A JAPANESE WORKHOUSE.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 318, 28 May 1874, Page 2

A JAPANESE WORKHOUSE.

(Hieoo News.) Whkhe the deuce have all the beggars got to? was a question that occurred to me several times last year,, and at last 1 resolved to find out where they were. After much " sneering," a? they say in North Britain, I heard that the bulk of the beggais had been located by a paternal Government somewhere in the eastern outskirts of the city. So one chilly day last November, armed with an order to- view, I trudged towards the military suburb which lies to the southward of the Castle of Osaka. After some little wandering to and fro in that out of the way region, I alighted on the object of my search, situated in a itreet known as the Kitakiuhoji-maohi. The building itself, a shabby-looking "structuie, bidden from the p»sser-by by a lofty wooden fence I It'iirnt had been built some thiee years previously, but had , only recently been occupied by its present inmates. The name by which it was known was the ' Hin-in,' meaning literally the poor-house. Just within the principal gate was a small office, where I had to present my credentials and go through as much ceremony, as if I had been visiting a state prison rather than a charitable institution. Passing an enclosed space filled with sprouting sticks, which on a closer inspection, turned out to be mulberry cuttings, I reached at last the place where the beggars had got to, anct a queer place it was. Imagine a half-doaen of very narrow streets bordered by rows of one-3toried houses, or rather huts, not unlike, with their coarsely plastered wall* and un painted woodwork, the rows of shanties which a railway contractor run* up near a tunnel's mouth for the temporary vie of bis navvies. Of these small one-roomed houses there were no no less than 24fy I was told. Besides these there were several feeding rooms, weaving-sheds, and other workshops, all similar in appearance to the dwelling houses outwardly, but inwardly, of course of much greater length. A guide wus sent with mo from the principal office, and from him I learnt that when the Osaka Government had resolved to clear th« streets of beggars, they proceeded in the following manner : — First, all of the fraternity who belonged to other pints of the country were packed off to their proper districts. Then those of the Osaka beggars who had got relatives who could afford to keep them were sent to their friends'. The ri-inaimler were compelled'to go into the Hin-in, where on; of the diminutive huts was allotted to each five of then — the women being also placed five in each tenement. On the occasion of nn r vi*it (here were in all 180 men, women, nnd children, 85 of whom were ndult men, mhnbiting the poor-house. Kieryone was free to leave whenever ho or slip eon Id give sntixfaetorv proof tliot they would earn »n honest living out«idf\ There were hnt fifteen won.en inmates. The»e, togetlw r with «ome joiing lnds, 1 found were being (might trnde-. some of them whitirit* and nmne of (lie bo_i» jKipci-nmßni!!, but all on the premises'. There were but few children, and t'>e«e were leccivmg tlie elements of » ]>lnin Jupune*e edumtion. Ono thing pleased me. us showing Unit some ronsidciation was shown for the comfort of ev< n these poor outcusU ; all the houses, ■ had watted floor*, a* is mineranlly the ciise in Japnn. even innongst'tlie very poorest c!u»ge> ; the interiors had iv clean, ; well-'-wcpl appeal ante In cue of th»* wi in ing sheds— there ■ were threo of them — I found some weavers irom Kioto eni gnged m teochine their t raft to someof threx-begy&rs. One i of the laltrr, a boj , hud been only one month under tuition ; ! he, like nl) bci»i»iner«, wns tet to woik at a pieeo of coarse : , white cotton clo'h. The looms were ol the Fame ingenious ; construction a^ (hose which were to be <•«•»> at the last Kioto L Exhibition, all wood, string, and bamboo ; those utd by the ■ pupils being, however, of a >e«-y simple character. Some l piece* of satin were shown me which had been trade on the I premi«cs by the Kioto men. The weaving school, I was t told, had only been open some two or thive months. Silk ; winding and ("pinning were also being taught, the 15 bobbing ; spinning frames, as ot old, being set in motion bj means of a i basket full of stones and a windlass. I was agreeably sur* i prised to find how clean and healthy, as well as cheerful and I contented, all the pupils appeared to be. With the horde 1 of official parasites, which infest this at every other > public departoieut in this country there is little fear of the i outside weavers having to complain of being undersold by l the Government, ns tradesmen in England complain of the • mat-making, &c ,iv English prisons. When I left the Hina in it wii with the impression that the thing was too good to c !ait — few if any of these imitations of foreign institutions s more (especially hospitals and schools, possessing lasting 1 vitality unless they are under foreign supervision. i A few of the old beggars, preferring a life of freedom and i a handful of rice to the regular living and semi-captivity of ; the Hin in, took to hawking. One old blind man, who for ; some years used to rub bit forehead in the dust on the Kid1 sugawa Concession bridge, is now led about to tell live apar- • rowi . For by a most perverse superstition, many Japanese >, believe that by purchnsing and releasing a caged bird they t do an act that is pleasing to the holoke, the Buddhist gods, c ai.d are accumulating a store of merit which is placed to t their credit in heaven's great ledger. Othtr beggars may be l icen occasionally seated upon the bridges with stores of small b eels, •hell-fish, or infant tortoises ; those the would-be 0 virtuous buy and throw into the adjacent stream, from i, similar interested motives to those of the setter-free of birds. 1 Of course it is to be presumed that the mor* educated r natives see through the fallacy of this pseudo-humanity, by r which the buyer of the captiva creatures actually encourages i. by a premium the capturers to continue their practices