Evening Star Newspaper, February 5, 1898, Page 17

TOMB OF IEYASU. NIKKO'S GREAT DAY Festival and Procession in Honor of; Ieyasu. OLD AND NEW JAPAN Imitative Orientals in Pursuit of the Secret of Western Power. STOOPS TO CONQUER ———+— -— HE MANAGER OF our hotel at Nikko was the personifica- tion of modern Ja- pan. An irrepressi- ble conflict between the old and the new waged ceaselessly within him. As Eu- rope and Asia in surging crowds of all nationalities oc- cupy simultaneously or in succession the floating bridge across the Golden Horn at Constantinople, so oriental and occidental ideas and tenden- cies in turn or together swept over the mind of our Japanese Boniface, rudely ling and crowding one ancther and of- producing hopeless confusion. JAPAN he had deigned t to win love after hercine in Goldsmith's ain the secret of western power. Japan reverences the money-mak- ities of the “forcign bly piac- ental in- the mysto- ation, with to stoop to conqu fashion of th the day sur- foreign on to no occidental fetich neglected. In language, dress, military metheds and even in staking imi- the modern Buddhism and often fails short in an interme- een the old and In the latter r in repudiat other oriental creeds to of Christianity and sti diate agnostic stage be the new, suggesting, like the half-con- verted Jew in the witticism, the blank page between the Old and the New Testa- ments. That our hotel boasted a visible, respon- sible manager at all was notable evidence of the progressiveness of the new Japan. Yaami’s, the famous hostelry at Kioto, was favored with no such official. Neith- er was the vast Imperial Hotel at Tokio. In Japanese inns in general, outside of the foreign concessions, which have some ad- mirable hotels under European or Ameri- can management, like the Grand at Yoko- hama, the bediamonded and omniscient hotel clerk of America is represented by an irresponsible gypsy-like group crouch- ing about a tiny charcoal fire, kindled ap- parently in a hole in the floor, among whom the proprietor sometimes skulks in- cognito, while the stranger within tho gates, in the absence of his guide, is com- pelled to confide his griefs to brown and plump maidservants, who eke out an ex- tremely defective English vocabulary with profound bows and pleasing smiles. A Dual Life in Japan. But here at Nikko was a real, live hotel manager, eeger to please, bubbling over with enthusiasm and misinformation. Dur- ing the day the oriental section of his brain was inactive and the occidental had full sway. Discarding the flowing robe of the aristocrat and the loin cloth or the sack d tight-fitting drawers of the plebeian of he Orient, he appeared in ill-fitting Euro- The Nikko Tiger. clothes of utilitarian deformity and of colors, like Joseph's coat. His feet, accustomed Indoors to the soft tabi—a sock with a separate compartment for the big toe—a foot mitten, so to speak—and out- of-doors to wooden clogs or straw sandals, Were confined and cramped in hard, ugly occidental shoes of leather. His head, usually bare and protected by a thick black crop of hair, was rendered as uneasy as which wears a crown by the unac- omed pressure of a stiff der! In- d of the Japanese fan and parasol he wielded a cane. In striking contrast with the bare, unheated Japanese house, with its movable screens for walls and partitions, with its mat floors, highly polished wood and its lack of visible furniture, this man- ager conducted a modern hotel, with stove- heated reoms boasting high beds, chairs and tables. orientalizing process, a brass band was let mse upon the guests at dinner time, in which Japanexe performers played Euro- r n music and conscientiously blew as hard as they could from beginning to end of the musical program, At night, behoid the manager as an orl- ental at ease in the Japanese annex to the hotel, sitting luxuriously on his heels on the floor, arrayed in flowing kimono and smoking the tiny pipe which the Japanese uffect. During the day ne has been expos ed to the arrogance and the whims of occ! dental femininity; at night the oriental woman ministers to him as a semi-slave, a being “with never a soul to save,” who must borrow a soul in the hereafter in or- der to continue her service of her husband, her lord and master, beyond the grave. In this phase of his dual life the manager fects with bitterness upon the despised eex, which, through self-assertive rep- i of it from beyond the seas, rned his preconceived {ideas nity and has disgusted and alarm- To be sure, the process of mod- ernizing the Japanese woman in_{deas, in customs and costumes had been officially authorized and had begun, but happily a re- action had set in and woman was again taught to know her place. In his land man Preceded woman in everything. Married women in the good old time had to shave thei» eyebrows and blacken their teeth. The husband wears mourning garments for the dead wife only thirty days; the wife for the dead husband thirteen months. The wife is therefore to the hus- band as one to ‘Thus in Japan it As a finishing touch to the de, | takes even more women than tailors to make a man. These thoughts comforted his spirits, chafed by the nagging of wo- men