An adventure story
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| In addition to dancing we have several games which can be played on board ship, the most popular of which seems to be tennis. Instead of using rackets and balls, one uses his hand and a canvas ring, which has to be caught and returned, etc.
Wednesday, August 8th -- Today is a lost one. Every day since leaving Vancouver, we have been kept rather busy changing our watches, until today is not known at all officially. We simply jump from Tuesday to Thursday. We will pick up this day coming back, should we return via the Pacific, or if going back the Atlantic we will gradually pick it up going across Russia, England and the Atlantic. Thursday, August 9th -- Foggy and cold this morning. Major Wells spoke at our morning meeting, upon the subject of the general effects of Typhus, etc. It was not a line of talk to make us enthuse over the country to which we are bound. He stated that a Typhus patient suffered immediate deterioration of the heart muscles. Also that it is very common for patients to commit suicide. Sometimes it seems as though these gentlemen derive pleasure out of telling us these unpleasant truths, but it is done for the purpose of impressing upon us the importance of taking every known precaution as a preventive. All heads were vaccinated this morning against Small Pox. I was a little late in going for mine and Major Peabody gave me a pretty stiff jab in the upper left arm for my lack of punctuality. As one having passed through the experience, I give you the "tip" to never delay a good doctor at meal time. A number of whales have been sighted. In one or two cases the backs of the great monsters have been seen above the surface of the water -- sometimes they are spouting. Pretty sight. Friday, August 10th -- This good ship did some little rolling around last night, which continues this morning. The thick fog cleared away considerably about noon. At the 10:30 meeting Major Bryan gave an interesting talk on his experiences in hospital work on the Western Front. After-dinner dancing in the Dining Saloon Entrance is becoming more and more popular. The music is all string music, rendered by Filipinos -- about eight or nine of them. They know several American tunes. Their favorites are "Robert E. Lee" and "Oh You Great Big Beautiful Doll". They are particularly strong on the last mentioned one and play it over and over again. They play entirely by ear. There are several exceptionally good dancers. I found a young Holland lady, of rather dark complexion, as a partner and she developed to be a natural born dancer. Saturday, August 11th -- It is warm and sun shiny this morning for the first time. Last night, while the music and dancing was at its height in the Dining Room, Entrance, Prayer Services were being held in the Dining Room, immediately adjoining, by some of the Missionaries on board ship, led by Bishop Burt, of Buffalo, N.Y. The wonderful Chinese service continues to be one of our main topics of conversation and the everlasting joy of the entire party. Major Flexner talked to us today at the morning meeting and gave us some valuable information regarding Roumania, illustrating his lecture by a map of that Country. It looks like we are going to have good weather tomorrow. Sunday, August 12th -- Church Service this morning was abandoned on account of heavy fog. All of the officers are required at their posts. We visited the other decks, second and even steerage, but it is very hard to describe. The second class passengers are not allowed among the first class at all. They might just as well be on another ship so far as social intercourse is concerned. In the steerage we saw the chink passengers playing all kinds of gambling games, which by the way is strictly forbidden, but there seems to be no way to put a stop to it. It was interesting but not exciting. We were later advised by Captain Robinson that the turbines of the Mauritania revolved only about one half as fast as the turbine of this ship, which accounts for less vibration on the Empress of Russia. I might remark right here that the water of the Pacific seems to be of a different shade than that of the Atlantic. It has a bluer cast- - not so green. Every day we take long walks around the top deck, six times around is a mile, and in this way we have kept in pretty good physical condition. The writer is fortunate in having been blessed with excellent health -- not an ache or pain. In the evening everyone went to the Dining Room entrance to listen to a rather long talk by a Mr. Frederic Coleman (who is an American who had been living in England for several years) on the subject of the French front. He was interesting, but for the writer’s taste, there was too much of it. Collections were taken up over the entire ship for the Red Cross, directed by American Minister, Mr. Vopicka, and $201.06 was collected. Coming into warmer climate, the ship’s officers have changed their