The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-11-13
STORES OF JAPAN.
THE ALMOND EYED MERCHANTS 90
BUSINESS WITH LITTLE DISPLAY.


How Their Books Are Gotten Up and Sold.
The Lantern Makers and Their Extensive
Trsdc-At Least 5.0OO.OOO Used In One
Night.
was told of some clerks i'm one Of the
large book stores here who got from SIS
to $50 a month, and this was mentioned
as an extraordinary thing. The average
clerk gets two days of vacation in a
year, and is entitled to two suits of
clothes and his board. / chatted with a
bookseller through my interpreter. His
store was hole in the wall with great
overhanging roof shading il from the
sun. The hole had floor about IL feet
square, and his was covered first with
straw mats feet by o in size, and upon
these was laid stock of japanese litera-
ture of all descriptions. There were
shelves about the walls, and these were
also piled high with books. They were
laid Hat and were not stood upon end as
our books None 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
not bear two impressions. They looked
more like magazines than books. and the
average size of the Japanese book is
about that of Harper's Monthly or of The
Century Magazine.
UNPRETENTIOUS MARTS.
The bookseller frightened the girdle of
his dress as 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, in
stead 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 | bought book of him, and
he wrapped it up in an advertising sheet
Just as our merchants do. and | am told
that the Japanese are fast learning add
vertising.
The next store TO this was that of
lantern maker, and indeed the stores seem
TO be jumbled together without regard to
order. A carpenter shop. is next TO
shoe store, and "A bath house bumps up
against a hardware store This lantern
shop was making the lanterns which are
now largely used az lawn fetes in Amer
lea and which form the lights for Japan
at night. Every one carries one of these
at night, and the evening you read this
letter you may be sure that at least 5,000,-
900 of them are moving here and there
throughout streets and roads of Japan.
The jinriksha men have them tied TO the
shafts of their carriages; the pedestrians
have them attached 10 sticks, and in front
of each store and house one hangs. At
dinner parties they fill the trees of gar
dens with bright colored lights, and they
are exported by the millions yearly.
spent some time lii going through the
wholesale stores of Toxic. The japanese
are good packers, and they put up their
goods for shipment in different way
from ours. There are few nails used in
fastening up the boxes or crates, and rope
almost universally takes the place of
nails. Great store boxes are tied up with
rope. and i'm some of the lumber yards i
see that the boards are tied together in
bundles and stood on end, and not laid
flat as with us. Each bundle of two or
three boards has its price marked on it,
and these lumber yards are practically
stores, and they may be found in all
parts of the city. AS to the use Of string
in tying up packages. this is very rare.
a strip of rice paper Is sometimes twisted
about about parcel. but wooden or cot
ton string is seldom seen.
THE ESSENCES OF ECONOMY.
noted in the buying of some photo
graphs that the clerk who made up the
package had some of this string. 1t is
the same that our grocers use. The clerk
first measured the parcel this way and
that, and took just enough TO make the
knot and no more. Still, string is cheaper
here than with us. / mention this as an
example of the economy of the people.
And still you will find but few rich
Japanese. The rule here is that the peo-
pie are not accumulative. in our sense of
the word They have never learned the
philosophy of investment, and they
spend all they make. They have in the
past had no chance for the investment of
money, except i'll lands, and the saving
done has been largely for rebuilding
their houses in case of fires, which are
very frequent. DIR. Hepburn, who has
been in Japan for more than ten years,
is my authority for the statement that
Japanese house is thought on the aver
age to last only five years before 1T Is
destroyed by fire. The framework and
the interiors are like finder, and whole
villages are swallowed up almost monthly
in Japanese conhagrations.
The people are the most careless in re-
gard to fires | have ever seen, and there
are no fire departments to speak of out
of the four or five large cities. This dan
ger has thus been an incentive TO saving,
but above this there is little. Seven
tenths of the people, at a rough estimate,
live from hand TO mouth, though the
postal savings banks. which have been
introduced. bid fair TO teach them differ
emily. Interest is high, and the banks
make money. There is not large gov
eminent debt, and most of the debt is
held at home.-Frank q. Carpenter.