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10 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
people. The latter class knew nothing of the government,
except that they must yield unquestioning
obedience to its decrees.
Life was so quiet ;
it seemed to consist chiefly of
eating, sleeping, and smoking. If there were more
than that, it
appeared to be merely incidental. In
an American city, the sight of men on their way to
business is a spectacle of dramatic interest. To
stand still in the midst of such a crowd as surges
along Broadway who would dare to do it ? For a
merchant to be indifferent to customers who is
the man? Yet in Fukui, before a customer, the
merchant sat warming his
hands over his brazier, as
stolid as a statue. It was impolite to ask any one to
buy and as for the busiest ;
street, one might stand in
the middle of it all
day and neither be run over nor
knocked down. The contrast between the life of
human beings in Japan and in America was as great
as the difference between the mean wooden houses
of the former country and the comfortable dwellings
of the latter. Except on great festival days, when
this interior city looked something like bustling
Yedo, the streets were never crowded.
There are two ways of describing a Japanese city.
One is in the gazetteer style. Thus it
might be
said " : Fukui is a city in the province of Echizen,
on the Ashiwa river. It is the seat of a daimio's
government. It has a castle, two large bridges, a
theatre, a town-hall, several schools, many temples.
The chief productions are paper, silk, tea, and rice.
Population, forty thousand."