from over the sea. It is very trying to the oriental to be subjected to femi arrogance. He knows that both clanism and Buddhism have treated as of an inferior soul-lacking order her of creation. He recollects the Buddhist popu- lar precept: “Woman has no home in the three worlds—past, pre: nd future.” Yet here were ‘omen, foreign women, making themselves very much at home in the present world, notwithstanding the proverb, and clearly indicating a firm de- termination to dominate also in the world to come. Across the seas the woman, he has learn- ed, takes precedence over the man. She goes first everywhere, and the men are proud and happy to serve her. But what could one expect, our oriental thinks, from THE. EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1898—24 PAGES, welf, the descendant of the very mikado whose temporal power Ieyasu usurped. In no other respect did Ieyasu dem6n- strate his greatness more conspicuously than in the selection of a burial place. In @ valley surrounded ty Japan’s mgst pic- turesque mountain scenery, in a region held sacred by the earliest traditions of the people, on a hillside covered with groves of majestic cryptomerias, there has been built in his honor the richest archi- tectural structure in all Japan, a marvel of carvirg and of clatorate ornamentation in gold and red lacquer. The bronze Deibutsu of Kamakura is the grandest of Japanese monuments, despite its rudimentary and irrelevant mustache. The Higashi Hongwanji, the great Budd- hist temple of Kioto, is impressive from its vastness. But in varied and fantastic and beautiful forms and in richness of decora- ticn the Nikko temples are ursurpassed. On ti eventful morning the deified spir- its of Ieyasu, Hideyoshi and Yoritomo were accustomed to occupy three sacred litters or palanquins end indulge in an excursion to a neighboring temple, attended in pro- cession by a considerable section of the pepulation of Nikko in fantastic and re- ligicus array. Waiting for the Parade. While the preparations for the procession were in tedious progress the foreign visit- ors to Nikko strolled through the temple grounds and enjoyed the picturesque, ani- mated and varied scenes. Men and boys in ccstume, intending participants in the pro- cession, were everywhere. Here a crowd of small boys in brocades and embroideries, and of mimic soldiers of assorted sizes, with long wooden spears, swords, bows with lacquered quivers, brocade helmets with bronze crnam and in some in- stances with old 2nd costly coats of mail, Protecting them to the knees, formed a ring about ag old man and boy, strolling performers of crude acrobaties’and jug glery. Here an important and dignified Kttle Japanese policeman performed with hecoming gravity his serious tun arrayed in a white duck suit, 1 th brass buttons. His soldier cap jof blue was ornamented with gold braid. On his hands were white cotton gloves, and he bore a sword instead of a club. On his nese was perched (one of the few large things in Japan) a pair cf spectacles with immense frames, of the kind associated by illustrators with Chinese sages. Our wan- derings take us with the crowd of specta- . SORINTO OR EVIL-AVERTING MONUMENT, foreign devils whose mourning color is black instead of white, who remove their headgear instead of their footgear when they wish to be polite, who salute by handshakes and disgusting kisses instead of the traditional bowings and prostra- tions, and whose creed carries barbarism to its climax in its impious requirement that a man shall leave father and mcther and cleave to his wife. A Modern Substitute for Hara-Kirl. But there is a limit to the manager's orientai In spite of kimono, tabi, hi- bachi, futon, tobako-bon and other Jap- nese surroundings, he is not tempted in the slightest degree to commit hara-kiri or suicide after the national method by dis- embowelment in resentment of the day's insults. But, instead, he reserves to him- self the occidental right of expressing that resentment in vigorous English swear words, his own language being entirely de- ficient in terms of abuse and in verbal fa- cilities for the purpose of profanity. He thus makes use of the occidental safety valve for the relief of the emotions, the absence of which in the case of the Jap- anese leaves apparently no resort but sui- cide. On this particular day our Nikko man- ager soared above all his troubles. Com- plaints glided from his unctuous person- ality like wn opponent's grasp from the oiled body of the native wrestler, without wrinkling his smooth inscrutable counte- nance and without subtracting a single beam of the joyous enthusiasm that danced in his oblique eyes. The fastidious gentle- man from Philadelphia, who, demanding bread from his Japanese waiter at the be- ginning of his meal, was offered not a stone, but toothpicks, found in the manager a sympathetic and consoling listener to his tale of woe. did the Englishman who had been advised by the manager (the En- gliskman’s own inclinations tending in that direction) to make the Lake Chuzenji trip on horseback, and who had been soaked to the skin in pitiless rains. So did the stout Australian to whom the jinrikisha system of rapid transit