Our seat in the diplomatic gallery was directly opposite that of the president, Mr. Sugita, a most distinguished appearing man who looked not a little like our late John Hay. The vice president, Mr. Minsura, sat by the president’s side, a serious man of sedate face.
The chief secretary is Mr. Hayashida.
It was a most curious thing to look about the room and to contrast the individualities with those scenes we had watched in Congress, the German reichstag, and in Paris in the senate chamber.
Mayor Ozaki has the distinction of being one of the three best speakers in the parliament, and his rare penetration, wide travel, and far-seeing intellect, as well as his wide knowledge of affairs in a practical sense, furnish him splendid equipment in sustaining the oratorical eminence he has gained. The speakers on this afternoon were many and, judging from the rapid firing from the seats and the frequent laughter, they were both witty and well directed. The members showed every age from grey hair to the trim dapper young thirty with its brocade waist coat. Every style of Japanese dress of old feudal days, which is a most dignified and becoming garment, to the latest work of the European tailor, was in evidence.
The voices were for the most part the well-bred modulated ones of the upper class Japanese, but some were impassioned and some were silvery and persuasive.
In front of the president’s desk stand the different members expressing their views in as many fashions as there are men. Groups of men stood about laughing and talking as is usual at such places and in the lobbies there was the usual passing and doubtless buttonholing. On every hand might be seen deep eyes of astute glance and the still deeper eyes of a far-seeing statesmanship.
The sitting lasted till four, and in times of eager debate when much is at stake, they sometimes do not rise till nine p.m. This making of laws is a noble profession, but it has its humdrum side as do all professions, and men seek to escape from this tedious side in different ways characteristic of themselves.
There is a restaurant on the ground, indeed, two of them, and we dined at one with his excellency and listened to the brilliant conversation which he added as a sauce to the food. Very appetizing food, by the way!
In Mr. Ozaki, Tokyo has a very unique mayor, a man with as many sided an existence as his city! “Self made,” as he proudly said, he has been a public man all his life and yet likes the quiet of his country life and the family quite as much as the most humble man of the city. A great reader of men and of events, he is a democrat to the backbone and has a manner simple as a child and a mind as keen as one of the damioes swords. He was once exiled from his city as a dangerous character, “for I am always in the opposition,” he laughingly said, “always a fighter,” and then he told us of the first three positions he held, from which he resigned in one, two and three months respectively. He has a dash of dare devil still, this excessively quiet, self-contained man, but years, years how they take the fight out of the bravest! We learned from him of the great undertakings which he as mayor has in view: the building of a harbor for Tokyo, the new sewerage, the 10,000,000 yens to invest for the coming exposition and the other things with figures of something like one hundred million yens. It reminded us of hearing President Harper talk of laying out Mr. Rockefeller’s millions. Such a juggler in figures he seemed.
The Ginza has been widened and one of the finest systems of water works in the world just terminated. This alone would make the administration famous. Tokyo elects her mayor every six years, and this mayor has served five only to begin to learn he claims, the duties of his office.