Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1904-02-18

NOW thai Japan ana Russia are at
war and the far Eastern question
has become so seriously accentuated,
matters pertaining to either of those
great countries have become of in
terest to every one, and at the re-
quest of the editor of the ARGUS, I
will undertake to give some account
of Japan and the japanese, in which
country l spent eight years, among
a people whom l learned to love
exceedingly.
Japan is an island empire lying
opposite the continent of Asia, onthe
east. There are two hundred islands
and ~islets, only about forty of which
are large enough to accommodate in
habitants with places for residences,
and only four of these are of any
considerable size. These are, begin
ming at the north, Hokaido, Hondo
Cor Nippon), Kyushiu, and Shikoku.
Hokaido is in the extreme north and
runs up into the region of Kamsch-
atka, and has a very cold climate.
This island has been settled and
principally developed within recent
years. Hondo, as the name Implies,
is really the main land of the en-
pire, and is about nine hundred
miles long and about two hundred
wide. ShikOku, the word meaning
four provinces, and Kyushiu, nine
provinces, lie south Of the main
land.
The people are fond of calling
their county DAi Nippon, Great ia
pan.
The entire area of Japan is not
quite n hundred and fifty thous-
and square miles. Two thirds of
this is so mountainous that it can
not be cult waited, and does not furn-
ish residences for the people, leaving
but III third for human habitation
an area just about equal to that of
North Carolina. There are over
forty-three millions of people in ia
pan, while we have not quite two
million in North Carolina.
The land is of volcanic formation,
and both extinctand active volcanoes
are numerous. In the mountains may
be seen huge b%oulders, masses of
cinders, that at some time in the
past were hurled in blazing, seeth-
ing masses of flame and molten lava
from the depths to where they have
lain for centuries silent witnesses of
the terrible commissions of nature by
which Japan was brought forth from
the womb of mother earth and rose
above the waters of the great Pa
cifc Ocean. In these hills are to be
e remarkable contrasts. / have
seen growing over and twining
about n of these immense volcanic
cinders, that princess of wild flower
ing plants, the Trumpet Creeper, the
tints of whose flowers were as deli
cate as if the region in which they
had their being had been oneof ever.
lasting repose instead of expexienc-
ing the mighty u%pheavals which al
some time in the past tore the rocks
from the moontain sides and reared
from the level plain in a single night
peaks that tower up into the region
of perpetual snow
The climate is exceedingly cold,
semi-arctic, in the Hokaido, and in
the northern part of the main land,
and down the west and northwest
coast where the shores are swept by
cold currents from Behring Sea and
winds from the northern icefields.
The two small islands on the south
and the southeast coast of the main
land are comparatively mild, being
protected by the backbone of the
mountains, that run the length Of the
main land, from the cold winds and
currents and having their shores
washed by the Japan Stream, 9
mighty river in the ocean, six hun.
dred miles wide off the coast of ia.
pan, which rises in the tropics anC
sends its warm current and heated
breath even across the Pacific Ocean
to our own western shores.
Tokyo is the capital of japan ant
has over a million inhabitants Il
is only about eighteen miles nortf
of Yokohama. Osaka, Kyoto ane
Nagoya, in the order given, are th'
next cities in point of numbers, thu
smallest having two hundred ant
fiftv thousand inhabitants, Will
lust west of her corporate limits lie