Untitled

202 THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO.
himself in the peculiar Japanese fashion on his heels, and
waited for the beverage.
"
Ice-water, one cent," drawled Fitz, imitating a wellknown
character, who vends that luxury on the streets of Bos-
ton. "Would not that sight warm the hearts of our total
abstainers? I see you are adopting our civilization, Oto."
rr
Yes, and our hats," said Johnnie, looking toward a boshi-
urij who knelt upon a piece of matting on the other side of the
road.
"Suppose we go over and price his bean-pots?"
said Fitz.
"It is capital fun."
The hat-seller, a meek youth of nineteen, was chatting with
a gentleman dressed in silk, who, on seeing the foreigners,
bowed politely and walked away. The boshi-uri respectfully
saluted the new arrivals, and said, pointing to some clumsylooking
head-coverings which rested on two boxes behind him.
"Do your honorable excellencies require any nice boshi?"
r? Where are those made?" demanded Johnnie.
:r
They are not imported," suavely
answered the man.
" I should think not," said Fitz, with a chuckle, adding in
English, " Sallie, did you
*
ever see such curiosities?"
Yes, on a scare-crow," she quietly replied.
very strange shape, are "
they not?
rf
They
are a
"
Oto smiled, and said, They are what you call in America,
r
shockingj bad hats.' I never could understand where our
people got their models."
"
I know," said Fitz.
' Two hundred years ago they
copied those used by the Dutch, and have never changed the
style." Turning to the man, he asked, " How much do you
wares ? "
charge for your
"For a superior quality of taka-bo (stove-pipe), two yen
(dollars), for lowest, fifty sen. For a superior quality of