In the villages of Mitsugahamo cleanliness was the dominating virtue; carefully swept streets were offset by bamboo fences enclosing productive gardens and rockeries with plants of flaunting blossoms. Hardwood carving and lacquer work employed a large number of the men, while the women, with their little tycoons strapped like a papoose, were engaged in weaving silk on a loom or in fancy painting and embroidering.
The people of this island seemed to be the typical Japanese aborigines, there being no indication of a mixture of blood, such as is seen in such seaport cities as Nagasaki and Yokohama.
Our next visit of importance was to the sacred island of Miyajima, where legend tells us a sacred fire has been burning for three thousand years. For ages past there has been neither a birth nor a death chronicled on this strange island of the “Rising Sun.” Indisposition of health is immediately
attended by deportation, while the quarantine officials cautiously examine every subject for any disorder that might tend to suddenly snuff out the light of existence, and, like the parable of the ten virgins, those whose lights are dimly burning cannot enter in. (See 25th chapter of Matthew, records of orthodoxy.) After visiting various other ports of unpronounceable names, our ship steamed to the city of Kobe, described in a previous narrative. Lying in the harbor were the British battleship Endymion, two Italian cruisers, a German battleship, two Russian monitors, and the Japanese battleship Hatsuse. The following day the baseball team of the cruiser New York, having accepted a challenge, went ashore to cross bats with the “Kobe Country Club,” the members of which were more than eager to blot out the stigma of their previous defeat. The day was an ideal baseball day in every respect; a cool breeze blew through the park in the west end of the city, while thick gray clouds shut off the burning rays of the sun.
On reaching the “diamond,” the American contingent, consisting of the baseball
team chaperoned by Chaplain Chidwick, the band, and every available man whose duties did not prevent him from getting ashore, were given an ovation by a mixture of Japanese, Russian, Italian, and English voices resembling somewhat the noise in “Cheyenne Joe’s” Rocky Mountain Inn during the “Louisiana Purchase Exposition.” The grandstand was thronged with officers and wives, representing the Japanese army and the vessels of various nations, numerous tourists, and butterfly geishas attired in pretty silk kimonos; it was also noticeable that the American party was augmented by Captain and Mrs. Putnam Bradley Strong, widely known in both hemispheres.
With the rendition of popular selections by the band, the game opened with clever playing on both sides, the New York’s battery and in-field having a shade the better of the game, though the out-field of the “Country Club” did excellent service in stopping the sphere, which was pounded hard by the Americans. The game was very pretty in all its details, resulting in a victory for the “blue jackets”; score, 5 to 3.
After the game had closed, it was amusing to hear the admirers of our opponents expressing their opinions as to what might have been the result if the short-stop had only swung to “first” instead of “home,” how a double play could have been made, putting the side out and preventing a score, et cetera.
In the evening, with some friends whom I had met on a previous visit, I journeyed to the “club,” where the conversation was all baseball; after the fine points of the game had been discussed, it was unanimously decided that, it being too late to perform a diagnosis, an autopsy should be held, somebody even suggested an inquest; however, let it suffice, that the obsequies terminated ceremoniously, with the pathetic recital of “Casey at the bat” by W. P. Bradley, an American. In the British army during its hard-fighting days, when the loss of so many soldiers had a depressing effect on those who attended their departed heroes to the grave, it was deemed expedient to have the band play inspiring airs, immediately following the last notes of “taps,” which invariably
had a cheering effect on the soldiers; this was accompanied by a social gathering at the “canteen,” where deep draughts, in communion and good fellowship, were quaffed from the “flowing bowl.”