Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-11-13

as stfhbSr, adu Inere are the 'llfSl li
pressions," which mean the conclusions
~springing to the mind when the exter.
nails are first understood. The former
class of these first impressions gener-
ally attach themselves TO very trivial
matters, but they are often not the less
entertaining for all this. The first thing,
for instance, that l noticed in Japan was
the enormous hats of the coolies, and
next the ludicrous combinations Of
European and foreign dress worn by
many young members of the middle
class. A pot hat, a cotton wrapper or
bath gown-the yukata-a pair Of long
stockings and boots-that was a common
mixture, the wearer evidently and
rightly thinking that he had adopted the
| best points of both systems. An
hour after landing, too, a re.
mark made TO me by an educated
japanese gentleman on the Belgic
REQUIRED to me. / had asked him if the
coming constitution for Japan was likely
to include trial by jury. after you
have seen Japan he replied, with a
smile, '.you won't ask that question" !
mean by this that | was struck with the
fact that the common people of japan.
courteous and clever and civilized as
they are in many ways-the hcwers Of
wood and drawers OF water ard pullcrS
Of jer~inkishas-arc upon Il different plane
from the common people at home. Ouc
might say that they live in two diinea-
sions, whereas trial by jury, moi in its
origin, hut in is Significance today, is a
three dimension idea. Moreover, the
rulers Of japan scu that trial by jury Is
often a failure or a farce with us, and
they have no wish to educate the people
up To 1t.
In Japan there nrc almost rs many re-
ligiuus festivals as in Spain, und one Of
thcse-matsuri Is their generic maine
was being celebrated the Other day in the
japanese town. | went 10 look for il
with my detective camera, and when !
met it | could hardly believe my eyes
it c~orrespondcd more to one's idea Of New
Guinea than VI japan. Uron an ordinary
bullock cart a raiscd platform and scat.
! folding twenty feet high had been con.
structed, and bullock and al covered
with paper decorations and green bouShs
and artificial flowers. In front a girl
with a groteSquc mask danced and post
ured, while half a dozen musicians
twanged impossible instruments and kept
up an incessant tattoo on drums. Chill
dren wild with delight crowded up
among the performers and chung like
flies all over the cart, and only that
Providence which takes care of them, to-
gether with drunkarls and the United
States Of America, preserved them from
making "A Juggernaut Of it. On foot
around the bashi, as the whole structure
is called, were twenty or thirty men,
naked asto their legs, their faces chalked,
with straw hats n yard wide, many col
ored tunics, in which scarlet predomi-
mated, decked out with paper streamers
and flowers enough to make a Sioux
chief despair of himself, dancing along
TO a very rude chant and at every step
banging upon the ground a long iron bar
fitted witllsoose rings.
The colors, the song, the dance, the
music and the changing iron formed to.
gethcr a spectacle as barbarous in taste
as possible, something wholly different
from what n had supposed the gentle
culture Of the japanese to be. At the
time / vas greatly puzzled. but subse-
qucntly ] learned that this malsuri is not
SO barbarous as it looks. | took it TO be
a serious religious ceremony. | found
that it had just as much to do with relig-
ion rs an Italian carnival las-that is,
it was born Of religious feeling and has
entirely forgotten its ancestry. Bud
dhism, which is the religion of the com
mon people, has always played to the
gallery, so TO speak, and the priests Of
today make money out of the matsuri,
partly in the shape of the coins which
are thrown into the temple ponds and
partly from their share Of the subscrip-
tons Of the well 10 do people, of the neigh
borhood, 10y whom the festival is sup
ported. The affair is thus a japanese
carnival, where people drink sake and
play the fool themselves or watch Others
doing SO, exactly as at Nice or Venice.
No account of first impressions, " too,
would be complete without an illusion to
the grace and charm of the japanese
women. The first time one sees a couple
of pretty and prcttily dressed japanese
girls walking abroad under their huge
variegated paper umbrella, with their
deliberately dressed black hair, their per-
feet tiny hands and feet, their large
brown cyos-set obliquely IL they arc
'beautics:' with their delicate, soft
toned cri- garments, and the heavy fiat
silk obi t%isted round and round their
waist and ending in a colossal bow be-
hind; with their funny motion on their
c%lip-clapping pattens, half undulating
run and half waddle, and their merry
laughter and chatter-when one sees
them for the first time, i say, one is
usually delighted enough TO follow them
up and down for half an hour under a
fine pretensc Of losing ones way or look.
Ing into the shops. At least did, till /
succeeded in getting a snap photograph
Of hem.-Yokohama Cor. New York
World.