Omaha daily bee., 1888-10-28

HUI dllOWtu W tnteT lue HOuSt WltllOuJ uTDp-
ping their shoes outside. This ceilings are
low and the houses are in long lines or blocks.
More of the poorer class, which are formed
Of wood, burn like paper during a fire. Their
partitions are thin, and paper has in most in
stance taken the place Of glass. Thousands
of the houses look like gigantic safes and
vaults. They have barred windows, and
these at the second story are closed with
doors made exactly like those Of the Ameri-
can bank vault. These are warehouses or
fire proof structures. They are known as
go downs, and every Toxic merchant has one
Of them.
STREET ETIQUETTE.
The streets Of Toxic are not narrow like
those Of China or Of the older parts of Euro
pean cities. One is not jostled as he moves
along them, and the crowd of slant-eyed
men and women clad in dressing gowns of
all colors of the rainbow is a good-natured
one, and they laugh and bow low to each
other as they meet. The Japanese back is
elastic. The India rubber man at the circus
would wear himself out IN Japan, and the
Japanese bowers seem to never get through.
They salaam and salaam, and the lower
classes knock their heads against the earth
as they go down on their knees in paying
their respects to their superiors. 1t
OthS ohS ~ W thO iS,iDiSuS VI
so much attention and the American
feels his awkwardness when he attempts the
Japanese bow. 1t is, however, not unpleas-
ant, and with it all there is little servility
and fawning. l am struck with the open
kindly expression of the Japanese face.
They seem to treat travellers as brothers.
They welcome them and are willing to con-
cede that there are other good things outside
OF Japan. They are manly about it and the
only unpleasant thing is the curiosity which
ono pYrltaQ among them Whppnvpr | Nvalk
along the streets of Tokio a crowd of men
and boys follow me, and if l stop to buy |
find that the street is soon blocked.
ON A SILT SANDAL.
Chatter, %clatter, %clatter! What a noise
the people make as they go along the road
They all wear wooden sandals, and their
stockings are a kind Of a mitten with a finger
for the big toe. During wet weather their
sandals become stills, and the whole Japan
csc nation increases its stature by three
inches whenever it rains. These sandals
are held to the foot by straps coming over
the toes, and there is a straw sole between
the foot and the sandal of wood. A tall
Japanese on n silt sandal closely approaches
the ridiculous. He sometimes tucks up
his long gown under his belt to keep
it from being spattered by the mud,
and the backs of his bare calves seem to be
walking off with the man. The Japanese
straight in front Of them, like the American
Indian. They lift them high off the ground
and they have a get-there-alr about them.
The women wabble and wabble; they bend
over as they walk and they have what is now
in America, the fashionable stride. Their
little feet in sandals turn inwards and all fe-
male Japan is pigeon-toed. Your Japanese
beauty is not averse to showing her ankle
and the soul of the Japanese beau does not
flutter when he sees a two-inch slice of
cream colored skin above the three-inch foot
mitten. The Japanese shoe store is one of
wooden ware rather than of leather. and the
cobbler mends his shoes with the chisel and
palmer.
NODE OF STREET TRAVEL.
The whole nation is open at the chest, and
only the aristocratS wear underclothes. The
| gowns of the men and women consist, in the
summer, of a loose flowing garment which
they wrap about them in folds and fasten at
| the waist with a sash. In this sash the men
carry their pipes and their pocketbooks, and
you may often see a curiously shaped brass
tube with q head at the end of 1t sticking out
| Of their belt. This is IA ~pcnholder, and il
| contains an inkstand and brush. The sights
l of an American street are missing. There
are few carriages and fewer horses.
| You may not meet a cart in a mornings
walk, and the street car, a new
institution here, Is seen only on the Ginsa,
which is TokiO's Fifth avenue and Broadway
all in one. The avaricious cab man Is miss
ing, and the Jinriksha man has taken his
place. These bare legged, big-hatted mer
dart here and there throughout Toxic, anC
Lney Will run Jnelr sturdy legs all DAY Tor q
dollar. You may hire them for 10 cents an
hour and you can have two men to pull you,
for double fare. There are $1,000 of them il
Toxic alone. They are in general use all Owe
Japan, and China is fast introducing them.
felt rather ashamed at first of using a man al
q beast of burden, but one soon gets used Il
it and urges the human horse to hurry. The
average jlnriksha costs about $50.
HUMAN MUSCLE.
Japan is n land made and run by human
| t,,g,ln Nh, ,ntt1n nn1 hnrcng nra y,,,v ,,.
human sweat makes Japan's bread. TIL
mail wagons are pulled by men, and tn
streets and the castle grounds are watercd b.
push carts. These are filled with great buck
cts which, fastened to bamboo poles, ar
dipped by the water carriers into the dee
meats, and the water poured into the carts
Some of the streets Of Toxic are wntere,
with buckets, and l saw b~are-legged an,
bare-chested men carrying two bi
wooden buckets of water, each of which,
Judge, held about four gallons. One of thes
buckets was fastened to each end of q pol
about four feet long and as thick rs you
wrist, and this pole was balanced on tn
bare shoulder of the nan AS he wake
along he turned a stick which made the waite
drip through a number of holes in the DO,
tom of the bucket He carried his load u
one side Of the street and down the Other
and thus laid the dust. His wages We're,
am told, somewhere between twenty an
thirty cents IA day, and out of this he paid hi
house rent and kept himself aud family.
H~UsDANDRY.
1t is human muscle that cultivates Japan
Cattle and horses are no part of Japancs
country scenes, and an American pillow
which / saw in q Toxic store, was pointe
out as a curiosity. IL it is used at all, it wi
probably be pulled by men. AS it is, tn
land is made fallow with a sort of mattocl
which is very heavy, and which has q blad
about six inches wide and two feet lonl
The rice fields Of Japan are living NOM
ments of human labor, and every grain {
rice you eat represents a certain amount {
human muscle. The fields must be fioode
again and again with water, and the plant
are transplanted from their first growth int
rows. | have seen men and women by score
bending their backs and hoeing this rice
and | am told that their wages run from !
to 20 cents u day.
BURDEN BEARERS.
Human muscle carries nearly all the bur
, dens of Japan. Brown skinned, slant-eye
men and women with baskets cotaining se'
eral bushels each upon their backs, pass b
my window as l write, and others folio
with great loads balanced across their shou
: ders on long poles. SiX-year-old boys carr
two four gallon buckets Of water in tn
way and loads of heavy merchandise a
pushed along the roads in carts. Two
|. three men are harnessed up IN front. Sc
L eral push behind with both head and hand
Their muscles stand out like thick cords
d they work. The sweat rolls down the
v brown skin in streams and their faces loo
out from straw hats as big around as a w
, mans parasol, and their feet are soled wi