Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-07-07

ton consisted in the coming along
side of the Shanano Maru of some
ten or dozen small boats laden
with coal, which discharged their
cargoes into the bunkers basket
full at a time, the laborers working
in two relays-a night and a day
shift-and passing the baskets
from hand to hand. In this task
women and children took part with
the men, as we have already indi-
Gated, whole families being ap-
parently employed together; and
the laborers, who were all of them
scantily clad, threw themselves
down on the deck or wherever it
was most convenient and went to
sleep in a few moments as soon as
the signal for change of workers
was given. For a long and
arduous day at this sort of labor
the payment was twenty cents,
and about four hundred were en-
gagged in coaling the Shanano Maru.
, In all the Japanese sea ports,
and indeed in larger centers of
population inland, Miss Sloan
found it easy to communicate with
the natives, there being plenty of
them to whom some considerable
amount of English is familiar.
This is due to the fact that, to the
educated Japanese, English is next
to his own language the most
necessary requirement, the great
bulk of the nations trade being
with the United States and Great
Britain, and the members of the
civil and military and naval SER
vices who 60 abroad for study
preferring the institutions of these
two countries to those of other
nations of continental Europe.
There are also in nsarly all parts
of Japan scattering of Japanese
workmen who have been in
America. Consequently he or she
who halls from the United States is
rarely out of reach of some one
who knows the language.
From Nagasaki Miss Sloan and
her sister went to Shanghai, which
they reached on August 26, and
from there they went on about a
hundred miles overland in north
westerly direction to their destina-
ton at Soochow. At Shanghai
they found a large foreign popula-
ton with familiar looking brick
houses, and saw the very ancient
wall around the city, said to have
been erected about 500 B. G. AS
Soochow was the scene of the mis-
sionary work with which Miss
Addie Sloan is connected, the two
sisters went into permanent resi-
dence here, and unfortunately,
they had been there only two days
when Miss Lizzie Sloan came down
with the dengue fever, disease
common to China and the warmer
parts of Asia generally. This
necessitated their removal to the
mountains, where they stayed for
several weeks at the summer house
of the Mission, a very comfortable
esta blishment some two thousand
! feet above the sea. The existence
of this summer home is made alb
solutely necessary by the climate,
white people finding it essential to
get away from the lowlands for at
least six weeks of the heated term
: every year to remain in health.
AS Miss Sloan and her sister
reached Soochow in the middle of
the summer they were particularly
liable to an attack of the dengue
; fever, which few foreigners escape.
Fortunately in spite of its pain
fulness, iti is very rarely fatal, and
she was soon restored to health.
From Soochow, after returning
, from the mountains, Miss Sloan
travelled to the Yangtse river, 60
ing by house-boat on the canals
, which are a feature of the country
OF very great antiquity, and form
, the customary avenues OF COM
, munication between one place and
, another. The cost of the boat, in
{ Guiding the services of its owner,
, was dollar day, the passenger
! furnishing his or her own bed and
necessary food for the table. On
, this trip Miss Sloan saw a good
deal of the country and was able
to form conclusions about the peo-
pie she had gone so far to sec. AS
we have already indicated, she
found the canals to be regular
features OF the landscape, the
natives using them in their travels
and in the transportation Of freight
very much as we use the roads.
) Contrary to the condition which
prevails among us, Miss Sloan
found no isolated farms or dwell