for the lake trip had been mended as easiest, and who found to Tis disgust that for half a mile of the way he had to leave his jinrikisha and clamber on foot over sharp and slippery rocks. So @id the American woman who had endured unres'stingly the robberies of the hackman in the cities of her native land, from whom a charge of $1.50 per hour for carriage hire at home would elicit no remonstrance, but who by persistent and fretful faultfinding sorely tried the manager's patience because her jintikisha man for his day’s labor up and down the steep hills of Nikko had charged her 2) sen, or 10 cents more than the corresponding charge for the day over the smooth and level streets of Tokio. But the lady crying extortion over a charge of cents for a carriage and human horse for the day was soothed as well as the others through the tact and diplomacy of the manager. And to all the complainants, as soon as the symptoms of placation ap- | peared, ihe manager anncunced with bows | Rid smiles and apprepriate gestures his triumph over all his rivals, his masterpiece of planning! ‘ “Ladies “or gentlemen), for the proces- sion of today, my arrangements, the ar- rangements for the guests of this hotel, are unsurpassed. In the broad avenue oppo- site the Sorinto column, where everything can be seen, a pavilion for the exclusive use of my guests has been built. There will be claret punch for my guests and ice cream and light refreshments. Nothing like it for the enjoyment of European and American yisitors has ever before been known in Nikko.” And off the manager shot to communicate the glad tidings to the next member of the army of the dis- cecntented. In Honor of Ieyasu. This, the 3d of June, is Nikko’s great Cay, noted for the festival and procession in honer of Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun, who is buried here as to his mortal part and deified and worshiped as a god, Toshogu, in the mortuary chapel near his tomb. Ieyasu is the most famous name in Jap- anese history. Soldier, statesman, law- giver of the sixteenth century, he wrested temporal power from the mikado’s feeble bands, and worshiping with the rest of the nation that monarch as divine, he re- moved him from degrading contact with mundane affairs and confined him in the unapproachable seclusion befitting a god. So great is Ieyasu that though the dynasty which he founded and which reigned for two hundred and fifty years has been de- throned as a usurpation by the mikado, who finally broke from his gilded prison, Ieyagu himself retains his glory and is worshiped as divine by the emperor him- tors, old and young, past many booths where refreshments are sold, especially the Jepanese counterparts of the snow ball and hckey-pokey; past other rude stands,where young Japan buys gaily colored paper binis that fly through the air for a considerable distance, when properly manipulated and encouraged, and finally we stumble across the frail wooden structure with bamboo curtains for walls which furnishes a rest- ing place and shelter from the sun to spec- tutors of the parade among the guests of cur Nikko hotel. je booming of the great bell in Buddhist temple just opposite our panne proclaims that the hour when th> proces- sion is due,has arrived. But no one ex- pects it. THE custom of delay, which finds characteristic expression in ‘the Spanish manana” or tomorrow, Is as powerful in Japan as in Spain or Mexico. One 1s told that invitations to native dinners often spe- cify a time an hour before the guest’s atten- ance 1s really desired and expected. While we wait, our attertion is again attracted to the crowd of spectators, a source of un- failing interest. Here thre> small boys in fancy dress, with feather headgear, per- form feats of tumbling, and collect ‘small coins from the spectators for their achieve- metts. A pri2st hurries by with a blac head-dress, @ white under garment and @ changeable green silk rcbe of chame- Jeon capacity. The footgear of the crowd includes the tabi alon>, the tabi with straw sandals, the tab! with wooden clogs, and Buropean or American shoes. For head- wear most of the Japanese use nothing save thick hair and a paper umbrella. A few heads display protecting handkor- chiefs. Some of the priests wear curiously shaped black caps, close-fitting, with a single black streamer rising from each and curving over almost to the back of the neck. Men credited with being temple at- tendants wear what resemble black fools’ caps. A baby here and there catches the eye with a gorgeously colored knitted tur- ban. The elaborately dressed hair of some of the women is decorated with balls and flowers of colored silk, with pendant tas- sels. Here a coolie displays a large bowl- shaped or mushroom-siaped hat woven of straw and covered with cotton or left un- covered. The most striking and incon- gruous head-dress 1s a derby hat, perched etiffly on the head of one in Japanese cos- tume. The Japanese full dross festival suit fer men, of which many are visible, is gray-blue or blue-gray, with white crests in each lapel and on the middle of the Section of the Army. back. The women’s favorite costum2 for the occasion is a soft blue or gray kimono, with