The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1886-09-22
JAPAN AND AMERICA.
Contrasts in Customs Noted by
a Japanese Student in
this Country.

Japanese StuQonlln
this Country.
While | hear in most cases two noises
In your homes-the piano sound or the
gathering ofa sewing machine, mostly in
the forenoon-yoa will hear invariably
IN many OF our families in Japan two
noises, especially late in the afternoon
the cradle songs repeated by the kind
mother lying beside her baby, who joins
her song with inarticulate enunciations
broken 10y cries, and the loud and music
al readings of the master or husband.
who Is resting at his ease after having
finished his daily duty in his office-l
mean our official class.
While ourcommon people used 10 shave
their hair and make bald hesd when I
they had repented of some sins which
they had committed, and in this disguise
they would go aronnd the streets and
subsist on aims, some of your criminals
may escape to Canada or the Northwest
and grow long locks and disguise as the
red man
While drinking wine on funeral occa-
sions l. a custom with most of our people,
the smell of the alcoholic stimulant
does not seem to attend on such occasions
Z here.
While playing billiards and cards seem
to be your principal gambling media, we
used to have cock-fghting as chief
agent of accomplishing our gambling de-
sires.
The dancing schools are made almost
exclusively for girls, except those men
! who intend To acquire the dancing art for
their profession. | have seen in your
daneing-schools little boys of 10 or Is
years praeticing proudly some waltz with
| the teacher, sight chich would not fail
to surprise my eyes.
/ While our house is 30 built as 10 have
/ the top part of the building heavier than
/ Its lower portion, thus making it able to
receive equally shocks from the frequent
earthquakes which haunt the country 50
near the foundation.
| We do not wear gloves at parties, con-
certs, balls, or at weddings, considering I
/ it impolite 10 do 80, but YOU seem to re-
gard it to be in accord with ceremony to
wear the article on those occasions. Not 4
only that, but YOU carry gloves both in 4
winter and summer when you 90 out
most Of your genteel class of people. In |
our case, if young men wear gloves when /
they 90 out, even on very cold days in 1
our northern climes. some of which are /
as cold as some of your Canadian win
ters, they are called feminine" Even |
ladies do not take gloves with them when |
they go out, except on very cold days. |
They never carry them in summer, al |
though they are very careful otherwise !
to keep their face and hands as white as
possible. But there is a class among our
poor women who 30 from house to house I
on New Years day or other holidays,
playing on the guitar They wrap their /
hands, which are constantly exposed to /
the sun. with white cloth resembling |
somewhat your white kid gloves, used in |
bathrooms Among our male society |
who always wear gloves there are men /
who sit on the public highway as the re-
pairer of shoes, and also our firemen, I
who wear thick Gotten gloves when they |
go 10 fires These three persons are
nearly the only persons at home who |
would not 90 out without gloves Gloves /
are TO them, therefore, as necessary an
article as a simple ring is to your married |
persons. | never used to wear any kind |
of gloves, either in my summer travels |
or in the midst of our eoldest winters,
which are 50 cold in some places as TO |
make most people wear very thick NIT
1 tens.
/ While you seem TO like to ride on
/ horseback, keeping your body straight or
/ bent little backward, our old way of
riding is to stoop little forward While
| YOU ride side by when there are two
riders, we ride in line.
I Our stockings are divided at the ends
into two portions, the one for the large
/ toe and the other for the rest of the toes,
somewhat resembling in shape your nit
tens.
While your officers carry their sword /
turning the sharp edge of the blade !
downward, our way of carrying a sword |
is to turn the sharper edge upward.
While you have long arms compared /
with your body. we have short arms and /
a comparatively long body.
Our old maps represent mountains in 4
profile, while you represent them on
your maps as though looking down them.
We hang on the upper beam of front 4
room near the entrance of our house /
large mask of the smiling face OF a happy I
woman-fat, sianting-eyed, open-mouth- /
ed red-cheeked-instead of a horseshoe, I
as you do, with.t the motive of inviting I
luck into the building For preventing
the advent of devils into the house we
attach the heads of the sardines together
VIM a NUT Ois1Aith VI q piithir hct W
the entrance costs, gate posts, kitchen
doors, or strips of paper of few inches
length inscribed with the term Guarding
Card" which was written by priest in
the temple whence the card is issued.
While according to your custom one
has to pay the expenses incurred in play
ing billiards or to sacrifice something on
his part when he has lost his game, We
have TO drink cup Of wine when We are
beaten in gines-especially games which
are played with hands, so that those who
are fond Of drinking viii not be disap-
pointed, but rather be glad when they
have lost the contest.
Some fields near our habitations III
home are 80 nicely kept, 40 free from
weeds, as TO disappoint a naturalist in
botanizing, while some vacant lots or
grounds adjoining your dwelling houses
are 50 barren or weedy as TO disappoint
your gentlemen-horse in rolling upon
them.-Dtfroa Free Press
Diphtheria.
Diphtheria is a terrible disease, and
when it breaks out in a school, or in
family where there are several children,
unless the very best precautions are OBJ