she slipped her foot off.  Without evident instructions the pretty black-eyed, glossy-haired, red-lipped lass, with cheeks made rosy, picked up the shoe, withdrew a piece of white tissue paper from the great pocket in her sleeve, deftly cleaned the otherwise spotless white cloth sock and then the shoe, threw the paper on the floor, looked to see that her fingers were not soiled, then set the shoe at her mother’s foot, which found its place without effort or glance.

Everything here was strange and the scenes shifted with the speed of the wildest dream.  Now it was driving piles for the foundation of a bridge.  A tripod of poles was erected above the pile and from it hung a pulley.  Over the pulley passed a rope from the driving weight and from its end at the pulley ten cords extended to the ground.  In a circle at the foot of the tripod stood ten agile Japanese women.  They were the hoisting engine.  They chanted in perfect rhythm, hauled and stepped, dropped the weight and hoisted again, making up for heavier hammer and higher drop by more blows per minute.  When we reached Shanghai we saw the pile driver being worked from above.  Fourteen Chinese men stood upon a raised staging, each with a separate cord passing direct from the hand to the weight below.  A concerted, half-musical chant, modulated to relieve monotony, kept all hands together.  What did the operation of this machine cost?  Thirteen cents, gold, per man per day, which covered fuel and lubricant, both automatically served.  Two additional men managed the piles, two directed the hammer, eighteen manned the outfit.  Two dollars and thirty-four cents per day covered fuel, superintendence and repairs.  There was almost no capital invested in machinery.  Men were plenty and to spare.  Rice was the fuel, cooked without salt, boiled stiff, reinforced with a hit of pork or fish, appetized with salted cabbage or turnip and perhaps two or three of forty and more other vegetable relishes.  And are these men strong and happy?  They certainly were strong.  They are steadily increasing their millions, and as one stood and watched them at their work their faces were often wreathed in smiles and wore what seemed a look of satisfaction and contentment.

Among the most common sights on our rides from Yokohama to Tokyo, both within the city and along the roads leading to the fields, starting early in the morning, were the loads of night soil carried on the shoulders of men and on the backs of animals, but most commonly on strong carts drawn by men, bearing six to ten tightly covered wooden containers holding forty, sixty or more pounds each.  Strange as it may seem, there are not today and apparently never have been, even in the largest and oldest cities of Japan, China or Korea, anything corresponding to the hydraulic systems of sewage disposal used now by western nations.  Provision is made for the removal of storm waters but when I asked my interpreter if it was not the custom of the city during the winter months to discharge