nd their missionaries to the
United States and thus we have a half hundred Buddhist temples on the
Pacific coast at the present time.

On landing at Yokohama, one of the first places I went to visit was the
great bronze idol of Kamakura, which is but eighteen miles from
Yokohama. It is about fifty feet high, and it is called the "Great
Buddha" or "Diabutsa." It is a thousand years old and a horrible looking
affair. I went up into the hollow image which is ninety-seven feet in
diameter. I wanted to scratch the eyes out, for they are said to be made
of solid gold. Years ago there was a temple over this image, so it is
said, but a great tidal wave swept the building away. Now they are
collecting money from tourists to erect another temple, so they say.
They tackle every American for a subscription and strangely enough they
get a lot of money out of them.

Speaking of heathen temples brings to mind a large one that I visited in
Tokyo. It is dedicated to a fox. The people used to believe, some of
them do yet, that when one dies his spirit enters the form of some
animal. A man is afraid to throw a rock at a dog for fear he will hit
his old grandfather--he doesn't know but that his grandfather's spirit
entered that particular dog. So they dedicate their temples to these
lower animals and often take better care of animals than poor people.

In this Tokyo temple mentioned there is a great image in one end of the
building and below it a money chest nearly as large as a trunk the lid
of which is like a hopper. Of course it takes money to keep up the
temple and the followers of Buddha come here to worship. They always pay
before they pray. A lot of us pray and then don't pay. Fortune tellers
are nearly always in heathen temples. The gambling instinct abounds. The
people too often undertake to deceive their gods by making promises that
they will do so and so if successful when they never intend to fulfill
the promises. It makes one's heart ache to see people bow down before
these lifeless idols. Most of these temples are hotbeds of immorality as
many of the treacherous priests have neither principle nor conscience.

One night I went to a real Japanese hotel. Of course, in a great city
like Tokyo, there are plenty of English or European hotels, but in this
case I went for the experience. Before entering we had to take off our
shoes. No person enters a real Japanese house with shoes on. However,
they wear clogs that can be kicked o