"Let observation, with extensive view,Survey mankind from China to Peru."
"Let observation, with extensive view,Survey mankind from China to Peru."
"Let observation, with extensive view,
Survey mankind from China to Peru."
Ho! There was an American flag flying from the mast of a ship at anchor in the harbor—the fourth time the United States emblem was seen waving from a ship's mast during a journey of over 60,000 miles, most of which was by water. At Dunedin, N. Z., the first flag was seen flying from a dilapidated schooner, and the other two from small vessels at Apia, Samoa.
Hongkong is a horseless and oxless town. This island city is far up in the list of ports—perhaps fourth—and it is difficult to believe that the cargo of great vessels could be moved almost entirely by human aid alone; yet such is the fact. There would seem to be no obstacles that the Chinaman cannot surmount. On a split bamboo pole Chinamen have been known to carry 500 pounds' weight. Generally, what one man cannot carry two will; but any weight too much for two would be moved along by four Chinese, two at each end of a bamboo pole. Heavy loads that cannot be moved by poles are placed on to a two-wheeled hand truck. India and Ceylon looked unprogressive with the two-wheeled ox carts, but when one reaches an important seaport city and finds neither mules, horses, oxen or donkeys to move heavy traffic, that feature must be classed among the world's oddities.
The mountain behind the city rises to a height of nearly 2,000 feet. Buildings have been built on the mountainside, and on the summit stand the barracks, or fort, and the Governor-General's residence. Some of these buildings, used for hospitals and other purposes, are big; yet every brick, stone, pound of mortar, furniture—everything of which the buildings and fort are made—had been carried up the roads and footpaths cut in the sides of the mountain on the backs, shoulders,or heads of Chinese, mostly women. A cable railway runs from nearly the bottom to the top, but the company that built the line is forbidden to carry other than passengers up the slope. That restriction was placed on the company in order that the Chinese would not be deprived of work necessitated by the demand for supplies and provisions by those living in that section of Hongkong Island.
The city appears on maps as the City of Victoria, but Hongkong is the only name one hears. The island comprises an area of 29 square miles, and was ceded to Great Britain in 1843. But England has acquired an additional area of 380 square miles on the mainland opposite. The city has a population of 300,000, but half a million inhabitants reside on the island. Of this number 6,000 are Europeans, the remainder largely Chinese. The water channel separating Hongkong from the mainland is a mile wide, and opposite the city is Kowloon, where large vessels put in at wharves and from which place the railway starts for Canton.
Hongkong is reputed to have the most picturesque setting of any city in the world, and the view seemed better than that offered by Capetown, South Africa. A perpetually green mountain rises steeply nearly 2,000 feet from the seashore, and the splendid roads and walks cut in the sides might, seen from a distance, resemble the threads on a mammoth screw. White brick buildings, covered with red-tile roofing, rise from the verdured sides at frequent intervals. This attractiveness continues to the summit, which is capped, as it were, with the official residence and forts. From the summit the view seems superior to that from below, as the ornamentation of the steep slope, both by nature and man, with the city at the base, ships lolling at anchor in the harbor and pretty islands dotting the haven from three sides, all unite in maintaining the reputation the island bears.
A boycott was issued by the Chinese against the street railway system of Hongkong. The trouble came about through the railway company refusing to accept Canton money for fares on the cars, and the boycott resulted. The cars ran back andforth without Chinese passengers during the period of the strike.
Sedan chairs are the means of conveyance for people living on the mountainside. The chair is box-shape with a seat, fastened to two long bamboo poles. The passenger steps in, a Chinaman between the poles at each end, and grunts are heard while raising the poles to their shoulders. Off they start up the steep incline, no matter whether the passenger be light or heavy, with as apparent ease as if a chicken were inside the box. The charge for a long ride is 15 to 25 cents, divided between the Chinamen. Rickshas are the conveyances used in the city. A short ride costs three cents, and if hired by the hour the charge is 15 cents. The rickshas in Hongkong, Colombo, and Singapore are made to carry but one person, while the sulkies drawn by the Zulus in Durban, South Africa, are built to hold two persons. Zulus go as fast and as far with two fares as the pullers of other countries do with one passenger. Both chair carriers and ricksha pullers are in their bare feet.
Hongkong is very substantially built, and it is doubtful if there is a frame house on the island. No one who has not seen that city would expect to find the splendid business blocks that so creditably adorn the place. Some of these are seven and eight stories high. Most of the sidewalks are covered with cement roofing, giving the walks a half-arcade appearance, which is done when erecting buildings, as the sun is hot in summer.
Porcelain bath tubs and running hot water were found in Hongkong, the first we noted since leaving South Africa. In British-East Africa, Uganda, India, Ceylon, and Singapore round wooden tubs were in use, and hot water was carried to the bath room by servants.
The water-front of Hongkong was crowded with crudely designed boats, called sampans. The craft has a mast, and when in use sails—sometimes made of reeds—are pulled to the breeze. The quaint craft has a cabin, and large families are born and reared on board, it being their home. A large oar at the stern, rolled from one side to the other when thecraft is moving, helps to advance the sampan and acts as a rudder besides; it has two oars at the sides also. In most cases the craft is manned by women and their children. Frequently a Chinese woman, who looks like a hunchback, is seen pulling an oar. The apparent deformity proves to be a delusion, however, as, when she has reached shore and secured the sampan, she unwraps a cloth and a ruddy-faced baby rolls into her arms. What would be a heavy burden to women of other races a Chinese woman does not seem to mind.
The Hongkong policeman is unique. He wears a bright, yellow-colored helmet, a jacket with brass buttons, knickerbockers, white leggings, and the scow-shaped Chinese shoes. His bearing is decidedly military, and he is unassuming when on duty. The Indian Sikh is also employed for police duty, but is not so interesting as the native.
Daily English newspapers are published in Hongkong, and linotype machines are in use in some offices. In one place a Chinese linotype operator could not speak a word of English, yet he could read English copy and set a clean proof. The wage paid was $15 a month. Europeans were in charge of the printing departments, but the mechanics were Chinese.
Mock Duck, Duck Mock, Fat Duck, Duck Fat, Wa Duck, Ho Duck were common names observed on signs above the doors of business houses in Hongkong.
Chinamen seem to be eating most of the time, the portable restaurant, as in Singapore, being in use here. Their food appeared to be mostly fish, vegetables, and what looked like spaghetti, and tea was drunk at eating-time. As all eat with chopsticks, table cutlery is little in demand among the natives. "Chou" is their name for food.
The dollar is the unit of money in Hongkong, but its value is much lower than the Straits Settlements dollar, being that of the Mexican dollar, which varies from 44 to 50 cents. Fractional coins are on the cent basis, and are made of silver, nickel, and copper.
When visiting a bank in Hongkong, hundreds of natives were seen at the rear, with a clerk shouting something in Chinese.Inquiry as to what occasioned so large a number of visitors at the bank, brought forth the information "They had just come from America and were having checks cashed." Every nation takes money out of America, the feeding ground of the world.
There is a large photograph gallery, or archive, in the American consulate in Hongkong, which contains the portrait of every Chinaman who has been to America and returned to China.