touches of red, and a tasteful brocade cbi or sash. Young girls alone are priv- fleged to wear gay, bright colors. Pecu- Marites of children’s attire are colored aprons, adding to the brilliant effects of the ever-changing kaleidoscopic aspect of the passing crowd. Umbrellas and Kodaks. Foreign ribbed ‘umbrellas are strongly and strangely in evidence. The Japanese have learned to vrefer them except as a protection against rain, for which purpose they think that the wide-spreading oiled paper umbrella of their own country is more effective. Another foreign, yet interesting element of the scere, {s the kodakist, with eager, curious, crafty look, inyetgling Japanese children and adults into favorable lights and positions for snap shots, and lavishly expending miles of film upon an endless procession of fascinating photographic sub- jects. The kodakist has-been warned away from Japan by the bugbears of the Jap- anese duty on cameras of the disas- trous effect upon the film-of the moist atmosphere, which has also been credited with supplying insufficient light for instan- ho has not progressed shot stage leavesyhis. kodak at. home when he visits Japan_>he will always regret do- ing so. . Thousaads gf instantaneous ex- posures“have been successfully taken in Japan, well developedeand printed by Jap- anese photographers ;and marvelously col- ored—all for a price less than that charged for simple developing jn the United States. A diversion for the spectators is now produced by @ srowd: of men dressed in white cotton, who rush rapidly up the street dragging..a. tree after them, and who scatter its leaves,.twigs and branches. In watching thelz fonms disappear up the bread avenue one is impressed with the magnificent frame. work surrounding the street scene, especially with the fine trees through which glimpses are caught of a mortuary chapelyor aytemple or pagoda, or a curiously shaped monument, or a stone stairway leading; to gome great building. And upon every wall and bank a cluster cf Japanese find a perch, developing fine color effects through a_combination of the red, yellow and blue of the kimonos with gray and moss-green walls and the background of folioge. Genial Japanese Crowds. The short, brown men, women and chil- dren who surge to and fro in front of the pavilion are as interesting as their cos- tumes and as their scenic surroundings. A Japanese crowd, polite, smiling, consider- ate, clean as to the body from daily hot baths, whatever the condition of the cloth- ing, lacks the ill odors and rowdyism of other crowds and surrounds itself, com- paratively speaking, with an atmosphere of sweetness, courtesy and urbanity. When, in April, thousands upon thousands of the people of Tokio throng in boats, in jin- rikishas or on foot to view the pink clouds of cherry blossoms that line for miles the avenue uf Mukojima on the river bank in the suburbs, there is every excuse for dis- order that an uproariously jolly crowd of excursionists can find. There is sake drink- ing and there is much unavoidable crowd- ing and jostling. Occasionally the women and children and curious foreigners who are enjoying the scene press closer to the refreshment booths that skirt the avenue, in order to permit some hilarious picnickers with painted faces and grotesque costumes to cut a wider swathe through the crowd than is permitted to those who are not thoroughly exhilarated with the spirit of the‘occasion and with the Japanese intoxi- cant, but there is only the faintest reflec- tion of the belligerent rudeness and the om- nipresent “drunk and disorderly” nu!sance that characterize the occidental and many oriental crowds. When thousands gather in some service before the shrine blazing with gold and lacquer in the Higashi Hongwanji at Ki- cto, the largest temple in the empire, the game courteous consideration for others is shown. While shaven priests in rich vest- ments burn incense, equally shaven widow- ers, announcing by their hairless heads their determination not to marry again, and other bald, old men, squat with the crowd on the temple floor side by side, with the ancient women who wear “horn-hiders” to conceal the evidences of Satan which old Japan attributes to the sex, and add their individual contributions to the sea of heads which spreads, wave on wave, in every direction. The small co!ns which the faith- ful throw on ithe temple floor to be gath- ered up after the service by the priests (and bushels are thus collected after every important service) are tossed indiscrimi- nately and unhesitatingly into the crowd, and no attention whatsoever is paid by the worshipers to the impact of the coins. A bald head hit unintentionally may wince, but that is all. The coin crops unheeded to the floor. A similar habit of contribu- tion in our rude and barbarous western land would make the bald heads shining marks and targets for the youthful and {rreverent, and the bgJd heads themselves, lacking oriental patfence and fortitude, yea, though deacons pf the strictest sect, would arise from their devotions in un- godly passion to eject with violence the offenders. Courtesy covers a multitude of peccadilices, The traveler is swindled right and left in