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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND)
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domestic nature, we evuld see no fun in the prospect, even for our frien.'s at home.
that such a high duty would havs the result of practically excluding many American modities from the Chinese markets, and be made During this ordeal, the steamer snorted in a hurried trip to Nauking on the United States the offing, eager to get away. If we missed it, steamer Monterey, where Le persuaded the the Inland Sea trip would ba lest, for ano may Viceroy of Nanking into promising that he, sta:t from Onomichi only early in the morning, would not consent to the signing of the British and rather than wait over a day in a foxa treaty until he was assured that it was accept, in which we had become notorions, and where able to the United States.
possibly no inu would now put us up, we would When questioned about this matter, Sir be forced to content ourselves with viewing James Mackay said: "I noticed that General the Inland Sea as land tourists usually do, Sharretts was quoted ou this matter iu an in glimpses to be had from the railroa/l. interview published here 13 h September. The ❘ we stood there fretting, the officer's messenger As British treaty was signed by the Chinese 'returned. Three jinrickishas arrived at the authorities 5th September, and it will become same time, two of them bearing such a function effective 1st January, 1904. I do not kuowary in nuiform, and the third à man in civilian what authority General Sharratts had to oppose, dress, to whom the others' deferied, presumably the signing of the treaty or what promises were the Mayor. This personage Lad our slip in his made to him by the Viceroy of Nanking, but hands. He had romauised the plain script in the Viceroy certainly memorialised the Throne which it was written, but had been s'alled at to sign the treaty, and the treaty was signed." Do you, the remain ler of his line being filled om with dashes.. We wrote “speak English "in place of the dashes, and passed the paper again; to him.
He retired for consultation with the gentlemen in uniform, and we could hear their } laboured-br athing as they toilel through a pocket dictionary for a translati n. In ten ininutes or so the civilian held ont the paper in our direction. On it he had written in vory good seript “I do not.“
SAUNTERING IN JAPAN.
[FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPOND). NT.Į
Tukya, 20th October,
A DAY'S VISIT AL NG THE INLAND SEA. It is not the fortune of the average tourist to bo chased by a Japanese policeman, but our party passed through that experience at Onomi- chi, and it will be cherished among the divert- ing memories of this laud. Continuous acquaint- ancs with native inns for a mouth or louger hal puffed us with notions that we knew the ma of charges In our collective wisdom also we had adopted the maxim common in the East that in minor money-deilings at least natives appear so often absurdly grasping that the best course for a foreigner is to pass over or throw down so much money as seeins to him right and walk off, leaving the native to chw upon it. The morsel very often proves satisfying. So when the innkeeper of the Hamakiti, where we had not farel nearly so well as at many other places, presented a bill fifty per cent, higher than we had received at the least inexpensive inus elsewhere. we talked at him in tones that he understood if the words were meaningless, flung on the floor the money we were willing to pay, when he had refused to accept that sum from our hauds, and strode off with our heads uptilted. He had for bidden the jinrickisha-men whom he had su moned to let down their shafts for us, and we had to lng our traps a block of so b·fore we could find others.
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FRED ACCOR: ING TO REGULATION,
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Meanwhile we bad heard the rattle of chains on the steamer, as her anchor e me aboard, and, enld ge the crew lo sening he buoy-cables; ani the crowd of spectators seemed to comprise the entire town. The original officer af 1 st made a decisive move. Reaching so far inside his clothing that he must have had a pocket pl stered to his skin, he produred a book. Turning the leaves slowly he found a page on which were Ja¡nuese charact rs, and alongside ! them these words: As I cinnot speak English. I will ask you to real the regulation.“ We nodded and tugged at his sleeve, as we watched our steamer swinging around for action. As slowly as before he f und another page, and pointed us to the following. If you do not obey what I ask yon, I shall be compelled to subject you to process of law,“
We had been learning rapidly all this time that the law in Japon is a serious matter, but now, relieved to find that we were not to be detained, and determin d to give no preseat cause for landing in gaol, wa decid «d to pay the innkeeper what he asked and rely for sitisfar tion on expressing our oplu'on of him in English justifially defiled, Tas tender then bore us away from a jeering crowd, and we entered the steamer through a freight-slide as she was in motion.