A good botanical garden is located just above the business center of the city, and parks, good public buildings, a museum, libraries, churches and schools, and other public features are well represented.
Mail from Europe will be longer traveling to Hongkong than to any other port in the world, and vice versa. From centers north of Hongkong mail is sent by way of Siberia, and the larger amount of mail even from this city is, perhaps, carried over the Siberian railway. Were one, however, to mail a letter in London, Paris, or Berlin to Hongkong, by way of the Suez Canal—the main route from Europe to the Far East—it would not reach the Chinese port earlier than six weeks' time from date of mailing. From 40 days to six weeks is the regular time required for passenger ships to travel from Europe to Hongkong.
Hotel expenses were cheaper than at Singapore, being only two dollars a day.
A trip was made up the West River to Canton, a stretch of water in which vessels are sometimes sacked by Chinese pirates. A half-dozen or more of these daring Mongols will board a boat at the starting place as passengers did, and when an opportunity offers they will overpower the officers, when the ship will be at their mercy. Not long ago an effective weapon called "stinkpot" was in use. These bad smelling crocks were thrown about the decks of a boat, bursting, and the nauseating odor from them would partly suffocate any who happened to be near. The pirates well knew where to burst them to the best advantage. To prevent successful piratical attacks to river craft, English gunboats have been stationed at certain places of this large river. Hongkong is the port for Canton and the great population in Southern China, and no one who has not taken a sail up that river can form a correct idea of the large number of people who crowd on the boats, particularly in the third-class section.
When the boat reaches Canton, and before it is alongside the wharf, Chinese, emerging from rowboats, will be seen scaling the sides of the vessel from stem to stern with the agility of monkeys. In a very short time they throw their legs across the deck rails, every one of them on the alert to earn a few cents by carrying a valise, directing a passenger to his ricksha or sedan chair, or presenting to the visitors business cards of silk, damascene, ivory, or other merchants. Guides are also much in evidence, and if there is any city in the world where a guide is needed it is surely Canton, China.
Soon we are in a sedan chair—the only means, except afoot, of getting about the city—with a Chinaman at each end, the poles resting on their shoulders. The guide was in front, and in a short time we had passed through an entrance in the citywall. All was different then, and it is doubtful if a stranger could find his way out after having gone not more than two city squares in Canton. The streets are from three to fifteen feet wide, and boxes, tubs, tanks and pails, used by storekeepers to show their goods, encroach even on this limited space. Were one to go to a large ant-hill on a hot day, when the insects are thick and moving about quickly, the mound would afford a fair illustration of Canton within the walls. The city is one great human ant-hill. We had been through the teeming streets of the native quarters of some Indian cities, and concluded there could not be more density of population anywhere, but that opinion soon changed after stepping inside the walls of the metropolis of Southern China. Any one who has visited Hongkong and thinks he has seen a typical Chinese city would do well to pay a visit to Canton.
"Hey-ho, ho-hey, yay-he-ho, ho-ye-hay," sounds something like what a Chinaman sings or chants to make known his coming in the human-packed streets. Bear in mind, there is neither horse, ox, mule, nor ricksha puller traversing the streets—only men and women, with loads carried on split bamboo poles. They all have a song, grunt or yawn to give warning of their coming. Some of the streets are so narrow that two sedan chairs, carried in opposite directions, cannot pass. On such occasions the carriers of one chair must stop until the others squeeze their way between the wall of a store and the people, who are constantly passing to and fro. It is natural, when carrying burdens on poles, to have poles resting on both shoulders, but the crowded streets here will not permit of that. The load has to be carried on one shoulder, the pole pointing in front. While the narrow streets and teeming crowds make it much harder for men to bear loads in that manner, how much more inconvenient it must be for a woman carrying the same weight, with a baby tied to her back! There appeared to be as many women as men with the weight-carrying poles over their shoulders, and with both sexes coolie custom seemed to forbid walking, as all moved at a trot when space permitted.
Roasted pork, dried fish, and dried fowl were much in evidence in the shops; and for long distances wooden tubs containing water and live fish line a street. Butcher shops and vegetable stores are also seen at every turn. Garbage from each store or dwelling is placed in the street, and this is often kicked about before the garbage man takes it away. Hydrants are numerous, and lines of people wait their turn to get water. Wide boards, on which are written Chinese characters, often meet from each side, and a reed covering placed above, and extending across the street, drawn by ropes, shades people from the sun. Between the grunts, yawns, and songs of the laborers, together with the general conversation and the shouts from others at intruders on the dried fish and fowl, it is dampness, noise, stench and jam from the time one enters until he emerges outside the wall. In this large city there is no sewerage.
The street paving is composed of stones from two to three feet wide, and in length the width of the street. As there are neither horses nor wagons used in the city, most of the people in their bare feet, and, as the sandals worn by others have soft soles, the pavement lasts a long time, although some of the thick stones show signs of wear from the millions of feet passing over them. Between the broad signs, other signs printed on wide strips of canvas, together with the curtains that cover the thoroughfares above the cramped space, the streets of Canton resemble tunnels more than anything else.
The City of the Dead, a burying place in Canton, differed from any before seen. The coffins are logs, hewed out for a body, are of cylindrical shape, with four corners, and appear as if four pieces of lumber had been sealed together. The top quarter-piece is loose and serves as the lid. Some of these odd-appearing coffins are expensive, as they are heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gold leaf. The first resting-place consists of two rooms, and these are separated by a matting curtain. In the second, or inside, chamber the coffin rests on two supports as large as a washtub. In the outer, or reception chamber, stands a table with flowers, an incense-stick pot, and a glass containing oil, with a wick. The incense-stick was burningand the wick was casting a dim flame. Every morning and afternoon a fresh cup of tea is placed on the stand, together with fruit and fresh flowers. The light was kept burning so the spirit of the dead could find its way about, and, if it felt like eating, the food was ready. The corpse rests in that place for six months, when the remains are removed to a permanent burial ground and put under the earth. The temporary—or six months'—resting place rents for $10 a month, or $60 for the time allowed. Formerly the corpse remained in these lying-in-state, or ancestral halls, for years, but that has been changed to a six months' period. Only well-to-do Chinese are so laid to rest.
The wall encircling Canton is six miles round, but the city has outgrown the old lines. At one place, just inside the wall, is the old execution ground, where offenders against the law were beheaded, but it is now used as a pottery.
A hundred and twenty-four temples of the Confucius and Buddhist faiths were found here, but, when visiting some of these, the growing grass, dilapidated walks, dusty images, and general lack of care in evidence at every turn suggested that the Chinaman has broken loose from old religious moorings. In the Geneii Temple were 500 figures on one side of the building, badly in need of dusting. A very good pagoda, five stories high, is a feature of Canton. All the pagodas of China are of odd stories—three, five or seven.
The various manufacturing industries of the city are situated in one quarter. A big business is done in jadestone, mostly made into rings, and used as bracelets; but the stone is used also for other ornaments. The jadestone industry is situated in a certain district; furniture manufacturing is also centralized; the mother-of-pearl workers are located in still another section; this applies also to the ivory, damascene, jewelry, and tinware industries. Little or no machinery is used, most of the work being done by hand.
