LIFE IN JAPAN.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1523, 19 March 1886, Page 4

LIFE IN JAPAN.

JAPANESE DIET.

Their food is as monotonus as their dress. Rice is, of course, the staple, other things being mere accessories. There is not much variety in boiled rice, nor much nutriment either. The Japanese are beginning to eat beef, but one or two beeves a week will supply the present demands of this city. The land and people are poor. They cannot afford things as yet Under such circumstances our food is too costly for them, and theirs we could not lire on in health. They cannot do the work a foreigner can. Their public offices require a large number of men compared with ours, and in stores, which are mostly about as large as a bed •room at home, three persons do the work that one could do if he were as strong as the beef-eater. Not only are they unable to sustain prolonged physical or mental labour, but they die early. Children swarm, men and women are numerous, but old people are scarce. The statistics of the country do not report any one who has reached ninety. Lately the university has lost in professors several who have died in what should have been their prime.

SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE JAPAN'-

ESE. Tbe Japanese excel us in politeness .and in irquisitivenefs. Their politeness demands such forms that to us it ia wearisome and their iLquisitiveness is both amusirg and trouble'cme. Recently I was on a trip in the coun-j try and some men sent to my room in , tbe hotel six or seven fine eggs. It is q*jite umal for visitors to bring a present the first time they come. A few minutes later thres visitors came and asked some bard questions, viz There j is oil in the mountain, bow shall we j get it out? How clean it? How} can we make cotton out of straw.''; How will we get wax from ti«h oil ? j How can we get sugar out of turnips ?" ; I did not answer all those question* j nor others tfcev aski d me ; but in the conversation, when I told them that j the earth revolvrd around tbe sun, they ! looked at each other in utter disbelief j and pity. g iff ATI )NS OF THE GOVERXMEN'T TO thk people In this land, instead of thn Government being 'he expr« *sion of the will of the people, it leads the people, and tbat in a very energetic and commendable manner. Tbey are building good, wide roads, have some railways and are building more, having ordered )00 miles of roils from the United States, own the telegraph and control the best, portion of the shipping interests. They built a large paper mill not eicelled in the West and they make all kinds of paper from finetusue paper to a splendid imitation leather, of which I enclose a sample. [The ■ample enclosed wasaremaikably good imitation of leather. TSe reaction in the growth of Japan prophesied by many does not seem to be imminent, but what the result will be of a people who try to gather the fruits of Christianity without caring i- for its root, time alone will reveal. * —Geo. T. Smith.