Packed street cars, automobiles, carts piled high with incredible loads
pulled by coolies, a girder being dragged by a scrawny horse led by a
seemingly tireless, whip-equipped native, all apparently were about to
collide with our rick-shaw party. We seemed to be always in the way and
always on the wrong side of the street. We remembered with a shudder,
that the Japanese believe it noble to die, and seemingly, they were
going to drag us to destruction with them. We tried to get them to go
slower but could not think of the Japanese words, so we might just as
well have tried to stop the North wind, as to have changed the orders
given by our interpreter to the coolies.



Chapter VI



We did not know that when we boarded the special train chartered by the
Tokyo Chamber of Commerce to take the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
representatives to inspect the silk filatures, that a delightful
luncheon, or as it is called there, "Tiffin," was awaiting us under the
trees.

Although the heat was oppressive, it was surprising to see how
ceaselessly, and apparently without pain, little girls from twelve years
up, kept five cocoons unrolling at once, in boiling water, in order to
make a single thread of silk. We were told that these girls worked from
twelve to fourteen hours a day, for which they receive forty cents a day
and food, getting a bonus at the end of the year, which amounts to
approximately one months' salary. Sundays are not holidays in Japan, but