The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-12-25
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings.
By Edward S. Morse Boston Ticknor &
Co: Portland: Loring, Short 81 Harmony
This book, so eagerly expected in Portland
nv the many friends and admirers of the
author has come to hand just in time for the
holidays. 1t is super-royal octave OF 372
pages, elegantly printed, with over three
hundred illustrations produced in prototype
from the original pen-and-ink sketches OF
the author. 1t is like a series of his illus
trated lectures, and it is very gratifying to
have so large a collection of his admirable
sketchwork in such convenient and desir-
able FORM The subjects treated of are
houses with their interiors, furniture and
decorations and gardens A careful descrip-
ton is given of the various types of houses,
the methods of construction are described,
and sketches given of every part, as well as
of the tools used. Even the author, with all
his admiration for Japanese ways, is not
prepared to recommend their houses as types
of building for our climate, and the reader
will readily agree with him, except, perhaps,
that builders of summer cottages may get
ONE good ideas from them. Their fashions
of placing the better rooms at the rear and
the kitchen and offices toward the street
will never commend itself to the American
mind The interior decorations will prove
very suggestive and interesting. As the
| Japanese are the most advanced of Turanian
races, this book affords an excellent oppor-
| tunity to compare their progress with that OF
Aryan races. The comparison should be
made with the French and Italians, rather
! than with Americans, as this country is still
| too young and crude. The Japanese habit
| of sitting and sleeping on the floor makes a
| wide difference in their house furnishing.
| If we should remove all seats, touches and
| bedsteads from our houses we should get a
| striking japanese effect of baroness very
| quickly. Modes of sitting seem character
istic of races. The American Indian sat on
his heels like the Japanese and their white
captives found itan exceedingly difficult fash
ion to initiate But our fashion of chairs
is found in the Chaldean sculptures of five
thousand years ago. Bedsteads, too. are GER
tairaly very ole, for -HeneTssdaseriiseA Dtaene.
his ddnJ ON the floor, as the American saw
age did his deer skin. Perhaps the most Gu
rious thing described is the pillow. 1t is a
wooden box with little cushion on its top,
and a sheet of paper for pillow case. The
foreigner who tries it gets stiff neck. The
author tells US that it was necessity when
all Japanese wore a stiff pigtail, but that
now, with the adoption of hair cutting some
are taking to alower pillow.
The Professors remarks on drainage give
| very valuable hintto our boards of health
He states that all filth is collected at brief in.
tervals and carried away to be spread on the
the land. This is like the advanced idea
of earth-closets which is recommended as the
most perfect system, but the result is unex-
| pected: for while in the absence of sewers,
| some diseases due to sewer-gas are I'M
known, the water supply which comes from
the cultivated regions where the manure is
spread, is contaminated, and the cholera is
domesticated.
The book is full of endless suggestions tc
a thoughtful mind, and Portland readers
will be glad to welcome their old townsman
in his first venture into standard literature
They will be proud too, of the appearance Of
the volume, which is in the best style of the
University Press. The paper is exquisite
the margin broad, the leaves uncut, and the
covers handsomely Illuminated.