The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-11
Pove rty's Lowest Ebb.

Deeper than ever plummet ever
sounded in the ocean of poverty and
human woe have 1 descended here in
the metropolis of the Far East, and
found the worlds poorest poor Be
sides these starved subjects of the Son
of Heaven, who cover outside his pal
ace walls, the submerged tenth OF
London are bons vivants and the grow
cling Russians of Gorky's night refu-
gees the spoiled children of fortune.
Summing in Tokyo is for the regu-
lation traveller the same as if in Lon
don he went to Soho without exploring
the east None but regions of COM
parative prosperity are shown, because
the japanese are proud of their uni
versal reputation for cleanliness, for
artistic surroundings and for a pow
erty that is always smiling, we'll
washed, and safely removed from ac-
tuaI want.
In Tokyo not fewer than 200, 900 peo-
pie seldom if ever, know of a certain
ty where the necessities of the next
day will come from, and throughout
the land the great majority are too
poor to eat rice. The high grade rice
grown in the islands is exported, al
most to a last sack, and inferior rice
imported for those who can afford it.
Rice is not in every bowl, as the tour
lists fondly imagine.
Tokyo is so vast, it is such an i'm
mense sea of sheds, that from the high
est point on the clearest day one can
see but a fraction of its area-but here
are fifteen districts of mean streets.
str11cf11TaS oa1Iod ho11cac
which are in reality sheds, are strung
along in a series of dilapidated and
filthy compartments. To folk as poor
as those who live here, cleanliness, SO
dear to the average Japanese that it
is above godliness, is out of the ques-
ton.
The most tumble-down of these
abodes may be rented for from twenty
to twenty-five pence per month, but
there are houses so fine that they cost
as high as a penny, or even three
halfpence, a day. To afford one of
these expensive residences several
families club together, not alone for
economy but also for WARMTH in win
ter all hands crowding together on the
mats. Charcoal is not always to be
afforded and heat is a great luxury
these cold days A whole block will
sometimes take turns in warming
hands at a hibachi, wherein a few
chunks of charcoal shoulder in a bed
of ashes.
Suppose a pipe-cleaner has had a
good day, and returns to his home
with, say sixpence. He will expend
this in farthing purchases of misc,
kind of soup stock; oil, fuel, tobacco,
and perhaps a little fish, which, if he
feels reckless, he will eat raw with
He buys in driblets, and
like the very poor in all the cities of
the world pays enormous prices.
Had our pipe-cleaner returned empty
handed he would have hurried to the
pawn broker, always near at hand,
and raised a few farthings on his
precious brass pipe, his hibachi, or his
few poor garments not in actual use
The pawnbrokers fatten off these
wretches as in no other land. 1t is
impossible to escape them, and they
never relent. Anything worth above |
1vepence can be pawned.
Until this time of the year, or even |
until midwinter, one can exist with |
out bedclothing; but when the nights |
get cold. with the fearful frost of a |
Ia panese winter, some covering must |
De had. Now appears another plum |
lerer of the poor in the guise of the /
capitalist, who rents quilts by the /
light. He charges, and invariably col