The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-12-02
Where thrifty tradesman can live and


bring Hpa family on $40 month, ther
is little hope for the luxurious Ameri
can. The 6hOle nation seems to be en-
gagged in what a Connecticut Yanke
would Gail whiting business. Tn
stocks of many of the stores would no
bring So at auction, and the mercban
sits like the Turk in his bsz4r sur
rounded by his got DIS, snd:with bis leg'
| crossed serves his customers. HIS hool
is his counter, and his goods hang or
the walls or are piled within easy reach
of his hands. He has a space altOgeth, /
about as large as small bedroom, and
the whole of the front of this is open.
The floor is raised about two
feet from the ground, and the
customers sit on the edge as
they haggle over the prices. The Japan
ese merchant always asks three times
as much as he expects to get. You
offer him about one-titth and gradually
reach the third. He gives you a bowl
OF charcoal for your pipe while you
are looking at his goods, and as a rule
1t seems to be Indifferent to him
whether you buy or not. If you go
away without buying he bows politely
and says 'SaYonara, farewell with as
kind smile as though you make a
purchase, and if you offer him some
thing out of the usual order he makes
his calculation on Chinese calculat-
ing machine, consisting of box of
wooden buttons strung on wires. By
moving these up and down he adds and
substracts quite as quickly as We do
with pencil and paper, and his figures
are rarely wong.
The Japanese bookkeeper always has
one of these machines before him, and
the book, keeping of Japanese store is
worth notice The Office is in the same
little room in which the goods are kept.
The bookkeeper sits on his b els behind
a lew fence built in the shape of right
angle and arout two feet high. Here
he has paint brush and some India
ink and with this he paints the days
transactions in Chinese letters in books
of rice paper bound by tying the leaves
together with string. There are many
large stores in Toxic, these as rule,
do their business on strict business
principles. They have many clerks,
but the cash boy ard the elevated cash
railway are unknown, Clerks, as rule.
go in as buys and serve years of ap-
premiership getting little but their
board and clothes, After they have
served Ten or eleven years it is
customary for their employers to set
them up in business of their own. But
this means an outlay, perhaps, $50 or
800, and as rule the clerks here work
for their living. They dress in Japanese
fashion and never wear their shoes
while in the store
[ was told of some clerks in one of
h To- b,o II rkr no..
$I5 to $50 a month and this was men
toned as an extraordinary thing The
average clerk gets two days of vacation
in a year and is entitled 10 two suits of
cloths aud his board. | chatted with
bookseller through my interpreter. His
store was hole in the wall with great
overhanging roof shading it from the
sun. The hole had floor about twelve
feet square and this was covered first
with straw mats three feet by six in siz 4,
and upon these was laid a stock of jap
anese literature of all descriptions.
There were shelye, about the walls and
these were also piled high with books
They were laid fat and were not stood
OH end as our books. Zone of the books
had leather backs and the pages of each
of them were printed on but one side of
the paper. This comes from the use of
the rice paper, which is so thin that it
will not bear two impressions. They
looked more like magazines than books,
and the average size of the japanese
book is about That of HGrper'S Monthly
or of the Century Magazine. The book
seller frightened the glrdle of his dress as
l asked to see his books and he showed
me what looked like ledger and day
book. | noted that these books, as the
Japanese printed books, began at the
back and ran to the front page, instead
of the reverse as our books do. He
told me he kept an account of all sales
and that he did very little business On
credit. l bought a book Of him and
he wrapped it up in an ad ertising
sheet Just as our merchants do, and /
am told that the Japanese are fast
learning advertising.
The next store to this was that of a
lantern maker, and indeed the stores
SEEM to be jumbled together without
regard to order. A carpenter shop is
nextto shoe store, and a bath house
bumps up against a hardware store.
This lantern shop was making the
lanterns which are now largely used at
lawn feIes in America and which form
the lights for Japan at night. Every
one carries one of these paper lanterns
here when he goes about at night, and
the evening you read this letter you
may be sure that at least 100000 of
them are moving here and there
throughout the streets and reads of
Japan. The jinriksha men have them
tied to the shafts of their carriages; the
pedestrians have them attached to
sticks, and in front of each store and
house one hangs. At dinner parties
they fill the trees of tho gardens with
bright colored lights, and ''7v are ex-
ported by the millions yea >
Ispent some time in going through
he wholesale stores of Toxic. The