the hotel, and the mayor to give us a banquet there. Of course,
Mamma is the only woman present, as it would not occur to them to invite
their own wives. Foreign women are expected, however, to do strange
things, and they are very polite to them. The geisha women seem to be
about the only ones who have an all-around education--not of the book
type, but in the sense of knowing about things and being able and
willing to talk--and I think the men go to these banquets and talk to
them because they are tired of their too obeyful wives and their
overdocility. One woman at the banquet we went to was known as the
Singing Butterfly, and has the name Constitution as a nickname, because
of her supposed interest in politics, especially on the liberal side.
When we heard that she had been in prison because of her interest in
politics, we sat up and took notice, but it turned out that it was for
bribing voters to vote for a man she was interested in. But she is a
local celebrity all right, and her stay in prison had evidently added to
her interest and prestige.

April 28, on the _Kumano Maru_.

En Route to China.

The lecture yesterday was a success, going off rather better than the
others. It was in a school hall and they are always beautiful rooms. I
was entertained during its two hours of duration by watching a splendid
pink azalea and a pine on either side of the desk. They are each about
five feet high and of the most lovely shape, and there were about a
thousand blossoms on this azalea. We know but very little about dwarfed
trees and shrubs in our country as the specimens we see are very small
ones and inferior in shape and interest to those we see here. They are
everywhere, each little shop has in the midst of its mess of second hand
or cheap new things a charming little peach or plum, pine, azalea, or
redberry. In a hot house we saw a tree that had two plums on it, and we
frequently see tiny orange trees covered with fruit. The white peach is
one of the loveliest things in the world, double blossoms like roses,
and is entirely artificially produced.

The smoke has lifted and we are seeing the hills of the shore very well.
On the other side of the ship we see the Island of Awaji, so we are now
between the two islands and it is much like the Thousand Islands in the
St. Lawrence River. I suppose this is the entrance to the Inland Sea. It
is partly clear and the land is so close it is easy to see. There are
many Japan