Etchings of the East

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COPVRIGIIT DEPOSrP.

CHAPTER I. Over Land and Sea

FROM Nashville to San Francisco, a distance by the railroad of two thousand seven hundred and fifteen miles, in four days and four nights, lacking two hours and losing five hours in making two train connections, is the record for this Editor in January, 1908. They did not do it so when the "forty-niners" rushed to the western coast when the gold fever burned in many veins. A half century has brought wonders to the world through these United States, and what another fifty years will produce in this country no man is now able to prophesy. Such marvelous inventions have been given to the world that now the question is, not "Will we ever fly?" but, "When will we fly?" We have done almost everything else imaginable; and flying is not half so wonderful as seeing through wooden walls by means of the Rontgen Ray, or sending messages to the wide world without even a wire to carry them. This is the day of scientific and mechanical wonders, and this great country of ours is the place where many of them are brought to perfection.

The States of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas are more or less known to me ; but Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California were entirely new and furnished sights which entertained me very much. I read of the deserts of i^frica when I was a lad, and I have seen something of a desolate land in some parts of Mexico; but the desert of Arizona was even more desolate than I had thought was possible in any part of this country. A full day's travel in that dreary waste made me ask myself: "Will man ever make this place blossom like the rose?" In many places once considered desolate man has given soil and moisture and received fruits in return^ but will he ever redeem the American desert? The swamps have been taken from many sections ; the overflowing and destructive streams have been confined to their channels ; the hills, with their steep inclines, have been covered with vineyards, gardens, and luxuriant fields ; the arid lands have been irrigated ; and we may well expect that the day will come when this earth of man's shall become in every spot a feeder of its masterful inhabitant. This planet, with man as its master, will, when man comes fully to himself, have no waste spots or waste forces. The true man is a producer; and when he puts himself into the world, the harvests are certain.

The gold mines of California are not all in the mountains, although only there the yellow metal may be found. Gold-mining is the work of adventurers and speculators. Neither the men who go into the mines nor those who handle the certificates for the ore can make a State that has the right to be called a commonwealth. California's highest treasures are in her plains, her golden sunshine, and her health-giving atmosphere. All the southern half of this wonderful land is one vast garden, hemmed in by the mountains and the sea. Fruits and flowers, filling the vast plains of this richly endowed State, have made the world almost forget that California ever produced gold. I shall never forget the day's travel in the Joaquin Valley. The fields, with their first signs of the coming spring, the industrious landmen, with their great plows and harrows drawn by four, six, and eight horses, the distant Sierra Nevadas, with their snow-covered peaks, filled the day with continual delight. The approach to the great city of the Coast increased the interest of this great moving picture.

San Francisco will some day be a great city. Its population with that of its three neighbors, Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda, now reaches 500,000 to 700,- 000 people. But this is really a heterogeneous mass. The spirit of the community is not healthful to the highest interests of society. The enterprise is very largely financial, and the thought of getting rich quick occupies the mind of a majority of those who come here. The growth is too much after the manner of the eucalyptus. But the importance of the port, the beauty of the surrounding country, the richness of the fruits will make San Francisco a center for increasing multitudes. The Church is the most neglected institution in California of all those that make a great people. Greed and godliness are not companionable, and greed came first and has never retired. Many of the leading citizens left their religion east of the Rockies, or else they have grown up here from the stock of the early days, when religion was virtually unknown. But the people have no ear for barren creeds or doctrines of any sect or sects. They are open to the appeals of Christ's Christianity, but they will not try to pronounce the shibboleths of any denominationalism. Sectarianism or sectionalism has no attraction for a people of cosmopolitan sentiment. Only the pure gospel, presented in an intelligent way and in harmony with the day of information and enlightenment, can reach such a people as this. The Church of the great West will be free of all sentiments that make and maintain sects.

Dr. C. F. Reid has been doing something worth while in the five years that he has been out here. He has inaugurated and now maintains two missions for the Japanese and two for the Koreans. I visited the Japanese missions — one in Oakland and one in Alameda. The one in Oakland is cared for in a hired house. It has a reading room, where many young Japanese men come. It has a Students' Club, composed of the young men in the high school and college. Chapel exercises are held during the week. The one in Alameda has a pastor, a kindergarten with thirty children, and a night school with twenty-four pupils. The Church has about twenty members. An elegant home was recently bought for $8,500. The house needs about $1,000 expended in improvements to give it full equipment for the needs of the mission. There are about eight hundred Japanese in the vicinity of this mission ; and with the kindergarten and the night school, there will be furnished an easy access to this needy people. Dr. Reid has a Korean mission in San Francisco, and one in Sacramento with about fifty members. His work as our first missionary to Korea gave him a great love for these immigrants from the little kingdom.

