Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/381

1905.]





day, in 1854, an American fleet sailed into the harbor of Tokio, the capital of the fair island-empire of Japan. This greatly alarmed the Japanese, for as much as they dreaded all Europeans, they considered Americams as the worst of barbarians.

But Commodore Perry, captain of the fleet, soon calmed their fears by making a treaty with the Emperor which opened the ports of Japan to all the civilized world. He brought with him a miniature steam-engine and a train of cars as a present to the Japanese Emperor. It was a great novelty to our yellow-skinned neighbors, for they had never seen a locomotive before.

And when Commodore Perry laid the track and put the train on it in the palace courtyard, all the high officials of the empire turned out to see it run. Many of the must dignified men of the empire threw themselves sprawling upon the tops of the cars, and in that most ridiculous position went whirling around the courtyard of the palace! They were pleased with their ride, and others took one in the same way.

Perry also presented the Emperor with a telegraph system, and thus steam power and electricity were introduced into fair Japan, the land of chrysanthemums. This little episode of the steam-engine made Japan and the United States firm friends, and thus they have remained,

May that peace never be broken!