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As one walks in Yokohama and To-
kio through a multitude of narrow
streets lined with tiny buildings,
writes n correspondent of' the San
Francisco Chronicle, the foreign and
characteristic air lent to the scenes
presented comes from the fact that in
each separate little open shop some
single workman, like a bee in his cell,
in a way so different from our Western
method, is busily plying his trade.
When I had dissembled my wonder
at seeing'the dressmaker holding one
end of his seam with his toes; had re¬
turned the polite bow of a young
cooper who was skillfully utilizing the
same members in his binding of tubs
with vegetable withes instead of
metallic hoops, and had Watched with
admiration the wondrous way in which
a basket-maker was helped out by his
ingenious combination of ambi and
pedal dexterity, I suddenly felt a new
wish. I wanted to see these quiet
and clever working people at home in
their houses as they actually live.
Then it was explained that all the
little shells of open shops lining the
narrow streets and roadways were
likewise the veritable habitations of
the humanity about me. I soon saw
that this was true, and was ever
thereafter fascinated by the endless
glimpses of interiors and studies of the
home life of the common people.
There may be one room or two in
the small domicile; commonly a second
room exists behind the first, A very
small separate kitchen miiy or may
not be a part of the establishment.
The culinary operations are so simple
in character and the utensils so
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limited that but few feet of space at
best are needed to contain them.
The partitions being in the form of
sliding panels, all may be thrown into
the shop during the day or otherwise,
as elected. So in this country the
worker is still at home to a great ex¬
tent while he plies his trade, and
factory, stock of goods and shop, as
well as dwelling place, are all under
one roof and appertain to one man.
Down at the liatobn, or dock, iu Yo¬
kohama gangs of Japanese coolies load
and unload the steamers in a leisurely,
semi-desultory, casual and happy man¬
ner all their own. Not, a bag or bale
could they lift without their accom¬
panying song of:
Yoi-toe cor-ab sai-ya,
Yoi-toe cor-aU sai-ya.
For just when the heavy emphasis
comes two men sling the weight on to
the shoulders of a third, who trots off
with it, and the next two wait for the
chorus to come around again to the
right syllable before they proceed as
before. It is jolly, musical and quaint
in the extreme. I the back of the
overseer is turned for a moment all the
industrious laborers will sink on their
heels and light their pipes, which look
like a penholder with an infinitesimal
thimble bowl at the end.
At the other side of town ore the
great tea-firing go-downs, redolent,
blocks away, of the subtile herb. In¬
side. are the big firing caul¬
drons, with charcoal fires beneath, and
filling the place all up and down are
the lines of women with towels wrapped
about their heads, swaying, bending,
sometimes rhythmically, sometimes
spasmodically, stirring vigorously with
hands and arms among the hot tea
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RlOJa SHELLING.
leareft.-'Scattered here and there among
Vftem iong is a man or |boy. Presently a
starts up, and fitfully pulsating
:Jn throughout the great building it echoes
a sort of primitive or elemental wild
harmony from all the jerking figures,
lightening and facilitating labor.
• All workers, at whatever trade, are
given in tho middle of forenoon, and
afternoon,as at noon, an interval for
and eating, and many babies
on the backs of small brothers and sis¬
ters wait about the tea-firing places
that at the regular hour, they, too,may
partake of refreshment.
