Osaka

o'za-ka, the second city of Japan. It is one of three imperial cities, or cities honored by the emperor as a place of residence. It is situated at the mouth of the Yodo on the Island of Hondo. It occupies both sides of the river and an island. Numerous connecting bridges and canals convey an impression of Venice. A commodious harbor is protected by an artificial mole. It is occupied by a forest of masts and smokestacks. The city carries on an extensive commerce with China, Korea, and Japanese ports. There are extensive manufactures of tobacco, clocks, ironware, boots and shoes, matches, glass, tools, chemicals, paper fans, and pottery. Among the antiquities of the city is a royal castle of massive stonework built in the sixteenth century. In 1909 a great fire destroyed 20,000 buildings, including the city's Buddhist temple, the largest in the world, the stock exchange, banks, government buildings, and factories. The losses ran into millions of dollars and thousands of persons were made homeless. An area over four miles square was burned over. The population, as given in the Statesman's Year Book, is 995,945. If suburbs be counted, the total is 1,311,909.

Osceola (1804-1838), a Seminole chief. His Indian name, of which Osceola is a corruption, was Asseheholar, meaning, in the Seminole tongue, black drink. Osceola was born on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in Georgia. His father was William Powell, a trader. His mother was an Indian princess. He was taken to Florida with her people when he was four years old, where he grew up to hate the whites. When the Seminoles were asked to cede their Florida possessions, Osceola used his utmost influence to prevent the cession. In 1835 his wife, the daughter of a runaway negro, was seized and carried into slavery. This incensed the hostility of Osceola all the more. He threatened the Indian agent, General Thompson, so violently that he was put in irons and thrown into prison for six days. The wily chieftain feigned to have overcome his resentment, but he was no sooner released than he repaired to his people and returned with a band of warriors December 28, 1835. He fell upon the agency and put Thompson and four others to death. This was open warfare. Osceola and his band fell upon Major Dade and his command of 110 men; but, losing a second fight against a more successful American commander, Osceola and his followers took refuge in the everglades from which they sallied out now and again, carrying on a partisan warfare. After two years of this guerrilla warfare Osceola was led to confer with General Jesup under a flag of truce. The white man, in violation of his pledge, seized Osceola and conveyed him to St. Augustine. Later he was imprisoned at Fort Moultrie in the Charleston Harbor, where he died. In view of the fact that Osceola was abandoned by a white father; that his people were driven from his native country into Florida; that the whites followed them there and seized their country; that his wife was stolen from him and enslaved, Osceola's lifelong opposition to the whites does not seem unnatural. The ladies of Charleston take this view. His grave in a grove near Fort Moultrie bears this motto: