i7th February, A. D. 1898. 



ESSAT 



BY 



Prof. A. A. BRIGHAM, 

 Rhode Island Agricultural College. 



Theme : — Japan. 



Illustrated with stereopticon. 



My. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — I urn very happy to 

 be with you today and to meet so many of my old friends. I 

 shall take you a long but quick journey, especially in going and 

 returning. I will try, during our stay in Japan, to give you 

 some idea of that strange country, so that by using both your 

 eyes and your ears you may be al)le to gain information that 

 will possibly be of interest to you. Better than this, I hope it 

 will bring us, as a community, into closer communion with the 

 very delightful people of the "Land of the Rising Sun." It 

 does not take long for us to cross our own country to the Pacific 

 Ocean, and after once getting to San Francisco or Vancouver, 

 we take a steamship which will cross the Pacific Ocean in from 

 fifteen to twenty days. Passing out from San Francisco, we are 

 soon upon the broadest ocean of our globe, and right here I wish 

 to protest against the name "Paci^'c" being applied to this 

 ocean. I assure you that it was a great mistake of Balboa, when 

 he discovered this so called ocean, and named it as the Germans 

 call it, "The Great, Still Ocean." For I firmly believe that 

 this ocean is never " pacific." It is always on the move, and 

 generally moving in several directions at once. If you do not 

 believe it, you should take a trip to Japan, and you will find 

 that although the ship may be five hundred feet long it will pitch 

 and roll to your satisfaction on this score and perhaps to your 

 dissatisfaction in several respects. 