This interval of rest is so elastic in
its application that there seems hardly
an hour of the day when one group of
another of ’ricksha men by the road¬
side, of boatmen in the canal,of coolies
in the go-down compounds or of crafts¬
men in the shops may not be seen
gathered, seated on their heels, about
the little charcoal fireboxes, plying
their chopsticks in small lacquered
bowls and square wooden boxes of
cooked rice,and drinking tea Besides from cups
like good-sized thimbles. the
dressmaker and tailor, the cooper and
the basket-maker are other artisans
pursuing their avocations in quite as
queer ways. The carpenter hacks at
liis boards with a sort of rough adze or
stands on them and saws them with
what looks like a notched butcher’s
knife set in a long handle, or planes
them carefully toward him. The mau
in the rice mill ignores belts and
wheels and machinery generally, and
jumps all day on the end of
a plank, a cog or weight in the other
end of which pounds away at the
grains. The lantern-maker and the
umbrella-maker sit patiently tying and
pasting .their frail wares, the stock in
trade slowly piling up, day by day, be¬
hind them. Lonely men, each in his
little booth, make the thick straw mats
or sections of flooring for the native
houses. Boys work deftly, tossing
shuttles back and forth that weave or
tie the bamboo window blinds.
I watched an actual boy with warts
on his hands, at work alone in an
open doorway, on a great square of
pale blue silk on which he was em¬
broidering without model or copy the
most exquisitely shaded pink roses.
Little girls sitting on the floor hem¬
stitched silk handkerchiefs and made
the fragilely beautiful drawn and em¬
broidered grass-linen work. A couple
of blue men, with hawk noses and
severe countenances, like American
red men gone a wrong color, bobbing
about among their indigo vats, will be
the whole visible works of a big dye¬
ing establishment. In front of six
shops, young men with simple appli¬
ances, working in the dust of the
roadway, jostled by ’ricksha men and
ball-throwing youngsters, reel off silk
into skeins or quickly twist it, in a
sort of wayside ropewalk, into varie¬
gated silkhn cords.
PerhapJ the most interesting of all
are the women in small, open rooms
who sit all day at primitive frames
throwing by hand the shuttles in and
out that weave the web of silk or cot¬
ton. It is a pretty and poetical way
of achieving the fabric we are to wear.
I can but contrast the lives of these
quiet workers in their open doorways,
under the blue of heaven, their eyes
sometimes wandering away with pleas¬
ure to the shifting street panorama
before them, with those of the thrice
wretched seamstresses, factory hands
and aweat-shop women in our own
cities. It is Bmall misfortune to be
bare-limbed, perchance; to wear cheap
cotton, to eat only rice, in a land
where the fashion for all, even the
well-to-do, is not widely different. I
have seen the weary and old counten¬
ances of little children and the hard
ones of young girls, thronging out of
our mills anti! manufactories, but (hese
better faces cf the Japanese women at
their hand looms are less hopeless.
And I would that this caflous, hurried
scrambling w arid had time to weave
its textiles all in the old way of those
early ages when so much sorrow was
not.
There aeerjs nothing about. grim, over-
severe or crashing Japanese
labor. It is essentially sociable and
cheerful. Every third shop is a place
of eatables, where hot sweet potatoes,
rice coated with delicate seaweed, hot
fish or shrimp fritters dipped in soy,
rolls of fish wrapped around bean and
sugar paste, buckwheat macaroni with
soy, tasty morsels broiled on skewers,
sugared beans and roasted nuts,
parched or popped rice kernels, rice
wafers and cakes browned over -the
fire (and if still pale, painted to the
right tinge with brown dyes), rice
paste or jelly, sweet millet paste candy,
popped rice candy, cups of shaved ice
and numerous other dainties and
sweetmeats, are ever at hand for the
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delectation of tlie workers. But this
is not enough, and men with vans and
boxes of oooked food perambulate the
streets still more conveniently The to re-
fresh the toiling masses. meager
coppers so scantily earned jingle all
day right merrily into the pockets or
pouchos Babies of the caterers. swarming
are everywhere
about, nfoot and aback, with then-
share of the good things going. No-
body seems ever to startle and depress
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BROOM PEDDLER.
them with “You mustn’t do that,”
“You can’t have this,” “You mayn’t
go there.” Among the common peo¬
ple, at least, there is no sequestering
of women; they, too, are everywhere,
cheek by jowl, helping and doing, ap¬
parently, as freely as the men. If it
is only a wooden tub which they have
to scrub out, girls with bare feet and
arms, elaborately dressed hair and
clean and pretty blue and white kim¬
onos, are apt to bring it out on the
sidewalk and scrub away gregariously
for the next half hour or more.
