ABSTRACT
JAPAN is the jolliest country in the world at the New Year. Gardner and I found it three times jolly, in fact. Each January 1, 43,000,000 subjects in the Land of the Rising Sun begin to paint not a mere “town,” as a band of cowboys might, but the whole of the Mikado’s Empire. The colour is naturally the glorious roseate hue of the Imperial emblem—The Rising Sun. This deep red harmony, they say, is eminently fitting at the beginning of the year; and that the painting may be well done, they administer three distinct and separate coats right lavishly.