California offers the Church a fine opportunity for finding an open door into China and Japan. There are now 10,000 Japanese in California, and the number is increasing. The number of the Chinese is now decreasing. The work now done for these people at our doors is being supported by the Woman's Home Mission Society. The Church will be wise in any efforts that it may make for the Christianization of the Japanese, Chinese^ and Koreans who now abide in our country.

Balboa made a great discovery when he brought to the world's notice the Pacific Ocean. However, he gave the great sea its name from a mountain peak before he had tried its waters, else the pleasing name might never have been employed. The Pacific has its ups and downs, with which those who sail even in its largest ships are compelled to sympathize, and which they occasionally imitate. Of such experiences one is apt to grow sick. Those who passed through the Golden Gate on Thursday, January 30, 1908, for destinations beyond the sea were soon wondering if the passageway was only a golden gate to those who entered from the sea, and not for those who sought the highway of the deep. Anyway, many passengers were in their cabins without a desire for food when the gong sounded for the evening meal. The uncertainty in certain localities continued for two days before the fair weather brought quiet to the sea and the sufferers. The Psalmist seemed to have known of the life on the ocean when he wrote : "They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters : these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths : their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still."

The steamships take different courses across the Pacific Ocean from the United States to Japan. The distance from San Francisco to Yokohama by one route is 4,525 miles. Our steamer (the Mongolia, of the Pacific Mail Line) took a southern route, sailing by the Sandwich Islands. The distance from San Francisco to Honolulu is 2,089 miles, and from Honolulu to Yokohama, 3,950 miles; the total distance per this route is 6,039 miles. The latitude of San Francisco is practically thirty-eight degrees; that of Yokohama is about thirty-five; while that of Honolulu is about twenty-one, which gives it a place below the Tropic of Cancer. The two days previous to our reaching the Hawaiian Islands we were able to sit on the deck of the steamer without wraps and often in light clothing. This was much more pleasant than the severe gales in the more northern latitudes. The real delight of a sea voyage is in the sea breeze ; but when it is cold and the passengers are closed in their cabins, the ship becomes a prison and the voyagers are afflicted rather than benefited. The motion of the ship on a quiet sea is not unpleasant, but the rolling and the plunging have no fascination except for the daring and undisturbed sailor.

The steamer Mongolia is a large, smooth-sailing 6 but slow ship. The speed from San Francisco to Honolulu was fifteen knots an hour, or eight or nine knots less than that of the fast vessels on the Atlantic Ocean. The ship has a tonnage of 13,600, although the company advertises it at 27,000 tons. It has a displacement of 27,000 tons. It is to be hoped that our American steamship companies can maintain a fine service on the Pacific Ocean, as travel to the Orient will be greatly increased in the next ten years. The Mongolia might increase its attractiveness by sustaining a small orchestra for the entertainment of its passengers, as do the Atlantic steamers, or by offering such diversions as would break the monotony of a long day.

Many of the passengers felt very keenly the disgrace of the gambling which was conducted by members of the ship's crew. There is always card-playing in the smoking room of an ocean steamer, and betting on everything on which men can bet; but when it comes to running a roulette wheel every day and "chuck-a-luck" stands by the dozen continually, many passengers feel that such things should not be allowed. It is true that those who own these wheels and dice games are Chinese, but they are in the employ of an American ship company. Many welldressed men and women patronized these games, and mostly to their sorrow. The sailors spent every odd moment and odd coin at these tables of chance. The company defends its course by saying that the Chinese laborers must have their gambling diversions, or else they will not serve, and it wants the Chinese laborers because of their capabilities and their satisfaction with moderate wages. Be that as it may, a steamship company that not only tolerates but even encourages such procedure will some day suffer.