Unloading great stones from the
sampans in the canals, women work as
cheerfully, lustily and effectively as
the men. They share, seemingly on
equal terms, in the small shop keep¬
ing, and help in all the labors of the
various avocations. I don’t see how
one of these men can have any secrets
from his wife or escape her society on
the plea that business will detain him
at the store. If business did, he would
probably find her there before him, as
much at home as in the kitchen or
nursery, which apartments, in truth,
seem to be pretty well done away with;
and if she wasn’t there in person, at
least all the other women on the block
would be in the near vicinity, able to
supervise his movements.
Living is reduced almost to its sim¬
plest elements. here, where a single
garment will do for a covering, and
that, if necessary, for years; where a
few cents’ worth of rice, pickled vege¬
tables and dried fish make an appetiz¬
ing and satisfying meal, and where a
single bare room for dining, for guests
and for sleeping is practically all that
is required by even ambitious house¬
holders. '
In Japan the poorest people are not
without their comforts and conveni¬
ences. Cooked foods, so cheaply pre¬
pared in public kitchens, have been
mentioned. Milkmen and other pur¬
veyors are in almost every block, with
their goods in smallest packages if de¬
sired, for the fractional copper cur¬
rency. The housekeeping is the
easiest, and at the same time the dain¬
tiest, in all the world. No dust and
dirt ever are brought in to tarnish the
fair white floors. The low-oeilinged,
empty rooms and narrow verandas are
readily brushed and-washed each day.
The mats on which the poor man sleeps
are as soft as those of the rich.
Bathhouses in the neighborhood,
too, are frequent, where the tired
mother and ail her fretful progeny,
wearied by the heat and the hours of
work, at the close of the day enjoy
their regular evening hot and cold
water plunge and splash.
The improvidence of these people
probably is in no danger of being ex-
PRINCESS HELENE OP ITALY, MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN OF EUROPE
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When the Crown Princess Helene visited the English court during tho
Jubilee festivities at Loudon she was accorded the palm as the peerless beauty
of all the handsome women of the blood royal present at the functions. She
is the daughter of the Prince of Montenegro, and was reared in her father’s
mountainous principality, to which she owes her exquisite complexion and
regal cariage. Her husband, the Crown Prince of Italy, is her opposite in
personal appearance, being weak, small and bilious-looking, and rumor has
it that only her father’s poverty led her to accept the hand of the future ruler
of Italy. Her out-of-door life has given her a “beauty truly blent whose red
and white Nature’s own sweet and cunning hand laid on,” and these charms,
combined with her very shy, modest and even diffident ways when she is
brought before the people, have made her vastly popular in Italy. ^
aggorated W^;rrpnm«'.-w-jp«—>—-v- in the telling. It — -—'---—"WKi is doubt-
less ’ricksha quite true that tho impoverished
puller or factory operator
pawns his bed daily to buy his break-
fast, and after earning enough to re-
deem the futons before night,reckless-
ly expends in riotous living in the ten-
sen eating houses the whole balance
of his capital. Ho looks as if ho does
all that ho is accused of in tho way of
ever patching his blue kimono instead
of buying a new houses, one, in living of handing in one-
yen-a-montli descendants and the
down to his only same
pots and kettles, without a single ad¬
dition thereto, which lie in his day in¬
herited from his parents. But that he
is to any extent unhappy, miserable
and wretched over it I very much
doubt. I have watched him singing
(and lingering) at his work, and going
home at night in droves, still cheer¬
fully sociable, solaced with his tiny
pipe and fairly hilarious over the
least morsel and drop of rice and
cheap saki. I have gone with him
to his matsuri, or festivals, and I
know how often they recur and
how light-hearted they find him.
