St. Landry democrat., 1890-05-10
STRANGE SCENES IN JAPAN.
First 1mpressions-The Common PeopIe
Strange Festiyal-Japanesa women-

First Impressions-The Common Peopl.
strange Festival-Japanese Women.
In Yokohama is long boulevard calle
the "Bund, " bounded at each end by
1etty or pier called the s'Hatoba," with
pleasant wooded hill to the left known a
the Bluff" dotted with white houses
The harbor Or bay itself is a circle O
water perhaps three miles wide-bi,
enough at any rate to be SO rough i,
windy weather that the ships have to ee
up steam and go to sea for safety.
10 come now to ''first impressions:'
there are, Of course, two kinds of these
Ihere are the mere sense impressions
the things which strike the eye and ear
as strange, and there are the "flrst i'm.
presslons, " which mean the conclusions
sprlnglng 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,
Tor instance, that I noticed in Japan was
the enormous hats of the coolies. and
next the ludicrous combinations Of
European and foreign dress worn bv
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- I had asked him if the
coming constitution for Japan was likely
to include trial by jury. "After YOU
have seen Japan" he replied, with a
smile, "you won't ask that question: 7
mean by this that I 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 pullers
OF Jerinkishas-are upon a different plane
from the common people at home. One
might say that they live in two dimen-
slons, whereas trial by jury, not in its
origin, but in its significance today, is a
three dimension idea. Moreover, the |
rulers of Japan see that trial by jury is
often failure or farce with us, and
they have no wish to educate the people
up to it.
In Japan there are almost as many re-
liglous festivals as in Spain, and one of
these-nlatsuri is their generic name
was being celebrated the other day in the
japanese town. I went to look for il
with my detective camera, and when I
net it l could hardly believe my eyes
t corresponded more to one s idea of New
5ulnea than Of Japan. Upon an ordinary
bullock cart a raised platform and scat
olding twenty feet high had been con-
tructed, and bullock and all covered
With paper decorations and green boughs
nd artificial flowers. In front a girl
With grotesque mask danced and post
red, while half dozen musicians
wanged impossible instruments and kept
p all incessant tattoo on drums. Chill
rem wild with delight crowded up
mong the performers and clung like
les all over the cart, and only that
rovidence which takes care of them, to-
ether with drunkards and the United
tates of America, preserved them from
laking Juggernaut of it. On foot
round the bashi, as the whole structure
called, were twenty or thirty men,
aked as to their legs, their faces chalked,
18th straw hats yard wide, many col
ed tunics, in which scarlet predomi-
ated, decked out with paper streamers
i'd flowers enough to make Sioux ,
lief despair Of himself, dancing along
very rude chant and at every step =
lnging upon the ground long iron bar !
ted with loose rings. ..
The colors, the song, the dance, the :
usic and the changing iron formed to- :
ther spectacle as barbarous in taste =
possible, something wholly different :,
om what one had supposed the gentle !,
lture of the japanese to be. At the !;
ne was greatly puzzled, but subse- = =
entity I learned that this matsuri is not e q
barbarous as it looks. I took it to be :,
serious religious ceremony. I found Il :,
1t it had just as much to do with relig- - :,
! as an Italian carnival has-that is, r.
vas born Of religious feeling and has q
.ireiy forgotten its ancestry. Bud =,
ism, which is the religion of the COM D
N people, has always played to the :,
lery, SO to speak, and the priests of y, ="
lay make money out of the matsuri, -
'tly i'll the shape of the coins which "
thrown into the temple ponds and
tly from their share Of the subscrip-
Us Of the well to do people of the neigh or
hood, by whom the festival is sup an
ted. The affair is thus Japanese nc
nival, where people drink sake and ve
= the fool themselves or watch others es
ng SO, exactly as at Nice or Venice. ha
70 account of '.first impressions, /" too, al
lid be complete without an illusion to Vi
grace and charm Of the Japanese W.
men. The first time one sees couple IA,
pretty and prettily dressed japanese tv
walking abroad under their huge An
egated paper umbrella, with their ten
'orately dressed black hair, their per- tra
tiny hands and feet, their large an
WI eyes-set obliquely if they are
auties;' with their delicate, soft CO,
ID craS? garments, and the heavy fiat ms
OBJ twisted round and round their ine
st and ending in a colossal bow be- the
l; with their funny motion on their ga;
clapping pattens, half undulating eve
and half waddle, and their merry at
hter and chatter-when one sees coc
4 for the first time, I say, one is ant
lilly delighted enough to follow them tha
nd down for half an hour under fur
pretense Of losing one's way or look arc
INTO the shops. At least did, till / Of
eeded in getting a snap photograph SIN;
hem.-1okohama Cor. New York mas
~. and
Mo,
An Exercise for Health.
you are troubled with too much
in the head the hnct 4Lircs -. -,