Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-08-22

many paper prayers for continuance
OF conjugal affection.
In the bay are the clam beds where
they produce the cultured pearls.
They dive down, all the divers being
girls, bring up the CLANS and boring
hole through the shell insert a
grain of sand and fill up, this produ-
ces an Inflammation and nature sur
rounds this grain of sand with COW
er to separate it from the rest of the
flesh, and within a few months they
again dive down where they have
placed these clans thus operated on
and open them taking out the pearl
formed around the sand grain.
Though not a particular admirer
of pearls they are very pretty and
can hardly be distinguished from the
pearls grown by natural means They
have their sales rooms in Tokyo and
some of our party fitted out with a
selection of fine pearls.
While at Futami we visited the
public school and were shown thru
by the superintendent. Their system
looked TO the writer fine, and the
thCroughness was sufficient to con-
vince that these little people will be
among the most enlightened nations
on the globe within the next few de-
cades A pleasing feature Of a visit
TO any of their institutions or stores
is the entertainment furnished. You
are quite sure to be treated to tea
and cakes or d candy. At this school
We were entertained in this manner.
Their school graduates the chill
dren at about fourteen but they
graduate at about our eighth grade.
If they desire after that, can have at
their own expense a course in Eng
lish and other higher grade studies.
English is being largely studied.
With over 10000 characters to learn
it surely is no picnic, the spoken and
written language having nothing to
connect the Impressions. Did these
people have the Roman alphabet they
would become the scholars of the
world
A five hour ride on the train
brings us to Negoai a city of 100000.
Here we found poor hotel accommo-
dations, especially our meals. Some
of their dishes were not what we
were used to but we managed to eat
their bamboo sprouts and such dish
es, though we prefer asparagus to
bamboo, the after being too much
E,like hazel 1rush cooked. might
mention this bamboo. 1t enters into
the life of the japanese perhaps more
than any other article produced They
use it for almost everything building
| fences, furnishings, il all plumbing
in place of iron pipes, carrying water
| for miles in its hollow stalk and fin
ally pick the young sprouts and cook
these are used very extensively for
this latter purpose. All together we
could not recommend the Nagoya no.
tel but we have stayed in much worse
il our own America.
A trip to Nagoya castle was of spe-
this great wooden fortress stands
without flaw. Built by twenty feu
dial lords to serve as the residence of
the first Shotgun Leyasu's son, it will
no doubt stand for other centuries.
It's Clyptomaria walls lasting expos
ed like cedar; its roof of copper and
gates covered with iron. The timbers
as seen il going to the top of i'm
mense size. We counted the stairs in
going up, the rises were a foot and
We counted 1913 steps making it
about 1913 feet high; on top are the
features of greatest interest. Two
gold dolphins eight feet eight inches
high of gold, made from ord coins
CdllpQ h6lCHO hOUdn the SOlu u6tu
being worth il American money ST.
10000.
One of these dolphins was sent to
the Vienna Exhibition in 1873. The
French steamer Nil on which it was
being transported sank and it was
some time before it was recovered
and placed on it's old perch, the cas-
tie.
Surrounding the grounds of the
castle are fine walls, two tiers of
them, and a wide moat between each
wall so that it would be easy to pro-
tect the castle. Within the grounds
are the residences of the rulers OF
that time with very fine paintings on
wood by the best artists Of that ear
ly period.
1t has been a very rainy day but we
have not ct it interfere with our
sight seeing. We take train at one
the 2Sth Of April for Miyanoshita, ar
irving there at s and go direct to
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