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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 1906)
32 THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND. JULY 15, 1906. , the open sheds in which the silk is in- , TP 'ST V!" VAU .i V spected every year. We had tea at a !S Z S Xjak I J XwJ ' shabby hotel and discussed the situation J JtfffijRT vpkV K ila JjjS'l while the villagers stood in a mass by BaCjgg 'hjfv tlUgg: E3 lean-educated Japanese gentleman who HBlSHHHkii'::: ' I 1 j party was much amused IHHHHLN"IVL i win u i'ue 01 i m- crowa remamra mai ne ; 11 MnMBMufflflnfflnlBEfflM Mill 338eSbbSmue'' ' " : III sLke Japanese like a native' The Ijg dti. mm .w ..mw9 mm how the : C " XXwBf fiWB jjMjWf MB Mip 'Mwr 4 JBfip ilflnPf : .. YOKOHAMA. Japan, June H. (Spe cial Correspondence of The Sunday Oregonian.) Automobile driving in Japan is enjoyable, chiefly because when the breakdown occurs you can always hire coolies to push the car back Into town while you continue your journey by rickshaw. This statement is the result of several country trips and of one in particular, a visit to Hachioji Leaving Yokohama in an automobile is an arduous task; tiny Japanese children toddle across the road, grownups give an Inch of room where one wants an ell, carts laden with country produce block the way, while the carters dash madly at their horses' heads, dogs rush out barking furiously, and hens riso and fly cackling along the road, while all the suburban population comes tumbling out of doorways to see what is happening. This day was rfo exception, and we held our breaths until we had left the last frtragglinc street and were out in the open country. The road led between. low hilts along a narrow valley, where the paddy fields were parching for rain and the young rice, still untransplanted, showed here and there in squares of soft emerald green. In places where water was plen tiful the transplanting had already been done with many a prayer, no doubt, to lnari, the rice goddess. We whizzed past a shrine set by the roadside In a grove of old trees, past farm houses and occa sional small shops, until we came to a region of barley fields and- mulberry trees with tea. plants scattered here and there. As w ascended a hill the automobile exhibited a fit of temper, bucking like a bronco. Have you ever noticed that a machine has a temper as individual as that of an animal? Wo paid no atten tion to the bucking, and soon were bowl ing along on a beautiful, wide plateau. In the dooryards of a village we saw little beds of sweet potato plants ready to be set out as soon as the barley was har vested, and. Inside of two houses, we caught glimpses of silk worms, arranged on matting-covered shelves, feeding on mulberry leaves. As the worms are very delicate the Japanese often remain up all night in cold weather heating the rooms with hibacht in order to keep them at the proper temperature, for the. worms tire the arbiters of the family's yearly income. Along the road, from time to time, we met carts carrying rolls of mat ting to be used as beds for the worms to feed on. A few minutes later the automobile stopped unaccountably and had to be taken to pieces that it might explain It self. A crowd of Japanese gathered, some actively and some Idly curious, while one little tot, with his face up turned to the sky, slept peacefully on his mother's back. Some essential, lnfln ltesslmal thing had broken in our cylin der, and another was behaving badly, the chauffeur said, and we had better walk to the next towri half a mile away. As the car, guided by the chauffeur, leapt and bounced into the town we walked along, the observed of all observers. Ha ramachida Is one long street, Just like many another country town, except for On we went, through barley fields and mulberry trees, and newly planted forests of evergreens, each tree tied to another to keep it straight. To an Oregonian these planted forests, of which there are many in Japan, are a strange sight. I never see them without regretting every one of the fine, big trees so carelessly destroyed by fire at home every Summer. It is a text on which I should like to preach a sermon if I did not want to take you on to Hachiagi. Dusk fell and lights shone through the sbagi of distant farm-houtses,- our coolies stopped and lighted their lanterns, and we went on. the road lying whit in front of us. Down a hill we came finally into the sleeping town, and our puramagas took us with a final spurt into the courtyard of the Japanese hotel. The woman