The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-07-14
EXCELLENT CUSTOMS.

Social and Business Habits of the Eek.
tremely Deliberate People of Japan.
There is no such brief and hurried
salutation used in Japanese society as:
Il am glad to see YOU" or; 81 am
pleased to meet you" Instead of thus
abruptly greeting an old friend or new
acquaintance, the japanese say, to
translate them freely: II am thorough
ly saturated with happiness at having
the pleasure of hanging myself upon
your honorable eyelids." That sounds
like something. Again, when young
man writes to his sweet little japanese
girl, away in the country, for instance,
instead of sending her one thousand
kisses, as we hurried and fretful United
States young men do, he writes some
what in this fashion,: dearest Lump
ofSweetness: | am filled with excru-
eating Impotence to reach your side,
so that | may hang myself upon your
bliss-dispensing, sugar-coated lips four
thousand six hundred and ten million
times, and perhaps Il few times more for
good count"
ain not sure that the social customs
of Japan permit a young man TO kiss
his little betrothed peachblow Yum Yum
that many times at one session of the
court; but he is allowed to promise that
number of kisses, anyway, and if he is
not in hurry, and the Japanese are
never in a hurry, he will do his best to
KEEP his promise.
In accepting an invitation to dinner
the japanese do not say: at will give
me pleasure to d ne with you, as you
suggest" But: 81 shall have great de-
! ght in putting myself upon the out
side of all the luxur es of the season I'M
der which your hospitable board is ac-
customed to groan." That is merely a
free translation of one of the very sim
plest forms of accepting an invitation
TO d nner in Japan.
J rather like the japanese style of
polite intercourse. There is nothing
hurried or abrupt it. 1t makes one feel
as if the undertaker's bill We're far off,
and that there is really no necessity for
hurry and painful commotlon. And it
is much more pleasing to the ear than
our brief style of social communication.
Of course, we are all in very much of
a hurry in America. But hurry is the
til NC that is keeping us awake of nights,
caus ng us to acquire store-teeth in early
life, and to become nation of dyspep-
ties.
As girls, we are in hurry to be wom-
en- with All abnormal hustle and beau;
as boys, we are in hurry to wear a
mustache and plug as women, we
are in hurry for a hundred new things
that the treasury department is i'll pre-
pared to provide; as men, we are in a
hurry to pocket the Doodle and get away
from the police.
We should strive to live more calmly.
If not so sumptuously, and to die with
greater deliberation, even though we
must be buried with less ec}at, We
should not crowd nature by eating a
dinner of thirteen courses in seven min
utes and three seconds, and expect to
escape remorse and bald-headed doc
tor. 1t seems to me that we could use
some of the Japanese sit-down-and-take-
it-calm-ativeness and for-time-Ldon't
neutrality-suspicious. in our domestic
economy to our great and lasting adj
vantage.
In America every body tries with all
his might to hurry every body else.
One hurries us up in the morning, an