each not more than twelve
or thirteen years of age, was formed upon a gangway reaching from the
bunks down the ship's side to the coal barge. Along this line of girls
and boys were rapidly passed baskets of coal, which might weigh from
sixty to eighty pounds each, so fast as to form one continuous stream of
the article discharging on board. The empty baskets were passed back
into the coaling barge by a line of younger girls at another port-hole,
being refilled by a third gang in the boat. The line of full coal
baskets would not be broken once in an hour, until the barge was emptied
and another hauled alongside to be similarly discharged. It was
remarkable how quickly the ship took on board her necessary supply of
fuel in this manner, and how steadily those young begrimed children
worked all day. The local agent told us they were paid for the ten or
twelve hours' work fifteen cents each. Their boiled rice and dried fish
would cost them four or five cents for the day, and so they would be
able to save ten cents. Clothing does not enter into cost when it is not
worn, and these little imps were as nearly naked as was possible. They
stopped work for about twenty-five minutes at meridian, and were served
each with a bowl of rice and fish, which they dispatched with
chopsticks, then drank a lacquered bowl of hot tea.

An extremely interesting month had been passed in the country which we
were now about to leave behind us, and should have been glad to tarry
longer in, but our arrangements, to a certain extent, were imperative,
and so we prepared to sail southward, through the long reach of the
China Sea. Some reflections, the result of our late experience, were
forced upon us at this juncture, relative to the people whose brief
acquaintance we had made.

The natural intelligence of the Japanese has no superior among any race,
however much it may be perverted, or have lain dormant for want of
stimulus. There is evidence sufficient of this in the fact that the
young men of Japan, who are sent to this country for educational
purposes, so frequently win academic prizes and honors over our native
scholars. This, too, notwithstanding the disadvantages under which a
foreigner must be placed. Instances of the brightness of their natural
intelligence have been so numerous in our colleges and educational
institutions as to cause public remark. It is therefore safe to say that
the mental capacity of the Japanese youth is certainly equal