heavy uniforms and appeared today in white duck. They look bully. How I wish the Red Cross had such a uniform. There was the usual inspection of the Chinks and they appeared in their Sunday best. Monday, August 13th -- Continues warmer. About 9:30 this morning the ship gave a sudden unaccountable lurch. It threw some of us around pretty lively and we thought for a moment an accident had happened, but we learned that the ship had made a sudden turn to avoid striking a whale. Many porpoises were seen by us, but no whales this A.M. Our last meeting on board ship was held today at 10:30. The total number of souls on the Empress of Russia is one thousand, one hundred and eighty, divided as follows: Saloon Passengers 287 Russians 67 Chinese 226 Second Class 62 Japanese 6 Total Passengers 649
Chinese Servants 470 Grand Total 1,180 A wonderful and most enjoyable wild dance of abandon was held on the top deck aft tonight (the last night), in which practically everyone joined. It did not start until about 11:30 or 12 o'clock and we all had a great time, knowing that most of us would never see each other again. After the dancing, many lingered and drank high balls and other good things until the "wee" hours of the morning, and there were many couples up late in order to be with each other as long as possible, never to meet again after the ship runs in in the morning. Tuesday, August 14th -- Today we awoke to find ourselves in the harbor of Yokohama and, lying at anchor in sight were two of Uncle Sam's Men of War -- The Brooklyn and the Cincinnati. Gosh! Old Glory did look good, and there to our left was a big hotel, at which we all expected to stop, but which we all visited later during our Japanese stay. We had changed our schedule and will go straight through to Tokyo and remain there until we depart for Russia. Our delay at Yokohama was not long. The Japanese officials are very courteous. The Japanese newspaper men are right on the job. Group pictures were taken on board ship (by the newspaper men) of our party and later appeared in their papers. We finally went ashore, without examination of baggage or any trouble at all with the customs -- they passed us en masse without examination at all, as a courtesy. It is a grand, grand thing to be on terra firma again. We were struck particularly by the fact that there are hundreds of boats in the harbor, but they are all very small rickety looking fishing smacks, operated most of them with only one oar from the stern. It is truly a great sight to see our party, men and women, for the first time riding in rikishas, and in such a large party. We were en route from the wharf to the street car station. One of our doctors of rather heavy stature caused his Jap rikisha man to lose his grip when he mounted and had a near-spill. My first experience today with Japanese money. Their dollar is called yen and their cent is called sen. Ordinarily one yen is worth fifty cents in American money and a sen of course worth one-half cent. We were stung by the rikisha men, I found later. They charged us one yen to the station and it should have been about thirty or forty sen. The street car fare (about forty-five minutes ride) from Yokohama to Tokyo, is fifty-one sen (25c). Here we all are, packed into a Japanese street car, side by side with our supposedly future enemies, and we find them delightful and I can not possibly make you understand how very polite -- and dressed in such peculiar costumes. We actually know that we are not on our own dear soil, but really in a foreign land, where everything is strange and new to us -- with an impossible tongue heard on all sides. Fortunately there is a Jap on the car who understands English and he told the conductor where to put us off. There is nothing particularly out of the ordinary about their streetcars, except that they have first, second and third class, but we had difficulty in telling the difference. We finally arrived at Tokyo, a good-sized station, built somewhat along the lines of those in New York, and again took rikishas to the Imperial Hotel, where we stopped for about a week. Instead of putting down happenings according to date, I will do my best to give my impressions of the visit and our experiences. The food at the Imperial Hotel was not much, at least it did not particularly appeal to us and then again we missed our wonderful Chinese Waiters. We have been spoiled by our experiences on the Empress of Russia, I am afraid. Never again will I believe that a Japanese servant can compare at all with the Chinese. There isn't any comparison. Our rooms are very roomy. There are many mosquitoes here and they provide netting for the beds and leave the windows wide open and furnish no screens. Some idea! We could never secure any satisfactory explanation of this. Evidently screens are unobtainable or very expensive in Japan. The people, as a whole, are very economical and wonderful when it is taken into consideration that only a few decades