The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-09-22
A JAPANESE BEER GARDEN.
The Beverage is Quite Unlike Our
Own Product.
From the Chicago Times.Herald.

From the Chicago Times.Herald.
In the mikado's kingdom to the
north part of the price they pay for
the benefits and advantages of civiliza-
tion is a constantly increasing and
plebeian taste for beer Whisky, rum,
gin and like beverages they care little
for. A very good illustration of the
difference between the way the Chinese
and the Japanese are accepting ror-
eign ideas is found in this fact, and
1t is emphasized when one realizes that
the little brown man is not content
to take direct what foreigners have
| brought him, but has started out to
make his beer for himself. And the
old romantic glorles that cling to the
| tea gardens of Japan are engaged in
serious struggle for popular favor
with the newfangled beer groves"
that are springing up by dozens and
| invading the very localities where tea
| has reigned supreme for centuries.
Two miles out of the City of Kobe,
along a smooth road that forms prob
| ably the most beautiful jinricksha run
| in Japan, you reach one of these beer
| groves, the first that was established
| in the country. The surrounding dis
trict consists of a picturesque sue
cession of native villas and gardens
and has long been q favorite visiting
| place for tourists on account of its
possession of a picturesque waterfall
and two of the largest teahOuses in
| that part OF Japan.
| Immediately across the road from
the entrance of one of these teahouses,
and 100 yards from the waterfall. is
the "home of the foaming glass" as
| they call it, A signboard over a gate
skillfully made of gnarled trunks of
trees bears the following inscription:
"To English and generally foreign:
| The beer of this establishment Is made
with most purest spring waters that
| flow. 1t will be satisfied to the tastes
| in all respect, and our proprietors
! guarantee pOliteness to each every one.
Inside within we present samples of
this purest truth, and can be tested
all times"
The interior, being japanese, was, of
course, spotlessly clean, and was beau-
tiful with dozens Of artistic little
| touches so characteristic of everything
that these quaint people do. Take an
| old fashioned German beer garden
strip it of everything but the Open-air
idea and its little tables, and then fill
up the whole space with graceful ar
bors covered with clematis, paths of
neat mating running in all directions
over the ground. cunning colOred Ian
terms hanging from every trellis cor
ner, and in place of bulky white
bosomed walters with heavy tread and
wilted collars imagine black-eyed, de-
mure little women clad in the bright
est colored kommOnOs ever printed in
the Yamatara factories-and you have
some idea of a japanese beer garden.
Back of a lovely cluster of idagua
creepers that covered the farther end
of the trelis where the mattresses Of
the resort disappeared every few mo-
ments to fill their orders we could see
a small shed almost hidden in its turn
with great lunches of wisteria. Here
they kept the barrels, old AmontilladO
sherry casks doing new duty far away
from their native Europe. In little
openings through the trelis you could
catch glimpses of the foothills i'm the
background looking so close in the
wonderfully clear air that they seemed
to be only a few yards from the tables.
What will you have-largest or
small glasses? No difference in the
price"
One of the two partners of the es-
tablishment asked us this, while the
other stood smiling just behind him.
Half of the fun in visiting a strange
land is lost If you don't Take a
chance" once in a while. We ordered
the largest. When they came, served
on a lacquered tray by one of the bar
} maids, or rather gardenmaids of this
etherealized saloon, We found that they
were not glasses at all, but large blue
and white bowls on the breakfast mush
order, but with handles on both sides
And the beer itself proved rather a
surprise, too. 1t looked like the palest
, kind of lager. and the taste reminded
, one dmly, very dimly, of extremely
fiat ale.
Truly these enterprising prOprieto tors
might advertise, mot a headache in a
barrel" Strength it had none, and
, what IL lacked I'm that essential IL made
up i'm sugar and water, The japanese
, are not an Incorporate people, but II
any Of them ever get desire TO stray
$ from the straight path they must have
an interesting time trying to accom-,
pllsh their aim by patrOnizing home
industry.
A bumbebee couldn't work up a de.
= cent stupor on a hogshead of 1t.
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