Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1907-11-13
THE FLOWERY KINGDOM
DR.. EDwORDS ARRIVES OFF THE COAST
OF JAPAN.
Describes the Trip From Honolulu to Mid.
way Island. and Thence to Tokyo Bay.
whers Typhoon Prevents Landing.

| (Dr. Clarence K. Edwords, a veteran news
paper man and correspondent is making q
two years. tour of tine Philippines. Borneo,
9amatfa, sna f inaah h Arfchipeiago, f Cnna ana
Public Opinion being one of them. His
weekly letters appear exclusively in this
section in this paper, and will be read with
much interest, we are sure -Editor.1
Yokohama, Japan, Nov. IA quick
and pleasant trip from Honolulu has
brought me to the threshold of the
Flowery Kingdom. I am still at the
threshold for I write this letter on
board the steamer as we wait in
Tokyo bay. where are anchored two
miles from land One of the ryphoons,
those terrible revolving windstorms
for which this coast is famous. has
been blowing, and we have been
waiting for the heavy swell to subside
so we can land. There are no
wharves at Yokohama. and we have
to go ashore in small boats. A
swarm Of sampans, clumsy native
boats, is around the ship and the men
in them are clamoring Justify for
passengers. But the captain says to
wait, and we do not care to risk our
lives just to get on land.
l was going to tell how these
Japanese boatmen are dressed but the
better word to use is ''undressed. 7"
They wear wide sleeved, scanty
garment which reaches to the knees.
and in addition to this some of them
have cloth bound around their
heads. The boys are not so well
dressed for all they have on is the
marc. or loin cloth which the law
compels them to wear. Most of them
are hideously tattooed. They keep up
a continuous chatter. interspersed
with shouts of "hai, "hai," which
is warning for the other boatmen to
get out of the way. These sampans
are so tightly packed about the ship
that one could walk over them as upon
a surging floor.
Our trip from Honolulu was broken
by stop at Midway island, most
| desolate spot in a desolate ocean,
where cable operators and thousands
of sea birds are the only Inhabitants.
The monotony of the lives of those
men must be terrible, and were it not
| for their communication with the
| world over their cables they surely
would go insane. The poor fellows
were glad to talk with the passengers
of the ship, and said they got so lone
some at times that it was, only by
greatest effort of mind that they stood
the awful isolation. Two of the oper-
ators who were on the island went
insane. and now they are changed
every three months, so they can stand
the strain.
At Guam, where we also stopped,
conditions are somewhat better, for in
addition to the Americans there are
natives. and the island is covered
with trees. The natives of Guam are
similar to those of the Philippines.
and they have learned the value of
international commerce, for they
brought many curios to the vessel to
sell to the passengers. They have
learned that people on ships are easy
victims and they demand extraordin-
ary prices for their wares. 1 am told
that when the whites first came to
the island they could buy beautiful
tapas, shields and clubs for whatever
they choose to give, but now you
have to pay more than is asked in San
Francisco for the same articles. 1t
does not take long for the savage to
learn that che tourist and his money
are easily parted.
/ have been much impressed by this
trip across the Pacific In all the
days at sea since we left San FraH-
cisco we have not seen single vessel
of any description until we entered
the harbors of Honolulu and Yoke
hama. l wondered what would haa-
pen IL an accident should compel us to
take to the small boats while away
out in the ocean. Our chance Of
rescue would have been small, indeed.
Fortunately the weather was beauti-
full until we ran into the outer edge
of the typhoon on the coast of Japan.
l am glad 1t was not the inner circle
for the edge was bad enough to send
half OF the passengers to their beds
with sea sickness. These typhoons
are disastrous to shipping and many
wrecks can now be seen as a result Of
the storm which is holding us off
shore. 1t is warm and sultry, and
light garments have replaced the
heavy ones we have worn since leav-
ing Guam.
| One satisfaction we derive from our
present position is that we vary the
monotony Of our sea food, for now we
have all kinds OF fresh vegetables.
fruits and fish. Fish are especially
abundant for nearly every one of these
boatmen is fisherman as we'll, and
all have fish to sell in addition to
their Offering their boats to carry
passengers ashore. Several steam
launches are plying between ship and
shore, and when go it will be in