The city seemed to be free of loafers, everybody doing something. Talking with a Chinese acquaintance on this point, he stated that the only men out of work were gamblers, whose"occupation" had been taken from them by official decree. They had never learned to do anything else. The opium houses had also been closed. Not a queue was seen hanging down the back of the males one met, the cutting off of the pigtails being in compliance with a government edict. The hair from the queues was shipped to other countries.
"Sweating money" is a custom said to be much practiced in China. Gold coins are placed in a sheet or cloth, which is then vigorously shaken. The coins, clashing against each other, wear off the milling, which remains in the sheet. When the coins are "sweated" to the satisfaction of the "sweaters" the cloth is put in a kettle or retort, when the gold dust, or milling, remains at the bottom. It is owing to this "sweating" process that, when gold is required in transactions of fifty dollars and much greater sums, bankers often determine the value of the metal by weighing it rather than by accepting the coins at their face value.
Concerning the population of Canton, there seemed to be no official figures. Some give the number at a million, others at two millions, and even three millions of people are said to be residents of the metropolis of Southern China. Statements of the Pearl River population, however, seem to be authentic. Just think of half a million people living on the water! The river is partly blocked with native craft—sampans—and these are the homes of people numbering as many as comprise the city of Baltimore, Md. Each owner of a sampan pays a small license fee to the city; but they have no water rent to pay or house rent bills. The sampan is the home of a great many Chinese from birth until they die, generally at a ripe old age. The Pearl River is called the West River at Hongkong.
Missionaries living in the interior have enough bread baked at one baking to last them a month. The bread is sliced, then toasted, and taken to the mission. Toasting the bread keeps it from getting mouldy.
An island, separated by a fork of the Pearl River, is known as the Shameen, and here the few Europeans of Canton reside. The Shameen has been leased from China by both France andEngland for a term of 99 years. The area of the concession is but 69 acres, and 300 Europeans make their home in that pretty place. The consulates of other European countries also are located on the island, and the only European hotel in Canton is among the few modern buildings seen in the old Chinese city. Two bridges span the branch of water that forms the island on the city side, and high, strong gates are located at each end of these bridges. The approaches to the Shameen are guarded by policemen day and night, and Chinese not employed by residents of that district, or who have no business to attend to on the island, are not allowed to cross the bridges. The gates are opened at 6 o'clock in the morning, and are closed at 9 o'clock in the evening. Native servants or employees having occasion to go out after dark must carry a light, and among these one sees some odd designs. A small lantern but little larger than a goose egg will be carried by one Chinaman, another will be seen with a light burning in what looks like a soup bowl, the regular European lantern will be carried by another, and the square, colored-paper Chinese lantern will be lighting the way of still another native. A Chinaman has no right to live in the Shameen; those who do live on the island are there by sufferance of the two powers who leased the land.
The homes and business buildings of Canton do not exceed three stories, most of them but one or two stories in height. The doors are heavy, and iron bars protect some of the windows. Brick, stone, and mortar are the material used in construction, with black tiling for roofs. A marked air of privacy pervades the exterior of Chinese homes.
Stones, pear-shaped, are used as seats by the Chinese. These may be seen in tea gardens and places of quiet recreation. This custom of using stones as seats is because they are cooler than any other material. Occupants sit astride the stones.
Canton, the capital of the Province of Kwangtung, is styled the "City of Rams" from the legend of the five immortals who rode into the city on the backs of five rams during the Chow dynasty, which ruled from 1112-255 B. C. The metropolis was made a treaty port in 1842.
Small Colony of Half a Million Sampan Dwellers of Pearl River; These Water Homes Save House Rent.Canton, China.
Small Colony of Half a Million Sampan Dwellers of Pearl River; These Water Homes Save House Rent.Canton, China.
Two kinds of dollars are in use—the Hongkong and the Kwangtung—the former in the Shameen and the latter in the city and province. The Hongkong dollar is worth more than the Kwangtung, as the former is backed by England and the other by the present unsettled China. The cheapest hotel rate was $4 a day, and only Hongkong money was accepted in payment.
First-, second- and third-class cars are used on the railway line running from Kowloon to Canton. The first-class coaches are of European style—compartments—and the second- and third-class cars are open, with an aisle and seats on both sides, like the American cars, but without cushions. The fare for first-class travel was six cents a mile, and three cents for second-class accommodation. The water pirates, like hippopotami on a foraging expedition, sometimes take a stroll from their river haunts and succeed in plundering the passengers of the railway train. Along the line could be seen small, level patches of ground, not over four feet in length in some instances, banked on a hillside by stones to keep the soil from washing away, on which grain and vegetables grew. Little land is allowed to go to waste in China.
Back I went to Hongkong.
An American ship was boarded at Hongkong for Manila, P. I., but the vessel had been built in Glasgow, Scotland. The distance from Hongkong to Manila is 630 miles, and 60 hours' time is required to sail between the two points. The fare, first-class, was $25—four cents a mile for sea travel. One has little choice anent "class" on these boats, as second-class is very inferior. First-class accommodation, however, was good. After two days of rough sailing land was sighted, and next morning the ship passed through the right channel of Corregidor Island into Manila harbor. Thirty miles from the entrance is Manila. After leaving the ship, it was the first time I had been on American territory for nearly three years.
What a marked difference in the appearance of streets in Manila to other cities of the Far East. Instead of Chinese or natives moving merchandise and other wares on split bamboo sticks or by ox carts, or donkeys drawing two-wheeled vehicles, large, fat mules and horses were hitched to big, four-wheeled trucks loaded with heavy wares, together with big motor trucks taking part in the healthy business scene. Besides, flitting about the streets were light, neat-appearing, two-wheeled vehicles drawn by smart-moving ponies. The two-wheeled trap, called a calesa, is the chief conveyance. The men driving these were certainly a strange class of "cabbies," for they did not seem to care whether they secured a fare or not. The calesas, numbering 3,000, are both a handy and a cheap conveyance, the charge being 20 cents for the first and 15 cents for each additional hour.
The principal business street is known as the Escolta, and little can be said in its favor. Most of the business houses are conducted by Chinese, Indians and Arabs; and a great many ofthe buildings are owned by these merchants, who would be satisfied to do business in a pig pen so long as money came over the stye. The street is well paved, well policed, and a good street-car line has been laid in the center. But it is the lop-sided appearance of the thoroughfare that grates on one. The sidewalk at the head of the street is eight feet wide, and gets narrower and narrower until the walking space has been reduced to eight inches. The Escolta being the Broadway of Manila, it is well crowded with Filipinos, Chinamen and Americans. A better street might be substituted for the Escolta, but that thoroughfare is owned by Chinese.
The only way to make a modern town out of Manila would be to destroy the relics of Spanish "art" and rebuild on scientific lines. The best way to accomplish this would be to have fires started in sections of the city when a tornado is blowing a gale of 60 miles an hour, the firemen devoting their energies to protecting people, but not putting a hand to a hose to combat the ravages of the flames.
A good street-car system courses the city and outlying districts, but the fare, like the steamship charge, is too high. There are first-class and second-class cars, and the fare for first-class is six cents and second-class five cents. The United States and her colonies are the only territories we have traveled in where a receipt is not given a passenger for his street car fare.