At Miyaj mi, where a forii built out in the sea marks the approach to a temple, wo en countered the Japan head, an adjunct that never rests on the shoulders of a uative but is
alone, because while it appears to be related to the nerves it dues not come from `usiness worry or from a liver gone wrong. The victim now în evidence looke as if nothing good had over pass d him untouched. He said good things had always come bis way in Japan and his affairs prospered. Apparently languaga does not permit either adequate diagnosis or description; but among the symptoms is
Arriving at a poist on the water frout opposite which lay a steamer that makes a daily run among the islands of the Ishud Sea, we hid put out from shore in a teuder, and had early reached the steamer, when lond shouting attracted the coolie who was pro elling us. Heedless of our protests and imprecations, he swung the tender around and took a back coarse. Then for the first time we saw whype uliar to foreigners. The doctors classify it we might to as little purpose have expende l our temper on the fishes as on him. H: had rest ponded to the voica of the law On the bank tood the inukee, er, and with him a policaman, in white uniform, one haud resting on the hilt of his sword, and the other proudly over his heart. Thus fortified, the inukceper had no use for soft words. The flood f his wrath poured in our direction, and then in that of the officer, a rapidly gathering crowd closing in around us, as if bound to do its part to proveat escapa, until, wearied of being publicly pillorie as fugitives from justice, and fearful lest the steamer might lose patience and start off, one of us passed over to the officer a slip of paper, on which was written Do you spak English? The officer inspectel the paper upright, side- ways and upside dowu, draw'ng in bis breath meanwhile though his taeth, à native demou stration of perplexed thought. After a moment he said something, whereupon one of the crowd grabbed our slip of paper. darted along the bank, and through a cross street
Did the officer suppose our inquiring slip a confession of crime? Hid his fleet messager sped off for the Black Maria? We had read that iu Japanese gaols the cleanly habit that distin- guishes this people is reversed, that filth and creeping things infest the cells. that bail is practically imposible, habeas corpus unknown, incommunicado the rigid rule, and the courts killingly slow. If consular or legation appeal were denied us, our offence being purely of a
rasping sensation. as if the brain hal been piercel with twine, kept always dry and rough, one strand reaching between the ears, the other from the eyes to the back wall of the skull. They cross at the centre. When the forces within become active, they feel like teams of young demons, matched against each other at the four ends of the twine for a srt of compound tug of Bar: As their play becomes excited and the strands work back and forth over each other in the centre of the brain, the person whose head furnishes the arena for this sport thinks the world is going frautic, and wishes he were well out of it. No acute delusions attend the trouble, and when the demoas grow tired and hy by, a victim may feel as well as ever; but torment may almost always be expected at night, driving off sleep. Nearly every case of suicide by a foreigner in Japan may be traced to this cause, and in every instance so traced the affairs of the victim have been found to be in good shape, and his circumstances ordinarily happy.
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Nbrember 22, 192.
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Our acquaintanca trying the walk cure, and interesting himself in the life of this island, where no one has ever been born or died, and where pilgr ms every s ason flock in thou- sands to visit the hill shrines and to prostrate themselves at a temple on the distant mountain top, in front of the sacred fire that has burned there estinuously for 1 200 years. Tame dcer wre the companions of his raiubles, and be had studiel the life of the wood-carvers, who composa nine-tenths of the inhabitants, and who tops! elf prices, and contrive to look well-fed and sit in their shops, disdaining sales except at serene, although no one ever appears to Loy anything of them. The bothersome demons still remained with him, however, and when we saw him he said he had been forced to subser be to the tirade in which foreign residents commonly indulge conc rning the effect of the climate no hing happens to foreigners in the East wi hout lugging in the climate-and tɔ emclude that he could again become comfort- able only by a vacation in a hemisphere fatal to that kiud of demon.
PR MARY SCHOOL RAILWAY NOTIONS. It is easy to reach the mainland from the island and then to readma rai: travel, for no traiu is too important to stop at a station convenient to this lovely resort. When we arrived the afternoon had well advanced. The station imen were holding discourse with a peasant from the rice-lands a few miles back. Ho had come to the station soon after dawn, and on qui ed the price of a ticket to Hiroshima. the metropolis of that section, ab ut three. quar ers of an hour distant. Informed that a ticket third eles by which he wished to travel, would cost him 18 son nine ceats gold), he withdrew to a beach in the waiting room, enried his feet under himself, and unwrapped his breakfast. After a train or two had passed toward Hiroshima, he again appeared at the ticket-wind w, with his original enquiry. The
and viewed his surroundings diff·lently. In fare being unchanged, h : returned to the bench,
the early afternoon he went through the same performance, and had just made his fourth enquiry when we arrived.
The station men were at that moment wrestling wid the opera- tions of his mind, for he had waited nine of ten hours without moving further toward his destination than the ticket-window.
They learned from him that he knew a few things if he did come from the conatry: that they asked too much for a ticket; and as he hd rather wat all day than pay more than h thought fair, le proposed to sit there until they found that they had a lot of tickets left over, whea ho expected to buy one for about ten son, a sain that he was at tho. moment offering to close a deal.
One tr.in which came in while we waited brought a native in a state of high excitement over the loss of his gelas, the woolen clogs of common wear which are easily slipped from the feet by disengaging the large toes from over- lying thongs. Natives h hitnally leave get as outside the doorways. Following this custom the passenger now arriving had politely lifted his feet free on entering the car, some stations away, leaving his gets on the station platform, where naturallly he expected to find them when again be should step outdoors. They were not thee and he assailed the station master at Miyajima with responsibility for their loss. That worthy scoffed back at him in language stulously exasperating and the pass nger went off threatening to have the law on somebody for the robbery. His fellow passengers had intently listened to his exchanges with the station master, with their noses flattened against the windows. White lines are painted across all windows in third-class cars as a check upon the impulse of occupants to thrust their heads through them. Window glass is an a ticls with which the people are not familiar in daily life, and since passengers commonly supposed arc sashes to be merely spaces for air, the bill for the glazing was one of the large t petty items in the mouthly a counts for all the companies, until the white line was invented.
FIFTEEN FOOT TAIL-FEATHERS.
car
A sign reading Restaurant Shop, European Nourishing Cakes," enticed us to a stroll into the village until train time. On the
way to the place of chief attraction, one of our party. who takes photographs and is a disciple of Malthas in respect to others of that calling,
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