back they were savages. Japan has come to the front very quickly. They developed rapidly along certain lines. In many ways, however, I think they are the most over-rated people in the world, but then you have to give them credit for having accomplished some remarkable things in the few years that they have been a really civilized people. We found things cheap in the stores. For instance, belts for our uniforms which cost six dollars in Canada, we bought (or had made in a hurry) in Tokyo for Y7.00 ($3.50). Puttees cost us $8.50 in the States and we bought them in Tokyo for Y8.00, or $4.00. You can get a rikisha boy to pull you around town for two or three hours for Y1.50, or 75 cents. But, when you want to see the Geisha girls dance, you have to dig deep into your jeans. Two of us took a rikisha and skedaddled down to one of these emporiums, took off our shoes and puttees at the entrance, and they escorted us into a small room, the four sides of which could be slid back upon occasion and we were invited to squat. Then about five of these little Japanese girls sat down and we carried on a wonderful conversation for a while. The girls were very delicate and charming, but not at all good looking, or beautiful. Finally we taught them to say several things in English and they were greatly pleased. We smoked and bought some Scotch and continued our chat. Then paper and pencil was produced and in some inconceivable way we learned their names and they wrote them in Japanese and we in turn wrote them in English and then the same with our names. Finally they brought forth a peculiar looking instrument, a cross between a banjo and a fiddle, and started to pick at it. It produced the most unmusical music I ever heard in all my life. One of them started to dance. It was a very serious business with them. In Japan, I understand, the Geisha girl is looked up to to a really remarkable extent, while the wife at home is good enough to do the housework and look after the Jap's comfort. She is a pretty good piece of furniture. To return to the dance -- finally all of them joined in and we encored. One of them wanted us to dance so we had a one-step and I found that they caught our steps very quickly, much to our surprise. Everything being over, our bill was presented. It amounted to about Y13.80 ($6.90). We went home immediately disgusted, feeling that we had not nearly gotten our money's worth, although we had taken up the time of four or five girls for about three quarters of an hour, or more. We visited many of the shops in Tokyo and Yokohama, our uniforms attracting considerable attention, and were well received everywhere. The Japanese Red Cross Society is particularly attentive. They gave us a luncheon, presided over by one of their Barons. Our entire party was seated at a very long table, with Japanese men and women distributed here and there among us. The main decoration on the table was several large blocks of ice in the center of which were flowers. There were at least four or five of these on the table. The cakes of ice were about 18" x 12" x 10". There was a favor at each plate, all being fans of one description or another. The Baron made quite a long speech, at which we all listened very attentively, although we of course could not understand a word the gentleman was saying. After delivering the speech, he remained standing while the interpreter (Secretary of the Japanese Red Cross), who stood immediately behind him, translated the speech into English. The Baron then seated himself. Colonel Anderson arose, replied to the speech in English, and the Japanese were just as attentive to what he said as we were to what the Baron had said. The Colonel followed out the same scheme as the Baron, remained standing while the translation was going on into Japanese. The luncheon was excellent and we all had a most enjoyable time. We also visited the Japanese hospitals. The doctors and nurses were naturally very much interested and made a very thorough inspection. The hospitals did not strike us as being nearly so complete and efficient as the hospitals in the States. Instead of everything being white, it looked just like any ordinary building, except that it was very large. The woodwork, however, was kept remarkably clean; one could see it had been really worn away with frequent scrubbings. They served tea for our entire party at the hospital. Everybody is particularly polite in Japan and, naturally, we did not want to be outdone in the matter of politeness and we all acquired the habit of bowing and scraping, so much so that we could hardly refrain from continuing the performance when we were together at the hotel later. We had many pictures taken in front of the hospital, one official photograph and many newspaper snapshots. 1 On one of my shopping tours in Tokyo and Yokohama I bought kimonos, night gown, tablecloths, and other little souvenirs, most of which I am bringing back with me -- I did arrange to send one kimono home by an American friend whom I met in Yokohama and who is traveling for a subsidiary company of the Richmond Cedar Works. Mills, McCarthy and myself had a wonderful dinner at the Hotel La France at Yokohama, with several American traveling men. We had been complaining about the poor food at the Imperial Hotel at Tokyo, and were truly hungry. Our appetites were certainly satisfied. We were served steak, chicken (whole chicken), asparagus, cauliflower, potatoes, chops, ice cream, cake and some other sweet dessert, coffee, champagne, wine and the Lord only knows what else. We thought the courses would never end, and it only cost us Y5.00 each, not including the wine and champagne, which was Y3.00 each additional. We then hired an automobile (by the way, Tokyo and Yokohama are very fond of Buicks) and went sight seeing. We caught the streetcar about 11:00 P.M. and went back to Tokyo. The many picturesque little huts we passed on the way in making this trip in daylight and other typical Japanese scenes, I can not properly describe. You will have to imagine them. The Treasurer and I also visited Yokohama together on banking matters. Their banking methods are very interesting. They have a peculiar way of adding, for one thing. They do not use an adding machine, as all of our banks do, but have a small affair, resembling a child's toy -- wooden beads on wires and they slip these beads back and forth. Each clerk in the bank seems to have one of these small devices on his desk. As an experiment, when we were on the train later between Tokyo and Tsuruga (on our way to Vladivostok, Russia), the boys got up a match between the Japs in the dining car and the writer, to see which was the faster -- their machine or the regular method of adding without a machine. To our great surprise and delight the Japs were very badly beaten. I could add up my figures three times while they were getting the result once. The fellow claimed to be good at it, but evidently he was a rank amateur. While visiting a bank in Yokohama, I was introduced to a Japanese banker, named "Bryan". I thought the name very peculiar for a Japanese and was told later that this was not the man's real name, but that he had presented himself, a stranger, at the residence of a very prominent American by that name, years ago and announced that he was a great admirer, etc., of the gentleman and had come to pay him a visit. His visit, I am told, was for seven years, and since then he has assumed the name of "Bryan”. There seems to be no architecture in Japan. The streets, with few exceptions, compare at least favorably with our alleys. The houses are all built very closely together and of very frail, inflammable material. One sees some brick buildings here and there, and some concrete and occasionally reinforced concrete in their larger buildings, several of which we saw under construction. We visited the American Minister's office at Tokyo, to find that he was on his way from America to his post. Mr. Post Wheeler, the Charge d’Affaires, and his wife tendered us a very delightful informal tea at the Embassy -- an open air affair. It is not an imposing place, but the grounds, though small, are rather attractive. We are all disappointed in not seeing flowers growing profusely everywhere, but we are told that we are here at the wrong season. I am sorry because I think probably our entire perspective would be different if we had happened to be here at that particular season. Alcoholic drinks can be obtained at the Hotel and other places in Tokyo and Yokohama. I mention this because in Russia no alcoholic drinks can be obtained. In Manchuria, of course, drinks of all kinds can be had. We did not see many military officers, but nearly everybody wears a uniform of some character, and it was really impossible for us to differentiate between military officers and the people. As the Japanese people are extremely polite and look after that end of the game very religiously, we have all been cautioned to salute their officers. Not knowing the insignias, we are somewhat flustered as to how we are going to handle the matter. It was finally decided that each man had to use his own judgment and, if he thought the man was an officer, to salute him anyhow. If it developed he was not an officer, there was nothing lost. This naturally caused many laughable little incidents -- one of which I will relate. We are riding in rikishas through one of the very narrow streets and saw a short distance away a very elaborate uniform and we thought, by all means, that man is certainly a high military dignitary. Accordingly, in passing we all saluted him in great style, only to find out a few minutes later that he was a lackey. This did not deter us, however. We kept at it, determined to do the best we knew how. Two of us went in a rikisha to hunt for a jeweler, to have a watch repaired. The streets are of plain earth with rows of shanties on either side -- that is, speaking of a typical street. Some