358 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN., 



a dignified mandarin wliirling around the circular road at tlie rate of twenty miles an hour, with 

 his loose robes flying in the wind. As he clung with a desperate hold to the edge of the roof, 

 grinning with intense interest, and his huddled up body shook convulsively with a kind of 

 laughing timidity, while the car spun rapidly around the circle, you might have supposed that 

 the movement, somehow or other, was dependent rather upon the enormous exertions of the 

 uneasy mandarin than upon the power of the little pufBng locomotive, which was so easily 

 performing its work. 



Although the Japanese authorities were still very jealous of any intercourse on the part of the 

 Americans with the people, and did all they could to prevent it, still there was necessarily a 

 good deal of intermingling. The ships of the squadron were being daily supplied with water 

 and provisions, for which the officials of the government had now consented to receive payment, 

 but they insisted upon conducting all the regulations, and provided their own boats and laborers 

 for the purpose. There was, however, what with the necessary passing to and from the ships 

 with the supplies, and the arranging and working the telegraphic apparatus, and the toy 

 railway, almost daily intercourse between the American officei's, sailors, and marines, and the 

 Japanese mandarins, ofiicials, and laborers. 



The Japanese always evinced an inordinate curiosity, for the gratification of which the various 

 articles of strange fabric, and the pieces of mechanism, of ingenious and novel invention, 

 brought from the United States, gave them a full opportunity. They were not satisfied with 

 the minutest examination of all these things, so surprisingly wonderful as they appeared to 

 them, but followed the ofiicers and men about and seized upon every occasion to examine each 

 part of their dress. The laced caps, boots, swords, and tailed coats of the officers, the tarpaulins, 

 jackets, and trowsers of the men, all came in for the closest scrutiny, and a tailor in search of a new 

 cut or a latest fashion could not have been more exacting in his observations than the inquisitive 

 Japanese as he fingered the broadcloth, smoothed down the i»ap with his long delicate hands, 

 pulled a lappel here, adjusted a collar there, now fathomed the depth of a pocket, and again 

 peered curiously into the inner recesses of Jack's loose toilette. They eagerly sought to possess 

 themselves of anything that pertained to the dress of their visitors, and showed a peculiar 

 passion for buttons. They would again and again ask for a button, and when presented with 

 the cheap gift, they appeared immediately gratified, and stowed it away as if it were of the 

 greatest value. . It is possible that their affection for buttons and high appreciation of their 

 value, may be owing to the rarity of the article in Japan, for it is a curious fact, that the simple 

 convenience of a button is but little used in any article of Japanese dress, strings and variou 

 bindings being the only mode of fastening the garments. When visiting the ships the man- 

 darins and their attendants were never at rest, but went about peering into every nook and 

 corner, peeping into the muzzles of the guns, examining curiously the small-arms, handling the 

 ropes, measuring the boats, looking eagerly into the engine-room, and watching every movement 

 of the engineers and workmen as they busily moved, in and about, the gigantic machinery of the 

 steamers. They were not contented with merely observing with their eyes, but were constantly 

 taking out their writing materials, their mulberry-bark paper, and their Indian ink and hair 

 pencils, which they always carried in a pocket within the left breast of their loose robes, and 

 making notes and sketches. The Jajjanese had all apparently a strong pictorial taste, and 

 looked with great delight upon the engravings and pictures which were shown them, but their 

 own performances appeared exceedingly rude and unartistic. Every man, however, seemed 



