Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-01-01
&c JAPANgsE cAPTuRe ~ YoaK.
Leather COlored Artists and Artisans %
Almost Every Sort ef Work.

Leather Colored Artists and Artisans q
Almost Every Sort ef Work.
The latest sensation is the novel Japan
ESQ village Of sixty Of the leather colored
people Of the East, who have settled down
and made their home In the Madison
Square garden. They represent Japanese
artists and artisans Of almost every sort
and here they will manufacture fans and
screens, ivory carving and satsuma ware,
lacquered boxes, silk scarfs, figured pOrce-
lain and dragon haunted vases, under the
very eyes of the visitors, and sell them OF
the slight advance Of 800 per cent.
The score Of bamboo huts have already
gone up, and there is in place on the floor
the straw mating two inches thick which
constitutes the full furnishing Of a japan
ese residence. This mating serves as
chair and table, bed and bureau; on it the
lord of the mansion curls up on his
launches and heels at work, on 1t the
children nestle to sleep, and on 1t the
lady Of the house sets forth her delicious
tea in egg shell cups so fragile that they
have to be protected by q light basket
framing to save them from being crushed
by the touch Of the hand.
dropped in the other day at the press
reception. The broom people are already
at their work. Here is a cabinetmaker
smoothing a board by drawing the plane
toward him instead Of pushing il from
him, and boring a hole by turning his
auger from the sun instead Of with it.
And when he use the saw he makes a
workbench and saw-horse of himself by
curling up on the rug in such a comical
and grotesque q manner that it makes
your back ache to look at him. Here is o
bronze modeler making a brand new royal
dragon. Here is the potter with his obe-
dent mass of clay upon the whirling
wheel rising in mysterious shapes under
his wizard fingers-Ota, Satsuma, Kaga
ware assuming graceful forms and taking
trimmings as If to fly.
Here are the silk embroideries, n dex-
trously marking out his free hand de-
signs, and another, with glossy threads Of
brilliant hues, evoking from the mesh a
fairy land Of birds and butterflies and
flowers and waving foliage. Here, under
the auspices Of the Deakin brothers, may
be seen the details Of Japanese ornamen-
tation.
Here is the market Of the Shippo ware
copper vases, PLAQUES, ETC., covered with
a delicate and l%abyrinthine tracery Of
gold and silver wire, with which every
imaginary effect Of land and water seen,
cry is produced before the final fusing and
and %enameling and polishing; and it takes
six men fifty days to turn out one of thesC
gems.
Here is wood carver, the tailor, thu
barber, ETC., and between the acts of the
village drama a simple Japanese play il
set upon the stage at one end of the hall
the various occupations at the huts are
suspended, and the advertisement, con
sisting mainly Of trials Of skill (not very
difficulty occupies half an hour.
In this mimic city are affairs for per
fumes, statuettes of saints and the sacred
animals-the stork, crane, tortoise, ant
the fantastic skinny Corean dog. Over
head paper lanterns hang from the ceiling
and bells Of colored glass. Here you cal
have your tea and saki if you wish, and a
they are dealt to you in dainty porcelain
by the little hands of squatting people o
wonderful grace and dexterity, you fame,
them q company of large children playinI
at housekeeping.-Croffut' New Yor.
Letter.