I have stood with him to laugh
at the fun-makers and dancers at the
frequent street celebrations and local
fetes,and I don’t believe there is much
rancor and bitterness to his poverty.
Besides, his wages are going up.
Guilds he has had always, and he is
learning about strikes. Dock laborers
get eighty cents a day now, where
formerly they received nearer to eight.
Considering their labor capacity and
the cheapness of their living,the former
is not a bad wage. ’Ricksha charges,
those for laundry work, and of vari¬
ous craftsmen (as all the dyers in
Osaka, who have just procured them¬
selves a tweuty-five-per-cont. raise),
the wages of house servants and the
salaries of policemen and other officials,
all are slowly and steadily increasing,
and the explanation is that the wants
of life are on the increase, meat is be¬
ginning to he eaten, wool is coming to
be liked for clothing, some simple lux¬
uries are now understood and desired,
and so the time is to come when the
workingman of Japan is to have rather
more of the conveniences and neces¬
saries of life to buy, and considerably
more money with which to purchase
them. At least that is considered the
trend of affairs at present.
German Carp is Unpopular.
If a fish dealer depended upon tho
sale of German carp for a livelihood he
would starve in double-quick time.
That particular member of the fish
family is several hundred thousands of
miles away from the pinnacle of popu¬
larity, and there is nothjpg these days
to indicate that it is going to decrease
the distance. German carp are quoted,
wholesale price, at a penny a pound.
“How in the world do you manage
to make anything out of them?” asked
the inquisitive buyer of the South
Water street fish dealer the other day;
“I don’t see where it pays to handle
them.”
“It really doesn’t pay to handle
thorn, nor does the fisherman who
catches them make a fortune out of
his business,” said the fish dealer.
“Just imagine what the fisherman
makes when we are supposed pound. to sell at
a profit at a penny a He
wouldn’t do right well even if he had
a good business. German carp aro far
from being entitled to recognition as •
fine fish. They are coarse in floeli,
1 and ii is an impossible matter to refine
them. I handle them because there
are some people who buy them from
me. It is not that I sell them for a
reasonable profit, but merely as an ac¬
commodation.”—Chicago Record.
“Do you think you can accustom
yourself to Klondike cooking?”
“Why not? My wife took, the first
prize at Vassar for her paper-weight
biscuits.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer.
WAS IX ATTENDANCE OX NATIONAL
FETE IX MONTEVIDEO.
THE ASSASSIN WAS H ANARCHIST.
Twice Before Was Borda’a Rife In Jeopar¬
dy, But He Was Miraculously Saved.
Unpopular With the People.
During a national fete which was
held at Montevideo, Uruguay, Wednes¬
day, President J. Idiarte Borda was
shot and killed by an assassin.
The assassination of the president
occurred as he was leaving the cathe¬
dral, where a Te Deum had been sung.
President Borda died almost imme¬
diately after he was shot.
The assassin is named Arredondo,
supposed to be an anarchist, and was
arrested.
Senor Cuestas, president of the sen¬
ate, has assumed the presidency of the
republic ad interim.
Senor J. Idiarte Borda was elected
president of Uruguay for the term ex-
tending from March, 1894, to 1898.
The fete at which he was assassi¬
nated was being held in celebration of
the independence of Uruguay, which
was achieved on August 25, 1825.
The murdered president was about
fifty years of ago. He was married and
hail a family and also a brother who is
an officer in the Uruguayan army. He
was elected three years ago, being a
“combination candidate” of several
parties.
So far as known he had not been
very popularly identified with the peo¬
ple nor had he held any number of im¬
portant offices. His elevation to the
chief magistracy is said to have been dis¬
tasteful to the more advanced element
of the people. Much interest attaches
to the nationality of the assassin of
the president.
An attempt was made to assassinate
the president on the afternoon of April
21st last. An unknown man met Pres¬
ident Borda on the street and shot at
him. The president escaped without
injury and the criminal was captured.
