ley field harvesting. There were, it is needful
to remark, neither lights nor shadows to invite the blanishments of
courting. The coal handling women were from fifteen to fifty years
of age, and all so busy the inevitable babies must have been left
at home. I have never seen many American or European babies "good"
as weary mothers use the word, as the commonest Japanese kids. They
do not know how to cry, and a girl of ten years will relieve a mother
of personal care by carrying a baby, tied up in a scarf, just its
head sticking out (I wish they could be induced to use more soap and
water on the coppery heads, from which pairs of intent eyes stare out
with sharp inquiry, as wild animals on guard). The girl baby bearer,
having tied the child so that it appears to be a bag, slings it over
her shoulder, and it interferes but slightly with the movements of
the nurse; does not discernibly embarrass her movements. The men
colliers, it must be admitted, are a shade reckless in the scarcity
of their drapery when they are handling baskets in the presence
of ladies. They do usually wear shirts with short tails behind,
and very economical breechcloths, but their shirts are sleeveless,
and the buttons are missing on collar and bosom. The only clothing
beneath the knees consists of straw sandals. The precipitation of
perspiration takes care of itself. There are no pocket handkerchiefs.

Nagasaki has good hotels, a pleasant, airy European quarter, and shops
stored with the goods of the country, including magnificent vases and
other pottery that should meet the appreciation of housekeepers. There
is no city in Japan more typically Japanese, few in which the line
is so finely and firmly drawn between the old and the new, and that
to the advantage of both.

It is hardly possible for those who do not visit Japan to realize
what a bitter struggle the people have had with their native land,
or how brilliant the victory they have won. The passage of the China
through the inner sea and far along the coast gave opportunity to
see, as birds might, a great deal of the country. The inner sea
is a wonderfully attractive sheet of water, twice as long as Long
Island Sound, and studded with islands, a panorama of the picturesque
mountains everywhere, deep nooks, glittering shoals, fishing villages
by the sea, boats rigged like Americans, flocks of white sails by day,
and lights at night, that suggest strings of street lamps. The waters
teem with li