The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-04-27
JAPANESE WOMEN.
An Ex-Diplomatist Discounts Some
of the Flattering Stories Told
About Them.

In the True american. an ex-diplo-
matist. gives his opinions OF the
beauties of the Land of the
Rising Sum-" That he disagrees
entirely with the author OF
the Lights or Asia, is only too APP
parent. He says: women in civil
lied countries are always compared
by the poets to lovely flowers, such as
the violet or the rose, whose dainty
beauty and delicate perfume they are
asserted to possess. How is il pos
sible, then, to believe that a man ac-
customed to the alteration Of women,
whose entire being suggests exquisite
flowers can form any serious or lasting
attachment for a yellow skinned girl,
who is redolent, not of the rosebush,
but rather of the castor oil plantg
Nor is it possible to agree with Sir
Edwin Arnold when he describes the
japanese women as graceful. Her
walk, or rather waddle, is so ridicu-
ously awkward and ungainly that II
would provoke laughter were it not
for a pathetic, imploring, i'll treated,
dumb animal sort of look apparent in
the eyes. She shuffles along with her
toes turned, not outward, but inward.
and with her ''kimonon wound SO
tightly around her legs, that she pro-
crosses exactly as If her knees were
bound closely together by a cord.
Her feet are very broad, very short
and stumpy, and without even any
suspicion of an instep. Indeed, a
glimpse of them is sufficient to dampen
any enthusiasm about the almond
eyed hours to whom they belong.
"Nor is there anything beautiful
about the figure of aJapanese woman.
As a general rule the trunk of her
body is far too long in proportion to
the length of her lower limbs, a radi-
cal fault per Sc. Then, too, her shout
ders are narrow and sloping, her bust
pitiable. and the whole attitude of her
body doubled up and deficient in
grace. There are no superb figures
such as one sees among the lowest
classes in India, Egypt, Persia and
Central Asia, where the women &C.
quire physical development of the
most perfect kind from the fact of
their being trained from earliest girl
hood to walk with more or less heavy
jars of water balanced on their heads.
THE hands of the japanese women
are usually well cared for, plump, soft
and pretty. The arms, however, are
badly formed and u~nattractive. With
regard to the face it is never beautiful
or even pretty, while it is absolutely
hideous when the woman happens to
be married. For on the day of the
wedding, before leaving her fathers
house to enter that of her husband,
she is obliged by a suinptuary Law or
usage which has been in force for 900
years, to shave off her eyebrows and to
blacken her teeth. The latter is done
by means of a horrible sticky mixture
in which powdered gall nuts and iron
filings form the principal ingredients.
The backing has to be applied every
day; for if more than twenty-four
hours is permitted to elapse withou t
its renewal, tho color begins to wear
away, and the teeth assume a dullish
gray hue streaked with black.
THE n redeeming point in the
Japanese woman is her anxiety to
please. She has been trained from
earliest childhood to regard the plea
sure and good will of man as the main
object of her existence. Buddhism,
Confucianism and Shintoism all COM
bine TO teach her that she is fitted for
nothing higher in life than to become
the pastime and amusement of men.
She is led to believe that she is with
out soul-but little better, in fact,
than a dog or a cat. She is not per-
mitted to have any will of her own.
If married, she is obliged to defer not
only to her husband but also to his
family, and disobedience or di~srespect
to her mother-in-law is a cause for
divorce. Her whole life is spent in
trying to win the favor of man. She
does not even aspire to any love and
affection in the n that we under
stand it.
"All that she seeks is the con
temptuous liking and plying in
diligence with which men are accus-
toned to regard pet animals. Silly
and nance in everything else, she is
clever enough to know that the easiest
way to arm a mans goodwill is by
affecting to be in a state of admira-
ton and alteration before him. None
of us is InsensIble to flattery of this
kind. Even the homeliest woman
fluids grace in our eyes if she leads us
to believe that she admire us above
everything else in the world. We are
led thereby to regard her as a woman
of taste and penetration, and our
goodwill, if she only knows how to
PLAY her cards properly, gradually de-
velops into affection and matrimony.
Later on we find out how egregiously
we have been bamDoozled, and
the only consolation which re.
mains to us is the sense OF security
which japanese husbands enjoy
after their wives have BACKED theil
teeth.
Fortunately for our peace of mind
feminine snares and articles Of this