en
quiet of this city of the dead, contrasting with the hum of feverish
life that came up from the busy town.

Nagasaki is quaint even for a Japanese city, its clean, broad streets
ornamented by growing palms, pomegranates, and bamboo-trees, while each
shop is a little museum in itself. Like Osaka, it is thoroughly Japanese
in its appearance, as well as in the manners and customs of its thrifty
inhabitants. Here, and throughout the entire country, one feels
impressed with the evident peace, plenty, and content. As to the
products of this locality, they are mostly figured porcelain,
embroidered silks, japaned goods, ebony and shell finely carved and
manufactured into ornaments. Every little low house has a shop in front,
and is, as usual, quite open to the street; but small as these houses
are, room is nearly always found in the rear or side for a little
flower-garden, fifteen or twenty feet square, where dwarf trees flourish
amid little hillocks of turf, and ferns, and small tubs of gold fish.
Azaleas, laurels, and tiny clumps of bamboos are the most common plants
to be seen.

This indicates a pure and simple taste in the people, yet there is a
system of social debasement throughout Japan, which was here so obvious
that it cannot be passed without notice. It is no worse, perhaps, than
in Vienna or Paris, where the law affords it certain sanction; but when
realized in connection with the quiet, peaceful aspect of Japanese
domestic life, the contrast renders the system more repulsive than it
appears elsewhere. The young women in these public establishments are
really slaves, as much as Circassian girls sold into Turkish harems, or
at Moorish Tangier. In Japan they are also sold, while yet children, by
their parents, for this purpose, and for a period of ten years. At the
close of their term such women are not considered disgraced, and are
eligible for marriage, frequently being sought by desirable husbands,
and rearing respectable families. The Japanese are not immaculate, and
primitive innocence does not exist among them. Virtue in women before
marriage is held rather lightly, but afterwards they must be spotless,
otherwise the penalty is death.

As regards the flora of Japan we learned some interesting facts. Though
the country is densely populated for its number of square miles, the
forest area is four times more extensive than that portion brought under
cultivation. Botanists declare its vegetation to be the riches