St. Landry democrat., 1888-11-24
STRANGE SCENES IN JAPAN.
First Impressions-The Common Pecpie
A StrnnGe Observation-Disclosures Women.

the 'Bund, !" bounded at each end by
jetty Or pier called the ssHatoba. " with
pleasant wooded hill to the left known as
the Bluff" dotted with white houses.
The harbor or bay itself is circle Of
water perhaps three miles wiie-bis
enough at any rate to be so rough In
windy weather that the ships have to get
up steam and go to sea for safety.
TO come now to first Impressions
there are, of course, two kinds of these.
There are the mere sense impressions,
the things which strike the eye and ear
as strange, and there are the first i'm
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 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. cotton wrapper or
bath gown--the yukata-a pair of long
stockings and boots-that was common
mixture, the wearer evidently and
rightly thinking that he had adopted the
best points of both systems. An
hour after landing, too, re.
mark made to me by an educated
Japanese gentleman on the Belgic
required to me. had asked him if tie
coming constitution for Japan was likely
to include trial By jury. After you
have seen Japan" he replied, with
smile. ''vou won't ask that question" l
mean by this that l was struck with the
fact that the common people of Japan,
courteous and clever and civilized as
they are in many ways-the hewers Of
wood and drawers Of water and puilers
Of jerinkisl.as-are upon different plane
from the common people at home. One
might say that they live in two dinen-
sions. whereas trial by jury, not in its
origin, but in its significance today. is O
three dimension idea. Moreover, the
rulers of Japan SEQ that trial by jury 10
often failure or a farce with us. and
they have no wish to educate the people
up to it.
In Japan there are almost as many re-
ligious festivals as in Spain, and one of
these-nlatsuri is their generic name
was being celebrated the other day in the
japanese town. went to look for il
with nv detective camera, and when /
met it l could hardly believe my eyes
it co,responded more to ones idea Of New
Guinea than Of Japan. Upon IN ordinary
bullock cart raised platform and scat
folding twenty feet high had been cou-
structed, and bullock and all covered
with paper decorations and green bougils
and artificial flowers. In front girl
with a grotesque mask danced and post
ured while half dozen musicians
twanged impossible instruments and kept
I'D an incessant tattoo on drums. Chill
tren 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 drulkards and the United
States of America, preserved them from
making Juggernaut of it. On foot
around the bashi, as the whole structure
is called, were twenty or thirty men,
naked as to their legs. their faces chalked.
with straw hats yard wide, many col
ored tunics, in which scarlet predomi-
mated, dccked out with paper streamers
and flowers enough to make Sioux
chief despair of himself, dancing along
to very rude chant and at every step
banging upon the ground long iron bar
| fitted with loose rings.
| The colors, the song, the dance, the
music and the changing iron formed to-
| gether spectacle as barbarous in taste
as possible, something wholly different
from what one had supposed the gentle
| culture of the japanese to be. At the
| time | was greatly puzzled, but subse-
| quently | learned that this matsuri il not
| so iarbarous as it looks. took it to be
| serious religious ceremony. ! found
| that it had just as much to do with relig-
| ion as an italian carnival has--that is,
| il was Loyn Of religious feeling and las
entirely forgotten its ancestry. Bud
| dhisu,, 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,
| rarity il the shape Of the coins which
| are thrown into the temple ponds end
partly from their share Of the subscrip-
| lions of the well to do people Of the neigh
4 DoIEOOIs DJ HLclSA iilo hSSsAssah 40 ohtS-
ported. The affair is thus o Japanese
carnival, where people drink sake and
/ play the fool themselves or watch others
/ dein~ SO. exactly os Of Nice or Venice.
No account Of first impressions, " too,
| would he complete without an illusion to
| the grace and charm Of the japanese
women. The frst time enc sees couple
| of pretty and prsttiiy dressed Japanese
girls walking abroad Under their huge
varicgated paper umbrella, with their
deliberately dressed black hair, their PER-
feet tiny hands and feet, their large
brown eyes-set obliquely IL they are
"beauties:'' with their delicate. soft
toned cr>, garments. and the heavy Hat
| silk obi tSisted round and round their
waist and ending in colossal bow be-
hind: with their funny motion on their
cEpclapping pattens, half undulating
run and half waddle, and their merry
| laughter and chatter-when one sees
then, for the first time, say. one is
usually delighted enough to follow them
up and down for half an hour under a
! fine pretense Of losing ones way or look
! lag into the shops. At least did, till !
| succeeded in getting snap photograph
| of them. Yokohama Cor. New York
World.
An Exercise for Health.
II you are troubled with too much
blood in the head. the best thing you can
do for simple remedy Is to take the
~. l. y,