On that occasion the president, ac¬
companied by his aid, Lieutenant Col¬
onel Turrene, had been horseback rid¬
ing. As he dismounted in front of the
government palace a youth approached
him and drew a pistol. Before the
trigger could be pulled Lieutenant
Colonel Turrene struck up the arm of
the would-be assassin and the ball
passed over the president’s head.
Another attempt to assinatehim was
made on May 20th, when he received
a bomb sent to him from LaPlata, Ar¬
gentine. It was in a box and so ar-
rarauged that it would explode when
the box was opened. Fortunately sus¬
picion was aroused and the box was
turned over to the police and de¬
stroyed.
POLICE AND NEGROES FIGHT.
A Bloody Iilot Precipitated at Charleston
Cotton Mills.
In the Charleston cotton mills, at
Charleston, S. C., where colored labor
is employed, fully 100 negroes meet at
night when work is stopped to prevent/,
tho white ex-operatives from attacking
tho negro men and women as they
march out of the mill.
Wednesday afternoon as the work¬
men were leaving a policeman went to
arrest a negro, when he was mobbed
by the whole gang. Two other officers
rushed up, and the three were beaten
with sticks and stoues. The police¬
men did not shoot for fear of killing
the children, but managed to knock
down.a dozen negroes with clubs.
The fighting was becomiug furious
and the riot call was sent iu to police
headquarters. This brought tho en¬
tire force, and the mob dispersed.
WAGES WERE TOO LOW.
Hungarian anil Italian Coliory Men at
Hazelton, Pa., Strfke.
The Hungarians and Italians em¬
ployed at the shippings and canal at
Van Winkle’s Colleraiue Collery at
Hazleton, Pa., struck Wednesday.
Dissatisfacton has prevailed there for
some time.
The men say the price of provisions
is going up and that they want an ad¬
vance in wages. Superintendent Rod¬
erick has asked to appoint a committee
and he would confer with them.
FALLING WALLS KILL FOUR.
Disastrous and Fatal Blaze Occurs at
Pittsburg, Pa.
Fire at Pittsbmg, Pa., Thursday
evening caused the death of two fire¬
men, the death of two boys, the loss
of $165,000 worth of property, injury
to two firemen and created a panic in
the Seventh Avenue hotel.
Several hours after the fire had been
subdued and the firemen were coup¬
ling up their hose, the wall of the Ed-
mundson & Perrine building, three
stories high, fell, burying under the
debris two firemen.
Two boys, who were watching tho
firemen work, are also supposed to be
under the fallen walls.
SPAIN MAKES NEW LOAN.
Government to Borrow Money For Navy
Improvements.
Advices from Madrid state that the
Spanish government is arranging a
fresh credit with the view of strength¬
ening the navy.
The navigation tax has been pledged
as security for the loan.
The government will immediately
construct one large ironclad and six
cruisers of from 6,000 to 7,000 tons to
form the nucleus of three squadrons.
GRAND AI til V HEX MARCH.
President McKinley .Reviews fcl»© Lino of
Old Veteran*.
Forty-five thousand Grand Army
men marched through the streets of
Buffalo, X. Y., Wednesday and swath¬
ed in flags and buntings, received
the ovations of u half million people,
whose gratitude and admiration were
evinced in every way in which human
devotion can find public expression.
The president was at their head. The
procession moved for five hours and
forty-two minutes. Along the route
of march one hundred girls, dressed
in the colors of the flag, scattered
flowers in the path of the soldiers.
President McKinley rode in a car¬
riage at the head of the procession,
mid waved his hat at the cheering
crowd. After passing under the gayly
decorated arch erected by the colored
people of Buffalo, the president saw
before him a great and living shield,
and caught the music of 2,000 young
voices lifted up in the national anthem.
