The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-07-17
A japanese Romance in RealLife.
BY MARTHA C. NJ. FISHER.

BY MARTHA c. NJ. FISHER.
Some few years after the ratification
OF our treaty for the purpose of trade
and commerce with the beautiful
island empire of Japan. l found myself
a sojourner on its fair shores, and,
with my household, enjoying the pc
culiar privileges and projection which
that government so freely accorded to
the Official representatives of the for.
eign powers.
With deep interest we scanned the
hrst pages of this new and wonderful
volume just opening to the world, rich
with the glowing illuminations of past
ages, portraying a far higher civiiiza-
ton than has ever been deemed by
Western nations possible under such
complete isolation. While some of
their laws seemed to have come to
them from the Great Lawgiver, Others
seemed to us strangely barbarous, and
we sometimes looked upon the rare
spectacle of exquisite retnementc clasp
ing hands with downright cruelty.
Japanese law permits polygamy,
which practiced is, however, by no
means common, and it is quite an ex-
ceptainal case where a man has more
than one wife.
The hero and heroine of the present
story were both connected with our
household. Shinski, the butler, was a
man of rare intelligence and cultiva-
ton for the position he held. His wife,
Waka. who filled the position of nurse,
was petite. and graceful as a fawn,
with small and exquis:tely shaped
hands and feet, a refined, attractive
face, large dark eyes trimming with
merriment, or soft and earnest with
deep feeling-eyes in which YOU could
read truthfulness and kindness at a
glance. and clearly indicating the af-
fe%ctionate disposition from which flow
cd most naturally all her ready. cheer
tul, polite, and winning ways. Her
father now dead, had been a farmer in
very good circumstances, and in that
country a farmer ranks first in the
social scale, always excepting the Dali
MOS and.Yakonins-military and civil
ofticials-and the logic is good. We
could not live at all, they reason, but
for the farmer, who produces the food
to sustain life; so that class who supply
~sustenance to the race, or Their first
need, rank first in the social scale.
Next in order comes the carpenter. who
builds the houses, and thus provides
the necessary shelter; then the mer-
chant and manufacturer, who ranks
third, as the providers of clothing for
the masses, and truly with the masses,
especially in the warm season, cloth
ing is far from being much of a con-
sideration, for not only are troops of
children seen about the streets in the
uniform provided by Mother Nature,
but numbers of adult males appear
quite at their ease, in most deliberately
tattoaed suits of epidermis. with the
satisfied air of exceptionally we'll
dressed men. To this class the manu-
%facturers and merchants are but super
numeraries in the body-politic.
Waka had received the usual educa-
ton and accomplishments to which
young ladies of her rank are entitled
in Japan, and was considered quite
proficient in music, owning a samsing
the piano of japanese lad;es-and
having been Il teacher of the divine
art. Among the other servants was a
married man, ku, whose family, wife
and children, lived in kanegawa.
across the bay. He was in person
rather tall, with a good c~onntenance
and pleasant manners. being much es-
teemed by all the servants. He was
always ready to do any of them a good
turn, or help about anything, at any
time. When Waka had prepared baby
for her daily airing, Ku was often
ready with the little carriage, for it
was quite a source of pleasant rivalry
among the men-servants which should
nave the honor of wheeling the little
queen of the house, and his strong
arms were always ready to carry her
when, as was often the ease. she pre-
ferred that mode of locomotion, and he
was Enthusiastically her favorite bearer.
Thus it happened that Ku often ac-
companied Waka and her little charge
for long strolls along the beautiful
bluffs overhanging the sea, and through
the lovely camellia-hedged, shady
lanes, enjoying the sweet sights and
sounds which Nature il this favored
cline gathers from sparkling sea and
leafy, fragrant hill-sides for her appre-
ciative children, and so the days passed
on, and summer grew into its maturi-
ty.
Early one morning as / was sitting
alone in the library, the door was
hastily opened. and a lady, a near rel
alive, who had married an American
merchant in Japan, and lived just OPP
posite to US. entered, exclaiming: ''Do
you know there isgreat trouble among
your servants? Waka has just rushed
my house, screaming and begging
far me to lock her into a room up
stairs. for Ku has declared that he
would cut her all to pieces, and that
she barely escaped the point of his
sharp knife by fleeing for her life, and
that if Ku did not kill her, Shinski
would She had locked her in, as
she desired. and came to me at once, l
Immediately went in search of Waka's
husband, and asked him what was the
matter with Waka. He looked greatly
surprised, and ] saw he was not aware
Of what had taken place. L. then
sought an explanation from Ku, who
came into my presence bowling and
smiling, and from him | could elicit
nothing touching the case. so I put on
my hat and walked back with Mrs. A.
to her house. Going upstairs I found
Waka in an agony of tears and distress
and it was a long time before l could
her sufficiently to enable her 10
tell what had caused her trouble.
The whole story was then told. For
some weeks Ku had been holding be.
fore her the brilliant proposal that she
should leave her husband and my SER
vice; that he would take a house for
her in Homora, a suburb of Yokohama;
she should become his second wife;
and that all the money he could a
after the support of his wife and chill