The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-10-16

sanity for a few weeks he began to be
afraid that he might have a spell of
cholera infantum. They are now the
chief means of transportation in every
part of the empire. The city of Kobe
alone has more than 1900 of them, and
such places as Osaka and Toxic must
have several times as many. The grad
ual multiplication of electric car lines
will interfere with them somewhat. but
will never totally displace them, as they
go everywhere, while the cars are con-
fined to the main thoroughfares of the
cities and are not likely, soon, at any
rate, to penetrate tho country districts.
The charges for them are ridiculously
low, about 10 or Is cents by the hour, or
from rs cents to 81 per day, and the own
ers are always eager for employment at
these figures. When you have made a
bargain with your man he will drop the
shafts for you to mount, which you do
at first with some misgivings. Then he
will get behind the cross bar and trot
off at a good round pace, unless the
ground chances to be steep or rough, in
which event he will move at more leis-
urely gait. On long pull, especially If
you chance to be of good weight, he will
probably call for a helper to push, or
may occasionally ask you to rest him
by getting out and walking a spell, a
thing that no reasonable traveller will
hesitate to do. The endurance of the
plucky little fellows, who are generally
long In the body and short in the legs
with well developed muscles, is wonder
full. One of my friends here tells me
that he has been pulled 81 miles in a
single day over country road, the road
for the most part. being very good. But
it does not take long to exhaust the
strength of such strenuous toilers Few
of them are able to stick to the business
till they get to be old. Twenty years of
actual work is about their limit
Having never before tried such means
of locomotion, l felt little hestant to
make my first venture, but soon got used
to it, and now find 1t as natural as
carriage or an electric car. Once in a
while the fact of my size enters as an
element into the question of compensa
ton. In going up a long hill the man in
the shaft paused for breath, turned dis
approvingly on me, and told his compan-
ion that I was a "Daibutsu" or big Budd-
ha. If I stay here. much longer 1 shall
come to the conclusion that 1 am one
of the heavyweights, fact that have
never before seriously considered.
The first dash through an oriental city
gives a westerner great variety of new
sensations, assailng his eyes, ears and
nose in equal measure. The streets are
very narrow, though much wider in
Y Yokohama than in the older commune
ties In many places 1t is possible to
stand midway between the opposite rows
of houses, and touch either side with
cane or umbrella. But there is marked
tendency to widen them. Wherever an old
house is torn down, the owner must
build further back from the curbing.
This eyivac ~ tho
ularly in Osaka, a most irregular appear
ance. A great majority of the houses
are of one story, or of story and half
with a balconied portico above. Some go
as high as three stories. The above re-
marks do not apply to modern business
houses. The absence of paint is con-
spicuous. We see 1t but rarely. To pre-
vent weathering the outside boards are
often charred. This gives a general eff
feet of dinginess. Neither in the city
nor in the country is white wash used,
though a kind of white plastering often
gives the same impression. Nearly all
the framework is exceedingly light, en-
.irely too much so for the heavy roofs of
tile of thatch. ] have not seen wooden
roof in the country The shops and
stores are an unending surprise, and give
no outward sign of their frequently rich
treasures. All the goods are placed on
a platform raised about two feet above
the floor, or, If they are particularly val
liable, are packed away in little cuddy
holes or on an upper floor that is reached
by the steepest of short stairs. No
Japanese merchant ever thinks of put
ting his best wares in front. On the
contrary he produces them slowly, one
at time, bringing out the very finest
at the last. The people are dressed in
90 cfx ~ tie
Europeans or Americans, but the great
women and children-in
kimonas. Not a few in hot weather
wear only shirt and pair of drawers.
Some of the laboring class have on their
shirt without the drawers; some the
drawers without the shirt, and not
few are without either. At some places,
as at the famous watering place of Bef-
fue-the absence of raiment is most
marked The police have their orders
on the subject but enforce them in the
spirit and not in the letter.
have never seen a people with such
a love of colors In the little children
and the women it produces a most pleas
ant effect, but Is grotesque In the men.
A thing which no stranger can miss no.
ticing is the fact that nearly all the heavy
hauling is done by men. They use two
wheeled low cart, with a long body, one
third of which is in front of the wheels
and the rest behind. On this body they
put tremendous loads of lumber, boxes.
packages, bags, or. what not and pull
them with apparent ease. But all this is
descriptive and not narrative and I must
pass on.
Our route lay through Tokyo by which
name the ancient city of Yeddo has been
called since the abolition of the Shotgun
ate, and the removal thither of the MI
kado from Kyoto in 1863 1t is only IS
miles distant from Yokohama by rail-
The present population is over 100000
which makes 1t twice as large as any
other city in the country Osaka, the
next in size, has about 1,0O0,000. No
other one has as much as 100000. In a
later letter I hope to deal with Toxic In
some detail and will. therefore, pass
1t by at the present time adding here
only that it has no union station, and
that we found it necessary to travel FIVE
miles in an electric car or by jinriksha
from one station to another. Even so we
did not by any means compass its
breadth. Once more on the train we had
soon passed the suburbs and were out in
the open country. This was what I espe-
cially wanted to see, for the country has
always meant more to me than any city
that was ever built. Fortunately we were
on a slow schedule with many stops and
so had good opportunity for observa-
ton. The railroads nearly all belong to
the imperial government, with all the ad-
vantages and disadvantages which that
implies. They are built and conducted
on the English system the coaches being
broken up into first. second and third
class compartments, with fares to match.
In proper company, and when the
crowds are not too great. one can get