Twenty-two hours in Honolulu were not sufficient to see all the interesting sights of that beautiful little city. Our steamer arrived at noon on Wednesday, and left at ten o'clock Thursday morning. The rest from the sea voyage was very acceptable. It was good to have a dinner on land at the elegant Young Hotel. After a few minutes' walk from the hotel, we found ourselves at the gate of the old lolani Palace, now the executive and legislative building of the Territory. I was glad that I could visit the throne room, now the hall for the territorial Legislature. Its regal splendor has departed, but the new order of government has in no way decreased the importance of the large chamber. On the walls are hung the portraits of the kings and queens of the islands for the last hundred years, with the portraits of Napoleon III. and King Philip, the friends of the reigning family in their times. The Senate chamber is a small room of the old palace, as is the Governor's office. On the opposite side of the street is the large modern building for the territorial courts. The former Queen Liliuokalani lives in an elegant home near the palace at the expense of the government.

Politics on the islands cannot be different from politics on the mainland. The small spoils of office are earnestly sought in all countries. The natives usually vote with the party that has given them the most booty. Here in Hawaii they want work, and the politicians try to hold themselves in power by supplying their desires. At present the natives are mostly Republicans. They hold the balance of power, for there are less than ten thousand white people on the islands. The natives have about thirty thousand. The number of natives is decreasing at a good rate. The Japanese, with their 70,000 people, furnish half the population. The Chinese number about twenty to twenty-five thousand, and the Koreans about five thousand. But the white man is in control, as he always is wherever he consents to live. He usually settles all race problems according to his own whims. The large valleys, with their 700,000 tillable acres, are owned for the most part by the white men, as are the large industries, whether agricultural, manufactural, or commercial.

Captain Cook was the first Anglo-Saxon to see this chain of islands. He saw them first January 10, 1778, and called them Sandwich Islands in honor of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich. He met his death on a second visit at the hands of the natives whom it was claimed that he betrayed. About 1790 a chief of the island of Hawaii, named Kamehameha, conceived the idea of making an island empire. He beat in battle the kings of Maui, Molokai, and Oahu. In routing the forces of Oahu he drove them over the great cliff of Nunano Pali. This great precipice is visited by all tourists, and is considered the view-point for as fine scenery as can be found in the world. Kamehameha the Great established the ruling line, which held power until 1874, when Lunalilo was elected to the throne. At his death, in 1891, he was succeeded by his sister, Liliuokalani, who was dethroned by the revolution of 1893. A repubhc was established July 4, 1894; and the islands were annexed July 7, 1898, as a Territory to the United States. A fine bronze statue of Kamehameha I. stands in front of the judiciary building.

There are eight inhabited islands in the group, the largest being Hawaii, from which the group takes its name, with an area of 4,015 square miles. The second is Maui, with 728 square miles ; and then comes Oahu, on which Honolulu is situated, with 598; Kauai, with 547; Molokai, on which is the leper colony, with about 1,600 lepers, with 261 square miles; Lanai, with 138; Niihau, with 97; Kahoolawe, with 69 square miles. The total area is 6,449 square miles. The islands are mountainous, and on several are large volcanoes which are for the most part now extinct. The valleys are very fertile, and produce the various tropical fruits and harvests. The banana and cocoanut are seen in profusion in Honolulu. The pineapple grows to a very large size. The orange grows, but not so well as in California. Raw sugar is the principal product, its export value for the last year having been $26,860,000. About $100,000,000 is invested in the sugar interests, which employed last year 45,000 men. The exports for fruits last year amounted to $400,000; for rice, $147,000; and for coffee, $145,000.

A good school system is in operation, which prepares pupils for our American colleges. There is a good Territorial Normal School, which trains teachers. Oahu College was founded sixty years ago by missionaries. There are about two hundred Churches in the islands. The Congregationalists are the leading denomination. Rev. Hiram Bingham, a missionary of the Congregational Church, who died in New Haven, Conn., November 11, 1869, at eighty years, preached the first sermon in Honolulu April 25, 1820. The first church was brought from New England by ship around Cape Horn and set up. The Httle wooden building still stands near the Kawaiahao Church, which was built for the natives and dedicated July 12, 1842. This church was built of coral, which was brought by hand out of the sea; and in it the royal family, as well as the great body of the natives, have worshiped for these sixty years. The worship is conducted in the Hawaiian language, although the pastor is an American. Churches for the natives, the Portuguese, the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Koreans are supported by the Congregational Church. On Wednesday night while in Honolulu I had the pleasure of attending services in the fine Central Union Church, which was built a few years ago at a cost of $130,000. It and the Methodist Episcopal Church, the small Episcopal Church, the small Christian Church make the list of the churches for the white people in the islands. The speaker of the evening was Bishop David H. Moore, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who had just closed the annual session of the Hawaiian Mission. His Church has forty-five stations in the islands among the natives, the Japanese, the Koreans, and the Filipinos. The missions among the Chinese are conducted by the Congregationalists. The Bishop gave an excellent address on the Orient. I was greatly interested in the mission of his Church for the Koreans, and visited the large mission here in Honolulu.

