226 LECTUEE XVIII. 



excited the curiosity and astonishment of the 

 Japanese was a Lilliputian railway, perfect 

 in all the parts of its mechanism. The car 

 was only large enough to convey a child of six 

 years of age, which it did with considerable 

 velocity round an extensive circle. A dignified 

 mandarin, however, insisted on getting on the 

 roof of the car, clinging with a desperate hold 

 to the edge of it, grinning with intense interest, 

 while his huddled-up body shook convulsively 

 with a kind of laughing timidity. 



Nor did an instantaneous telegraph excite 

 much less interest. The wires were conveyed 

 to the distance of a mile. When communication 

 was opened up between the operators, at either 

 extremity, the Japanese watched with intense 

 curiosity the modus operandi, or the way of 

 working it, and were greatly amazed to find 

 that in an instant of time messages were con- 

 veyed in the English, Dutch, and Japanese 

 languages from building to building, temporary 

 ones having been erected to receive the appa- 

 ratus. 



But if the Japanese were astonished at these 

 exhibitions, the Americans were not less so by 

 the following one: On one occasion the atten- 



