Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-10-20
Sketches Of Japanese Ways and
Manners.

James Brooks, in the New York Express
There are five or six little daily
journals in Yokohama, rich in adj
vertiselnents, but poor enough in
news. One Of these was sold the
other s;aI,i see, for $4,000. As
to news here, foreign news, there is
not enoagh to keep journalist alive.
The wonder is that all do not die Of
cnnui. The writer's, Of course,
knowing nothing of japanese, czN,
therefore, gather up no police re-
ports, have no thrilling intelligence
no court records, no nothing Of
etiquette in Ycdo-nothing from
the provincial princes. All we
have is the editorial essay, and thc
everlasting, but all important
prices current of rice, silks, sheet
ings, shirtings, freights, rates Of
exchange. But these are what men
come to Japan for Ito get rich, and
then go home), and hence nothing
is so important to them. The Cau-
casians live beautifully here, many
Of them near their places of bust
ness, right on the open bay, and
others on the bluffs abovc-and
5000 here in the way Of living
goes further than $20,OOO in New
York city. They shut up shop at
4, drive or ride till 7, and at Z sit
down to dinner, their evening
amusement, after which, a long sit
ting at dinner, they go to bed.
Dinner is the great event of the day.
Tifiin at one o'clock, as they call
slunch," the intermediate event
and, therefore, the most is made Of
dinner. No theatres, no opera for
Europeans, no libraries, nowh, re to
spend their evenings, they franiical-
ly dine, and unhealthtully sleep
after such dinners, with Chinese
almost always their cooks. The
Chinese take to all trades, and
Chinese make the best house ser
wants hcrc-the japanese not well
taking to that sort OF thing, save as
nurses for children.
One of the curiosities of the East
is the all sorts of clothes everybody
(of the male sex) wears. | am not
writing of the nature-clad Japan
ese-but they often get cast-oif
European clothes, or big slop-s'Iop
European clothes, which, when put
on amusc one to see. There's =
droll fellow, with nothing on bat
trousers and straw shoes! There is
another with red European-mado
shoes, yellow frock coat, Calcutta
hat "a hat branching all over the
head, forward and backward only
though, and stuffed SO thick with
light stuff, that no suns rays can
pierce through iD. Spectacles on,
too, and looking as wise as if some
great philosopher. There is anoth-
er yet, with 4 trocl coat on, no
shirt, no trousers, no hat, no moth
ing else. When European fashions
are taken by the japanese, they
rush into them as do the Central
American negroes, or the North
American Indians. But the hats Of
the Europeans in this country are
the oldest, droli, st, most variegatcd
kind you can we'll imagine. Ibring
here my American head cover, i
poor concern, under japanese sun,
or in japanese rain. l cover it all
over with white linen, and a big
tail down the neck, to shed off hot
SUMS rays. Another sports . big
Calcutta, English invented hat,
made in imitation Of the Turks
sash, wrapped round his head or
cap (fez) on a hot day, also to ward
off the suns rays. Another yet,
fresh come, TO look .iauntv, sports
his American straw hat In short
we have all sorts Of hats human in
genuity has invented, and hence we
look like so many birds of passage,
il not Of prey.