have regular American shop windows, but most of them have an awning extended out to where the pavement should be -- but there was none -- and completely enclosed, with a flap in the front left open. Some have a few articles displayed upon a raised floor and the Japs remove their wooden soled slippers and squat on the floor to transact their business with the merchant. We caused quite a good deal of comment, none of which we could understand. Men and women, boys and girls of very small size, most of them wearing some kind of slippers, but none with socks or stockings, crowded around us, few of whom had anything to say. They simply watched us in open-mouthed wonder. I tried, in several of the shops to buy some tobacco, and found I amused them very much by my efforts to make them understand what I wanted. The sewerage system, if they have one, is very poor. It is a smelly place. This may not be quite so pronounced or noticeable during the proper season, when there are plenty of flowers and foliage in general. We quite frequently have tea served in our rooms, some of us having acquired the habit while aboard the Empress of Russia. I failed to mention that, while I had a very large, pretty room, there was no bath. Had to go out into the hall, where there were two bathrooms -- and this is the best hotel in the capital of the Island. Several of us wanted to go out for a rikisha ride one night. Before going out, it had drizzled a little and then stopped. We found it very difficult to find a rikisha man, and when found, he thought it very funny. It not only amused him but many others, although it did not rain at all. He wanted to put the top up and the rain curtain in front and we had some trouble in persuading him it was not necessary to smother us. It was very noticeable that the speed of the "For Hire" rikisha man is not nearly so great as that of the privately owned, nor quite so springy and strong looking. One can really be quite classy in a rikisha rig if he has a young fellow who holds himself well when running and has a good strong stride. These fellows all have enormous leg muscles. Most of them are very swarthy as to complexion. We -- that is, two of us -- visited a curio shop. We were met at the door by a Japanese, who immediately called for someone else and a very charming young Japanese girl appeared and gave us a bow down to the ground and then motioned to us to come up stairs, where the curio shop was really located. For a wonder, we did not have to remove our shoes. The Jap, although the proprietor of the place, simply hung around to be of service, and the girl did all of the honors, until it came down to the matter of price. While we were wrangling with the proprietor, the little Japanese girl fetched in tea and crackers. I have never seen such polite people in all my life, but still they are clever when it comes down to trading. We bought a few souvenirs, after spending about a half hour in the place, and the young lady again bowed to the floor upon our departure. I had lunch at the hotel at Yokohama one day with several of our party. We had a very good meal with wine. Afterwards we went to the various banks in the city working on the problem of purchasing sufficient Rubles (Russian money) to carry us through Russia. Later, I took a rikisha and alone made a very careful and thorough search for a good pair of leather leggins. I went into dozens of places and had many little experiences; tried on leggins at several shops, but had to finally give it up. Without exception, the Japs in the stores were very courteous and on the job. I finally found the leggins in Tokyo, but even then did not get exactly what I wanted. We were given a very nice send-off when we left Tokyo. At the station there were many flowers on the platform, and the Baron, who presided at the luncheon given us by the Japanese Red Cross, presented Miss Patterson, our Chief Nurse, with a beautiful Red Cross Japanese pin, signifying fidelity to duty and love of her fellow-man in trouble. This is the first presentation of this particular pin to an American. Many speeches were made and we finally continued our long journey, going by rail to Tsuruga, our port of embarkation, for the trip across the Japan Sea, to Vladivostok. We slept in their funny little sleeping cars, very narrow, with beds arranged as they are in our Pullmans, but it really is not fair to compare them with our sleepers as they were in no way as good. They have both uppers and lowers, but in addition to the cars being narrow (due to a narrower gauge) the bunks were not long enough -- being used in Japan I suppose they were built to fit the Japanese stature. We had the diner on for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning. The meals were fair. Several pictures were taken by the boys en route on this piece, showing some of the real country life of Japan. Download 399.67 Kb. Share with your friends:
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