Nation's Brave Fight with Adversity: Less Pleasant Aspects, the Red Light: The Ancestor's Pot of Gold From Our Own Correspondent.
Our Lokio correspondent had a most fortunate escape from death in the destruction of the capital. He was, however, quite incapacitated for work for several weeks. Now, we are glad to say, he rs himself again, as the following very interesting letter will show.
Tokio, Oct. 2.
One of the most cheerful sights in Tokio to-day is the rapidity with which the restoration of the devastated regions is proceeding, and not less heartening is the undaunted spirit that the people are bringing to bear on the work. Who ashes in the ruined areas were hardly cold before zinc-and-wood shacks.were springing up, some being put up under the direct supervision of Army engineers and many more by Tokio-ites themselves. Those who happened to live in the suburbs and in those regions where the fire did not reach—and let it here be once again repeated that it was the conflagration rather than the quakes that turned Tokio into a charnel-house and some of its most picturesque districts into little more than memories—are rendering every possible aid to their less fortunate fellow-citizens. A species of open house is being maintained by these people and is aiding materially in mitigating the severity of the housing problem. The great difficulty ahead, however, is to find suitably warm shelters for the homeless before the winter sets in and to secure sufficient warm clothing. Victims of the quake have been considerably under-nourished since September 1, and are therefore far more susceptible to the bleak north winds that sweep bitingly over the capital. Relief from everywhere is arriving with delightful and gratifying speed. Barrack-rooms, houses, are going up in every direction and, while Tokio will not be very well off this winter, yet everything that can be possibly done is being carried out. Whether we shall have sufficient coal and coke for both cooking and heating purposes is yet uncertain. The. authorities, however, have: decided to have public hot-baths—to the Japanese a daily hot bath is necessity, not a luxury—and it is not impossible that, on particularly severe cold nights, the ple will seek the warmth of bath-houses in much the same way as the denizens of the slums, too poor to have coke, coal or oil for heating, sought relief from the icy fangs of the winter in the pre earthquake days.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.