Manila has few good buildings, in which respect the Philippine capital differs from cities in British colonies, but after Manila has been under American control from 50 to 100 years there will no doubt be a better showing in this respect.
We had reached another place where potatoes do not grow, where one gets only condensed milk for his coffee, where meat and flour are imported from Australia, and cabbage, onions, celery and cauliflower come from other countries; where vaccination is the first precaution suggested for the preservation of life; where one is apt to become sick if he drinks water that has not been boiled; where one dare not, if life should be dear to him, eat a piece of raw carrot or other vegetable, or even fruit, that grows near the earth; where every one sleeps under nettingat night to keep the mosquito from injecting into his system malaria fever germs, and where one must not forget to keep a weather-eye out for the bubonic flea. Everything unerringly suggests that the tropics have been reached.
Doctors say it is not necessary to drink whisky in the Philippines to ward off disease, but as cooks are liable to forget to boil the water, few of the old "tropicalians," while in sympathy with medical oracles, seem to place faith in the mindfulness of island cooks. Convulsions and consumption are, in order, the causes from which most people die in Manila. The death rate per 1,000 of the total population is 39.61.
New Year's eve was celebrated in the usual American style, with floats on motor-cars and wagons moving about the streets. On one motor-car was a large barrel, which looked like a street sprinkler. A white canvas covered the sides and there was printed on the cloth in large black letters, "Keep off the water wagon!"
The hours of work are too long in that climate. In most hot countries the working time does not exceed eight hours a day, and in other tropical climes seven hours is the rule. But Americans work nine and ten hours a day.
On the Luneta, an inviting stretch of green sward, located along the shore of the bay and between the walls of the old city and a residential section, concerts are given by a good band six evenings during the week. The entertainments continue for an hour, from 6 to 7 o'clock, and, judging by the crowds in attendance, are much appreciated. At these concerts the Filipino appears at his best, so far as clothes go. He is vain as a negro in show of clothes, and if European clothes meant advancement for native races the Filipino would claim first place. He often appears much neater than the European.
As with most colored races, the Filipinos are ingrates. They were neglected under Spanish rule, it is safe to presume, and now, when a stable system of government has been fixed, and schools, sound money, sewerage, better water, better wages, better treatment, and a brighter future have been provided, they still ask, "What is the United States going to do for us?" Allthe governors of the provinces are natives, but the treasurers of provinces are mostly Americans. This may be changed in the future, but a return to the former custom—a white man to handle the money—would soon follow, for very good reasons.
The worst railroad trains ever ridden on were those running from Manila. I traveled as far as San Fernando, 38 miles from the capital, and the time required to cover that distance was 3 hours and 48 minutes. Another trip was made from Cavite to Manila, 25 miles separating the two points, and two and a half hours was the time it took to cover that distance. In both instances the track was level. The ten-ton engine drawing a train over a two-foot gauge up the Himalaya mountains made as good time. Third-class fare is too high for poor natives; two cents a mile is too much. Steamship fare for coastwise ships is exorbitant. If the owners of railroad lines and coastwise ship owners do not make money in the Philippines, it will not be because they do not charge enough.
Native women walking about smoking big, black cigars do not look very edifying. They may be seen any time in the streets, puffing rings of smoke from cigars or cigarettes.
Unlike other countries visited, few of the natives in Manila were in their bare feet—even the children wore neat-looking sandals.
A starched, springy cloth is worn about the neck of the women, shaped like a horse-collar. The "collar" is tied in front with a knot, and rests on the shoulders and neck. In size and design it is larger than a horse-collar, and the women are constantly touching it, first on one side and next on the other, to keep it straight or in right position. The "collars" are sometimes of silk and of varied colors.
Windows without panes of glass are seen here, formed by upright panels, an inch wide, nailed to a crosspiece three inches wide, each having four such crosspieces. Intersecting the spaces made by the panels and crosspieces are smaller pieces of lath, which form three-inch squares in the window. In these three-inchsquares flat pieces of light-colored seashell are placed, which admit light, but through which the hot sun cannot penetrate. The windows do not raise or swing, but slide from side to side, when closing or opening. Panes of glass are seen occasionally, but these are often painted a dark color to keep out the sun. Sunshine seldom reaches a room, as windows are closed on the sunny sides during the day.
The natives' homes put one in mind of a squirrel's nest in a tree. Often they are hid with banana bushes and other growths from every side. The huts are built on poles from three to ten feet from the ground. The frame is composed of round and split bamboo, and the covering is generally of what is commonly known as nipa palm. They all have a few chickens and a pig. Their food is mostly fish and rice.
The presence of chickens about natives' homes is accounted for by their weakness for cock fights. Cockpits are no longer allowed within the city limits, but, as Manila does not cover a large area, from 15 minutes to half an hour's ride in a calesa will find one at a pit where the native sport is taking place. Gambling is the incentive for that sport, and so long as a Filipino can gamble he will not work.
Prize fights are not permitted in the Philippines, and it is a criminal offense for a newspaper to publish a challenge for bouts. Americans of sporting ilk find Manila an uncomfortable place to live in. Every once in a while groups of free-and-easy characters are rounded up by the authorities, taken to a ship sailing for the United States, when they unwillingly bid good-by to Manila's shores.
The climate of Manila differs from that of other countries the same distance from the equator. A majority of Europeans wear the same kind of hats as are worn in the States. Neither were white clothes much worn. In other sections close to the equator one would fall from sunstroke did he not wear a helmet or some other heavy head-covering.
The city and country around Manila is flat and swampy. When a season of heavy rain occurs the suburbs are partly under water, many of the streets being in a deplorable condition.Both the sewerage and water systems are modern, however, but some of the business streets are poorly paved.
Several daily newspapers are printed in the capital, but, aside from a white man being in charge, the printers are mostly natives. The same applies to the island printing office located in Manila. Wages paid the native printers are from $18 to $25 a month. Laborers receive from 50 to 75 cents a day. American mechanics receive about the same wages as those paid in the States.
Soldiers, in khaki uniforms, are always to be seen about the streets of Manila, a fort being located just outside the city. A similar uniform is worn by the British troops in some of their colonies, but the uniform worn by the American soldier looks neater, for the reason that the American uniform is starched, while the Britisher's is ironed. Both police and soldiers are gentlemanly fellows.
Evicting the dead sounds strange, but this takes place in Paco Cemetery, in Manila. The dead are placed in niches built in a wall, from six to seven feet thick, which encloses an area of three acres of land. The wall is perhaps eight feet high, and three niches, or burial places, are built one under the other, with a wall partition between. Rent must be paid for these niches, and when friends fail to meet the bills the remains are taken out and placed in a heap with others formerly evicted. One may pay rent for these burial vaults as long as he wishes, but from five to ten years seemed to be the length of time relatives retained regard for the departed. The graveyard is over a hundred years old, but the dates appearing on the slabs of the vaults bear record only of deaths within five to ten years. All the burial places are not like Paco, however, as in a number of cemeteries the dead are placed underground. The total number of vaults in Paco Cemetery will accommodate 1,782 bodies.
Hotel accommodation can be had for $2 a day. Boarding houses charge from $40 to $60 a month. Similar articles cost considerably more in Manila than they do in the States. No duty is levied on American imports when brought to the islands in American ships.
