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"I am sorry," said the sailor, "but it is impossible." "I offer you a hundred pounds per day, and an additional reward of two hundred pounds if I reach Yokohama in time." "Are you in earnest?" "Very much so." The pilot walked away a little distance, and gazed out to sea, evidently struggling between the anxiety to gain a large sum and the fear of venturing so far. Fix was in mortal suspense. Mr.
YOKOHAMA, April 26th: The next two weeks I was to be thrown upon my own responsibility. I arrived at Yokohama in the evening and anticipated a departure the following morning for Tokio. A pouring rain, however, caused an unexpected postponement. There were many disappointed guests in the Tokio hotels which were crowded in view of the great annual event.
Yet it is an open question with not a few intelligent people of Yokohama, where we heard the subject freely discussed, whether foreign commerce and foreign intercourse, all things considered, have been of any real advantage thus far to Japan.
As a rule, one has little patience with the foreign jugglers who annoy and importune travelers to witness performances of snake-charming, sleight of hand, and deceptive tricks generally, to the sound of a fife and drum, but we witnessed one exhibition at Yokohama in the open air, which was remarkable, not for any mystery about it, but as showing to what degree of adroitness and skill the human hands may be trained by patient practice.
"Can you ride a horse?" "I have ridden," rejoined Ridge, modestly. "Where?" "In many places. The last was Japan, where I won the silver hurdles of the Yokohama gymkana." "Indeed! And your name is " "Ridge Norris," replied the young man. "I have heard the name, and am glad to know you, Mr. Norris. Now I must bid you good-evening.
Its proprietor is long since dead, and so I believe is the journal which he owned and whose fitful appearances used to create such a mild excitement among the foreign community in Yokohama. The functions of the press as a mirror of the times, as a censor of men and things, and as a guide and a leader of public opinion are of considerable importance.
Railways, telegraphs, docks, and gunboats cannot banish it, and it will endure till the railways are dead. He who has not smelt that smell has never lived. Three years ago Yokohama was sufficiently Europeanised in its shops to suit the worst and wickedest taste. To-day it is still worse if you keep to the town limits.
The dense, noxious smell which always permeates their quarters, in spite of enforced ventilation and the rules of the ship, is often wafted unpleasantly to our own part of the vessel, telling a significant story of the opium pipe, and a certain uncleanliness of person peculiar to Africans and Mongolians. After a three weeks' voyage we reach Yokohama, the commercial capital of Japan.
Passepartout went timidly ashore on this so curious territory of the Sons of the Sun. He had nothing better to do than, taking chance for his guide, to wander aimlessly through the streets of Yokohama. He found himself at first in a thoroughly European quarter, the houses having low fronts, and being adorned with verandas, beneath which he caught glimpses of neat peristyles.
I am thinking particularly of the Pacific as I write this sketch sitting in a room overlooking the great harbor of Yokohama where three Japanese warship lie anchored and two great Pacific liners, one on its way to San Francisco and another bound for Vancouver. They come and go, these great ships.
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