The Boy Travellers in the Far East [Part First]: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and ChinaKnox, Thomas Wallace
General
The Boy Travellers in the Far East [Part First]: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and China
Knox, Thomas Wallace
China -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature; Japan -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
"I thought we were going to a hall, but it was nothing of the sort, as
we understand a hall. We went into a large tent, which was made by
stretching matting over a space enclosed by a high fence; the fence
formed the walls of the building, and the matting made the roof. We had
the ground to sit on or stand on, but soon after we went in a man
brought us some chairs, and we sat down. In the centre of the tent there
was a circular mound something like a circus ring; it was perhaps two
feet high and ten feet across, and there was a flat place outside of it
where the master of ceremonies was to stand and see that everything was
fair. We paid twenty-five cents to go in, and then we paid about five
cents more for each chair; of course we were in the best places, and
only a few others were in that part. I don't know how much the Japanese
paid in the poor places, but I don't believe it was more than five
cents.
"In a little while after we went in, the performance began. A boy came
into the ring from a room at one side of the tent, and he walked as if
he were playing the king, or some other great personage. When he got to
the middle of the ring, he opened a fan he carried in his right hand. He
opened it with a quick jerk, as though he were going to shake it to
pieces; and after he had opened it he announced the names of the
wrestlers who were to come into the first act. If I hadn't been told
what he was doing, I should have thought he was playing something from
Shakspeare, he made such a fuss about it. Then he went out and the
wrestlers came in, with a big fellow that Fred said must be the boss
wrestler. He looked like an elephant, he was so big.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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