As the columns moved on nearer and
nearer to the shield, the first platoons
wheeling up Delaware avenue, the hu¬
man sympathy that had been pent up
for an hour of waiting broke out iu
one tumultuous climax of enthusiasm.
At the reviewing stand a large gayly-
decorated compartment in the middle
of the 3,000 seats for spectators had
been set apart for tho president, the
governor, the secretary of war and
other distinguished guests.
After nearly six hours of constant
attention the president and Governor
Black were driven to their hotel amid
the hurrahs of the old soldiers and the
applause of the vast crowd of people.
The closing event of the evening
was a reception to the president at
Music hall.
LEASING OF CONVICTS ILLEGAL.
Sensation Caused by a Georgia Supreme
Court Decision.
The supreme court of Georgia has
decided that the leasing of the con¬
victs of Georgia is illegal.
The sensation caused by the publi¬
cation of Colonel Phil G. Byrd’s re¬
port showing the horrible condition of
misdemeanor convicts leased by the
county authorities to private individ¬
uals has been succeeded by another
sensation ten times as startling. It
has been discovered that every con¬
vict so leased has merely to appeal to
the courts to secure prompt release,
owing to the fact that his incarcera¬
tion under such circumstances is as
much in disobedience to the law as
was the original offense which led to
his conviction.
Every misdemeanor convict camp
controlled by private individuals in
Georgia is a nest of illegality. Every
man employing misdemeanor convicts
for private gain is breaking the law.
Every county official who leases or
permits to be leased a misdemeanor
convict for other than public works
does so in violation of the plainest
statute in the law books of the state,
and in addition is probably liable for
personal damages.
This discovery has made the con¬
victs’ situation so much worse than it
was before, that the legislature will
hardly dare to ignore it as other legis¬
latures have been doing in the past.
But it is doubtful if the people will
wait for the legislature to meet before
some action is taken, showing the
pressing need for immediate reform in
this direction. Prominent layers say
that on habeas corpus proceedings
they can release every misdemeanor
convict from the shackles of con¬
finement in private oamps, and that no
contract between the counties and les¬
sees is worth the paper it is written
on.
ALABAMIAN ASSASSINATED.
Francis Bartow Floyd Shot Down By a
Well Known Desperado.
Francis Bartow Lloyd (Rufus San¬
ders), a well known public man and
writer of Alabama, was assassinated,
Wednesday evening by John A. Gaf-
ford, a well known desperado. Cause
of killing unknown.
The killing occurred near Mr.Lloyd’s
home, three miles northwest of Green¬
ville.
A few minutes after the killing Gaf-
ford met Earl Lewis, who lives near
by, in the road and said to him: “I
want to inform you that I have just
killed Bartow Lloyd up the road a
piece. You had better see about do¬
ing something with him.”
Lewis went at once to Greenville
and gave notice to the authorities. A
posse was organized to hunt the mur¬
derer.
IRBY ROASTS TILLMAN.
Senatorial Candidate Closes Campaign
With a Hot Tirade.
At the closing South Carolina sena¬
torial campaign meeting te Florence
Saturday night Irby threw off restraint
and attacked Senator Tillman, openly
denouncing him for his part in the
campaign. He declared:
“While Tillman says he is ‘handsoff’
he was ‘mouth on.’ Tillman went to
Abbeville and York and now he has
been to Union—all my strongholds.
There work was done for McLaurin.
All his utterances mean: “Vote for
McLaurin, he’s as good a tool as I
want.’
“I give him to understand I am
none of his poodle dog.”
CLOAK MAKERS STRIKE.
The Long Threatened Walk Out Takes
Place In New York.
The general strike of the cloak mak-
ers of New York city and vicinity,
which has been threatened for a long
time, has been ordered. Henry Fish¬
er, of the board of walking delegates
of the Brotherhood of Cloak Makers,
announced that the 12,000 cloak mak¬
ers iu the brotherhood will be called
out at once. More than 5,000 went
out Wednesday afternoon.