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TAGS TWO. SATTODAT, TXZV AST 29, I92t. . THS . CISf OJiil, G AiitTi imER fro:.i KISS , BUKENEY IN JAPAN Interesting Letter From Form- er Teacher In ; Dallas and Gastonia Schools Chatty v Comment on Japanese Life . . and Customs. ' . The following interesting letter has been received by the Business Women '. Bible Claw of the First Presbyterian church from Miss Bessie Blakeney, form erly a member of the class. Miss Blak- , eney left Gastonia in December for Van aouver, B. C, whence she tailed for Japan at a missionary from the Southern Presbyterian church. 1 . Miss Blakeney is a niece of Dr.. Alex Martin, pastor of the Presbyterian church la Bock HilL An aunt of hers, Miss Edmonia Martin is a missionary to Brazil. - , Miss Blakeney was for some time a teacher in the Dallas high school and taught in the Gastonia schools last fall. The letter: Nagoya, Japan, Sunday 4 th. Dear Everybody: Well, I got an awfully botched up let- ter to you all off on a fast steamer, so I aope you will hear in about fifteen days. I told you in that letter that we hal a rery nice voyage nice, though, in ' that the weather was bad, and the boat ery, Tery rough. I was not at all sea sick, and enjoyed every minute of it The only accident I met with was getting lammed up against an iron bridge when the ship gave an unexpected lurch. That -cut my eyebrow and lip, and it bled all ever my beloved Coblenx boudoir cap, otherwise I didn't mind much, though they teased me a lot about my black eye and Up, as it happe'ned the morning after Christmas and a good many of the pas sengers had gotten rather gay Christmas light , ' We had a fancy dress ball New Year's J eve, and you would have oeen surprised to tee what ingenious costumnes they con trived, Mr. Mac was Charlie Chaplin, the best one I ever saw. Mr. Wayland was a waiter, and did his part beautifully. Mr. Dawson was an Italian organ grimier, s Uke s, the key. He was the funniest thing I ever saw, and Mr. uawson maue mm nop he looks Uke an Italian anyhow, and Mr. Douglas, the star performer, was a mon- " and dance till he was nearly dead, but he v woa fiwt priie to our great delight and amusement. Mrs. Mac was my! "Ma and I was a spoiled baby, a role as you know I am peculiarly gifted in playing, The children were delighted with us and juite indignant because we didn't get first price but Miss McClung as Father Time got that, and she was splendid. I told you in the other letter that Miss Ilansell met me and that she wanted me to go on to Tokyo1, that night on the elec . til ear) but as it was New Year the cnstorn house 'was closed and I coaldn't ; get my baggage. , Miss Han vll dined with OS on the ship ' (my, but we had good things to eat on the voyage and I didn't miss a meal or lose a meal the entire time.) After din er we all went up town, took her to the station, then got ricbishas and rode a round a wbiV. Tbey are delightfully com-1 fortable, but you feel like a dog having the little men trot you " und. They are as, strong ai little mu. - You should see their LEG 8. Then I went back and packed my steamer trunk, and the next morning got everything off and through the customs. They were .very nice, just opened one trunk and poked around in it a little. " Miss Hansell and I went on to Tokyo, Oh, I did hate to tell those others good bye. . They have been so sweet to me and - I like them all so much. ' Tokyo, as I told you before, is only a thirty minute ride from Yokohama. The ears were packed and jammed. New Year U tnetr great day you know. To my uprise the Japanese men got up every time and gave us a seat. Tbey have two loag seats facing each other on all ears. atreet ears and trains. Finally we reach d that section of Tokyo where I am to be tiiis winter and we got another rickiaha aad went on to the Christian Compound The house is a great big, high ceiled . place, very nicely furnished, and tolerably well heated. Miss Parker and Miss Pal mer live there. They are both from Co. jumoia; Missouri and are. mighty nice, Miss Parker has been out for years and speaks Japanese like a native, while Miss Palmer is still at language school. They . spve their missionaries two years, and I will only have part of one, but they say I can use the language school method ami go right on by myself. 1 hope so! we were invited out to dinner at tiie Watson's (from Ky.) the next house on . the Compound that night. I was right . tired, but changed my lre and we all " went They had about fifWn guests, ' and served the di nner ou little individual Japanese tea tables, beautifully carve! wood and lacquer a7air. They come tn , "nests" of three, one slips un.ler the other when not in use. Mrs. Waton hag lovely china ami sil ver, so have the fo'k here and M:ss Parker. .We had chicken aul dressing and gravy, scalloped potatoes, nauted beets, macaroni cooked with tomatoes, " buttered bread, fruit salad with maynn aaise, and tangerines and coeoanut ami eoeoanut cake for desert, ami tra. of course. . They have delicious oranges aud per eimmons and things like that here. ' We got up at six the next morning, took