The Hawaiian gazette., 1885-06-24
japanese Savings.

gu tulS Glly dlbtI q JIO4OLltStNA AN74NAtLiSt
in Japan, was recently discovered IN the
Stock Exchange by reporter. The re
turned traveller recognized the reporter,
whom he greeted cordially but mutely,
as he refused to utter or listen to word
until both had escaped from the din and
found themselves III the comparative quiet
of neighboring restaurant. There, after
seating himself at table and passing his
hand across his forehead in a dazed
fashion, he found his voice-a voice faint
and low at first, like that of one who had
Just suffered from 4 severe shock OF
surgical operation.
you can hardly imagine how a native
of Japan would be affected by such
fends' carnival as we have Just witness
ed" he said THE Japanese are such
great slaves to etiquette that l doubt if
they could forget, even in sleep, the iron
rule of conventional propriety. They are
never voluble or noisy, and are apt at ex
pressing in few words, by proverbs and
epigrams, ideas that less conservative ma
tions, like our own, elaborate. What, for
example, could be more appropriate to the
financial exhaustion of some of those
shouting, and perhaps sinking, brokers,
than the Japanese proverb, Man may
shout when he can no longer swim
"'While the tongue works, the brain
sleeps is another saying of theirs, ex-
pressing their contempt for maDy-worded
men. Even oratory, as our stump speak
ers understand the term, is discouraged
or barely tolerated He is a wise man
who can preach a short Sermon and The
silent man is often worth listening to-
are Jap sayings to the same effect. They
are, also, as a people, quick at repartee;
their wit is keen and tempered and they
can often administer a perfect snub in
brief terse form"
Are not the Japanese exceedingly
polite, like the French2 inquired the re
porter
"Scrupulously, so, and, 1 think, unlike
the French, naturally so. The exquisite
delight of staring at a stranger who dimes
in public away from his dinner, so often
practised in France and, observe, some
times copied"-glancing at a persistent
starer at the next table-''in our own
country, would not be understood or APP
preciated in Niphon, and practical jokes
are never imported into that polite empire.
Another of their proverbs To be over
polite is to rule, tells the whole story of
their conception of true courtesy. Why
even their familiar form of farewell salut
alton, May to morrow be all you wish
if little heathenish in its fattering no
mination of you as the future clerk of the
weather, is, after all, the essential oil of
politeness and very soothing when you
know that if the weather tomorrow be
bad you will not be held responsible for
it."
Not yet, and one or two of their pro
verbal phrases would seem to indicate
that Japan is a cold, raw soil for that
doctrine to be planted in, "A prudent wife
rarely crosses her husbands threshold
After death woman can plan no deceit,
Trust your wife while your mothers eyes
are on her. and Death alone makes
woman contented,' are not encouraging
texts for preaching the doctrine of equal
rights. There Is, too, a certain bitter
flavor of experience in the phrase, 1T is
safer to dwell near Fusiyamia than with
wife's mother"
$50 the stale raillery against mothers
in-lRw has even found sympathizers in
Japan" observed the reporter, who had
once tried to obtain a mother-in law, but
had failed
Exactly But you cannot call many
of their proverbs stale or improbable.
For instance, Dig two graves before ours
ing a neighbor,' and Tell no secrets to a
servant are not bad rules to follow. 1
have sometimes wondered, too, whether
the Bard of Avon stole the japanese pro
verbs, "A man who lends money to friend
shall never see either his friend or his
money again. which recalls the sage ad
vice of Polonius to his son, For loan oft
loseth both itself and friend" The
Japanese sayings, To know the new,
search the old and if you hate a man let
him live and even their, Famous swords
are made of iron scrapings, are old friends
in new dress-Ne11 YOrE Sun
The Origin of Croquot.