Little Falls transcript., 1886-04-09
Japanese Homes.
Charles Dudley Warner in Harper's Ma,
aZine.

SAAetA AC0 DuA4CJ w dllIcI III I1dEGeI May
azine-
It is getting to be very embarrassing,
this civilization, especially to women.
We are accommodating so much, our
establishments are becoming so CON-
plicated, that daily life IS an effort.
There are too many "things." Our
houses are getting to be museums.
A house now is g. library, an art
gallery, a bric-a -brac shop, a fur
niture warehouse, a crockery store,
combined. 1t is a great establish
ment, run for the benefit of servants,
plumbers, furnace-men, grocers, t,nk-
ers. Regarded in one light, it, is g.
very interesting place, and in another,
it is All e!eemosynary institution.
We are accustomed to consider it g.
mark of high civilization; that is to
say, the more complicated and over
loaded we make our domestic lives,
the moro civilized we regard ourselves.
Now perhaps we. are on the wrong
track altogether. Perhaps the way
to high civilization is toward SIM
plicity and Acknowledgement, so that
the human being will be less q slave
to surroundings and impediments, and
have more leisure for his own cultiva-
tion and enjoyment. Perhaps life on
much simpler terms than we now
carry it on with would be on really
higher plane. We have been looking
at some pictures OF ofJapanesed dwellings,
interiors. How simple they are! how
little furniture or adornment! how few
'things" to care for and be anxious
about! Now the Japanese are a very
ancient people. They are people OF
high breeding, polish, refinement.
They are in some respects like the
Chinese, who have passed through
ages and cycles of experience, worn
out about all the PHILOSOPHERS and
religions then ON, and come out on
the other side of everything. They
have learned to take things very
easily, MOI to fret, and to get on with
out g. great many encumbrances that
we still wearily carry along. When
we look at the Japanese houses and
at their comparatively simple life, are
we warranted in saying that they are
behind us in civilization? May it not
be true that they have lived through
Ail our eAperleuCe, Auu COMe uOWH 20
easy modus vivendi? They may have
had their bric-a-brac period, their
overloaded-establishnent age, their
various measles stages of civilization,
before they reached a condition in
which life. is D. comparatively simple
affair. This thought must strike any
one who sees the present Japanese
craze in this country. For instead oi
adopting the Japanese simplicity in
our dwellings, we are adding the Jap
anese eccentricities to our other accu-
mutation of odds and ends from all
creation, and increasing the incon-
gruity and the complication of our
daily life. What a helpless being is
the housewife in the midst of her
treasures? The Drawer has had oc-
casion to speak lately of the recent
enthusiasm in this country for the
Cultivation of the mind. y 1t has be.
come almost q fashion. Clubs are
formed for this express purpose. But
what chance is there for it ID the in
creasing anxieties Of our more and
more involved and overloaded domes.
tic life? Suppose wehave clubs-Jap.
anese clubs they might be called -for
the simplif ation Of our dwellings and
for getting rid Of much Of our am.
barrassing menace! 81 .as