The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-02-17
Home Life In Japan.

The following is from a review in the
New York Sun Of Miss Isabella l..
Birds hook, T. unbeaten Tracks in
Japan:' "a
In this house, whicf seems to have
| been' rather better than an average
dwelling OF the middle class, Miss Bird
paid fifty cents day for two rooms,
with rice and teas The meals came up
on zen, Or small table, six inches high,
OF Old gold lacquer, with the rice in a
gold lacquer bowl, while. the teapot and
cup were of fine Kaga porcelain. There
Is, OF course, vast difference between
the house here described and the mud
cabins occupied by large numbers of the
rural agriculturists; yeteven in the out
| Wardly cleanly dwellings of well-to-do
persons there is a great neglect of sani-
tary precautions. There is, to be sure,
bath tub, and most of the persons
nave recourse to it once week. but the
water is used without any. change by
all the inmates of house, and soap is
not employed, Partial and interme-
date Washings are confined to putting
the feet into hot water when they are
covered with mud, and washing the
hands and face, or giving them a slap
with damp towel. The mats, beneath
a clean surface, ,cswarln with insect life,
and the persons of the people are in
tested with vermin. In towns the
drinking water is taken from wells
situated amid crowded houses, where
contamination is certain through perco-
iatlons from decomposing organic mat
ter, In the farming villages the sew
age IS kept in large tubs sunk into the
earth at the house door, whence it is re-
moved in open buckets to the fields.
AS regards the mass of the Japanese
population, the essential elements of
their diet are rice, fish and daikon- "a
picked root notorious for its frightful
scent, beside which that of saur- kraut
Is delicious perfume. The range of eata-
bles, however, open to the richer. jap
anese is almost unlimited, though, ex-
cept on festival occasions, very little
money IS spent upon the table. Oyer
ninety kinds of sea and river fish are
eaten, and thirteen or fourteen kinds of
shell fish. Cranes and storks are luxu-
rles OF the rich; but game birds are ioc-
easionally eaten by the middle classes.
Fowls are also Killed for the table where
Shlntolsm prevails, or where Buddhist
teachings of the sacred life have been
effaced. How large is the. variety of
vegetables may be inferred from the
fact that no less than fourteen varieties
OF beans are grown for food. but, with
the exception OF the celebrated daikon,
all OF them are singularly tasteless
Sea-weed Is common article of diet,
and is dried and carried everywhere in
to the. interior. Pickles and srehshes
are enormously consumed, cucumbers
and eggplant being most frequently
used for picking. With the exception
of the "loquat," which is stewed with
sugar and whose large seeds taste like
peach kernels, fruits are. eaten raw and
without condiment. The Japanese have
no puddlngs, tarts, creams, nor custards
or anything in which milk Or butter is
essential. They are great eaters, how
ever, OF sweetmeats, but the best of
these are 'singtilarly insipid~ and either
the sugar or the rice flour mingled with
it has stale or musty taste
= In Japanese Kitchens cooking is. done
at small fireplaces over charcoal fires,
and the utensils are, for the most part, |
Limit dsto Kettles and brass tongss All
birds with the exception of qua1, wood
cock and phea@nts, which are broiled |
on spits, are first cut into small pieces,
and then boiled in water, with a little |
salt. Fish may be broiled or boiled but
is most commonly eaten raw, served in
small obiong Istripss or very thin
threads. A carp, cut up while yet |
alive and placed where theseat can
see it wriggle. is esteemed a great deli
cacy, and is known on bills of fare as a
:. live preparation of Ko,i.'r' The chief |
kinds of soup used by the middle classes
are bean soup, egg soup and clear soup.
The last-named pottage is little likely to
exhaust the appetite, being an infusion
either OF water and salt or of water and |
soy. The drinks in common use are hot
vater~ which is the. ancient, national
oeverage-tea, prepared with waternot |
luite boiling and merely poured through |
,he leaves and unIningled, we scarcely
leed add, with milk or sugar. or
ice beer, straw-colored fluid of a faint
sh taste and smell, most varieties of /
which contain from II to 17.5 of alco-
lol; and strochin, a form of alcohol
which is. drunk cold at odd hours. 1t
hould be noted that in sake brewing we /
laye'an- entirely new and peculiar form
II fermentation industry which differs
n everyrespect from the European proc
'sses. Y is only during the summer
months that the stock of rice beer. re-
from the preceding winter Is
ubjected to what we know as Pasteur's
process, which, however, had been
,racticed in Japan for three centuries.
Sake, it seems, ought to have five dis
met ttastes-sweetness, sourness, sharp
less, bitterness and astringency, togeth-
r with slight trace of the flavor of
usel oil. Miss Bird thought it insipid,
IcklY and nauseous. 1t is frequently
rank hot, and as a rule, is taken be-
ore what the Japanese consider the
ubstantial part of the repast. There
:, IN fact, both about the beverages and
he dishes Of Japan Something SO un-
'alatable to foreigners that it is enE
fter long experience that a European
an swallow otherwise than ruefully the
IatVe, food. a2IIAIslM -th.r.a 3-Yp
As regards domestic morals and man.
ers. Miss Bird has frequently had oc-
aston to point out the tendency to
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