Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1891 — In Japan. [ARTICLE]

In Japan.

A sleepy village it was as it lay by the sea that beautiful sunny day. We saw some bronzed girls out upon the beach looking for clams. There, were a few men spreading their nets to-day. A number of children, with smaller children fastened upon their backs, quietly nestled upon the sandy shore. The dogs lay with their noses between their paws looking sleepily out of their half-opened eyes as we passed by. The fowl, squaddling in the warm hollows they had fashioned for themselves, and here and there were to be seen women at work picking cotton from the seed in a languid way that suggested that there was time enough and to spare. The sea caressed the sand as gently as the touch of an infant. The air was hushed, and the foliage of the trees rested. No bird gave forth a note, the cats slept in the sun. and we thought if there was comfort in the world it was to be looked for just here. But appearances are not reality. The quiet village of that day must have its storms and commotions, and be, like other human habitations, full of all the evil that flesh is heir to, though for that one day of the new year it was at peace and at rest. There was a calm and quiet about it that was like the hush of a shrew’s tongue—something to be wondered at as a phenomenon. After leaving Singeta to its sleep in the sun, we entered upon a narrow road leading over the range of high hills, which boldly push themselves down to the sea in seeming defiance, for their bases show how many a rent and seam that tell of fierce combat with the waves when they have rushed against their foundations in the wild fury of the storm. The hills of Japan are very unlike any that I have seen elsewhere. They are all narrow spurs, with rapid ascent, cleaving into and dividing the valleys in all directions. The hand and industry of man through the long centuries have doubtless contracted the natural slopes, as plateau above plateau is terraced and utilized by the husbandman. As we wound through the leafy maze of the way, charming vistas were on cither hand, and wherever there was a level spot large enough to swing a hoe on it was cultivated. There were many patches, detached and away from any habitation, that were certainly not of the area of 100 square feet, under the highest state of cultivation. Not a weed or blade of grass was to be seen trespassing upon the spots. Yet we did not see a single man at work in the fields during our entire trip, covering the entire day.