expressly allotted for the purpose. When communication was opened up between
the operators at either extremity, the Japanese watched with intense
curiosity the modus operandi, and were greatly amazed to find that in an
instant of time messages were conveyed in the English, Dutch, and Japanese
languages from building to building. Day after day the dignitaries and
many of the people would gather, and, eagerly beseeching the operators to
work the telegraph, would watch with unabated interest the sending and receiving
of messages.
Nor did the railway, under the direction of Engineers Gray and Danby,
with its Lilliputian locomotive, car, and tender, excite less interest. All the
parts of the mechanism were perfect, and the car was a most tasteful specimen
of workmanship, but so small that it could hardly carry a child of six
years of age. The Japanese, however, were not to be cheated out of a ride,
and, as they were unable to reduce themselves to the capacity of the inside
of the carriage, they betook themselves to the roof. I t was a spectacle not
a little ludicrous to behold a dignified mandarin whirling around the circular
road at the rate of twenty miles an hour, with his loose robes flying im
the wind. As he clung with a desperate hold to the edge of the roof, grinning
with intense interest, and his huddled up body shook convulsively with
a kind of laughing timidity, while the car spun rapidly around the circle, you
might have supposed that the movement, somehow or other, was dependent
rather upon the enormous exertions of the uneasy mandarin than upon the
power of the little puffing locomotive which was so easily performing its
work.
Although the Japanese authorities were still very jealous of any intercourse
on the part of the Americans with the people, and did all they could
to prevent it, still there was necessarily a good deal of intermingling. The
ships of the squadron were being daily supplied with water and provisions,
for which the officials of the government had now consented to receive payment,
but they insisted upon conducting all the regulations, and provided
their own boats and laborers for the purpose. There was, however, what
with the necessary passing to and from the ships with the supplies, and the
arranging and working the telegraphic apparatus, and the toy railway, almost
daily intercourse between the American officers, sailors, and marines, and the
Japanese mandarins, officials and laborers.
The J apanese always evinced an inordinate curiosity, for the gratification
of which the various articles of strange fabric, and the pieces of mechanism,
of ingenious and novel invention, brought from the United States, gave them
a full opportunity. They were not satisfied with the minutest examination
of all things, so surprisingly wonderful as they appeared to them, but followed
the officers and men about and seized upon every occasion to examine
each part of their dress. The laced caps, boots, swords, and tailed coats of
the officers; the tarpaulins, jackets, and trowsers of the men, all came in for
the closest scrutiny ; and a tailor in search of a new cut or a latest fashion,
could not have been more exacting in his observations than the inquisitive
Japanese, as he fingered the broadcloth, smoothed down the nap with his
long delicate hands, pulled a lappel here, adjusted a collar there, now fathomed
the depth of a pocket, and again peered curiously into the inner recesses of
Jack’s loose toilette. They eagerly sought to possess themselves of anything
that pertained to the dress of their visitors, and showed a peculiar passion
for buttons. They would again and again ask for a button, and when presented
with the cheap gift, they appeared immediately gratified, and stowed
it away as if it were of the greatest value. I t is possible that their affection
for buttons and high appreciation of their value, may be owing to the rarity
of the article in Japan, for it is a curious fact, that the simple convenience
of a button is but little used in any article of Japanese dress; strings and
various bindings being the only mode of fastening the garments. When
visiting the ships, the mandarins and their attendants were never at rest; but
went about peering into every nook and corner, peeping into the muzzles of
the guns, examining curiously the small-arms, handling thé ropes, measuring
the boats, looking eagerly into the engine-room, and watching every movement
of the engineers and workmen as they busily moved, in and about, the gigantic
machinery of the steamers. They were not contented with merely observing
with their eyes, but were constantly taking out their writing materials,
their mulberry-bark paper, and their India ink and hair pencils, which they
always carried in a pocket within the left breast of their loose robes, and
making notes and sketches. The Japanese had all apparently a strong pictorial
taste, and looked with great delight upon the engravings and pictures
which were shown them, but their own performances appeared exceedingly
rude and inartistic. Every man, however, seemed anxious to try his skill
at drawing, and they were constantly taking the portraits of the Americans,
and sketches of the various articles that appeared curious to them, with a
result, which, however satisfactory it might have been to the artists, (and if
must be conceded they exhibited no little exultation,) was far from showing
any encouraging advance in art. I t should, however, be remarked, that
the artists were not professional. Our future pages will show more artistic
skill, than the rude specimens here alluded to would have led one to suppose
existed in Japan. The Japanese are, undoubtedly, like the Chinese, a very
imitative, adaptative, and compliant people ; and in these characteristics may
be discovered a promise of the comparatively easy introduction of foreign
customs and habits, if not of the nobler principles and better life of a higher
civilization.
Notwithstanding the J apanese are so fond of indulging their curiosity,
they are by no means communicative about themselves. They allege, as a
reason for their provoking reserve, that their laws forbid them to communicate
to foreigners anything relating to their country and its institutions, habits,
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