of the house greeted us with many bows. The servants brought lights and removed our shoes. Three rooms were put at our disposal, charming, simple rooms, with straw mats on the floor, cushions to sit on, walls of sliding shagi made of wooden frames and rice paper, seasonable kakemono hanging in the niches and tall, graceful lamps with stands of black lacquer and rice paper shades. They brought us green tea and sembet a kind of cooky made of rice ffour and mineral water. The grave gray haired proprietor came in with a rice paper book, a writing-brush and a pot of India Ink, whereby we were registered very completely as to age, name and occupation. Then we had our dinner brought in on little individual tables of black lacquer. There was Japanese bean soup in covered lacquer bowls, and torl nabe. which is chicken stewed with onions and curiously flavored; there was rice in a little covered wooden tub and, &e the house afforded steak, they brought us steak, too. stone cold. We did not order raw fish, thinking it not quite safe in an inland town. Foreigners who do not hesitate at oysters usually shudder at raw fish, but it is very palatable when dipped in the brown sauce that the Jap anese call shoyu. This meal of ours was not a proper Japanese meal it was sim ply the quickest meal possible,, for at 9:30 o'clock, after 30 miles In the open air, one's appetite has passed the fastidi ous stage. Our beds were made up. Futons, heavy, padded quilts, were put on the floor, an other doubled over for a pillow, a narrow strip of white sheeting was placed down the middle and over the pillow; and the cover was a great padded kimono. This kimono puzzled me; I fancied the Japan ese with their arms in the unwieldy sleeves sleeping in a rigid position all night. They might do It If they liked; I decided that I would not. However, my pleasantly and smartly of common friends and the thousand and one nothings' of the day and hour than that he should speak with the tongue of men and angels." The famous conversers are accomplished gos sips of the higher rank. Many of the finest sayings of Samuel Johnson, as worded by Boswell, were brilliant bits of gossip about men and things. It is im possible to be a really good talker with out Indulging in allusions which Dryas dust would taboo as idle nonsense. DEER SIGNAL inquiry about it created much amusement and I learned that the cover is made kimono fashion, with long sleeves so that It will not turn as the sleeper turns. The sliding shutters that cut off sui air from a Japanese house at night were pushed to place in grooves about the porch, and we knew nothing more until they were taken down in the morning with a noise as if the house were falling. We had baths, private ones that had not been taken by any one before, an unusual luxury in a Japanese hotel, where one bath serves for many guests, and the first-comer is the first bather. A miscellaneous meal followed, most shocking, we knew, to the sensibilities of our hostess, who had con fided to the Japanese members of our party a tale of foreigners, evidently, half mad, who ate sugar and cream on rice! We paid a bill of $4 for four of us; were given in return presents of cotton towels printed in blue, and went away past the bowing servants, who sounded a chorus of "sayonaras." Hachioji is the center of a prosperous silk district. It was an important city in the days of long ago, when the tyrant Toritomo had his capital at Kamakura. We wandered into a curio shop, but the dealer had sent all of his fine things to Tokio to an exhibit and we saw nothing of especial interest except a quaint old Iron pot and hibachi used in the prepara tion of ceremonial tea. We wandered into another shop, where we found the mas ter out, and his wife, denying one mo ment that she had any kakemono, and the next, unrolling one before us. She had some prints, too. she said, but she did not know where they were kept. Realiz ing that she was afraid to make a sale in the absence of her lord and master, we left, firmly convinced that somewhere in the recesses of the shop was a color print without which we could never be entirely happy. We met a party of high school boys on a walking tour. Half an hour was spent in a confectioner's establish ment, where men were busy mixing dough and baking fancy cakes in irons over the fire. They were making candy, too, boil ing molasses and brown sugar in great brass pans, cooling It, cutting it with a linen thread, jerked suddenly, and rolling the lumps into marbles with the palms of the