Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-17

4 X
and affection. And will that bond hold? Not
| always, fear. 1t must sometimes happen, OF
| course, that the excitement and varied triumphs
OF successful geiS'ia's career, render the COM
| paratlvely dull pleasures of home unbearable
TO her. Often. indeed, this supposed incapacity
to reconcile herself to quiet life is laid to her
| charge. but in truth IL Is generally the man s
heart that plays truant first, and 1t Is the man
hckleness she prettily and touchingly wells IN
| the song that she j. most likely to sing you to
\ her Sdmtsert, comparing herself to the ydndgi,
or weeping willow, and which may be roughly
| rendered
/ Wave. willow. hish and low,
| Back and forth and to and fro;
Where'er the breeze of love may blow"
As for the tickle ones, it is only few days
| since geisiad confided to me that she was about
to be made thus Independent by a devoted
| lover and added-not knowing that WAS but
| pilgrim of the quill with no abiding habita-
/ ton where geisld is the local name Of the uni
versal being whose promises SO many ages Of
| experience have not taught men to distrust-
| ''But shall be back again in a few months, for
| Tn sure shall not be able to bear such dull
| life, and then you'll send for me again some
/ times. won't you?" For to be in demand Of
/ course. is the geistd's professional pride When
| she returns to her career after such an episode
| she enters upon business for her own profit
and is mistress Of her own actions.
CHOOSING ALL
| Now the question at the tea-house was. whom
| shall we send for? and Cotton Gown sits pa
tiently awaiting an answer. There is Miss To-
| moye. tall and handsome and mercenary and
mendacious; Miss k0ch0, a quaint little person
with funny face and quick wit, magnifi-
| cent sdD'iSen player; Miss Koyuki-'Little
Snow'-a beautiful girl with sweet face and
SOFT dark eyes (the eyes, by the way, that pro-
vokcd the pathological efforts described aboye)
| and sad history, for she has found to her cost
that sailors love is an idle thing; Miss Man.
suke. tiny and solemn and very pretty and an
excellent dancer, and, finally, Miss Fate
well named, for she il of the kind that play
Fatc's tricks with men. Her slenderness causes
her 20 seem taller than she is; when she moves
1T IS hike the flowing of water or the waving of
leaves; her complexion is like olives; her ewes
are as a pool hidden in the woods in autumn;
her hands and feet are such as exist nowhere
but IN Japan. and i'll her the winning wiles Of a
woman are grated on the artlessness of n child
She, too, has since disappeared. But on this
occasion We tell Cotton Gown to summon them
all-Nud ktLsfte kure-and she runs away.
At her bidding down stairs a messenger
speeds to very curious Observation-Disclosures
may be called Geisha street. 1t is long lane.
so narrow that the inhabitants could touch
hands across it. filled on both sides with tiny
little one-stOry houses. before each of which
hangs corpulent paper lantern with a name
and a Few poeticai characters upon it. while
from within comes ceaseless merry laughter
and the twang of the snnisen. Here the geishd
live. and every afternoon about 4 there is a
string of them in loose cotton wrappers of CAV
patterns going to and from the bath-house
Soon afterwafd the messengers begin to arrive
Ike Porsenis. from east and west and south
and north. and a little later in trios-geisl.a
and maid and sGRiseA-bearer-the little resi-
dents CHATTER away upon their clogs in all direc-
tons.
TIE ARRIVAL.
We have waited perhaps ten minutes slipping
Uh Tier /. Hi,,-d har 60
upon the polished stairs, and then
IN comes Nick to play us a trick
lii gaise Of dansel passing iair"
She tvines herself round The corner. and at the
threshold falls upon her hands and knees and
bows her head to the floor in salutatiou of each
of us. No matter how well Won NAV be ac
quaInted with her she never Omits this humble
ceremony. Thea she seats herself among u.s.
pulls little silver and bamboo pipe and bro
cade pouch from the massive silk O6i which
serves her as corset aud tourat-e and pocket,
and enjoys a Whit of the straw-colored tobacco
OF the country. The rest arrive one by one
ana soon the conversation Is merry and the
jokes iy fast. The geisi.d m ikes up for lack of
education by ready wit. perfect manners. and
a multitude of little observation-disclosures with
the hands and fingers. games of forfeits. tricks
with pieces of paper and bits Of string je,tr de
mOfs. beside her stock in tradeof songs and dances
comic. Ii Is her business to entertain you and
she generally manages to do it, even though
X n
tea-house the fun is not often furious the
space is too confined and the neighbors too
numerous, but when a dinner is given YOU at
the private house of some rich man. where the
sdEe Dowl clrculates freely and there are large
rooms aud gardens and arbors and ponds and
boas, then the perhaps two score guests and
yetsdI all give Themselves up to the most bois-
ferrous and whole-hearted fun
JAPANESE DANCING
as performed by the Seisha is chiefly posturing.
with especial attention to the management of
the fan. We ask visitors to dance for Ms
and one of them sends for her scn,tsea-a
three-stringed banjo with long neck and
small square head. PLAYED with an ivory plec-
trum. and tunes it with much unpleasant
twanging. IL she sings. her song is unsympa-
thetlc TO western ears; the voice is a nasal fall
setto. pitched high even for that and the
method of producing it is 80 Incorrect that a
prolonged effort sometimes brings tears into
the eyes of the performer. The music of the
sG'htsen. however, though odd and uninte lliei-
bic at hrst. grows upon one. and for my own
part enjoy II now. An ordinary soniS1a an
Other smaller sGn;sea, the violin of Japan
played with a bow. and koto-a kind of
thirteen-stringed elongated harp in which
the bridges are moved up and down
to vary the key during the per
Torrance Of piece-usualiy constitute jan
anese orchestra The dancer interweaves her
PAGES with but slight grace to an eve accus-
TONED. to Sozo abroad and Patti at home: her
rapid turn resembles the right-about-face of an
orderly, rather than the stepless Irvine of the
c0''yptee. The steps are all made upon the fat
OF the foot, the toes not being used more than
III walking. Nor in such dancing as one sees at
a tea-hodse are there any movements of great
strength and agility combined with perfect
grace, such as constitute so large a part of the
art of ballet-dancing with u.s. Even the mod
/ est saul dc chat Is conspicuous by its absence.
! and Sill more, of course. ANYTHING Ike the
drdbes4ae or the ro,te lie jdn,tes, which wouid
! be as impossible in Japanese Costume as thew
4 would be foreign to the spirit of the Japanese
| art. Still, in the unduiations of the body
\ the serpentine movements of hands and
arms, and, above all, in their complete
| pantomimic skill, the Japanese dnnsealss
have resources beyond any of the kind have
/ seen elsewhere. Among strictly professional
dancers, too, marvellous agility is constantly ex-
| ercised, and took an instantaneous photograph
| of one of them, girl in the huge stiff un-
l wleldy trousers of the old-fashioned styIe of
| dancing, which shows her a couple of feet off
| the ground. There is a sort of clubhouse in
| Tokyo called the koyokan. where the Tokyo
| press association. comprising the leading met
| ropolltan journalists of all shades of politics
| meets socially once a month. and there ON the
| occasion when l had the honor of being enter.
| tanned by my fellow-journalists. q nuGlber Of
kyoto dancers performed after dinner a series
/ OF old dances Tor us, exhibiting besides the
| characteristic Japanese Charm. terpsichorean
| ability which would be applauded anywhere
| But am here speaking only Of the dancing Of
the geisis1.
| PAYING FOR THE AMUSEMENT.