Manila is divided by the Pasig River, and a busy shipping place it is. North of the Pasig is the business center of the city, and, save for some shipping, there is little business on the other side of the dividing water. The old walled city, however, is located south of the Pasig. The wall itself is the oldest on American soil. Compared with that at Canton, it is limited, as the Manila wall contains an area of less than a mile. Its construction was started in 1591, but was not completed until 1872. The Spaniards did not seem to be in much of a hurry to finish the work. However, it served as a protection from assaults by Chinese and by the Moros; but in 1762 the English led a successful attack on this defense. Built in the walls are numerous chambers which had been used as cells for prisoners, and in some of these, after American occupation, were found instruments of torture, and even human bones. The churches and convents still stand behind the strong walls, and bear witness to the suffering, bravery and endurance in the early history of the Philippines. Some of the buildings in Intramuros are used as government offices. Originally seven gates led to the enclosure, but the Americans decided these were not enough, and two more openings were made. The fort and enclosure were built to command a wide view of Manila Bay, allowing a good stretch of land to intervene between the historic wall and the shore.
Manila has a splendid fire department, good schools, numerous churches, museums and libraries, theaters, sports grounds, hospitals, charities organizations, a very good municipal ice manufacturing plant, and club buildings. One will find in that far-off possession most of the advantages to be had in the cities of the United States.
Baseball games are played here the year round, and the Filipino clubs make a good showing.
Good steamship accommodation could formerly be had for $125 on intermediate ships from Manila to San Francisco, but recently the rate has advanced $50. On the larger ships, first-class, the fare is $250. The sailing time between the two points is about a month, the distance being 8,000 miles. Muchcheaper rates can be had on Japanese ships, second-class, but if one can afford the difference in price the $175 rate is worth the increased sum in accommodation. The increase of $50 on the intermediate vessels has diverted considerable travel from American to Japanese ships, because many people cannot afford to pay the higher sum.
We left Manila with passage paid to San Francisco. Out through the splendid bay we sailed, when the ship was headed for Hongkong, where ships were changed. Leaving at night, a flare of light in the business center of Hongkong gradually tapered up the side of the mountain to the fort on the summit, nearly 2,000 feet. We had started for Shanghai, China. Every ship that leaves Hongkong for San Francisco, of whatever nationality, has Americans aboard. After two and a half days' sailing the ship anchored off Wusung, where the sea was yellow with the muddy water of the great Yangtse River delta. A ship tender was boarded and a start made up the Huangpu River, which was crowded with ships, and along and away from the banks smoke-stacks towered for 14 miles, when the boat was made fast to a wharf at Shanghai. From the wharf, looking over a strip of green, there rose a wall of big, solid, clean-looking business buildings, nearly as good as one will find in any city of the world.
One has a varied choice of post offices in Shanghai, as there are seven, representing as many nationalities. These are French, Russian, German, American, British, Japanese and Chinese. Shanghai is another Chinese city known as a "treaty port," which signifies that China had granted land concessions to one or more nations, on which to build cities—forts, if necessary—and collect revenues from imports, and in some instances from exports, passing through the treaty port. Chinese live in some of the concessions, but they make their home in these districts only by sufferance of the country, or countries, to whom these tracts have been granted. The Chinese residents have neither voice nor vote in the smallest matters pertaining to the general government of treaty settlements. Large numbers of Chinese living in both the French and International Settlementsfound protection under these flags during native wars, when their own country could not offer them a place of safety.
In 1843 British troops occupied Shanghai, and by that means a land concession was gained from China. About the same time the United States was granted a similar concession, and seven years later France had also acquired a land grant there. The American and British concessions were amalgamated in 1863, but France would not join the two English-speaking nations in the formation of one foreign settlement. The title of the American and English land tract is "The Foreign Community of Shanghai North of the Yangkingpang," but the territory is commonly termed "The International Settlement." Since the pooling of interests by England and the United States additional territory has been acquired from China, until the International Settlement now comprises an area of 6,000 acres of land; while France, choosing independence, has only the original concession, 358 acres. Self-governing powers are exercised by the International Settlement, which includes imposing taxation and policing the territory. A council governs the Settlement, and the members are elected by European residents who pay a house rental of $400 and by landowners whose property valuation would bring that sum annually if rented. Land cannot be bought outright for building or speculative purposes, as the land was conceded on terms of perpetual lease. No matter how much interests a Chinaman may have within the Settlement boundary he cannot vote on municipal matters. Harbor dues, import and export taxes—any revenue from commerce passing in or going out through the section of the harbor owned by the respective countries—is collected by the officials of that country. The United States has the better section of the water-front, but English and Japanese ships practically control the trade of that important port.
Shanghai is the distributing center for the commerce of the thickly populated sections on the Yangtse River. Large ships can travel on the Yangtse in certain seasons of the year as far inland as Hankow, 600 miles from the delta. Then smaller vessels go on to Ichang, 400 miles still further inland, and rivercraft from there carry cargoes to Soufu, 500 miles further, or 1,500 miles inland from Shanghai. The total length of the Yangste, which rises in the mountains of Thibet, with its tributaries, is 3,000 miles. The width of the river at the delta is 30 miles. Shanghai is mentioned in history dating back 2,000 years.
Professional mourners, or weepers, at funerals is an occupation in China that brings in a good fee, if the weeper be a good crier. Preceding a funeral is what one may term a band, the instruments producing noise being brass pans or trays, beaten by men. After the pan-beaters come several Chinese, wearing high, fluffy hats. The coffin, which is generally a log of wood shaped out and of cylindrical form, follows the men wearing the strange headgear. The coffin is borne on two bamboo poles, two Chinamen at each end—four carriers in all. Relatives and friends of the deceased follow, either walking or riding in a ricksha, wheelbarrow, or carriage. Among this group a woman will be heard crying lustily. It is really touching to hear the deep intonations of grief as vented in a loud, mournful sound, until it becomes known that the apparently grief-stricken woman is a professional mourner, never having known the deceased in life.
Women and men do not play parts together on a Chinese theatrical stage. The actresses generally wear long beards and mope around the stage, showing no more life than that of a snake when the frost is being thawed out of his body by an early springtime sun. To a European the plot is long drawn out, lifeless, and even tedious. But the Chinese have a way of overcoming this, as tea drinking seems to be as much a factor of the playhouse as the performance. Small tables resting on bamboo-pole legs are placed about the seating space of the theater. One will no sooner have got settled in the seat than a waiter will appear and place a teapot and cup and saucer before the attendant. Neither milk nor sugar accompanies the tea, and the charge is ten cents. In a short time another waiter, carrying in his hand a stack of steaming towels, will stop at the table and lay a hot cloth over the teapot. Hepauses, for the price of the towel is five cents. Later, still another towel fellow stops, removes the one the first man placed over the teapot, puts a fresh steaming cloth over it, waits until he has received the five cents, and walks on. The hot towel serves a dual purpose—keeps the tea warm, and is used on the face and hands to regale the weary theatergoers while enduring the mopy performance. In the cheaper section of a theater, what looks like a store counter is built, from which the "gallery gods" drink tea.
