Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-01-27
Interesting facfs rs TO the Hahifs Of.
the JaDanese.

interesting facts rs TO the Habfts Of
/ the Japanese.
I lint r8eAly 5soptsakreguhtbnb f
hdaiAJ hrakd 10 xa2OEI- ap0s he
trade, manufactures and varied indus
tries of the places to which they are ac-
creditee ms resulted in thecempillei6n
of sons interesting inforj hatipn. 5Th4
following Paragraphs are hom tho r.
port on. 5Apan:
1t is bow,hearly quarfer al ceutury
since Rerryppened the sSaled gaseWays
of JapamfO the commerce and travel Or
the world. The unique civilization of an
! island empire, with an area of 5000
square milesand more than 81, OOO, 900
of people was then first presented to
modern times for study and investiga-
ton. Since that time libraries of books
and pamphlets ana volumes of letters
have been wri8en-npon every phase of
that civilization, except the status and
condition of the hborer. Ofthe import
ance and power u 35, ,0OO Of people
as added factorsin the products of the
world there canbe no question.
| All buildings, or nearly all, are one
story and, compared to those of Ameri-
caIand Enrope, small But The reader
must bear in mind that the requirements
of this Oriental civilization arc less than
with US. A laborer's house here will at
| most have no more than four little
rooms. Generally there Is one main
room, which serves as a sitting, dining
and sleeping room, and in addition a
.smal nook forcooking and another for
bathing That the uses of one room for
the purposes %of eating, sitting and
sleeping may be understood, it should
be explained that the rooms are covered,
with clean soft mats, upon which no
are served small tables not more than
one foot high are used,v and the family
Esit ON the floor like tailors on their
the table is removed and the room is
ready for sitting-room,s the mats serv-
! ingas seats. At night cotton comfort
rsare brought from a. small clothes
press and spread on the mats, and 10! a
sleeping chamber. Thus, much of the
room required by a laborer of-our West
ern civilization is saved. A Japanese
| laborer's house with three rooms can be
| built for from % to 200 yen. And the
| furnitlre, including mating and sliding
partitions, will not exceed so yen. A
yen is about equal to our dollar. The
house, by reason of non7usee by the
| people of boots and shoes, is neat and
clean. The bath, found in almost every
Elaborer's house, is in daily use, and cheap
/ and small as the house is it is comforta-
ble., None of the houses are built with
a view to ventilation or warmth, the
partitions and sides being of paper, pro-
tected in cold weather or storms by
strong wooden shutters. The vast ma
jority of the houses are matched, and
therefore stoye,pipes and chimneys are
impossible. In fact, there are no stoves
or9 crates in Japan. q In villages and
towns the house is warmed, if atan, by
a small fire-box filled with charcoal, but
more generally by a square zinc or cop
per-lined fireplace, sunk in the middle
of the floor, in which wood is burned,
the smoke from which arises and escapes
| through q hole in the-roof.-But-i little
heat is generated in this way, and much
discomfort from the. smoke is expert
enced, and diseases of the eye are preva-
lent. AS rule the principal protection
from cold is by additional padded cloth.
ing. The 1aborer, however, suffers in
the three winter months. when, although
in many parts of the Empire the Their
mometer does not mark very low, the
cold storms of snow and rain are exceed
ingly Uncomfortable. The drainage
from sinks and cessrpools in the vicinity
of tenements is as q rule extremely de-
fective,s and Is doubtless d -powerfuf
agent in producing epidemic diseases.
r" Theshouses Of cities seem to be less
crowded than those of the poorer rural
districts. ALI labor on the farm is, to
the present time, mere handiwork. A
pillow is seldom SEEM Sometimes in the
lowland rice-fields an implement five
feet in length, with wooden cross-piece
and depending iron teeth twenty inches
in length set four or five inches apart, is
used with q horse as pulverizer of the
soil, after the latter has been thorough
" dug up and worked over with mat
took. Ninety-nine per cent, however,
of all labor is still manual In 1878 the
numberaof farmers out of a population
of So, 900, 900 was something over 49,
500, OOO,sof which over 100000 were
women; but as q large number of these
latter, Including the old and young, are
engaged in household duties, spinning,
weaving, making clothing, etc., there
were probably not more than 100000
or 8, 100000 women employed in field.
work. The area of land in actual culti-.
walton IN the whole empire in 1875 was
about 100000 acres, so that to the
actual farming population there were
only thrae- quarters of an acre per head.
The tillage is of the most thorough
order. The crops are invariably raised
each year, SO that theproducing capaci-
ty,of the area cultivated is double that
of the number of acres named. The
wages of an ablesbodied farm hand are
about S35 per year with board, and
without board $50. Per day, with
board, lit will not average more than
fifteen TO twenty cents. Female labor
is much cheaper. To do, work in a
house or on a farm, stout, healthy
women are employed at from SO to $40
year with food, and without food from
S55 to $50, and BY the day at from ten
to fifteen cents day. The number of
hours of labor will not average more;
than nine, and probably not more than
eight. - Washington Cor. Cleveland
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