EARTHQUAKES AND RAILROADS. 11>

The vehicle halted, and the man and his female-assistant stared at the
passing, rattling train.

“There, don’t you suppose they envy us, derice ae

“Yes, captain, and perhaps they hate the foreign mnovation. When
the telegraph wires were put up, the farmers were so hostile that when
one was stretched over their fields, they said the evil spirits would not
favor their crops, and they — not the evil spirits but the farmers, though
the latter acted like them — cut the wire and then tried to smash the
glass insulators of the poles! It was a mystery to them how a message
could go over the wire, and they would watch curiously a long while
to see the news travel! When this railroad was opened less than ten
years ago, I was present. They had a big time, and the big officials
including the mikado, or emperor, were present. One very marked
thing was the presenting of an address to the emperor by a deputation
of four merchants. That was a great thing in Japan, when the mer-
chant-caste, which does not stand high, thus approached and saw the
mikado, a being once bottled up and kept in the dark, so to speak, like
phosphorus.” é

« What is that man doing?” asked Ralph calling the doctor’s atten-
tion to a person who seemed to be stopping at the side of a road they
passed. The stranger was intent on work he held in his lap.

“ That must be an artist,” answered the doctor, “and he seems to
- be sketching something. The Japanese, you know, are very fond of
drawing and painting. Some of their sketches are ugly and grotesque,
but very original certainly. And they show genius of a certain kind.
Here is a horse,” and the doctor showed a picture he had with him.
“This horse certainly is full of fire and yet the artist executing it did
it in seven strokes, adding a few brush-sweeps for tail and mane.
The Japanese have peculiar skill in outline drawing. They will dash
vff the form of a bird, and the whole thing is very spirited.”