The Chinese of Shanghai appeared to be in better circumstances than those in Canton. The young women are very distinctive, and were seen to better advantage than in other places. The millinery era has not reached China, so far as applies to Chinese women, and for that reason most of them go about without head covering. When one is seen wearing anything on the head, it is generally a man's cap. Chinese women are very particular about their hair, and, when not all combed back, it rests on the forehead, like bangs. Hundreds of young women may be seen with bare head, wearing a shiny silk jacket and snug-fitting trousers. They are straight as an arrow, and their rosy cheeks, unassuming manners, tidy hair, and generally neat appearance unite to their credit. The Chinese boys are mischievous little fellows, and all the children seemed fat and strong, with rosy cheeks. The "Chink kid" was the most attractive we had met. All the children seemed to have double the amount of clothes necessary, and most of them wore bulky shoes, made of grass and reeds.
Chinese cooks, as a rule, are paid no regular salary. They agree to feed a family for a certain sum a month, and the money not used out of the fixed food allowance is his. He does the marketing, and it is needless to add there is some sharp bargaining between grocer and butcher and the cook. For a European family of six a cook would agree to furnish food for from $50 to $60 a month. Beef and mutton sold at 15 cents a pound. Vegetables, however, were proportionately cheaper.
One of the courts of the Settlement is known as "the Mixed Court." A Chinese judge presides, but there is always anAmerican or an English official sitting on the bench with the native judge. Punishment is meted out to the native not as the Chinese authority would have it, but as the white officials suggest. Most of the black and yellow races prefer to be adjudged by a white man, for a white judge will have more of the milk of human kindness in his heart than a colored official. Like Indians, the upper class of Chinese seem to be little concerned about the condition of the poor and starving. The well-to-do Chinese give alms to the needy often, to be sure, but that apparently laudable trait is practiced more out of fear of a beggar's curse, when evil days would befall him. The high-caste Indian also gives to mendicants to ward off evil days.
The Native City is located outside the bounds of the Settlements concession, where Chinese were as numerous, and the streets as narrow, as some in Canton, but of much smaller area. Some of the territory within the wall was under water—a pond—over which a bridge had been built. The bridge was purposely built nearly zigzag to foil the Evil One if he should pursue any of them. Beggars were very numerous in that section of Shanghai, and the mothers, like those seen in Canton, begged, at the same time holding up the little hand of a babe, in which one might put any offering. The Long-Hau pagoda, seven stories in height, located outside the city, is a credit to Chinese skill.
Few horses were seen drawing loads in Shanghai. Most of the cartage and trucking is done on bamboo poles by Chinamen and with hand trucks, pulled by ropes and shoved. Five Chinese pull the same load a horse would draw.
The condition of the ricksha pullers of Shanghai is pitiable. Fifteen thousand Chinese are engaged in this occupation, some of them so weak that they frequently fall to the ground from exhaustion, caused by an empty stomach. When a Chinaman quails under hard work it is because he has not a fighting chance to make a showing. Chinese pay them two and three cents for a ride, while Europeans pay five cents and over. The owners of the rickshas pay 75 cents a month to the Settlement as a license fee, and the puller must pay the owner 40 cents aday. Often, when a puller has not earned the rental sum, 40 cents, he will remain in the streets all day and most of the night in the hope of at least earning the required charge. If he cannot pay the 40 cents he is deprived of his occupation until he has settled for the last ricksha.
The wheelbarrow of this city, used to carry passengers and move goods, is the oddest device in use the world over. It differs from similar vehicles in that the wheel is in the center of the frame instead of in front. Above the wheel is also a frame, on which to carry articles of light weight. A rope is tied to each end of the barrow handles, and the loop rests on the Chinaman's neck, passing under his arms. A Chinaman will wheel a weight of half a ton for miles on this crude device. An article may weigh 500 pounds which cannot be divided—must be carried on one side, the other side free of weight—yet he will short-step along with the one-sided load until he has reached his destination. The barrow will not tip over. On each side of the wheel may often be seen sitting Chinese women with bare heads, wearing white blouses with pink stripes about the sleeves, with baggy velvet trousers, and snow-white stockings showing over neat, boat-shaped, black or colored velvet shoes. Passengers get a long ride on the wheelbarrow for from two to five cents. The owner pays a license fee of 40 cents a month for his crude vehicle.
Windows of Chinese temples, and sometimes other buildings, are the same as those seen in Manila—light colored seashell.
Both the dollar and the tael are in use in Shanghai, the former worth from 40 to 50 cents and the tael about 65 cents.
Chinese mechanics are paid from 20 to 40 cents a day. Printers receive $10 to $18 a month. The working time is eight or nine hours a day. Carpenters were on strike for an increase of from two to five cents a day. If a Chinaman hod-carrier, or one working at unskilled labor, should be taken sick, the wife will often take his place until her husband is able to resume work.
An unfriendly feeling seemed to be harbored toward Americans by other Europeans living in the Chinese coast cities. Itwas claimed that since American occupation of the Philippines the cost of living had advanced 50 per cent., as the influx of Europeans to the islands had created a greater demand for Chinese meat, vegetables and other necessities. Hotel expenses were very reasonable in Shanghai, however, as $1.50 a day only was paid.
Bombay, India, was the most attractive city visited in the East, and Shanghai, China, with a population of a million inhabitants, was the second best city. Between the landing place on the river and the splendid front of buildings that give a visitor his first impression of the metropolis of the Yangtse is a stretch of green, grass-covered land, known as the Bund. To the right, opening off the park strip, are the Public Gardens. A good street car system is a feature of the city, and electric lights are numerous. In any direction one may look, enterprise and good management are in evidence. The river is teeming with craft, large and small vessels loading and unloading at each side of the waterway, and high smoke-stacks, rising from cotton and paper mills and shipbuilding yards, add much to the thrifty surroundings; then large oil tanks, busy warehouses, and the gunboats of great nations anchored in the river give the place a metropolitan appearance, while the buildings at every turn are good. The streets are crowded with people, and the stores filled with purchasers, most of the merchants in that section of the city being Europeans. The attractive buildings on the Bund do not comprise all of the good buildings of Shanghai, for some of the homes, built of red and gray-colored brick, two and three stories in height, are good to look at. Then there are sidewalks to the Shanghai streets, which are well paved with asphalt and granite blocks, and these are kept clean. Many churches are to be seen. Schools are frequently met with, and parks have been placed at convenient sections; also a horse racecourse, sports grounds, and good hospitals. In fact, both English and United States officials have done well in the upbuilding of the International Settlement.
Down the Huangpu River, the channel walled by merchant ships and gunboats, we sail to Wusung, where an Americanship was boarded for Japan. Most of the passengers came from Manila, and were returning to the States to regain their health and seek employment in a country where people can drink water and eat raw fruit or vegetables, whether grown in the ground or on trees. The first thing noticed among the passengers was the absence of strong drink during meals. Stimulants are a feature at mealtime with almost every other nationality traveling in the Far East. A day and a half's sail through the base of the Yellow Sea brought us to Nagasaki, Japan.
