The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

ONE
THE KAILWAY IN JAPAN. 101
CHAPTER VII.
FROM YOKOHAMA TO TOKIO.
of the innovations in Japan since tlie arrival of the foreigners is
tlie railway. Among the presents carried to the country by Commo-
dore Perry were a miniature locomotive and some cars, and several miles
of railway track. The track was set up, and the new toy was regarded
with much interest by the Japanese. For some years after the country
was opened there was considerable opposition to tlie introduction of the
new mode of travel, but by degrees all hostility vanished, and the government
entered into contracts for the construction of a line from Yokohama
to Tokio. The distance is about seventeen miles, and the route fol-
lows the shore of the bay, wdiere there are no engineering difficulties of
consequence. In spite of the ease of construction and the low price of
labor in Japan, the cost of the work was very great, and would have
astonished a railway engineer in America. The work was done under
English supervision and by English contractors, and from all accounts
there is no reason to suppose that they lost anything by the operation.
Doctor Bronson and our young friends went from Yokohama to the
capital by the railway, and found the ride a pleasant one of about an
hour's duration. They found that the conductors, ticket -sellers, brake-
men, and all others with whom they came in contact were Japanese. For
some time after the line was opened the management was in the hands of
foreigners; but by degrees they were removed, and the Japanese took
charge of the business, for which they had paid a liberal price. They
have shown themselves fully competent to manage it, and the new system
of travel is cpiite popular with the people. Three kinds of carriages are
run on most of the trains; the first class is patronized by the high officials
and the foreigners who have plenty of money ; the second by the middle-
class natives—official and otherwise—and foreigners whose purses are not
plethoric; and the third class by the peasantry, and common people gen-
erally. Frank observed that there were few passengers in the first-class
carriages, more in the second, and that the third class attracted a crowd,