an early, train and got here (N'ago ya) at four. It is an eight hour ride, but traveling is very cheap here. All mission, arias go second class, too. Only the ex tremely wealthy ride first, and second is ' very nice. -, We had Japanese -lunch on the train, fiarah bought these little wooden boxes. One had sweetened rice with grated fish ever it Another little one, like a mat'-' box, was filled with curious little pickled , vegetables that tasted like krant Each box had chop sticks put up in sanitary paper, aad we had to eat with them, I eouldat use nine rery well, and I didn't Has the sweet rice and fish so awfully i : - ) much. But I ate about half, and all my pickle and then we had bottles of hoi sweet mil, and a little net bag of tan gerineal The latter are delicious and quite tueap. ' We saw Fuji all the way. You never get far from it is this section It's gor geus,' sublime, beautiful, 'Wonderful. ' I tell you Fuji's "got me" already. Mr: Pmylhe met us at the station here and brought us to the school on the street ear again. One doesn't feel much like a missionary riding on street cars. There goes one now. This house is precious. Very much like Uncle Alex and Aunt Dora's. That's why I like it so. Of course it is mueb smaller and not nearly so well built, nor so substantial, but the general effect oa the inside is much the same. The walls and wood work are the same color, and there are many glass doors and windows, .1 . V. IOk. .InlTA TttnOII " mm mo sun vuxj dw.o u& Hj'uu streams in, in the same beautiful way. Instead of doors down stairs we have sliding screens, I guess you call them. They have two cute little servants, Kora San and Tora San their names sound alike to me, but of Course that's not jusi what they are. They are about Eudora's size, though they are eighteen or nineteen I think. They seem so willing and pleas ed to serve. I think they are wonderful, but the missionaries say they are very hard to train. I forgot to tell you that when I got here yesterday Mrs. Smythe was having tea for Miss Ambler and me, and I had to jump into a dress and run down there with them. Miss Ambler is an Episcopal Mission ary from Kyoto, who is visiting Miss Kirtland. This is still the New Year holiday, you know Miss Kirtland could easily pass for Mildred McCubbin's twin sister, and yon know we are not unlike, so Mr. Smythe says the Japanese will never be able to tell us apart. I suppose that's natural, for they all look alike to me, and I guess two foreigners who are so near the same size with the same coloring, etc., would look alike to them. They had no English service this morn ing so they made me rest, which I was very thankful to do, and after dinner, we are going tj a joint Japanese prayer meeting, and tonight they are going to have the girls over here for prayer meet ing. Monday we are going to Toyohashi to spend the day with Mrs. Gumming, and then I'll go on back to Tokyo, where I begin work in the school Wednesday. I may wait and add the experience of the rest of the trip to this, for it won't go off for some time anyhow. So, move anon. unday P. M. The Japanese Union prayer meeting was ages long, one reason I thought so perhaps, was that I couldn't understand ne word of it except the Aniens, t like Macbeth I responded to these most heartily. ' TJie first hymn they san was "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, " and I sang- the English words softly, and felt that I was joining in. But during the singing of the second hymn it flashed across my mind that C. E. was meeting at home just at this hour (disregarding the difference of time), and the picture of that came before me so vividly that tt almost knocked me down. We came home by the "Monument" oue of the sights' of Nagoya, which was erected to the s Idlers killed in the Rus sian War. I wish you all could see the interesting things here. It was both fortunate and unfortunate to land on New Year 'a For tunate, because we have gotten to see all the curious decorations and the shops wer all closed, so I eouldn 't spend what little money I had left Unfortunate, because no one wants to work 'during the. holidays and when they do they charge about double. So of course we go stuck, for everything and prices are high here. White our missionaries have so many conven iences that those in other fields haver '1 they have to count every cent to make expenses meet For instance they were counting up the other day how much little oil stove used to heat one of the bed rooms night and morning cost per day, and if it cost over a certain sum they would have to discontinue it And they know it takes three buckets of coat to keep the grate going at the proper temperature on a day when the sun isn't shining, and only two when it is. The Japanese houses look just like I imagined they did, but oh, the queer little alleys they call streets. A big man could stretch out his arms and touch the houses on each side. Of course they aren 't paved so you can. imagine how muddy they get. I can 't realize I am living in the fourth largest city in the world, hut I do know 1 could get lost here in about five minutes and wander for a quarter of a century through these curious little winding paths they call streets before I ever got back to the Compound. Of course the main streets are wide and the shops the most fascinating things I have ever seen. We walk right down the middle of the streets here, and are in constant danger, not of being run over by the street cars, or even the rickishas or horses, but by the bicycles. - Every boy in Japan has two I think and it looks too queer to see that Oriental figure dashing through trie streets on the latest model bicycle. Their horses have awfully queer "Ag gers" out here, and quite vicious temper they say; but no wonder the way they are treated. They have all been gayty decorated too for Jfew Year's and I Vuow they'll miss their blankets when the holiday is ov r. Their dogs look as if they might be de scendants of a Very ordinary breed brought rver by Commodore Perry, which have been deteriorating with, every succeeding generation, and they navn quite a pronounced Japanese accent I don't like them much. The kites are the most interesting ani mals I't9 seen. This is the kite season you know, and they surely have some gorgeous specimens. the' train to Toyohashi. The Japanese were having some sort of ' festival at a cearby shrine, and I have never seen such crowds. Ctcus day at home "was np thing in comparison. The rush was so great that when I got into the crowd they just picked me up and shoved me oa the train. We were able to get seats, although we were traveling third class. It is a tw hours' ride from Nagoya. to Toyohasht, and the country between is beaulif ul. One never gets very far from the moun tains or the ceain Japan. I was especially interested in the farm ing. I wish you all could see the rice fields. They look like a crazy quilt They have little terraces between the different fields, and they walk on top of the little terraces. Every arable inch of Japan is under cultivation and every field is just like a garden. Mr. Smythe says it tm rather hard to explain or use the parable of the sower, because they have no "stony places" or "thorns by the way side." Now at this time of year they are bedding up the rice fields and planting wheat They have to bed it up because the rice fields are so low the wheat would be drowned. The mulberry fields surprised me too. I imagined great groves of huge mui berry trees, such as we have at home, bui not so I had noticed field after field of little sprouts, some tied together, more like raspberries than any thing I can compare them with. It seems that they cut them down, sprout and all, and take them to the honorable silk worms, who are calmly reposing on the layers of col ton, and feed them in bed, as it were. They raise all sorts of vegetables ami these look mighty nice in the fruit stalls, all washed clean and neatly arranged. I don't think well ever suffer, for food, but prices are very high. For instance: Butter is about 75c a pound, eggs 60c a dozen, sugar 20c a pound and coal Is about $19.00 a ton ; beef 65c a pound, etc. Of course these prices vary as they do at home. Rice has greatly increased in price. Probably because they are raising less rice and more mulberries. Traveling has been cheap, but the rates are going to be raised the first of Feb ruary. But that won 't dismay us. We'll travel third class instead of second, and it will still be cheaper, Mrs. Cumming says she has been out here twenty-eight years and has ridden first flags twice in that time. It is amusing to watch the Japanese on the trains. They love to travel in great style and make as much of a show as possible. If the trains are very crowded as they have been btnee I came they lay aside all that "Gaston and Alfonse-ness" and push nnd hove and fight and scratch for the best places. They have been ivariably polite to us, however, and I am most favorably im pressed with them. There are several things that I think will endear them to me. They have a remarkable love and appreciation for the beautiul. They seem so fond of the little children, and are so kind to them. (Oh these dear, adorable, little black headed, almond eyed, cream-colored children). 1 wish you could see them. They are wear ing their gayest, finest kimonas now dur ing the holiday season,, but they insist on wearing ridiculous little foreign aprons and hideous little soup-plate felt hars liiesil - V - The Daily Gazette WANT ADS Are You Using Them, Mr. Business Man? ( Continued on pare 7.1 Two Styles: 10 Cents A Line, and 15 Cents A Line at) Subscribe To The Gastonia Gazette TWO DAYS ONLY Tuesday - Wedbeseay NOT A WAR PICTURE Can you stand to have "The Eyes of the World" upon you? The answer is waiting for you at the 6 SHOWS. CONTINUOUS 11a. in. 1 p. in 3 p. m S p m T p. tUm and 9 p. m Gastonian Theatre ... PRICES Child 20c - ' Adult. 30c War Tax Included ,- ' ' ' : i ' ' -- --'T :.:.; , j Se V , ml Jttf' M n -. . Monday, January 5th." I We got up early this morning and took ( .
Gastonia Daily Gazette (Gastonia, N.C.)
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Feb. 28, 1920, edition 1
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