Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/419

Rh Despite such conveniences, a railway journey in this country is apt to be anything but a joy. Owing to some cause not yet explained, the Japanese who, when abiding in their own native ways, are the very pink of neatness, become slipshod, not to say dirty, when introduced to certain conditions of European life. On stepping into even a first-class car, one as often as not has to pick one's way among orange-peel, spilt tea, cigar ends, beer-bottles overturned. The travellers are wallowing semi-recumbent along the seats, in untidy habiliments and dishabiliments. We have even seen a man—he was a military officer, and his dutiful spouse assisted him—change all his clothes in the car, though to be sure he availed himself of a friendly tunnel for the more adventurous portion of the enterprise. On another recent occasion, being ourselves somewhat short-sighted, we could not at first make out the nature of the occupation of an old gentleman who had just finished a good lunch. Closer scrutiny showed that he held his artificial teeth in his hand, and was busy picking and wiping them! Then, too, there is inordinate crowding, and whole batches of second-class passengers are, on the slightest provocation, transferred to the first. In fact, the whole thing is queer and unpleasant, unless of course the traveller be a philosopher to whom every novel experience supplies welcome material for meditation. Such a philosopher will perhaps enquire the reason of the stripe of white paint across the windows of the third-class cars on certain lines. It is a precautionary measure adopted for the safety of country bumpkins; for it has happened that some of these, lacking personal experience of glass, have mistaken it for air, and gashed themselves horribly in the attempt to shove their heads through what, in their innocence, they supposed to be that non-resisting medium.

The nomenclature of many Japanese railways is peculiar. The Ō-U line, for instance, is so called because it runs through the northern provinces of Rikuzen, Rikuchū, and Rikuoku, which together anciently bore the name of Ōshū, and the provinces of Uzen and Ugo. Thus the first syllable of each