| Show interesting lentee bentee FRO FROM na JAPAN the following letter is from general van the american minister in japan to his brother frank Franl van valkenburg gh of milwaukee it Is written from the city of yeddo th the populous capital of the empire YEDO sunday september ag 1866 For sixty hours up to this time the rain min has been pouring down here in perfect torrents so that the ground about my house houie is deep with mud and water yesterday we had an earthquake the within a month and this morning a heavy typhoon or wind storm which blew down own one shanty in my yard and unroofed my stable it is still blowing at one pm ambut kut but but the sun hns has come out and I 1 think the worse of it is over I 1 rode up from yokohama 22 miles on horseback on thursday last last and have not been around much since is the name of the temple within whose yard or coni compound wound pound as they call it here my house is situated so I 1 call my place by that name which means the place of or eternal happiness there are over five hundred of these temples in yeddo some of them very large and magnificent the people all worship idols and their temples are surrounded by very beautiful grounds some sometimes timea times nive five or six hundred acres in extent filled with fine old trees and kept in grand order M my mv v house is built in japanese style one story high with sliding screens all around it so that it can be thrown all open or all closed up at pleasure the windows are made of the white paper of the country not a pane of glass in the house and the entire floor is covered with soft thick matting each mat being in n fact a mattress the tho e na natives ives sleep upon these mats which make a ve very comfortable bed my grounds rounds of about an acre and a half are are within forty feet of the temple and surround surrounded ded by two high fences between bel between which the sentinels who guard us are continually walking up and aud down back of the house is a fish pond fifty feet in length by twenty fivelo width filled with the largest goldfish gold fish I 1 have ever seen and I 1 take a great deal of pleasure in feed feeding lilg 1139 and watching them immediately back of the fish pond is a hill about forty feet high and covered with large trees and beautiful shrubs I 1 have there a japonica thirty feet or more in height and tw twenty nty inches in circumference two large chestnut trees full of nuts several Ur steria vines altheas altheah Al theas Heb eb riscus bamboos pines ae ac my retinue of servants is composed entirely of males no females go out to service here I 1 have my butler jo an east indian who has entire charge of everything four table tabie waiters walters who attend to all our personal wants and wait on the table one cook and an assistant cook one waterman who carries water and attends the bath rooms one washer man who does the washing and ironing one tailor who mak mal makes males es mends and hems two coolies esto to E do chores generally three to take care of my three horses and finally one Comper dor who makes all the purchases for the household in riding out a bottoe accompanies you on foot and no matter how lar far or how fast you ride he is at your side to take care of your horse when you stop I 1 have purchased three very good horses and ride frequently the highest monthly wages I 1 pay any japanese servant is about five dollars and the lowest two doll doii dollars arsand and sixty six cents they live on rico ri and fish and dress very little I 1 just looked in at the kitchen and saw my three bettges come in for their chowchow chow chow or lunch entirely naked except a small strip of cloth about the loins this is all the dress the working vor king people wear and every second man you meet in the street is ls dressed in this cheap and simple manner the dress of the tho omen women W is not duite quite efte so simple but is far from elaborate this is a city of probably two millions armore or inore lnore of inhabitants and yet within its bounds are vast forests of old trees and from the busiest haunts you can in ten minutes be as much isolated almost as in the woods of wisconsin the streets are narrow and the tho houses are small and much crowded together yet they are kept cleaner than in an any y city in the world and ind all the people ae fathe batho every day SEVEN EIGHTHS of the teachers in the public schools of massachusetts are females MARINE photograph obazine MB M bazine azine well known for his photographic researches has contrived a very ingenious submarine photographic studio by which he is enabled to take phot photographs of sunken ships rocks ac the chamber is provided with le lens ns shaped watertight windows and by means of the electric light the objects to be photographed shoto are highly illuminated illuminate M bazine is able to remain about ten minutes in his submarine chamber and has produced several clear and well defined photographic pictures of objects at the tho great dap depth th of feet athenaeum BREECH LOADING arus ARMS the war department has published the final report of the board appointed to examine breech loading arms arins it is signed by general halleck HaI hal Jeck and approved by general grant the conclusions of the board are as follows first that the 45 inch calibre ball has given the best result as to accuracy penetration and range second that all rifle muskets and single loading carbines used in the military service should if practicable be fitted for the same cartridge third that the charge for muskets should be from 65 to 70 0 grains of powder and from to grains of lead fourth that the board recommends the plan of alteration submitted by H berdan berdau this gives the stable breech pin secures the piece against premature disch discharges arges and involves involve es only a slight change of our present pattern of arim arum arms s the bore of our present barrel as has been proved by experiments before the board can ean be reduced to the desired c calibre all ali bre bro by reaming 0 out the grooves and inserting a tube the board is unable to becom ment any of the new breech loaders presented to it for examination the spencer magazine barbine carbine is recommended as th the e best cavalry arm disgraceful disgracer UL the new york times says of the recent election in that state from Rensel laer columbia saratoga and albany counties the universal state atz ment is that money flowed like water and that if this practice is to continue the offices must be set up to the highest bidder electors marched up to the polls under the convoy of some well known ward politician who placed tickets in hands as they reached the ballot boxes and after depositing their votes took out his pocketbook pocket book and paid them one two three five or ten dollars as the caso case might be be ore hundreds of people without even the mock decency of retiring to one side party leaders had to buy up their their own voters who refused to exercise their privilege until a satisfactory sum of money was placed in their hands at least one quarter of the voters of the city of albany were bribed or received compensation pensa tion for their votes |
