The public buildings and those
occupied by government officials are of European architecture. The
streets of the city are narrow, no sidewalks, and the one-story houses
serve as workshop and residence for the occupant. The inhabitants go
bareheaded, carrying umbrellas. The convenience of the river that runs
through Tokio and the canals that intersperse its streets is very
apparent. Public education is compulsory. Japan in its whole extent,
with all its islands included, covers about as much territory as North
and South Dakota combined. Although it has an immense system of
irrigation, only one-twelfth of its soil is under cultivation, and the
rice crop entirely dependent upon it. The population of forty million of
people of untiring industry is rewarded by a mere living. For centuries
the cultured class of patrons of the temples have given these people
work, for every rich temple adds to its wealth bronzes, lacquered work,
vestments of brocades, tapestries and carvings of images, each having
its fire-proof building in which its treasures are kept; they are not
seen in the temples. As for the missionary work, we visited the "Mary
Colby Seminary," a boarding and day school in Yokohama, Miss Grafton of
Vermont being principal. At that time there were fifty native children
as scholars, most of them able to pay for their own tuition. It is
impossible to calculate the strength and influence of these teachings,
and where the schools become self-supporting they must be strongholds.
We were told that demand for teachers was much less than the number
waiting to be called. At Kiota we visited the "Dobisha School," a
university started in 1875, under the auspices of the American Board of
Missions; connected with this institution is the girls' school and
training school for nurses; also a hospital. A warm reception by Miss
Benton, the principal of the girls' school, from Los Angeles, Cal.,
awaited us, and we were shown through the buildings, and were most
astonished at the well built and commodious edifices, surrounded by well
laid out grounds. There were not a half-dozen scholars. On inquiring why
the accommodations were so great and the number of occupants so small,
we were told cholera had kept many away. The few half-grown girls were
seated around the table intent in reading a translation from Shakespeare
of "King Lear," and others Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake."

One of the girls played upon an instrument some four feet long w