The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-11-23

| green shoot In. the grass. by evening
it is well above ground In twenty.
four hours it would make a respectable
walking stick, and if you should be sc
ill-advised as to hang your hat on it al
night you could not reach it next morn.
ing and would have either to sacrifice
the enterprising bamboo or to be salts
fed to see your hat gradually disappear
in the clouds.
| When guests arrive, say for dinner.
the politeness of paradise is turned
loose. With great apparent hesitation
they enter, bowling low with their hands
on their knees. if they are men, or drop
ping on their kness and touching their
| fOreheads almost to the ground. if they
are ladies. The first Japanese salutation
/ corresponds exactly to the Norwegian
"Tak for sidst, THANK you for the
pleasure | had the last time met YOU. 4"
This, however, is the merest beginning
of Japanese greeting. A conversation
something after this style ensues:
81 beg your pardon for my rudeness
on the last occasion"
GLOW can you say such thing when
it was l who failed to show you due
courtesy?"
"Far from it! l received lesson in
good manners from you"
"How can you condescend to come to
such a poor house as this?"
''How can you, indeed, be so kind as
to receive such an unimportant person
as myself under your distinguished
roof"
All this punctured with low bows and
the sound of breath sucked rapidly in
between the teeth, expressive of great
en,preSsement. At last, amid a final
chorus of arigatos, the guests come to
anchor upon the floor Various objects
are handed to them to entertain them,
a curio or two, few photographs, any
thing, no matter what, for it is de
rigueur in Japanese etiquette to affect
a great interest and admiration on such
occasions. Then dinner begins Il am
describing now, of course, the hospitality
we receive rather than that which it is in
our power to extend) with the produc-
ton of a lacquer tray on which is
small bowl of the same material filled
with soup and fish-a species Of bouil-
labaisse. Having drunk the soup out
of the bowl, you eat the fish with your
chop-sticks. 1t is an error, by the way,
to suppose that it is difficult to acquire
the use of this Oriental knife and fork
Nothing is easier. After the fish comes
a lacquer dish with four or five little
heaps of food on ia puree of chest
nuts, salmi of some small bird or wild
fowl, few boiled lily-roots and mess
of stewed sea-weed. With the chop
sticks small portion of each of these
is lifted in epicurian alienation. Now
sake is produced in porcelain or silver
bottle with bowl of water and a num-
Der of tiny cups, each holding table
spoonful. Sake resembles dry sherry,
and is always served warm. You never
help yourself to sake, but the servants
usually girls-squatting in an outer
ring round the diners (every body be-
ing, OF course, on mats on the foor)
take care that your cupis always full.
The Japanese version of "A glass of
wine with You, SIR" is peculiar. You
empty your cup, plunge it into the
bowl of clean water, move off your mat
and, after touching the cup to your
forehead. offer it upon your open palm
and with a low bow to the person you
desire to toast. He receives it in the
same manner, with an expression of
appreciation, and the servant immedi-
ately fills it for him. A few minutes
afterwards he returns it with similar
ceremony. With the actual drinking
there is no sentiment whatever in ia
pan-no Good health" as with us. no
"A la Votrer no ..Prositm no "Skaal"
the ceremony begins and ends with
the passing of the cup. Nor is there
any of the valor of those who "gloried
and drank deep;" you drink often in
Japan; it is impossible to drink deep"
in an inch of liquor. And with the
valor disappear, too, all such legends
and poetry as have clustered about
King Olaf's drinking-horn and the
Teutonic '.Beecher" and the more gen.
tie Anglo-Saxon Lowing Cup" And
finally, the teetotaler may not set a
gain in sobriety over against the loss
in valor and in verse. 1t is just as
easy to get tipsy out of a teaspoon as
out of a fiagon, and much more humil- |
iating.
So far the Japanese dinner is excel |
lent At the next course. however.
most foreigners cry halt. Upon tiny
wire gridiron appear several pink and |
white morsels, accompanied by various
Liliputian salads and good-looking
sauce. These are raw fish. exquisite in
appearance but execrable in the mouth.
After them comes cakes of many kinds,
and tea, and finally, when you wish to
retire, you give the signal by asking
for rice. / should have said that the
tobacco bon," box containing a
small brazier, Japanese pipe and a
section of bamboo, serving the unpleas-
antly conspicuous purpose of combined
and spittoon, is brought
in at an early stage, and even when la
lies are present you can smoke as many
pipes OF the mild and aromatic japanese
'obacco. each cons sting of two whiffs,
Is you choose. The feast is prolonged
~ ceaseless conversation, a thousand
ests at which everybody roars with
aughter, and an endless series of mu-