every section of the globe, but Japanese ‘cheating is so per- yaded with politeness and consideration, with bows and smiles, and complimentary hissing intakes of the breath, that the coarser swindling of other lands shocks by ecntrast. Whether in business or pleasure, whether cheating or! picnicking, whether viewed individvAfly or collectively, the Jap- anese as a rule is a’ kindly, genial being with whom it fs a pleasure to come into contact. While we have been studying the crowd the procession has been forming. Tomb and Shrine of Ieyasu. Farthest up the mountain side, where the trees are greenest and the ttle mountain streams gurgle sweetest, and save for na- ture’s sounds the profoundest hush per- vades the scene, les the tomb of Ieyasu, of light-colored bronze, grandly impressive in its perfect simplicity. From the stone table in front of the tomb, holding a bronze stork candlestick and incense burner and a vase containing artificial lotus flowers, the tomb’s only accessory embellishments, the devotee de- scends by a long stone and moss-grown stairway to the shrine of Ieyasu, to which most of the other structures, scattered low- er in successive terraces on the hillside, are subsidiary, serving elther as approaches or for other uses in connection with the wor- ship of Ieyasu as a god. In striking con- white pony” (which is no longer white) and the treasure opposite. On the sacred one may note the famous carving of the monkeys severally represented as closing the ears and moutn the facile pen of N. Ban has written: “They are pumingly (sic), called first miza- 2u (don’t see any wrong); second, kikazaru (don’t hear any wrong); third, iwazare (don’t talk any wrong).”. On the treasure house, opposite the stable, is the curious painted carving of elephants by the famous left-handed artist, Hidart Jingoro, con- cerning which N. Ban, with easy control of English, remarks: “It will be noticed that the joints of the hind legs are represented as bent in the weary direction.” The pro- cession’s course now carries it under Nio- mon, or gate of the two kings, with its carvings of lions, unicorns, tigers, ele- phants and certain concededly fabulous beasts, though all of the carved animals above enumerated are in reality fabulous since they resemble nothing In nature, Ja- pan at the time of their creation by the carver possessing none of them alive to serve ‘as models. The procession sweeps down the broad stairway which rises to the Nio-mon, passes the shoe-removing sta- tion at its foot, a wooden structure where every one must lay aside his shoes before proceeding through the gate of the two kings into the sacred inner precincts of the deified Ieyasu; passes the five-storled pa- goda with its graceful lnes and attractive red coloring, thence under the great gran- Shoe-Removin:; Station. ite torli presented by the Prince of Chiku- zen. As the procession begins to descend the stone stairway leading from this tori! it becomes visible to the patiently waiting crowd in and about the hotel booth, who lave long been straining their eyes for this view, havirg exhaustively inspect- ed the entrance to the hall of the Three Buddhas, just opposite, and studied every line of the Sorinto or evil-averting monument, a black cylindrical copper column, forty-two feet high, which guards this entrance. Here Comes the Parade. To the spectator from this point looking up the broad avenue lined with cryptome- Trias tne procession appears as a line of blue on one side and a line of pink on the other, followed by a confused mass of yellow and white. The blue line resolves itself into a file of men with spears, svords, brocaded helmets and vestments of blue or green; the pink line is composed of men similarly armed, wearing a red- dish overdress. There are perhaps seventy- five in each file. Then comes a grotesque- ly masked figure in a green kimono, brandishing a spear and followed by two mimic tigers with fierce wooden heads dec- orated with red laccuer, and with gold and brocade bodies. Three men, concealed under the brocade, furnish legs and mo- tive power to each beast. A band of musicians follow with flute and drum, whose colors are black and yellow, aceom- panied by the six sacred Kagura dancers with beils and fans, a white handkerchief headdress, a white waist over a brocaded skirt, and a brocade obi or sash. These are the damsels of varied ages who, for a consideration, offered to the gods and tossed in front of them on their platform near the shrine of leyasu, go through a form of posturing in the god's honor, call- ed the Kagura dance, that tis as little like a dance as the classic, sacred No dance, has seen it to be no dance at all. Now appear six priests in white robes with black headdresses, each mounted on a sa- cred pony. The saddles are in some cases of tiger skin, and all are gay in color. Each pony is led by two coolles in white and followed by a banner bearer. A real, live, modern dog now gives a fla- vor of the nineteenth century to the pro- cession. The soldiers of old are upon us, first a hundred of two-sworded men, dressed in blue, carrying on their shoulders antique guns (warranted not to fire) in red cloth coverings; next perhaps