A car ride or a stroll through the city will reveal a world of floral beauty. Every yard is a flower garden, and every home a conservatory. The richest colors and the choicest clusters are found on every side. The banyan tree, the cocoanut tree, the banana plant full of bananas, the immense palms, the mangoes — all interested me very much. A visit to the aquarium gave me an opportunity to see the finest collection of variously colored and formed fish in the world. A big shark twelve feet long, a turtle three feet across, a case filled with octopi — all attracted the attention of the visitors. I felt glad that they and I did not move in the same social circle.

Honolulu is a delightful place in which to spend a few weeks or months. The cloud-topped mountains are always in view. The temperature is never uncertain or unpleasant. The waters offer perennial bathing. The hotels and even market places are always in holiday attire. The flower sellers are always sitting in the streets. The Chinese quarters always have a bad odor. The coachmen and the automobilists are always ready to make the tourist suffer. Great is Honolulu. It was pleasant to see and delightful to remember. The circumstances imder which we spent the twenty-two hours made us thankful for the kind providence that brought us into its waters.

CHAPTER II. The First Touch of Japan

THE long voyage of eighteen days from San Francisco to Yokohama did not grow monotonous, although there was nothing to look out upon except the boundless wateres. To be sure, the stop of twenty-two hours at Honolulu and the sight of the Hawaiian Islands for other ten hours brought some relief to those who were weary of the watery wastes. Only one vessel of any description was sighted during the entire voyage, and that was near San Francisco. How different is travel on the Atlantic Ocean, where vessels are passed every day and often several times a day! The Pacific Ocean has not yet become a highway of traffic, and will not soon become so important in the world's commerce as her sister sea. While the absence of vessels may lessen the interest of a voyage, yet it insures greater safety, as the majority of disasters at sea are due to collisions in times of fog or storm. We had no fogs and few clouds. The journey for the most part was made under clear skies, with full sunshine by day and bright starlight or mellow moonlight by night. The fullness of the day was hardly more gorgeous than the glory of the night. But that does not mean that the sea was always quiet. A disturbance in the sea does not pass with the local storm. The great swells that try the very ribs of the iron vessels may have had their origin thousands of miles away. The currents of the ocean may have disturbances that they do not transmit to each other. The navigator has his difficulties and must be ever upon the alert. If the men who run the railroad trains in the United States were half as careful as the officers of a ship, the accidents in which so many thousand lives are lost would be greatly decreased. Eternal vigilance is required of those who sail the seas, and as a result the percentage of lives lost is almost nothing as compared with that of the railroads. We had storms as well as quietness, but journeying mercies were ever manifest.

We went to sleep one Sunday night, and when we awoke it was Tuesday morning. A passenger had expected to celebrate his birthday anniversary on that Monday; but there was no February lo, and his experience was unique. So February, after all, will have only twenty-eight days for us this leap year. But we felt that we had gained something, as previous to that Sunday we were doing everything after the rest of the world, whereas by dropping out that day we got in front and now eat, sleep, and employ our time before those at home. The passengers who cross the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the United States have two days with the same name. Our watches had to be turned back about thirty minutes each day, and in crossing in the opposite way they would be turned up that much.

Religious services were conducted every Sunday morning at 10:30 o'clock by some minister among the passengers. A goodly number of the passengers attended the services, while others continued their card-playing and games just as they did on other days. The captain did not attend a single service, and neither did any officer or member of the entire crew. Services on this Hne of steamers must be provided by the passengers. Yet the officers and other members of the crew were able to attend the entertainments which the passengers furnished on different afternoons and evenings. It is true that the captain, according to report, read the burial service while the passengers were asleep one midnight when a Japanese who had died that day in the steerage of consumption was buried at sea.