After the vessel had anchored, flat boats or scows loaded with coal, and also with Japanese men and women, were seen heading toward her. The women were to help load the ship with bunker coal. Each woman and girl had over her head a white cloth, with large, black Japanese characters stamped in the print. Grass baskets, that hold but a shovelful, are used to coal ships at this Japanese port. The scows have been made fast to the ship, the baskets are being filled, the coal passing line is formed from the barge to the vessel, extending up a ladder to a hatch over the bunkers. The tidy looking women are now passing baskets from one to the other as quickly as one would hand a plate to another if needed at once. A stream of these is constantly being tossed from one to the other, and small girls are engaged at returning the empty ones to the scow. Two, and even three, streams of coal run into the bunkers from one scow by means of the handleless baskets, and, as from three to five scows will be unloading at the same time from both sides of the vessel, it will be understood what a large quantity of fuel can be emptied into a ship from ten to fifteen of these coal lines. The time required to furnish a vessel with bunker coal in this manner is from four to five hours. The wages of the coal passers are based on the amount of coal a ship takes on, as an equal sum is paid the coalers. This amounts to from 15 to 25 cents each. As many as 500 Japanese—mostly women—keep life in their bodies by this means of employment.
The harbor was attractively dotted with partly green islands, and in front the country was hilly and mostly terraced. Theterraced hills are the "farms" of the people. Every inch of land that can be built up with rock to a level surface is used to grow vegetables and other products.
Oxen, hitched to carts and wearing grass shoes, was something that had not been seen—the grass shoes—in other countries. A grass string passed between the hoofs, which was connected with another grass string or rope wound about the fetlock. These held on the shoe, or grass mat, protecting the hoofs from wear on the roads.
In India boards are sawed from logs while sticking in the air at an angle of 35 degrees, with one man on the log pulling a crosscut saw, and another under, on a platform, pulling the saw downward after the fellow on top had pulled the saw up. At Nagasaki boards were being cut from logs by hand also, but the sawyer stood on the ground and ripped the log from the side, in the same way that meat is carved. The saw was two feet long and a foot wide, with deep teeth, and with that implement slabs were being ripped off logs 20 feet in length. Like the Indian, the Jap pulls a plane toward him, while a white carpenter shoves a plane from him. Still, one may see any day in New York City men "chopping" wood with granite blocks.
While the rest of Japan was closed to foreigners, Nagasaki, for 200 years before the country was thrown open to the world, was an open port, and even then life was none too safe, as missionaries had been killed in that section. Nagasaki has a population of 150,000, and most of the people are engaged at coaling ships, working in a shipyard, or in pottery works. The streets are narrow, but tidier than those seen in some cities left behind, and the homes small, none higher than two stories, mostly of wood construction. Ricksha pullers in this place were a pest.
Nagasaki was left behind when a start was made through the Inland Sea for Kobe, a day's sail separating the two ports. The sail is an attractive one, as this stretch of water is thickly dotted with islands. Were the vegetation tropical it would favorably compare with the journey through the Fiji group. The Inland Sea is generally calm, and foreign ships, together with those of Japan's large fleet of merchantmen, were winding and twisting about the islands in every section of the noted land-locked waterway. The vessel we boarded at Shanghai was the third one since leaving Manila. Our journey through Japan from Kobe will be by rail.
The ship anchored in the bay, and passengers were brought to the wharves in tenders. Modern buildings were in evidence, and street cars and railroad trains were running through the city. In general, Kobe presents a much better appearance than Nagasaki.
Almost every woman seen in Japan has a child on her back, the mother's custom of carrying her babe, and most of the girls also wear a bulky piece of cloth likewise, which is tied about the waist. On a farm where there are no reckless boys, and the head of the family is satisfied with the easier ways of life, a colt may be seen walking about a pasture or enclosure with a sack of grain tied to its back; this is put on the colt's back to break it in to ride. The bundles on the girls' backs looked as if they had been placed there for the initial lesson in carrying a baby. The knapsack-like cloth is called the obi. Japanese fathers seemed to take more interest in their children than Chinese parents, as we cannot recall seeing a Chinaman carrying a child.
The Japanese home is the flimsiest anywhere. Thin pine boards, with paper windows and doors, generally one-storyand attic, constitute their shell-like dwelling. Low stools and mats are prominent household accessories, but no chairs or tables. A mat on the floor serves as the seat in a Japanese home, which is neat, and the people present a favorable appearance. The roof is its most substantial feature, being covered with black tiles. The doors slide to one side. Crosspieces and upright panels compose the frames of doors, and the squares in windows, which in Manila are of seashell, are covered with paper in Japan. The paper is frequently broken, when new "window panes" replace the torn ones.
The household stove of Japan is a portable earthen bucket, generally white in color, with a handle. Charcoal is the fuel generally used. This stove cooks the food of the family and also provides heat in cold weather. The family may be seen squatting about the white earthen bucket with twice as many hands over the fire as there are members of the household. A fan serves to coax the charcoal along.
While the Japanese are poor, they seem to be well supplied with clothing. The flimsy character of the homes may account for the thickness of cloth worn, as the weather gets cold in Japan, ice and snow being in evidence. The kimono is worn entirely by women, and generally by men. Occasionally a man will be seen wearing European clothes, but Japanese women are always dressed in the native garb. Some of the small boys wear a helmet after the style worn with a coat of mail, and look really warlike in them.
Both Nagasaki and Kobe are located on hilly ground, which necessitates the building of walls in frequent sections of the cities. These walls are very sound, and a feature of them worth mentioning is that no mortar appears to have been used in their construction.
Most of the modern buildings here were built by firms from other countries, but there are also modern native structures. The business quarters have sidewalks, but away from that section there are none. No street paving was seen either in Kobe or Nagasaki. On the hillsides the soil seemed to be hard, and in the level sections loose gravel was used for paving.
No cabs were seen in Kobe, but street cars and rickshas were plentiful. Street-car fare ranged from one and one-half to four cents. The ricksha pullers of Kobe were an improvement on some of the starved Chinese pullers of Shanghai. A great many of the pullers of Japan have no shoes on their feet, but wear cloth, generally white, for protection. Walking over gravel roads did not seem to bother the Japanese ricksha pullers.
Kobe has a population of nearly half a million, and is second to Yokohama in importance as a seaport, much tea being exported from this port. Behind the city rises a range of high hills, covered with pine trees—a natural park. In front is a splendid bay, from which rises many masts and smoke funnels from vessels at anchor. Some of the streets are of good width and others are very narrow, but all are clean. Attractive homes have been built on the hillsides, but the high gates and fenced and walled enclosures lend to the dwellings the air of a prison.
Cloth grain sacks are never seen in the Orient. Anything of that nature which contains goods is made of grass.
In the railway stations of Japan are kept on file publications of current dates. This unusual custom seems to be appreciated by the traveling public, as many passengers may be seen turning page after page of the periodicals while waiting for a train. The railways are government owned, and the fare, first-class, is two cents, second-class one cent, and third-class one half cent a mile. Some of the first-class coaches contain wicker chairs, with observation platform at the rear. Second- and third-class coaches are provided with cushioned seats at the side of the car. The width of the tracks is from three to four feet, and the fastest schedule is 35 miles an hour. Meals on trains cost 50 cents. By paying a small additional sum, through steamship passengers may travel by rail on their steamship ticket from either Nagasaki or Kobe to Yokohama, or vice versa, with stop-over privileges at any point. Many passengers take advantage of this liberal concession. No stations are announced, but the name is printed in big letters on a wide board. Strangers are informed of their destination by a trainmanshortly after the train has pulled away from the preceding station. The signs at stations prove a better guide to foreigners, as Europeans are termed in Japan, than announcing them, for words sound so much different when spoken in the native tongue.