another hundred with long bows and quivers of arrows at their backs, a like number with very long spears, and then a mailed host of perhaps two hundred, wearing two swords, brass and gold-lacquered helmets, shoulder pieces and body protection of mail, very impres- sive as far down as the knees, but below THE BIG DRUM OF THE PROCESSION. trast with the stern simplicity of the dead man’s tomb {s the rich and elaborate dec- oration of the shrine of the never-dying god and of the gates and other approaches to it. Nowhere else in the world is there a rore notable display of minute wood carv- ing, of delicate coloring, of lacquer and in- laid work. Near to the innermost gate which leads to the main shrine the devotee descending from the tomb would join the proces- san of June 3, for here stands the build- ing called Mikoshido, which contains the palanquins or shrines or floats that are borne in this procession when the deified spirits of Ieyasu, Hideyoshi and Yoritomo occupy them, and so Reavy are they with the weight of metal and wood and departed greatness that seventy-five men are re- quired to carry them. N. Ban, an ambi- tious Japanese, who has courageously writ- ten an English guide to Nikko, and who, like some others of' his countrymen who have essayed similar. works for other parts of Japan, is q hard, taskmaster for his English words, compelling them often to do double or triple duty’ by serving with new meanings in inaccestomed connections, gives a somewHat affferent account o- this structure. He ‘that on the left “is the bullding in waleh the sacred cars of the three original gonger of Nikko are piaced during the cerelitation (sic) of festivals. Descending the illiside at Nikko. Starting from:this point, the sacred palan- quins and the aécompanying procession de- scend the hillside to the open court of a temple almost on the level of the river and the sacred bridge. This course carries them first through the exquisitely beauti- ful gate called Yomel-mon, with its white carved columns, thence down a broad flight of steps and past the bell tower and the perforated so-called “‘moth-eaten’’ bell on the left and the drum tower and the so- called Corean bronge lantern on the right. Here the stairway of the Leaping Lions is} reached, and, having descended these, the procession pany the decorated structure which contains the Buddhist scriptures in a bol Agger granite ‘monolith, a. es under a bronze torii, the Shinto temple, taneous exposures, But if the kodakist | and comes to: the stable of the “sacred the mail appear legs clad in striped suits of cotton and bare or straw-sandaled feet. Next comes a group of children in bro- cade attire with artificial flowers in pro- fusion for head dresses, and bearing in hand such effigies as that of the fish. ‘Then follow footmen in red, wearing grotesque masks; footmen in yellow, with tall wooden banters; more horsemen and their attendants, perhaps twenty, and empty black lacquer litters with brocaded ‘banners and many-colored streamers float- ing from them. Each is carried by four bearers. The black Jacquer pole which and shading the eyes, in respect to which | which is frecly admitted by every one who | which 1s borne by four men and beaten constantly by @ fifth. More footmen come into view with swords, tall black caps and Soars the Salt baled of the procmaen ntets Pears t of the process! ers and drummers in brilliant brocades. Many men now march by bearing in their hands representations of hunting birds in wood or plaster. Lastly come the three sacred cars, upon which patters constantly a shower of cash : 8554922 if A Parade Horsem: contributed by spectators, each surrounded by a crowd of eager bearers in white robes and black caps and each richly decorated and resplendent in gold laquer, while three high priests on sacred ponies bring up the rear. The procession after passing the hotel booths descends the hill, first by the broad, smooth avenue already described, and then by the stony road which leads to the sacred bridge. But before the river is reached the processicn turns to the left in order to de- scend to the temple, where the palanquins are deposited until all the offerings have been made and the tedious services have been completed. Then the processicn re- Verses ics route and starts on the return of the sacred palanquins to their accustomed resting place. The return trip, though up- hill, is made at a much livelier gait than the descent, and in comparison with its tertoise movements earlier in the day the parade in the afternoon shows much of the hustling animation of mourners returning from a funeral. At this time it resembled somewhat in gait a religious procession of the Inari tem- ple that I saw at Kioto, in which the rich palanquins were borne quickly along by a host of half-naked men and boys, who in- terrupted their march only to dance and sing and wave their hands, drunk with re- Kgious enthusiasm and sake. They seemed a jolly, pleasing crowd, but just before reachiag us they had contested the right of A Banner-Benring Litter. way with a trolley car, and the old over- coming the new, had overturned the sac- rilegious vehicle that interrupted the pro- cession