The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-11-25

or Holland, and you see fewer labor
hardened faces among the other sex
here than you do in many of the conn
tries of Europe.
The wife is, however, after all, but
little better than the servant of the
husband, and the ties of marriage and
divorce are here so loose that he can
dispense with her at pleasure. Mar
riage, in Japan. is not attended with
the solemnity and religious ceremony
OF the American wedding. 1t is civil
contract, and the negotiations for it go
on, as a rule, through the parents.
The young man and woman have no
preliminary courtship, and the SEEING
of one another for one or two times is
the only chance they have of deciding
whether there is any compatibility of
temperament. When Yum Yum has
arrived at the age of Is or 16, her par
ents instruct one of their friends, or
professional match maker to look bout
for good husband for her. If they
have decided upon the young man,
they mention his name, and il Is the
duty of the friend to speak to the par
ents of the prospective bridegroom and
arrange the matter. This go-betWeen
is called Nakadachip. He appears in
every japanese marriage, and it would
be entirely improper Tor either the
bridegroom or the parents to arrange
match without him. He has charge of
every thing relating to the marriage.
He brings the young people together,
generally at a tea house, where both
families meet to have a party for the
occasion, and it is at this meeting that
the TWO often see each other for the
first time. If, as in the case of 1.-The
Mikado," Yum Yum falls in love at
first sight with her Nanki-poo, it is all
right The two giggle and laugh and
examine each other, and q few DAYS
later, the match being agreed upon,
and the acceptance of these presents is
understood as an agreement that the
marriage is to take place. The presents
consists of five tuDs of sake or rice
wine, of five articles of food, two rolls
of silk AID silken girdle. This, of
course, is among the better classes.
The lover and poorer send less
amount and poorer quality.
The ceremony proper is made up of
the drinking OF sake and the eating of
a dinner together in the presence of
the two families. The bride comes to
the groom's house to be married, and
she brings along presents for him and
her prospective parents in-law. She ap-
pears upon the scene in a dress of
white, which, however, she changes be-
fore the ceremony for one of colors,
which is q present to her from the
groom. The groom also gets present
of gown from her, and puts this on.
At the drinking of the wine, the bride
gets the first cup, and there is an al
most incessant drinking throughout
the ceremony.
After marriage the bride or the wife
is swallowed up, as it were, in the
family of her husband.
Books on the duties of women urge
her to be subservient to her parents-in-
law, and in times p ast, she was expected
to communicate with her own parents
chiefly by messenger, and not to visit
them, by any means frequently. The
chief book on woman training in jap
anese literature is the Onna Daigaku,
which is taught to all Japanese girls,
and on which, l am told, they base their
conduct. It is founded on the princi-
pie that woman is much the inferior of
man. and that she is naturally prone to
evil. 1t says that nine women out OF
ten are suffering from mental diseases
of intellect, anger and resentment,
evil speaking JEALOUSY and lack of in
tellect. The wife should. therefore, de-
pend upon her husbands instructions
in all things, and she is subservient to
her father in a like degree before mar
riage.
She has, says this book, no right to
show jealousy, and if her husband is
guilty of improprieties, she should
gently reprove him. She should go no