Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-08-24
JAPANESE NAPKINS.
FUNNY LITTLE MOUTH WlPeRS
MADE FROM RICE PAPER.

A Great Demand for the Dainty Articles.
which Are Ornamental as Well as Use
fuI-Chst With q Japanese Youth-Big
sales-Picnic Napkins.
paper napkins Who ever heard Of such
nonsense! What good are they" were among
the many exclamationS uttered ny good house
wives when they first learned that paper nap
kins were being sold for table use. They pic
tured 10 themselves squares Of thin, white
paper that would break at the first attempt
to put them to Use, and sighed over the friy
olity Of the japanese for bothering 10 make
such articles.
Now, however, since their value has become
known, every picnic party must be well sup
piled with these little squares of japanese art.
Hotels and boarding houses have begun to
use them, greatly to the delight Of their guests,
and it will not be long before restaurants,
steamboats, and even private families will have
them in use.
I'VE make no prctensions to what is called
style. We are still i'll that social stratum
where the article called the napkin ring is
recognizsd a. admissible at the dinner table.
The napkin ring is the boundary between GER
tlsA,StS, etNs SAiNNl AAbhA'' ~
his most recent story, a Mortal AntIpathy."
PAPER NAPKINS INTRODUCED.
But the Introduction Of paper napkins will
do away with this social stratum, and instead
of a clean napkin once a day, or twice a week,
as the rule may be, every one may lie even
more fastidious than a Vanderbilt or a Gould,
and have a dainty and new napkin three
times day, and at very trifling expense.
For family of six three napkins for each
one every day would make III a week, which
is quite an extra" in the wash, besides the
care 10 keep them in nice order.
The reporter yisir-Sl quaint little Japanese
store on Broadway, which, strange TO say, is
kept by Turk and youth from the Mikado
land Queer little dolls with bald heads and
bright, black eyes peeped out from Nankin
bowls and Toxic pots; mattings and ham
mocks, fans and umbrellas of wonderful size
spangled with impossible japanese ladies and
gentlemen in painful attitudes Of japanese
grace; funny little ivory back scratchers," :"
tobacco jars, tea sets, bamboo chairs and
hundreds of other odd, yet useful, articles,
which the two countries have taught us how
to use for our own comfort, filled the little
place.
sAbou Ben Adhem,r in a flowing gown of
soft red silk and little cap on the back of
his broad head, sat in the back Of the shop on
a square box covered with a bright rug, and
pulled calmly away at his long pipe, while
his Yokohama assistant fitted about with
a big silken handkerchief Tipping specks of
dust from the thousand articles of bric-a-brac
The reporter asked the little japanese il he
sold many paper napkins
-How many hundred you wantin he said,
bringing out four or five packages. For
picnic these very nice. Sell for fifty cents
lOO.r and he took out a soft bit of crumpled
white stuff bordered with pale blue man
darins, each one trying 20 hit his neighbor
with a mushroom-like parasol, while a big
mandarin sat in the center in seeming bliss
I'VE sell great many Of these for picnic
Americans say they are funny | see no
funny, but still like they please. Here some
more fancy 81 one hundred These good for
own dinner table"
THE MORE EXPENSIVE KIND.
The more expensive napkins were not gen.
orally comical in design, according TO the
japanese idea Some were as soft as silk,
and could be doubled up in the palm into
little balls and snoothed out again without a
break. They were in white, pink and blue,
and while the ma jority had only borders Of a
different color about them, many were Gov
cred with birds and flowers, umbrellas, weep
ing willows, teacups and pots, and every kind
Of a japanese figure.
do you sell many of these" queried the
reporter.
~Oh, yes! Wesell this warm time thousands
and hundreds. They go for picnics, they go
for summer resort cottages where ladies want
no trouble with washing. They go with
travelling parties, who like them at all times
Then We sell them for decoration Of parlors. 3"
DO the japanese use themi"
"Oh, yes, at all times. We have only the
rice and the bamboo for our house Out Of
rice We make our food, our paper, some Of our
wraps. Rice makes the soft paper like this,
that does not break. Other things we make
of bamboo.
The reporter learned that scented paper
napkins, as high as fifty cents each, are used
in New York. Jay Gould and many other
men of wealth have them for their yachts,
and many of the cottagers at Newport and
Long Branch are using them this summer
For watermelon or berry parties, for picnics
and garden parties, they are considered just
the thing Fine linen isapt to become stained
or get lost, but paper napkins are sweet and
fresh, and may be thrown away when used
The Japanese expect TO drive n big trade in
them next winter, and several cargoes have
been sent here.-New York Journal