We have reached Osaka, the second largest city in Japan. This city has a million inhabitants, and is a very important commercial center. Few horses or oxen were seen here, most of the cartage being done on two-wheeled trucks by men, women, and boys. Chinese truckmen pull their loads with a rope passed over the shoulder, but the Japanese pulls his load by his breast. A pad is laid across his chest and a rope is put over, the ends of which are generally fastened to the axle of the truck. It is hard to believe that human beings can do the work of horses, mules, and motor trucks in a manufacturing city of a million inhabitants, but they really do so.
Carriages or taxicabs were not seen in the city. Ricksha is the means by which luggage is carried and places reached when traveling other than by street car. Street cars in Osaka are crowded all day. Unless a car is boarded at its starting point, it is generally a case of holding on to a strap. Four and a half cents is charged for a street-car ticket, but there is a coupon to each, which is good for a return journey—two and one-quarter cents a ride. Cars are numerous, single-decked, and they travel fast. Traffic is so heavy that two conductors are required to collect the fares.
The theater district of Broadway, New York City, is termed the "Great White Way," but some of the streets on which bioscope and other theaters are located in Osaka also cast a great flare of light at night. The attractions are printed on cloth of bright color, secured to poles extending from buildings on each side. These signs, all printed in Japanese characters, meet in the center of the street, and large arc lights, some of them red instead of white, illuminate the surroundings. This, together with music, noise, and the crowds packing the streets from curb to curb, may appropriately be termed "The Great Colored Way." It is a sidelight of life in anotherpart of the world that has to be seen to be understood. No expense is spared in lighting in front of amusement buildings in Osaka. The price of admission is five and ten cents, and the places are jammed during opening hours.
The unit of money in Japan is the yen, which is 50 cents in American coin. The half-yen is a silver piece; some of the lower coins are also silver, others nickel and copper. Sen is used as the American cent, and 100 sen makes a yen. The plural is never used in yen or sen, always 30 sen and 20 yen. A sen is one-half of a cent.
A few wide streets course the city, and modern business buildings show up here and there, but aside from these the buildings are of wood and the streets narrow. No paving, however, covered the streets, neither were sidewalks in evidence. A river flows through the city, which serves as good drainage to this populous center.
The price of food is much higher in Japan than in India and China. With the exception of Singapore and Canton, hotel expenses did not exceed $2 a day, but $2.50 was the cheapest for accommodation in most Japanese cities. Though all wanted $3 a day, a little haggling brought the price down a yen. In our hotel in Osaka the room was heated by a small charcoal stove, of an upright gas-stove shape, instead of the bucket kind. On first sight it seemed a joke, but it took the chill off the room in a short time nevertheless.
A pleasant change in hotel service was met with here. With the exception of Australia and New Zealand, and one place in Durban, South Africa, at every place we stopped male servants were the rule. After leaving South America these were black men. With two exceptions, Delhi and Benares, there was no such personage as a woman housekeeper seen about the hotels—men, men, men at every place. But in Osaka, a rosy-cheeked Japanese girl, with the "training saddle" tied to her back, placed the charcoal in the stove, and fiery embers were slid on top from a dustpan shovel; in the dining-room, also, the girls, in their counterless slippers, would shuffle, shuffle, shuffle their feet from the dining-room to the kitchen, and soon shuffle backwith the ordered food—the sound of the girls' feet more amusing than annoying. One wonders how hotels in some countries exist, for often not more than half a dozen guests are living in a big hostelry. The trade seems to come from foreigners only, for seldom is a Japanese seen about.
Osaka was my first stop from Kobe, and, inquiring from a young man how I might reach a certain point, he volunteered to show me about the city. His kind offer was accepted. He proved to be a professional man, could speak some English, and seemed to take delight in doing me the slightest kindness. He took me to a splendid park and other places of interest, and insisted on paying his own street car and ricksha fares.
The working hours in Japan are ten a day. Mechanics receive 75 cents and laborers from 30 to 40 cents a day. Rice, fish, and tea seemed to be the principal food, and if the quantities of food were no larger in proportion than some of the teacups in use, people live cheaply. A man seen eating a bowl of fish and rice with chopsticks was asked what he had paid for it, a vendor having just sold it; he said 30 sen—15 cents. Ten cents would seem a big price for the same portion in America.
Osaka is intersected by canals, and over a thousand bridges within the city lines cross these waterways, resembling Amsterdam, Holland, in this respect. There are nearly 2,000 places of worship, hundreds of schools, colleges, and academies, five daily newspapers, paper mills, machine shops, and an arsenal. Tea, silk, and copper figure largely in the exports from that busy center.
If few modern buildings, narrow streets, latticed front and part paper homes, one story in height, and shops located in these buildings, illustrate Japanese progress, then Kyoto, next visited, is to the fore. The old west capital, as Kyoto is termed, puts one in mind of a pile of wood boxes that have been gathered together to make a bonfire. This city is one huge tinder box. In size Kyoto is the third city of Japan, with a population of half a million people, and it is the bucket stove alone that saves the residents from becoming homeless throughthe ravages of fire, for if wood and coal stoves were used there would be frequent conflagrations. The roofs are covered with black tiling, and the houses have no chimneys.
The bazaars or shopping centers of these cities are busy places, and resemble an arcade. These are formed by reed blinds being placed above the street, which, pulled by ropes, roll on wires and stretch across, preventing the sun from shining below—similar to those in Canton. Meat is scarce about these shopping places, but rice, beans, dried fish, and vegetables are much in evidence. Radishes serve the same purpose in Japan as potatoes in America; they grow as large as a big cucumber, and when numerous in vegetable stalls an unpleasant odor arises from them.
When a horse or an ox was seen drawing a truck, the driver was always found at the side, or leading it by a rope; it seemed to be the custom not to ride in a loaded vehicle. Cabs are not seen in the city, ricksha pullers doing the hack work. A great many of the public streets are too narrow for a carriage to pass through. Men do most of the trucking.
Pulling a rope depending from a bell, to warn the spirits that a devotee has come to worship at a shrine, is a national religious custom of Japan. In front of each temple a thick rope dangles from a bell above, and, as the finger-soiled Bible indicates the owner's studious religious tendencies, so does the frayed ropes attest the frequency with which worshippers summon the spirits to bear witness to the supplicant's invocations.
Kyoto is well provided with attractive temples, built during the residence in that city of the governing powers. These buildings, like the homes, are constructed of wood, and as one walks about the churches the floors often squeak. As in India, shoes must be covered with canvas slippers before entering. The Japanese, also like Indian worshipers, leave their clogs or sandals outside. Priests are in attendance, and one of these escorts a stranger through the building. If the temple be a Shinto place of worship the priests are considered descendants of the Sun. In one respect there is no similarity between the priests here and those met in India, as the Japanese officialswere free of the spirit of beggary. A fee is charged on entering—generally from 10 to 25 cents—and that is all that is expected.