of the gods and several of the pas- sSengers and bystanders were crushed under the car. THEODORE W. NOYE: —— HAS SOUND COLOR? An Interesting Correlation of Physi- cal Phenomena. From the Wichita Eagle. A representative of the Eagle, learning that Judge W. T. Buckner had some noy:1 ideas regarding the properties of sound, saw him yesterday and asked for an ex Pianations “Well, it’s like this,” said the judge. “The idea that color should be th counter- part of sound, is no more singular than many other phenomena in nature. The | analogy between melodious sounds and beautiful colors appears so natural, the | conception so appropriate and the combi- | nation so pleasing to the sensibilities, that their association would seem to be intende by the laws of affinity. “The connection between music and color is so manifest that some musicians claim that the vibrations of certain musical sounds correspond to certain colors. “Bas2d upon that principle, a musical in- strument could be so constructed that with every sound its appropriate sound color would be visibly presented, and so the striking of every note would flash its cor- responding color and every chord its com- bination. Thus while the m2lody delighted the ear, there would be presented to the eye, in a shimmer of beauty, a profusion of harmonious colors and shades, whicn would appear in combination with their corresponding sounds and passing away with th> sounds give place to the next combination, to be succeeded by the next, and so on. “There is a sensation of light from sound, end as musical notes reflect color so do yecal sounds. I have always associated the sounds made in the pronunciation of words, and particularly names, with colors, and as the matt>r appeared interesting, I have given it some study. It appears that vocal sounds bear a relation to one an- other, similar to that between colors. And as the intimately connected organs of hearing and vision are so often called into joint action in relation to the same sub- ject, and combine with such a nicety of precision in conveying sensations, it would scem that stimulus to the one set of or- gans also acts upon the other, and that as sound strik>s the sensory nerve of the ear, the corresponding optical nerve being excited to action, also receives an impres- sion of the sound. “And as the waves of sound, acting directly on the rerves of vision, impr2ss through them the sensation of light, the optical impression of the sound is that of light refracting through a prism, a color in harmony with the sound, each particu- lar sound presenting its own peculiar color or shade. The gen2ral color of each sound, o- combination of sounds, appears also shaded or tinged with two colors. The combination of sounds forming a word, are, one principal and two shading colors, which, like a spectrum, blend into each other along the lines of connection, re- sembling in ths manner of combination the colors in the rainbow. “Hence the speaking of a single word reflects as many combinations of colors as the number of vocal sounds made in pro- nouncing the word, and the various com- binations made by the different sounds in mediatsly blend and form one combina- tion, and so the color of the word becomes the composite of all the sound colors, made in pronouncing it, andin the same manner do the colors of two or more words com- bine. “Every name presents on> principal and two shading colors, and as there are more than 75,000 combinations of colors and shades, the name colors are as varied as > ewer ‘ rises from the cer.ter of the litter and from wen et banner floats pthega at the 17 AN ERROR OF JUDGMEN When the Emperor of Japan Dissolved the House. Have to Be a New Election While the Deficit ts Stead- ily Growing. Special Correspondence of The Evening Star YOKOHAMA, December 30, 1897. The ways of the Japanese are extraordi- nary, and especially from an European point of view. On the 24th instant the ciet met at 4 p.m. to prepare for the open- ing of the eleventh session. His majesty's speech was as follow “Loris and Gentlemen of the House of Peers and the House of Representatives: “We have pleasure in informing you that our relations with all the treaty powers are on a footing of the closest and most friendly character and that the revision of the treaties is on the point of consumma- ticn. In order to establish the finances on a firm basis, we have instructed the min- ister of finance to fix upon a scheme of increased taxation in connection with the budget for the thirty-first year of Meiji, and to submit the measures to you, in con- Junction with a bill embodying the revised ecde and various other pro. of law, essential to the promotion of national pros- perity and to administrative progress. We trust that you will discharge your func- tions of deliberation, and with harmony and conse s follows im rial majesty, ma Kazu house « begs to submit, with a that nd reve your majesty’s servants are with profound gratitude for your majesty’s condescension in personally attending to open the eleventh session of th: imperial diet and in favoring them with your ma- Jesty’s gracious speech. Your majesty’s servants will endeavor by earnestness and careful