"To-morrow morning we shall see land," and every heart beat with joy. The sea had been boisterous, and before the morrow came we had the heaviest storm of the entire voyage. But the morning dawned in a calm, and all eyes were gladdened with the sight of Japan. We had seen a few sea gulls, some flying fish, and two sharks, but the land on the eastern side of the world was what we had made the long voyage to see. At noon we dropped anchor at the quarantine boat in the Yokohama harbor. We had passed the navy yard on our left, and had passed between the two forts which had been built at the mouth of the harbor. These forts mean strong defense against any foreign foe. Soon the physicians were on board. The officers and crew were lined up and faithfully inspected. The cabin passengers were called to lunch; and as the harbor was quiet, and everybody for one time was able to be at the table, there was no trouble about inspection. People that could eat heartily the meats and vegetables that had been out eighteen days from San Francisco surely were in good condition. Before I had finished my lunch letters from Dr. H. M. Hamill, our Superintendent of Sunday School Teacher-Training, who has been, with his wife, holding institutes for four months in Japan, from Rev. S. E. Hager, the presiding elder of the Kobe District, Rev. Thomas H. Haden and Rev. W. K. Matthews, of the Kwansei Gakuin, and Rev. C. B. Moseley, of Yamaguchi, were handed me ; and the gracious, cheery words of welcome to Japan put a new warmth into my heart. With such letters on arrival, it did not seem so dreadful to put foot on a foreign soil. Before I had finished my letters our good ship had passed inside the breakwater, and was fast coming to its place of permanent anchorage. The harbor was literally covered with "sampans," the little boats which the coolies bring out to land baggage. Before the passengers could go down to the little steam launches to be taken ashore, a body of fifty or more merchants came on board the ship. Many of them, were tailors for men and women. They would take measurements and make a suit of clothes at very reasonable rates, and deliver the suit in twenty-four hours, or before the vessel left the harbor for other ports. The Yokohama merchant tailors are largely patronized by travelers in the East. The fact is, the Yokohama stores are widely known as carrying the best goods in all lines that can be found in the East. The ladies are always glad of an opportunity to go shopping in Yokohama.

We had no such trouble in the customhouse as travelers usually have in entering the United States. No self-respecting person is proud of our tariff laws and the manner in which duties are collected at our ports of entry. As we had decided to go at once to Tokyo, which is only eighteen miles away, our first experience came in transferring baggage and our own precious

JAPANESE GIRL IN STREET COSTUME.

bodies. There is no transfer company in Yokohama, but a vast company of men who will transfer anything on a cart or on their backs. So the trunks and bags were piled on a cart, and a coolie paced off. The coolie's reputation for reliability is so great that we had no concern. We took our first ride in a jinrikisha. That was a novel experience, riding in a two-wheeled baby buggy drawn by a pacing Japanese. My feelings of self-importance were somewhat tempered by the reflection that if the coolie could lift his shafts over his head or drop them at his feet I would be in the dust. But the coolie is reliable, and he can make good speed. There were no horses and drays in the streets — only people. Other jinrikishas passed and carts of various kinds, all drawn by men. The telephone company's cart passed with instruments, ladders, and wires. One man passed with a telephone pole as large as any used in American cities on a two-wheeled cart. He was drawing it by a rope which was thrown over his shoulder. Another man, who had drawn a telephone pole, was being assisted by three other men over the incline at a bridge. The strength of these little men is truly remarkable. The jinrikisha men will take a man a distance of fifty miles across the country in a day. They never walk and seldom run, but they trot at a gait which they can keep up for ten hours in the day. Although Tokyo is crossed in every direction by the electric street cars, there are in the city thirty thousand jinrikisha men, which is ten thousand less than before the street cars came. The Japanese have not learned to use the horse. In Tokyo there are a few carriage horses, but almost no draught horses. The draught horses that I saw 3 17 were not valuable. Only one horse is hitched to a dray, and instead of being driven he is led. It is very doubtful if the horse will ever be used extensively in this country, as the introduction of steam motors will obviate the necessity for using horses.

Railroad travel is somewhat cheaper here than in the United States. There are three classes in the tickets and coaches. The majority of the people travel in the second class at a rate of a cent and a half a mile. The accommodations are practically as good as those of the first class. The third class is used largely by the poorer people. The coaches are entered on the side, as in England, but the apartments are larger. The baggage is checked as in the United States, but the amount that is carried free is less. The trains are comfortable, but the luxury of the American sleeper is unknown. Greater precaution is taken in running trains than in the United States. The tickets are punched by the gateman on entering the train and taken up by the gateman at the station where the passenger leaves the train. On the street cars a receipt is given when the fare is paid and taken up when the passenger leaves the car. This system in handling traffic is European rather than American.