The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-03-24
THE GIBRALTAR OF JAPAN.

MoJi is the Gibraltar or Japan.
 Whether you arrive by land or by sea. the place gives an immediate im- pression of eliminating majesty. Great hills tower up in every direction. and behind them lie snow-clad mountain peaks proudly topping them.
 Here and there you spy openings on the rocky shore-artfully concealed na- tural harbors. A well protected chan mel takes you into the bay of Shimo- noseki itself, and here, after a short journey, you come on the twin towns, Moji and Shimonoseki, on either side of the bay.
 The hills. black and lined with mist, stand grimly around. Stacks of Titanic chimneys on the low levels of Moji vomit forth thick smoke, recalling the horrors of Pittsburgh. Ten thousand craft, from the S,000-ton Harland & Wols steamer to the antique junk, lie packed around Stacks of coal, almost mountains in themselves, are one great centre of work. An almost unceasing succession of trains adds to them, while myriad workers bear the accumulating loads to lighters near by. The locomo- l tives you notice are Baldwins, and the coal trucks are the newest pattern steel, automatic emptying. The open fires burn weirdly on the native boats There is feeling of haste in the air. 1 Tn the harbor both on the Moji and the Shimonoseki sides, the native craft are emptying and filling with great speed. Packages covered with mating are being swung on the backs of tireless coolies or swung on ever moving cranes. Tn the deeper water great steamers are lying surrounded by coal barges, an army of women and men is coaling them by hand with a rapidity no machinery can rival. This lis not the sleepy Orient, but has the spirit of the bustling West.
 The multitudinous junks themselves are we'll worth notice. The rule here seems to be tone junk, one family" The family live continually on the great angular, unpainted boat, the wife help ing at the tiller as she carries her baby on her back. and the children playing around. Here is a junk so large that lhalf-a-dozen households could find lroom on it; here one so tiny that its poor owner and his wife and children can only find room to sleep at night by Ipulling mating over the bare deck. This junk is outwardly of the old Span ish galleon, and this is the image of the tpictured pirate craft which awesomely rejoiced ones @boyhood days The sails of wonder craft are quilted like the cur tains in a West Hampstead ladv's drawing room. Many have a dfstinc- tive note of their own, proclaiming them the pride and holdfast of their in habitants
 Some may grow enthusiastic over the snimble women who fill the hunks of the lsteamships with coal. I cannot. Seen From the steamers deck their appear ance as they stand in long lines pass ling uo the small baskets of coal, no doubt has a touch of picturesqueness. A nearer view spells the effect They are adult women, all amazingly short and sturdy, all stunted in growth and aged in looks by severe and constant toll unsuited for their sex. As one watches the weaker of them drop down on the deck of their barges. exhausted after their work is done, the sense of the picturesque dies.
 It is hard to realize that around here is one oe the best fortified spots on earth. Every trace of the gigantic military and naval preparations now proceeding in the neighborhood is as lcarefully covered as possible. The hills laround are honeycombed with forts and protected by artillery at every point, but one looks in vain for the guns. The supplies now being landed from a thousand junks are, every one is aware, for military use. But there are no men in uniform supervising. Tens of thou sands of troops lie ready within a brief march; but there is not a soldier on the streets. This scenery. at least is ty- pieally Oriental
 Those who are enraptured with the poetic side of Japan would receive a shock from Mojis streets or it's sister town Shimonoseki. They are as prosaic and as dirty as those of the worst parts of the Black Country. Every one bears the traces of toll. The streets are narrow and tortuous and have that il- Idescribable ''slummy" smell (the near est approach to description can be a combination of the odors of boiled cab bage and spilled paraffin) familiar in the back streets of London The child ren too often show plain traces that their mothers are busy at other work than caring for them. The roadways are without footpaths, and on wet days are anything but pleasant. Drainage is exceedingly primitive. Every shop has its front open all day, even in these | winter times
 The streets are ever a tangled con- fusion of pavement merchants of pa- tient coolie carrying heavy burden, of laughing children, or rare horses sr cat tie carrying provisions, or shouting
 rickshaw men. Even here, in place where foreigners are counted by the units, many of the men but practically none oe the women have put on Eu- ropean garb.
 Shimonoseki and Moji have been the centre for two of the most momentous
 events in modern Japanese history. It
 was here. in 1858, that the fleets of the great powers came to punish Japan for
 some offences against foreigners. Many linen still living near by took part ir
 that conflict and they say (whethei
 rightly or not, have no means ot knowing) that the Marquis Ito himself
 was among the defenders. The fleets
 shelled Moji and the people mounted
 their batteries and vigorously replied