PC_256_Poe_1910_1911_Typescript_020

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Music was of the same unspeakable order, but the light-eyed little creatures in their long and handsome dresses looked so quaint that I felt as if I had run up on a bevy of Bre'r Rabbit's little girls. Little Virgina was a show to them and she nearly broke up the school; whether it was she or they who enjoyed the incident most I do not know. The sight of a little American child was also pleasing to the crowds we passed through and her calling to them evoked such responses as to make our progress a sort of ovation. After swearing eternal fealty to each other I bade the little damsel goodbye after tiffin, going to interview Prof. E. Tajina, of Tokyo University. At 4:48 caught train for Osaka. Somewhat disquieted by reports of cholera there, while at Kobe the situation is serious indeed.

October 5th.
The cholera situation is worse here than I thought--victims dying every few hours, and if I were not very desirous about getting some first-hand information about Osaka, I should seek a more peaceful retreat. Called early to see a Mr. Kennedy, after which I went to the Mousselaine de laine Spinning & Weaving Company, in company with a very courteous city official. Operatives number 2,500, mostly girls and young women, many of the children being pitifully small, though this factory is at this point immensely superior to the cotton mills, where child-life is exploited shamelessly. Operatives pay 8 sen for board. Night school, two hours attendance, compulsory on all under 14. This is how the law is evaded in factories, I see.

In afternoon visited Mr. T. Ishibashi, Editor of the