Imperial Valley press., 1923-09-04
AMERICAN WOMAN TELLS OF
LIFE IN QUAINT TOXIC AS
LIVED BEFORE CAL A M ITY

Glare Ousley, wife of Clarence
CuBose, United Press Staff Cor
respondent in Toxic was in New
York on a visit when the japanese
catastrophe occurred. Having just
come from Japan she was able to
write "close up description of
Toxic as it was before the quakes
ald fire destroyed it. Her article
gives an intimate picture of the
tecuing city as it must have look
ed a few minutes before the ground
began heaving and buildings COM
mcnced tulnhing in ruin.
By CLARE OUSLEY,
(Written for the United Press)
Copyright 1928 by United Press)
Two hundred thousand casualties.
No buildings left standing in Yoko-
hama, Toxic swept by fiV. Wild
w uncertain and curtailed reports
are coming from stricken Japan as
we wait in the New York offices
pouring over the Finishes as
they come from the telegrapher s
typcwriters.
PERHAPS nowhere in the Orient
could such a surprising combination
of eastern and western civilization
be found as in Tokio-the Toxic
before the earthquake of 1923. On
Ginsa, that oldest of all main
streets, the east met the west. A
sparse bearded and very dignified
old gentleman strolling down the
sidewalk might be half eastern and
waist up in morning coat and der
by, eastern from the waist down
in hakama and wooden clogs. An
other younger and gayer blade
might be clad triumphantly in bal
briggan underwear, Enthusiastically
occidental and around the waist an
Oriental sash in which was tucked
the inevitable long stemmed pipe
and tobacco pouch.
A Wonderful Store
The Mitsukoshi department store,
in which according to one dispatch
the first post earthquake fire oc-
cured, stood out prominently, boast
fully European in structure.
The Kaijo building reported de-
stroyed with a thousand casualties
stood not far from the eity's great
market, where the fishermen clad
in breech clouts and gay 3 head
bands, came early each morning up
the canal in their old fashioned
sampans with huge loads of fish
Nihonbashi itself, tho Nippon
bridge, was the very symbol of this
meeting of the east and west, the
old and the new. For the Nihon-
bashi has existed ever since the days
when Toxic was not Toxic, but
Yedo.
And Mitsukoshi ITSELF A huge
department store modelled after the
best of such the west affords, with
varied departments, restaurants, tea
rooms, elevators and morning coat
ed floor walkers. But instead of
Partisan fashion to tempt the fem
inne eye, there were gorgeous silk
kimonos and rich brocade obi and
instead of treading carelessly on
plush carpets the foreign visitor
was politely requested to cover his
filthy heathen shoes with cloth COW
crs before he stepped upon the shin
ing mating laid floors.
Big Stone Buildings
In the Maranouchi district one
could quite easily forget he was lin
Japan. Sometimes in stepping from
the now demolished imperial govern
ment railway station and looking
over this section of the city where
big brick and stone bank buildings,
hotels and office buildings faced
wide paved streets, have felt quite
as though l were stepping out of
the Kansas City or st. Louis sta
tion. But here again the Oriental
touch was not long absent, for
there were always kimono clad and
beclogged figures moving about,
rikisha runners mingling with the
taXis and tram cars-and straight
ahead one faced Babasakamon, the
main entrance gate to the grounds
of the Imperial Palace.
1t is here in Maranouchi that
these big stone buildings, represen-
tntiVe of tha new Jonan and her