you are to ex
or plain what 1 have seen with my ow
az eyes, and what you have seen, too, 70
y that matter. How could a poor Japanes
n servant-boy like Temehichi get the stew
90 ards on board the steamer to take S
ne much trouble about me. and how coul
o. he have friends here to do all sorts G
G things for me unless they all belonged {
an some secret society?"
,al II know" said /, that l can't accour
o. for what happened on board the steam
es er, but il is easy enough to explain wha
nh you have seen here in Yokohama il
no writes to some man here he knows, say
a ing you are going to hire a house an
a buy a lot of Japanese things, and
x course the shopkeepers. and the poop
en- who get a commission from the shoI
rs keepers for bringing customers to then
NJ are all very glad TO help you find WI;
O. you want"
nv But there is more than that to be g,
q planned said Mrs. Potwin. 1T isn't Of
he ly in the way of helping me to buy thine
on that these people have been kind to m
in fhey pay me all sorts of little attention
-or and everything is made as easy as ca
he be for me. 1 don't say that 1 really b
lieve there will ever be another shogl
al in Japan, and they may have to wait f
&c years and years before they even try
r,s get up revolution. but 1 am quite su
al that Temehichi is more than an ordina
=. boy, and that there are lot of peop
~ here ready to do anything he asks the
u, to-"
'e, IF that is the case" said I, sit is qui
= clear to me that you are very unwise
have anything to do with them. You M
ay be sure that the police in Japan, like {
iel police in any other country, know pref
"a well everything there is going on in t
80 way of agitation against the governmel
-. and that If these people are attempts
~, anything of the sort they will all
W brought up with a round turn one
, these days, and If you mix yourself
~ with them it will be made uncommon
e. disagreeable for you at the same tim,
o. But the police can't do anything
-. me-" said Mrs. ~Potwin. NO one he
ei, has said a word to me about any secl
-, - society or anything else of the kind. TIL
ms come here to see me, and ask if they c
~" be of any use. One of them is a Japa
csc lawyer, and another is q clerk in G
but OF the government offices at Toxic, W
Ind came all the way down here express
tell to see me. They don't even mention 7
one mehichfs name to me. They come a
up call on me, just so, and drink a gre
eat deal Of tea out of very small cups, Il
anybody else, and want to know if til
of can do anything to make my stay in
bod kohama more agreeable. There isn't al
t thing out of the way about it. It is j
UGH as if / had come here with lot of |
hat tiers of introduction. Perhaps Temehi
ate, hasn't anything at all to do with 1t; p
had lhaps every stranger who comes and hi