hands. The Japanese are very fond of sweets and different localities are noted for dif ferent kinds. Friends joined us as we walked throuzh the streets. The piper of Hamlin town had :v more devoted children of Hachioji, who tagged at our heels. "Which do you like best?" one of the children asked another. "I think the ladies are much nicer looking than the gentleman,' was the answer. Foreign women are evidently great curiosities in Hachioji. A silk weaving establishment we found most interesting. There were about two dozen looms in a big room where men and women were working steadily with their feet on the treadles and the bob bins flying back and forth from hand to hand. They were weaving exquisite bro cades for obes in shades of old rose, olive green, fawn and soft grey. The weavers are paid 10 sen a foot, and the working hours are from 6 in the morning to 8:30 at night. One woman told us that she made SO sen a day. and a man, that he made 90 sen. Meals, baths and lodgings are furnished by the proprietor for a certain amount, taking away a big part of the daily earnings. Young apprentice girls were winding thread on spools and bobbins. Their parents are paid a few yen a year while they are given their clothes and living. It was train time Just at the inopportune moment when we wanted to look at the silks in the sale room, so we took the train for Yoko hama, by way of Tokio. And the chauffeur who had left us with the automobile homeward bound at 6 o'clock the night before? Half a mile 'beyond Haramachida the automobile had refused to go farther. The chauffeur knew just enough Japanese to hire three coolies to take the car into town, but three coolies could not furnish force enough, so he had hired a horse besides. AH was going well until the car ran down on the horse, whereupon the owner unhitched him. demanded two yen and went home. So the chauffeur and the three coolies coasted down the few hills sloping toward town, pushed the car inch by inch up the many hills sloping the other way. and reached Yokohama quite exhausted at 2 o'clock in the morning. -ANNIE LAURA MILLER. Saying a Good Word for Gossip. Philadelphia Ledger. Gossip is the pillar of the social fabric. Its prop and stay. Everybody on good terms' with his neighbor must gossip with him "and it is more important," says a keen student of human nature, "that a person should be a good gossip and talk System of Wig-Wag That Is Under stood by His Fellows Found. Ernest Thompson Seton in Scribner's. A gregarious animal has usually many means of communicating with its fellows. The well-marked livery of the species serves it as his uniform does a soldier it lets friend and foe alike know who he is. Next in importance is the white flag with which most deer do their wig-wag signaling. This is the tail and its sur rounding disc. The sudden elevation of this white tail when danger is sensed conveys at once a silent alarm to the next of Its kind. Another signal that I have not seen noted by any one else is thus described by E. A. Preble during his trip to the Barrens in -1903. Though the observa tion applies to the Barren ground spe cies, I believe It will be found equally true of the woodland. "Soon after leaving our camp on the morning of Aug. 13 we saw some Bar ren ground caribou. A young' buck on a point of land was approaching as closely as the depth of the water would permit about 00 yards. He showed little fear, trotting along toe shore abreast of our boat for about a quarter of a mile. He would frequently stop and wade some distance toward, the boat, at 3hort intervals spreading and contracting the white patch on his throat literally into an oval disc, so abruptly as to give the effect of flashes of light. He finally grew tired of fol lowing U3 and drifted behind." What was the caribou doing? Ap parently signaling to what migljt be others of his own kind out on the water. The caribou's grunt, or bark, as Pro fessor D. Elliot calls It, I have never heard in a state of nature, but It is said to be much like that of a reindeer, and my notes on this are very full. "On July 4, 1900, got into a herd of about 1000 half-wild reindeer. Their only vocal sound is a grunt; this is uttered singly or else doubled that is, two are given In rapid succession. It is sometimes the call of a cow to her calf and sometimes is uttered by on that Is left behind, evidently a note of alarm or Inquiry to find out if his friends are close at hand." In addition to his knowledge of continental tongues, King Edward Is aaid to know a 1HU Gaelic. i