deliberation to respond to your majesty’s will and to discharge the trust reposed in them by the nation.” There was no other business done except the election of the heads of the various committees, and the house adjourned in jess than an hour. On Christmas day the house of representatives met at 1:10 p.m., when the president announced that the government had submitted the budget-and correlated measures for the fiscal year 1898-1899, and the house was about to pro- ceed to the order of the day when Mr. Suzuki proposed that “this house does not place confidence in the present cabinet.” Almost immediately the president calied upon the members to rise, as he had re- ceived an imperial message, which he read as follows: “In accordance with article 7 of the imperial constitution, we hereby order the dissolution of the house of rep- resentatiy It has been generally understood by those well acquainted with Jap ® politics that the president en his appointment received from the emperor an order empowering him to dissolve the house whenever any difficulty was presented which in- ed the government. This is now, how- ever, proved to be a fact, for the house only m at 1:10 p.m. and was dissolved at 1:19 P.m., just nine minutes after it had met Shortly ward the minister of the navy tendered his resignation and since then the premier and several other ministers have tendered theirs Diticult Problems to Meet. It is much to be regretted that the gov- ernment did not face the vote of want of contic and then send in their resi tions to the emperor. Hed that cour been followed, a usual with European cabinets, the house of rep: would have been at hand reads a up the budget on the formation of new cabinet. As it is it will be seve menths before another house can be ele ed, and as the finances of the country am in such an alarming condition serious con- flicts are sure to take during the elections, which will mz it more difti- cult for the government to meet the newly elected members. With a deficit of over twenty millions of yen in the present finance! eighty millions to provid next, either in the way of loans or increased taxation, there is sufficient difficulty with- cut exciting the people by the strife of a general election. To relieve the present financial strain, however, it is understood that the government intends to stamp the silver yen which have been exchanged for gcid, and to lend them to the cotton spin- ners who claim to be in such severe finan- cial condition. But why the coins are to stamped is a problem difficult to under- stand, seeing that they are still coins of the country and negotiable at par every- where, It is also difficult to see why the cotton spinners should be so favored when every industry seems to be suffering from the same complaint as they are, and the only reason that seems feasibl that the men, being members of very fluential bodies, m: be of a the government during the elections. But this putting off of the inevitable will make the blow the more severe when it does come. The people have been given a taste of power in being allowed to elect a house of representatives, and until that power is made real and responsible they will not be satisfied. When the msibility of government is thrown on the representa- tives of the people the revenues of the ccuntry will be used to develop the in- dustries of the peopie; not in building up y and navy which is already too e for them to keep up to its present much longer, much less to in- se three-fold, as outlined in the present scheme. THE FATHER’S sHorT. How England's Postmaster From * uecess,”” by Orison Marden. ‘Never mind, father, blindness shall not interfere with my suce: in life,” said the young law student, Henry Faweett, when his father reproached himseif for care- lessly destroying all his son's prospects of advancement. “One pleasant day in 1858 the two had gone hunting together. A flock of part- ridges flew over a fence where the father had no right to shoot; but as he was mov- ing forward, they flew back toward his son. The father, so eager to bring down a bird that he did not think of his son's danger, fired. Several shots entered Henry's breast, and one went through each glass of a pair of spectacles he wore. In an in- stant he was stone blind for life. “But within ten minutes from the time of the accident which deprived him of eyesight forever this boy of iron nerve had determined that even blindness should not swerve him from his purpose. “Will you read the newspaper to me? were his first words to his sister when they carried him home. “He was obliged to abandon law, but he began the study of political economy with a zeal rarely equaled, meanwhile hav- ing friends read to him in his moments of leisure the works of Milton, Burke, Words- worth, all of George Eliot's novels, and a wide course of general literature, for bi was determined that his blindness should not limit the breadth of his culture.” +0 Pitifal Causes of Cheap Bibles. Prom the New York Times. Why are Bibles so cheap? The labor question seems to enter into consideration clergymen in their anxiety to have cheap religious books encourage the manufacture of Bibles by inadequately paid labor?”